We Choose Good - Auradon Force Saga
by Turtlewarrioroflegend
Summary: An ancient force attacks Auradon and the Descendants take up powers to combat the evil forces. Good paths will be pursued, evil paths will be chosen, secrets will be uncovered and connections will be forged as the adventure is on.
1. Auradon Force Part 1

Several months had passed since Ben; son of Belle and the Beast, had been coroneted as the new king of the United States of Auradon. Life was slowly returning to normal with the usual classes and activities, except for the four newest students in Auradon Prep.

For Mal; daughter of Maleficent settling into her classes was easy enough. She began to embrace her artistic talents and even reluctantly joined the cheerleading squad. She had formed a tenuous friendship with her former rival (and Ben's former girlfriend) Audrey, how well that worked seemed to depend on the day. The hardest, but most rewarding thing for her was settling into her relationship with her boyfriend Ben. It was harder to settle into the fact he cared for her rather than the whole king aspect.

For Evie; daughter of Grimholde the Evil Queen, she found herself thriving. Though she would never consider herself on the same level of a genius she was never the less proving to be very smart, even without the magic mirror that had been with her since they had shown up in Auradon. She had not only joined the cheerleading squad but was in fact the one to get Mal to join as well. She had developed a close friendship with Doug; the son of one of the seven dwarves Dopey and sometimes she privately entertained the idea that it could be more.

For Jay; son of Jafar, his days were filled with the usual classes all students took at Auradon Prep and with Tourney, one of the most popular sports in the land. With support from his friend Ben he had even began to take up another class, this one being training to be like a guardian or a knight. Mal once teased him that this seemed appropriate considering that he could be very chivalrous when he wanted to be.

For Carlos, the son of Cruella DeVil, he spent his time in classes and doing training for Tourney as he was not as able as his friend Jay was with it but he had still been placed on the team and had at least helped make several good plays. Never far from him was the school mascot Dude, the campus mutt. His three friends found this connection funny considering who his mother was, and Audrey and Jane had even agreed that had been very ironic considering the circumstances.

It would be on one of the practice days for both cheerleaders and the Tourney team that things would change forever. The day had started out a nice and sunny day that Mal sometimes still found herself silently poking fun at since it would be the opposite on her former home, the Isle of the Lost, where all of the Villains and minions had been exiled too after their various schemes. Among them would be the parents of her friends. Her own mother was in custody as a small lizard after an accident had allowed her to escape the isle and crash the coronation before she and her friends had stopped her.

By the time practice was starting the nice day had started to turn dark and cloudy. "This is unusual." Noted Jane with some worry.

"Like Auradon never has bad weather." Mal teased Jane with a laugh and a slight toss of her purple hair. "I mean, not even you mom could control the weather."

"But it is still odd." Ben said to his girlfriend, his arm around her shoulders as their group, consisting of Jane, Carlos, Jay, Audrey, Evie, Lonnie, Ben and Mal walked to the field. "The weatherman predicted perfect weather for the day, and he's never been wrong before."

"Whatever." Audrey; the daughter of Sleeping Beauty Aurora and Phillip, said with a dismissive wave. "It can rain down on us all it wants to, after we finish practice." Although she had learned to accept, and even on some level like the Isle kids, over all her general attitude never really changed. Privately Mal found it kind of refreshing, even if it could be annoying at times as well.

"Well let's just hope we can get through practice before the rain decides otherwise." Lonnie decided. She wished she could share her friend's confidence but for reasons she wasn't sure of found she could not feel that way. Something just felt so ominous in her mind.

Unlike some of the kids of Auradon, others had not gotten quiet as used to the Isle kids. One of those was Chad, the son of Cinderella, who glared in their general direction as the small group came onto the field. His friendship with Ben had gotten very icy since he started dating Mal and his relationship, such as it was in the first place, with Audrey had ended not long after she had come to terms with them as well. So he distanced himself from Jay and Carlos as much as he could when practice started.

The girls moved to the side of the field to stretch when there was a very loud clap of thunder, and Audrey flinched just a little. For reasons she was unsure of now loud thunderclaps scared her to no end when she was younger and it was something that still made her uncomfortable now.

"My mom always used to say that when she was mad her attitude would make the thunder." Mal said, half-jokingly. "I remember saying to Jay a few years later that must mean mom was almost always mad."

Audrey half laughed at that, though she wasn't so sure if it was really funny or just somewhat fitting. "Well tell your mom to chill with the attitude for another hour or so." The brunette princess just managed to snap out in return.

"Yeah, if she ever listened to me…" The purple haired girl was about to retort when there was not only another clap of thunder but it was followed almost immediately by a lightning bolt that struck very near the bleachers.

"Okay, this is getting just too close for any sense of comfort." Lonnie said as she looked to Ben and then Audrey. "It's time to cut practice short."

Both Ben and Audrey nodded in agreement. Nothing was worth the apparent danger that they could be putting themselves in. Then there was a crackling sound, the speakers coming on. From it emerged the voice of Fairy Godmother, Jane's mother. "Attention all students, please report to your dorm rooms until further notice, again all students report to your dorm rooms until further notice."

"No kidding." Evie said as she looked up to the ever increasing dark skies. "If I didn't know better I'd say this was unnatural."

Then there was a follow up announcement. "Ben, Mal, Carlos, Jay, Jane and Evie please report to room two zero three; again Ben, Mal, Carlos, Jay, Jane and Evie please report to room two zero three." This was again from Fairy Godmother.

"We'll catch you later." Lonnie said as she looked to them, and then she paused a moment. "That's where you guys took your remedial goodness class, isn't it?"

Jay nodded. "That'd be the one." He confirmed.

"Hope you guys aren't in any trouble." Lonnie said.

"We'll let you know." Evie told the Asian girl. "Get inside, we'll see you later."

Audrey started to follow Lonnie and the rest of the tourney and cheer team but hesitated as she saw her former boyfriend and the rest of them going in the opposite direction and couldn't help but be curious. _If we're going to our rooms for safety, why aren't they?_ She wondered and then for reasons she couldn't be certain of us she changed course to follow them instead.

Fairy Godmother paced anxiously as she waited for her daughter, the King, and the four kids of former villains to show up. She sighed a bit as she thought; _We had hoped this day would never come. None of us put too much thought into this one. We had to fight to stick with the original plan now that things have changed._ She laughed silently to herself. _Of course we didn't think if this were to ever happen that we'd be relying on children from the Isle of the lost to do this either, but times have certainly changed._ Several objections had been raised about this, especially from the rival school that hosted the Auradon Falcons, the competitive rivals to Auradon Prep.

She heard them before she saw them, Jay was easy to hear as he was usually pretty loud though in this case Mal was easy to hear too as she was questioning the horrible weather, which was remarkable considering the different standards those from the Isle of the Lost would have over those from elsewhere. Her daughter was the first to enter, having a good idea of what was about to happen, and she came to stand beside her mother. Then came the five kids and of course Dude, who was never far from Carlos in most instances.

"I thought we were done in this room." Carlos remarked as he sat on the desk he and Jay used to sit at during their remedial goodness class.

"Forgive me ma'am, but why are we here when we have a storm like that coming on?" Ben asked Fairy Godmother. Technically he needn't be so polite since as the King of Auradon he was technically of a higher position to her, but he was a student still and she was the head mistress of the school after all.

"Under normal circumstances we wouldn't be." Fairy Godmother agreed, and then her expression turned even more morose if possible. She was about to continue…

Mal beat her to it. "But this isn't normal." She surmised. "But how is that possible, no one on the Isle of the Lost has the power for that."

"Not on the isle." Fairy Godmother agreed. "But, as hard as it might be for anyone else here to process, there are a few things more powerful and dangerous out there than those that were banished there."

The four former villain kids looked at each other in shock. Then Evie said, "But…that can't be possible or our parents would have bragged about it if there were." She glanced at Mal. "Yours certainly would have M." The purple haired girl had to nod in agreement.

Fairy Godmother sighed. "I can't say why Maleficent or anyone else never mentioned it." She answered. "But there are a few things that fall into that category, a fact we learned a long time ago." She gestured for the five of them to sit down at one of the chairs. Jane herself sat down on the stairs to listen to her mother. "Not long after the United States of Auradon was formed we faced our biggest threat." She started.

Jay couldn't help but laugh a little. "I assume you mean rounding up all the bad guys to the island." He said.

"No." Fairy Godmother answered, surprising them all. "We faced a threat from an ancient evil, which went by the name of Paradias. In fact we wouldn't have been able to repel it if it weren't for some outside help from a powerful wizard named Zordon; he was from a planet called Eltar."

"An alien?" Mal had to question a little dubiously.

Fairy Godmother nodded. "Well he looked human enough but yes since he wasn't from Earth that would make him an extraterrestrial of a sort. He was also apparently traveling through dimensions and happened to see what was going on here and wanted to help protect the innocent." She told them all.

"So this Zordon defeated the evil that attacked everyone…including my parents." Ben surmised, a bit shocked. He had never heard of this from his father or mother Belle.

"He didn't defeat them, he just forced them into retreat." Fairy Godmother corrected. "He didn't have the individual power to stop them. Instead before he went on his way he did a favor for us, preparing us for the day that the enemy might return."

"Whatever happened to this Zordon?" Evie asked curiously.

"We don't know." Fairy Godmother answered simply. She stood up and gestured for the others to stand as well. "Follow me please." The others got up and watched as Fairy Godmother approached the right side of the classroom and raised her hand to the wall. Amusement turned to shock as a light from the wall seemed to read her handprint and a secret panel opened. They started to descend the stairs, with Ben cocking his head a bit, swearing they were being followed.

Fairy Godmother lead them down the stairs and into an area full of consoles and what looked like a huge plasma TV mounted to one of the walls, far larger though than any of them had ever seen before. "This is our command center, where we will be able to monitor the activities of our enemies on Earth." She told them and then took a small case sitting on one of the consoles before turning around and opening the case. Inside were five items that looked like iPhone. Embedded in each of them was a small gem with the colors purple, red, blue, yellow and black.

"Wait a minute." Carlos said. "There are five of those, and six of us."

"Brilliant observation there Carlos." Jay mocked with a laugh.

"Oh, I'm not…" Jane started and then stopped and took a deep breath. "I'm here to help my mom run the command center and help keep an eye on you guys out in the field." She stepped up to one of the consoles and leaned over on it. "It's all you guys."

Fairy Godmother handed Mal the purple one, which glowed upon contact. "As we suspected that means that the crystals embedded in these phones have chosen to bond with your DNA and allow you access to your powers." She told them.

"But how is that possible?" Carlos asked Fairy Godmother as he got the yellow one, which glowed with contact just as the purple one had with Mal. "There's no way anyone, even Zordon, could have known that we would be doing this."

"It's not about your DNA specifically." Jane spoke up now. "It's a bit more complicated than that. When the crystals, which is the real source of power for you guys, come in contact with a person it looks for a certain strand in a potential hosts DNA."

Evie nodded brightly as she caught on. "I see, so the crystal can sense the particular strand it needs in order to cause the bonding." She supplemented. As if to prove her point she took the blue one which glowed upon contact.

"Theoretically several people in Auradon are capable of this kind of bonding." Fairy Godmother said as Jay reached for the black one which glowed upon contact as well. "And even on the Isle of the Lost. But there aren't many people who can handle this kind of responsibility, but the four of you proved you could when you faced down Maleficent at the coronation."

"The only given one here is you." Jane said to Ben a little shyly. "Everything we've been able to learn indicates that you should be able to bond easily and we knew you would be able to accept the responsibility of being a Ranger."

"Awesome." Ben commented as he took the phone. It was to everyone's shock when his iPhone did not glow upon contact as it had with everyone else. "Except for, apparently, not."

"Wait, what just happened?" Jane asked incredulously. "I thought…"

Fairy Godmother seemed equally shocked. "I don't understand it either." She admitted. "Everything we've seen indicated that you should have been able to bond with the power as well." At that point an alarm that sounded like an air raid siren went off and Jane quickly activated the TV to show tall creatures with dark purplish skin and glowing green eyes clad in some kind of metal armor, on their left hands they had a long blade attached to them. "The soldiers, Paradias has sent his army to scout ahead."

"Those don't look to friendly." Carlos noted uncertainly.

"Yeah." Mal agreed grimly. "And we have to go meet this thing shy of one person, when there were only going to be five of us anyway."

"Well we do have one other option." Ben said as he looked around at the four isle kids and placed the iPhone back into the box. "We can try to see if Audrey is willing and able to do this." He looked to the corner of the stairs. "She's heard everything that's been exchanged here anyway, isn't that right Audrey?"

The four of them looked to the stairs in mild surprise as Audrey came around the corner, looking something similar to embarrassed, at least as much as any of them had ever seen her. "So this is what the big thing was about." She said, trying to sound haughty but in truth was coming out surprised but obviously indignant that she was being excluded.

"Well Audrey," Fairy Godmother replied. "If you're so intent on being a part of this then why don't you try your luck?" She held the box up that contained the last iPhone, the one that had not responded to Ben.

She hesitated only a moment before reaching over and taking the last iPhone in her hand, the glow a moment later signifying the same bonding that had occurred with the Isle kids. Truthfully each of the four of them had slightly surprised looks on their faces now.

"Alright then." Fairy Godmother stated emphatically. "That's that. Now Mal, take your team and intercept those scouts before they cause any sort of trouble."

"My team?" Mal questioned in shock as Audrey also threw in with, "Her team?" Sounding Just as shocked and even a bit appalled.

"Mal, you better take them and do as Fairy Godmother says." Ben told his girlfriend. He looked to his ex and the rest of Mal's friends. "Go on, before we have other problems." With only another look passing between Mal and Audrey, the five teens went up the stairs and out into the storm.

Fairy Godmother came up and placed a hand on Ben's shoulders. "I'm truly sorry your majesty, I don't know what happened. All of our tests…" She started.

Ben interrupted her. "It's okay. As the King of Auradon I'm…not sure that me doing that kind of thing is really, you know a good idea anyway." He said. His voice was light but the disappointment was still palpable. Jane frowned a bit though as one thought struck her again and again, _What went wrong with that? What did we miss?_

The five teens ran out of the building, at that point wind had picked up and it was starting to rain. Audrey made a comment about the wind messing with her hair which caused a bit of laughter from Carlos. Mal wasn't sure how to even respond to that one and lost all ability to do so after she heard Evie actually agree with the princess.

Then the time for jokes and banter ended as they came across one of the soldiers. "That thing is even bigger in person." Carlos commented.

"Not to mention scarier." Audrey added. She looked to Mal. "Okay fearless leader, what do we do now?" She asked, perhaps a little more sarcastically than needed.

"I'll tell you what we do now." Jay interrupted as he leapt up and tried to charge the soldier. It brought up the arm that lacked a blade and drove the palm of its hand into Jay's chest and he fell back a bit. "Okay, this thing is as strong as it is big."

"Peachy." Carlos moaned.

"Again, what's the plan Mal?" Audrey questioned a bit more desperately now.

"We have to try and take this thing down." Mal decided. "Together." She added as she looked to Jay who was starting to stand up. "Watch out for the blade, we have no protection against that thing." With that both she and Jay leapt out and kicked the thing in the chest. It stumbled back a step and then looked at them again.

Dude came from seemingly out of nowhere and leapt at the soldier, taking a very small bite out of its forearm. It slapped out and sent the little dog flying. Evie responded quickly to catch the small animal while Carlos, full of sudden fury, lashed out to kick the soldier in the shin though it still resulted in little effect.

"This is nuts." Audrey said. "How are we supposed to fight this thing?" She questioned.

"By doing more than just talking." Mal retorted a bit irritably, hating to admit that Audrey had a point, something was missing here. Then the iPhones rang and Audrey was the first to answer it since she hadn't tried to fight yet.

"Sorry." They heard Jane say on the other end. "We forgot to tell you how to morph. Use your phones keys, input the last four digits of your student id number and then hit star. That will give you access to your powers."

"Finally, great to know. Thanks." Audrey replied and then entered her digits, 1728. She morphed into the Red Ranger. The helmet had what seemed to be a lightning bolt around the top where the eyes would be. The red colors on the upper arms, wrists, across the chest, and around the legs were interspersed in white.

"Wow, that is cool." Jay had to admit.

"Really cool." Evie agreed as she set down a shaken but thankfully uninjured Dude on the ground, who promptly stepped a little away from the fight.

Audrey came forward on pure instinct and punched the soldier in the chest. Backed up with her powers the thing went sprawling backwards. "Ow." Audrey groaned. She had never hit anything in her life before and the recoil shocked her a little.

Mal also nodded approvingly. "Alright then, let's do it." She said to her friends. She, Evie and the two guys also followed suit and transformed. Their suits looked exactly like Audrey's except with their own colors. Mal stood as the purple ranger, Evie as the blue ranger, Carlos as the yellow ranger and Jay as the black ranger.

"Let's try this again." Jay stated gleefully and then attacked the soldier. His fist connected with the soldier's face hard and it let out a grunt of pain and annoyance. The soldier swung the bladed arm but the ex-thief caught it and sent it right into his opponents face, causing the thing to finally just poof out of existence.

That was when over a dozen more of the purplish skinned soldiers stepped out of seemingly nowhere, each with glowing green eyes. These guys didn't wait to charge the five teens. One of them ran into Evie and Audrey so hard that the fell backwards hard. Carlos was sent flying next to them a moment later.

Mal and Jay kicked back one each but another came up with its blade arm and slashed both of them across the chest, where they both landed in front of Carlos and the girls. "Okay, plan b." Jay declared.

From an intercom in their helmets they heard Jane again. "Plan b would be your own weapons." She revealed to them. "Mal, Jay, Carlos and Audrey, hold out your hands. I'm going to transport your weapons to you."

"What about me?" Evie asked.

"You have your weapon on you already." Jane answered the blue haired girl. "Slide it behind your iPhone."

"You don't have a weapon." Audrey said as she looked to Evie. "What is she talking about?"

"Your mirror." Carlos realized as his blue haired friend also picked up on it. She withdrew her magic compact mirror and then combined it with her iPhone. This caused the mirror to grow into a large round object the size of a shield. One of the soldiers tried to shoot eyebeams at the five rangers but Evie used it to block the attack and reflect it back, destroying a few others in the process.

"Awesome." Mal said; a smile could be heard under her helmet. "Let's see what's in store for the rest of us." She said to her team. The four remaining teens out held their hands. Mal found herself with a staff. She could already tell that she could use it one handed but that it would handle much better with both hands. She could almost feel some sort of power within in but couldn't tell what that meant.

Audrey found herself holding a long elegant silver like bow. The string almost felt like silk. Twirling it up a little she could see either end seemed somewhat sharp, to serve as a close range weapon if need be. She wasn't sure where to find arrows though but didn't think it'd be an issue for this fight as the soldiers were getting closer. "Now this is a weapon fit for a princess." Audrey decided.

Jay found himself holding a weapon he had seen from his father Jafar a million times. It was a scimitar, a weapon where the sword blade was curved, about the size of a typical sword but with the blade width being the same size as two fists together. "Cool." Jay said.

Carlos found himself with two small objects in his hand. His first thought was that it was a dagger but instead of only having one blade it instead had three blades on each of the hilt, reminding him very vaguely of dog claws…in fact he was certain his mother Cruella DeVil once told him dogs had razor sharp claws just like this to reinforce the fear of dogs he had until recently. "Neat."

"Time to get to work." Mal announced. The other four stood up around Evie and then the five teens were immediately put up upon by the soldiers. Mal had to take her staff into both hands to block a soldier's blade. She moved her staff to the left to knock the blade back and then slammed the other end of the staff into the soldier's chest, which made it disappear upon impact.

Audrey found one saving grace; although the bow was longer than the batons that she and the rest of the cheerleading squad used in some of their routines she was basically able to move her weapon in the same way with the only difference being she needed to intentionally make contact with the enemy. She swirled around and slashed one across the shoulder and down its chest until that one disappeared too.

Jay used his scimitar easily to block one of the soldier's attacks, parried it backwards and then brought the scimitar down onto the monstrous soldier, making it disappear easily. He was now glad that his father made him spend hours a day practicing with the scimitar when he was younger.

Carlos dodged under the swing of one of the soldiers and then used his legs to propel a little up a tree and then twist his upper body around to bring three pronged daggers down the monsters back until it too disappeared.

Evie found herself blocking another of the soldiers and briefly wondered how she was supposed to go offensive on her opponents when she remembered family day, the only time she had used the mirror for anything other than chemistry and trying to find Fairy Godmother's wand. She had asked the mirror who was the biggest jerk in the land was after a confrontation and it showed Chad. Granted, that had been just a mirror. But she thought the idea might be the same. She focused her mirror shield on one of the soldiers just as it tried to attack her with the blade and it seemed to reflect the physical blow of the attack and force it to disappear as well.

"This is going to take us forever at this rate." Carlos said to them. "Somehow we have to speed this up."

"Dude, just start focusing on more targets." Jay said to his friend as he took his own suggestion and started to use the scimitar on cutting through more than one of the soldiers.

"Somehow that seems a lot easier for you than it would for some of us." Evie noted as she had to focus again on another of the soldiers.

"I never thought I'd say it, but Jay is right." Audrey agreed as she found it was easy to bring the bow further away from her body than she would a baton. Otherwise it was easy to twirl and cut through them just as Jay was doing.

Mal allowed both of her hands to one side of her staff and began swinging through them just as if it were a bat. She even found she could do some of the twirls and spins that Audrey could, having recently joined the cheerleading team on Evie's insistence. She lacked the same finesse since she hadn't been doing it nearly as long though it certainly got the job done.

"Aren't you glad now that I insisted we join the squad?" Evie teased her friend.

"Thrilled." Mal answered deadpan as she brought her long staff up off the ground and slapped a soldier in the jaw as if she were golfing.

"This is starting to go well." Jane noted with some pride.

"True, but it's best not to underestimate anyone." Fairy Godmother said to her daughter. "They've been waiting for this for a long time and they won't allow anyone, ranger or otherwise, to take it away from easily."

"Still, they're looking really good out there." Jane said and started to turn around, "Don't you think so…" Only to see to her shock that Ben was gone. "Where did Ben go?" She wondered.


	2. Auradon Force Part 2

Disclaimer: Should have noted this before, just in case it wasn't obvious. I do not own Descendants (2015) or Power Rangers as a whole, nor do I own any of the characters from the movie/show. The concept for the powers and the villains are mine though. Unless needed to be done otherwise, such as a monster that I did not make or the appearance of an OC, this will be the only such reminder.

Thunder crashed, but the five Auradon Rangers didn't even notice as they were working through the soldiers. They had only a half dozen to go through when all of a sudden they backed up. "Come on guys, we're just getting warmed up." Jay taunted them.

"Then perhaps we can find something more to your speed, boy." They heard from the bleachers. The five of them turned and at first it seemed as if it was simply a disembodied voice but a moment later appeared a man who looked to be grayish and muscular, green hair flowing around him. One eye glowed the same color as the soldiers themselves while the other glowed a light blue. Beside him was an older, almost grizzled, old woman in a cloak, her features almost obscured. They had a dozen more soldiers with them.

"These are our enemies?" Audrey couldn't help but ask incredulously. Mal couldn't help but agree in all honesty.

"You should watch your tongue little girl." The woman said. "The last time someone had such an attitude with me they came to regret it for a long, long time." She laughed. "In fact, let me show you a product of that regret right now."

"What does she mean by that?" Carlos questioned apprehensively.

Lighting seemed to strike right between the five rangers and the two villains and it drew smoke briefly. When that cleared there stood a figure in full bodied dark armor, holding a large sword and an ornately crafted shield. "You have summoned me, state your desire." The masculine voice stated from the armor.

The woman pointed toward the five colorful clad warriors. "Destroy them so that we can take this world." She ordered.

"It shall be done." The knight stated and then charged right at the Rangers. Jay moved to intercept him with his scimitar with Mal only a step behind him with her longer range staff and the two of them swung at knight. He brought up his shield and blocked both strikes, then he swiped his sword and slashed both rangers across the chest, sending them spiraling backwards.

"That's encouraging." Audrey noted dryly and looked to the blue ranger. "Evie do you think you can reflect his attack like you did those minion things?" She asked.

Evie bit her lip nervously. "I don't know, but we'll find out." She declared as she started toward the knight. He seemed to chuckle slightly as she approached and then unleashed a sword slash on her. Before the blue ranger could react it seemed to encircle all around her and encircle all around her, giving no way to try to deflect it.

"That is not a good sign for us." Carlos said and took a deep breath. "Okay, here I go." He leapt toward the knight and tried to attack him but he blocked the downward strike with his shield and then slashed Carlos across the chest hard.

He then looked toward Audrey. "Last one standing girl." He declared in his booming voice. It wasn't quite true as both Mal and Jay were starting to get up already.

Already though Audrey knew she didn't want to try to get up close and she raised the bow up, wishing she knew how to get arrows and was in fact about to ask Jane over the helmet intercom how do to do so as she pulled the string back only to find an arrow shimmer into existence into the bow. "That's convenient." She noted. "Let's try it out."

"You think an arrow can do anything to me after your little friends failed to do anything to me?" He questioned the red ranger amused as he started to walk toward her. "Take your best shot." Audrey was afraid he was right about that one as she shot the arrow at him, which he easily deflected with his own shield.

Jay struck the knight with his scimitar from behind and as the knight turned to try to slash the black ranger with his sword he had already anticipated the shot and had dodged under it as Mal came in from the side and used her staff to tangle his right leg up in it and made him trip backwards.

From the his front and from his back both Carlos and Audrey came forward, the red ranger striking her bow across his back as the yellow ranger leapt on top of him and slashed his daggers across his chest. The four combined attacks forced him to the ground as the four of them gathered around Evie now.

"That was some good work here guys." Evie said to the four rangers. "Now let's see what we can do to finish this knight off for good." She raised her mirror shield as if waiting for the knight's next attack.

"You've already tried that once and failed ranger." The knight reminded her with a laugh. "How do you think that will save you now?"

"Because she won't be alone." Audrey announced. "She'll have us."

"That's not a bad idea actually." Mal agreed. She looked to the guys. "Channel your energies into Evie and let's see if all of our powers combined can help deflect his energies."

"Alright." Carlos agreed and Jay added his own, "It's worth a shot."

"If that is your foolish attempt at protection than so be it." The knight stated and started forward with his mega slash attack again. Mal put one of her staff's ends on of Evie's shoulder with Audrey placing one of her bow's end on Evie's other shoulder. Jay placed his scimitar on top of Audrey's bow while Carlos placed his clawed daggers on the other end of Mal's staff. When the knight's slash attack struck at Evie, and consequently ricocheted around her team mates the power was absorbed into their weapons and then channeled into the mirror shield, which reflected back at the knight and caused a huge explosion.

Carlos and Jay were the first to hit the ground, feeling the air rushing out of their lungs. The yellow ranger's luck landing got a little worse when he felt Mal's head land onto his stomach hard, to which she got out, "My bad Carlos." Audrey meanwhile landed next to the black ranger and had her breath knocked out of her lungs too. Evie landed hard in between both girls, also trying to catch her breath.

The upside was the knight was sent crashing down too; his sword having been thrown from his hand and his shield was nowhere to be found at that moment. His landing seemed to be a bit harder as well since he was surrounded by hard metal armor.

Paradias laughed. "Impressive, rangers." He conceded. A few of the warriors stepped aside as he descended the bleachers. "But do you really think you can make that work against me?"

"He has got to be kidding." Carlos said as he rose shakily to his feet. He was bordering exhaustion and was pretty sure Jay and the girls were too. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"We have to try to fight." Jay declared as he stood up, helping Audrey to her feet as well. Mal was already on her feet as well as she helped Evie to stand.

Privately Audrey had to admire their courage, something she hadn't expected when they first showed up Auradon. Even this went beyond what she had heard about them standing up to Maleficent when she had crashed the coronation. Even still, these odds were even more abysmal. "Great idea, but how do we do that without dying in that process?"

"That is a darn good question." Evie had to agree.

"We'll figure this out." Mal said with more confidence than she felt. "We have no choice in the matter." She looked to Carlos, Evie and Jay. "Remember; the strength of evil is as good as none when four..." She stopped as she glanced at Audrey. She had shown almost as much courage as the four of them had and quickly amended, "When five hearts stand as one."

Paradias laughed. "That has to be the lamest thing I have ever heard." He mocked.

The five rangers each took a battle stance and got ready to fight. Then something zipped right between Carlos and Mal. They saw Dude jump up and snatch the scepter that Nerissa had been holding, and as one of the soldier leapt for it he released the scepter. It rolled and tapped against Paradias. He looked down and that moment of distraction was enough for Mal to step up and ram her staff right into his chest, sending him a few steps backwards. Mal gasped a bit, surprised to feel some of his power…it felt familiar somehow.

With a growl the knight stepped up from behind Carlos and Evie and tried to bring his sword down on the blue ranger. In a flash Jay was in front and barely blocked the swing. Audrey took a step back before jumping up, leaping off the black ranger's scimitar and then kicking the knight in the chest enough to send him stumbling back from the four rangers.

"Thanks guys." Carlos said as he high fived Jay. "And great teamwork." Evie added.

"Mal." Audrey realized they had left the half fairy girl alone against Paradias and they all turned to their leader. They needn't have worried as Paradias had just recovered and retrieved Nerissa's staff. The leader of the soldier's glanced around and then raised his arm, snapping his fingers.

From a portal emerged a large red bird that released fire from its. "Garunx, destroy them." Paradias ordered right before he and Nerissa vanished. In response the demonic looking bird spewed fire and Dude quickly went far away from the monster.

Evie turned around quickly to see some better news for them…the knight had disappeared with them. "Looks like it's just the soldiers and the bird." She told them.

"Great, who wants chicken for dinner tonight?" Jay asked with a laugh.

"I think eating that would give us heartburn." Audrey answered with a slightly disgusted tone to her voice. "Assuming we even want to take that chance."

"Fair enough." Mal agreed. "We'll skip the meal and move straight to the check." She raised her staff. "Are you with me?"

"Yes, ma'am." Evie said as she stepped up to Mal's left.

"You know it." Jay said as stepped up to Mal's right.

"I'm game." Carlos said as he stepped up next to Evie.

Audrey hesitated only a second before nodding and stepping up next to Jay. "Let's do it guys." She agreed.

Garunx had the purplish skinned soldiers flanking him now. "Attack, bring me their heads." Garunx commanded. The soldiers started forward with the bird monster behind him. The purple and black rangers found themselves engaging the monster while Carlos and the other two girls were fighting the soldiers yet again.

Garunx shot flames at Mal and she back flipped out of the way. Jay tackled the monster, which interrupted the flame burst, and flipped it around his body. As the monster rose Jay brought the scimitar down, slashing him hard, and Mal followed up with one of the staff's ends bashing into its chest.

Carlos was slashing through the soldiers, having picked up the pace on how do so. Audrey was using her bow as she had earlier, using the sharp edges on her weapon to take soldiers out. Both were moving in a yellow and red blur respectively. Evie didn't need to worry about moving around as much as she was starting to get used to her mirror shield's powers and using what she was quickly thinking of as her mirror force. The results against the soldiers was still the same.

That was a good thing since Garunx was proving to be a bit harder. He had risen immediately and had slashed at both Jay and Mal, knocking them down hard. He had tried to proceed with frying the two rangers but they were able to at least roll out of the way. "You can't run forever kiddies." He taunted.

"That is one rude bird." Jay noted with a dry laugh. "In another lifetime he would have been kind of cool."

"Yes he would have." Mal agreed grimly. It was a bit of irony to her that what might have once been a great ally not even more than a couple of months ago would be an annoying opponent that they had to face down now.

"Now the only cooling will have to be us putting him on ice." Carlos joked with a small laugh.

The look of shared incredulity on Audrey and Evie's faces would have been rather comical if it had been seen through the helmets. "Really, you had to try that one out?" The red ranger questioned.

Mal laughed a little bit. "Yeah, hate to say it Carlos but that was pretty lame." She agreed.

"Which, when you think about it is kind of par for the course." Jay now mocked good naturedly.

"Guys, the chicken." Carlos insisted as he gestured toward the monster.

Garunx growled at them as if annoyed he had basically been put to the side and then shot a burst of fire at the rangers. Evie used her mirror shield to again deflect the attack but it didn't do anything against the fire bird creature. "Okay, that won't work." Evie noted grimly.

"Then we'll make something else work." Mal said. She looked to Jay and then looked to Audrey and made a shooting motion with thumb and forefinger. The two of the nodded and then the purple and black rangers went straight for Garunx. The winged beast flew up away from the attacks. "You won't be getting me that easily." He mocked.

But that was the response Mal was hoping for as Audrey took a step back and raised her bow. Again as she pulled back the silky feeling bow she released not one, but two arrows, back to back and each of them pierced into either of his wings. The monster screeched in pain and crashed to his ground.

"Wow, you can really shoot. That first one wasn't a coincidence." Carlos said impressively.

Audrey nodded. "Yeah, I grew up with archery." She answered. "Didn't think I'd be applying what I learned in those lessons that way but at least it's working."

"No one can argue that one." Evie agreed.

While that conversation had gone on Mal and Jay had moved in and struck the monster in both shoulders. "Follow up please." Mal called out to her team mates.

"You got it M." Evie responded and then jumped at the monster herself, slamming the edge of the mirror shield against the monsters head. Audrey and Carlos came from either side of Evie and jammed their weapons into the Garunx and sent him flying again.

"Looks like you guys are getting the hang of things." Jane said to them from the helmet intercom. "My mother wanted to me to emphasize the getting the team work thing too. We have another surprise for you, and it should help you finish that weird bird thing off." As she spoke from their command center she pressed a couple of buttons and on each of their hips materialized blasters. Each of the five teens let their weapons fade as they drew their lasers. "Combining the five of your energies should allow you to take him out."

As Garunx was getting to his feet, still reeling over the double team the rangers had done to him, the three girls stood facing him; Evil, Mal and Audrey. Carlos and Jay jumped up to land on the girl's shoulders, which truthfully wasn't as hard to maintain as they thought it would be but they didn't want to hold that position for all that long. They didn't need to though as they brought their blasters up to the middle and shot their lasers together. The beams intersected and twirled. "That's what I like to call the Auradon Triangle Blast." They heard Jane tell them. With no better ideas the rangers didn't dispute it and shot it right at Garunx. He exploded into embers.

The guys were quickly off the girls shoulders. "We did it!" Carlos exclaimed happily.

"Yeah, we did." Audrey said softly. "But only barely." As the five rangers demorphed the princess turned toward the isle kids. "That was very nearly an unmitigated disaster."

"I know we weren't exactly a well-oiled machine but give us some credit." Jay replied.

"Credit where credit is due." Mal agreed but looked at Audrey and then her adopted family. "But Audrey is right, that was really a skin of our teeth victory and we're going to change that if we want to stop Paradias and whatever he throws at us in the future." They started back to their command center as the skies started to lighten up.

Jane breathed a sigh of relief as the first battle was brought to a conclusion. "They won." She breathed.

"Just barely." Fairy Godmother reminded her daughter, echoing what Audrey had just said. "But this was just the warm up match. We're going to have to make sure we're more prepared in the future, at least if we want to make sure we have a future for the United States of Auradon."

"That was an awesome sight to see though." They heard Ben say from behind them. Jane jumped slightly, knowing he wasn't there only a moment earlier but it seemed as if her mother hadn't even noticed he had gone missing during the fight.

It was only another ten minutes before the five rangers showed up and Ben was already going to them, exchanging high fives with Jay before lifting Mal into his arms and twirling her around as he had after Mal had defeated Maleficent at the coronation. He set her down on the ground, pecked her on the cheek and then looked to Carlos and the other two girls. "That was great you guys." He said.

Jane had to hold back a frown as she watched everyone. She was still confused how Ben could know that when he wasn't around for most of the fight.

"We do have a long way to go." Mal said to Ben but she laughed a bit. "But we are so on the right path guys."

"You all each have a taste of what's ahead for you." Fairy Godmother spoke seriously as she looked to the five rangers. "If you want to back out of this now, I would fully understand."

"Are you kidding?" Jay asked with a laugh of his own. "I am so in. This is great." He looked to Evie and Ben and mocked, "As Chad says, I do like to hurt others after all." That resulted in chuckles from each of them, even Audrey.

"Man, if Jay is in then so am I." Carlos said. "We're team mates after all." Jay nodded his approval and the two of them fist bumped.

"I'm in too." Mal replied. "I said I wanted to be good, and this is the highest thing I can think of that to prove that to everyone," She looked at Audrey for just a moment before adding a bit shyly, "Including to myself."

Ben rubbed her back gently. "I told you you were a good person." Ben said softly.

"Count me in too." Evie said. "We're a family, and we're going to need all the support we can get."

The isle kids and Ben looked to Audrey, who turned her back and paced a moment before turning to face them. "So let me get this straight. I get to put my life in danger on a near constant basis, work with four people who I barely know and only semi trust, and on top of it all wear a helmet that totally ruins my hair." She stated.

"Yep, sounds about right." Mal replied deadpan. She offered her former rival her hand.

Audrey laughed. "Yeah, it does." She stepped forward and clasped her former rival's hand in her own. "Count me in too." She looked to Fairy Godmother.

Fairy Godmother smiled at them all. She found it somewhat fitting that Auradon's hope rested in four villain kids and a girl that as Queen Belle had said (and she couldn't argue) was rather self-absorbed and one could even say selfish. "I'm very pleased to hear all of you say that." She said. "I know we have a lot of work ahead of us and we have a lot of things to iron out but we can do this. We can save the world."

Jane set the command center on standby, having linked the ranger's iPhones to the system as well as her phone and her mother's phone. She glanced at Ben. "I didn't see you for a while during the fight, your majesty." She noted. "Where did you go off to?"

"I went to check on some of the people in the school." Ben answered simply. "If I couldn't be out there fighting the evil I could at least make sure no one was panicking too much."

"How very noble." Mal said drawly as she smiled and squeezed one of his hands in hers.

They headed up the stairs, out of the classroom to see some of the students coming out. It wasn't long before Lonnie found them. "Are you guys okay? What's going on?" She asked them.

They each exchanged brief glances before Audrey said. "We're just fine Lonnie. Fairy Godmother just needed their help with a few broken windows." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I just had to tag along, and now I'm even more soaked for my efforts." She tried to act indignant.

"As long as everything is okay." Lonnie said. "I'll see you in classes tomorrow." And with that she was off.

"Wow." Evie said, slightly impressed. "I thought it would have to be one of us who would have to come up with the lie."

"I don't really like to lie." Audrey replied. "But the truth is that I'm going to have to get used to it, considering no one is really supposed to know about this."

"Hey, I get it." Ben reminded Audrey. He had after all grown up pretty much the same way as his ex had. Lying, cheating and stealing were not exactly apropos in Auradon after all. "But this does seem to be for the greater good."

Mal laughed a little. "Greater good. That's something I never would have even considered not too long ago." She mused.

Ben kissed her on the cheek. "Change is the only constant thing in this world." He told her. "Get used to it." He looked to Audrey and his friends. "All of you…of us better get used to it."

Far above in the night sky was a ship in orbit. From what had to be the bridge area a door opened and out stepped out Paradias and Nerissa. At several of the consoles were soldiers working to keep the ship running. In the center was a large throne that Paradias ascended to immediately as Nerissa stayed by the stairs.

"Whoever organized these rangers must think they have one pulled out over us." Paradias said and then laughed. "But they already made their fatal mistake." He held out his hand as one of the soldiers held out a padd to him and he took it and looked at it. "It will be their undoing as we take them apart one at a time. Starting with the red ranger."


	3. Shoring Up

Reminder: The ranger powers were conceived by me, the characters using the powers are part of Descendants and I do not own that.

"How much longer before we're ready to implement this plan?" Paradias asked Nerissa.

She smiled eagerly. "We're almost ready to begin." She revealed. "A matter of moments." A soldier came up to her and handed her a small vial of light blue liquid which she had manufactured. "Once given to our targets we will ensure they remain out of the fight as long as our monster is standing."

Paradias took it from her and glanced at it. "I see." He said. "How interesting." He gave it back to her. "Send our monster down as soon as it's ready. Let's see how they handle this little game."

Audrey and Ben had gotten out of their Negotiations 102 class early and sat down one of the benches by the tourney field as they waited for Jane and the isle kids to get out of their classes. "Are you sure you're not disappointed at the fact you weren't able to become a ranger Bennie-boo?" Audrey asked as she flipped some of her hair behind her back. The nickname was still around despite them not being together anymore, but what only the two of them knew was that nickname had originated from before they started dating. When they were five for Halloween Ben had dressed up as a ghost, which was just a long white sheet with eyeholes and the world Boo! printed on the chest and that had made Audrey laugh when she saw it.

"A little." Ben confided as he took out one of his notebooks which contained some information he needed to try to know before the next state heads meeting. "I mean, not that I exactly have the time for it but just the idea of doing something for the United States of Auradon like that…well, it would have been great." He cocked his head. "Are you regretting doing it? Especially since, well…I know you're not exactly fond of Mal and the others."

Audrey shook her head. "Not regretting it. It's just…I sometimes feel…kind of alone." She replied.

"What do you mean?" Ben asked her.

"Well, it's just that there's so much history between them since they grew up on the island." Audrey tried to elaborate. "And I got the impression from Lonnie that maybe their growing up wasn't ideal, even for villain's kids." She sighed a bit. "I guess I feel like no matter what happens, no matter what kind of strides I try to make, that I'll always be an outsider in the team."

Ben thought for a moment and then nodded. "I think I get it." Ben replied. "I mean, Mal says she doesn't know what love is. She's still struggling to understand it I think. She's okay with affection and all but she still seems to be trying to get comfortable with it."

"And it's so funny the things they do that they don't see." Audrey continued on. "I mean when we were fighting that knight and he sent us flying that first time." She leaned forward toward Ben as she was talking in an attempt to keep the conversation from being overheard by the few students that were now out and about. "I mean Mal apologized to Carlos for a landing that wasn't her fault. And Jay didn't even think twice…about anything really. He was the first to try to stop them every time; even Mal took a few moments before she did that one. And he didn't even hesitate to help me up either."

Ben laughed a little. "Jay does certainly like to face his problems head on." The young king agreed. "And you have to admit the way he stood up for Evie against Chad during parent's day was kind of noble."

At the time Audrey hadn't thought so of course. The incident being past, her new tenuous friendship with the isle kids, and now being Power Rangers with them brought some new perspective to that though. "Yeah, it was." She had to agree. "I mean if possible Chad was an even bigger jerk about them being here than I was."

"He's certainly being a bigger jerk about it now." Ben replied. Unlike his ex, who had started to accept the island kids, Chad seemed to go out of the way to make them feel unwelcome. Doug had told him only yesterday that he and Evie had taken a table farther in the back in their chemistry class because of his attitude toward the blue haired girl who had ironically recently become the blue ranger.

"Hey guys." They heard Jay call. He jumped over the railing and landed on the grass. He strolled over, exchanged high fives with Ben before sitting down next to Audrey. The young king almost swore he saw a faint blush on the red ranger's cheeks but if it was there it was gone as quickly and he chalked it up to the warm weather.

"How'd class go?" Ben asked.

Jay shrugged. "Man, I don't think I'm ever going to truly understand algebra." He admitted.

"Don't worry." Audrey said. "Most kids around here would say that. Except for those like Evie, Jane and Doug." She rolled her eyes in amusement. "You know, the 'genius' kids."

"That's how we're thought of around here?" Evie questioned with laughter as she sat down and placed her books on the table. She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and let out a breath. "It's really warm today. Is that because of the storm that accompanied our newest problem last night?"

"You tell us, you're the science girl." Audrey commented.

"Probably is." Ben said. "The rain had to have made it rather humid."

Carlos now came over and sat down, Dude trailing right behind him. "Man, I have to say I love Programming 101." He told Ben. "Mr. Barclay even says I might be able to transfer to the advanced class soon."

"That's great." Ben said with a smile.

"Soon you might be able to start giving Jane a hand in the command center." Jay said half-jokingly to his friend, not realizing that was actually part of what the smaller guy was hoping for.

Last but not least to stroll over to the table was Mal. She looked to Ben as she sat down next to him. "Okay, you win." She told him as she laid her head on his shoulder, seemingly a little worn out. "Let's get me into one of those art classes you were going on about."

Ben laughed and wrapped his arm around her. "That's my girl." She turned her head and the two exchanged a gentle kiss on the lips. "I'll make it happen."

"Hard day?" Audrey asked Mal.

The purple haired girl shrugged. "Not hard exactly, it's just one of those days that I have to remind myself that I want to be a good person." She answered.

"Chad?" Jay asked.

Mal shook her head. "No, just the kind of test that makes me want nothing more than to toss it up in the air and incinerate it." She replied. "Like the identification one that your dad tried to make us take." The four isle kids shared a laugh at the memory and Ben and Audrey exchanged a look, both feeling a little out of the loop of that inside joke.

Evie was the first to take notice and stop. "It's nothing big really." She tried to tell the two Auradon kids. "It's just this thing Jafar had us do, he wanted us to train to identify magic objects so he had Maleficent try to freeze them in the same place that Mal's spell book was hoping that the magical residue would rub off on it." She started.

"Which it didn't." Carlos added in between giggles. "But he was so convinced that it did, and he was snapping at us griping and finally Mal just takes a few of the items and tosses halfway across the room and right into the fire we had going, and boom it's up in flames and ashes before we can get them out."

Jay laughed as well. "Man my dad was pissed. It came right from his shop too." He added, not elaborating that it was stuff he had stolen from others at one point. Those were very different times for all of them.

"I guess it's nice to know you have some memories that could be called pleasant with your parents." Audrey tried, sounding a little lame even to her ears. Her memories more fell upon years of archery lessons and chocolate cake with her father and years of nature walks and picnics with her mother Aurora.

Jane came up to them then. "Sorry to interrupt guys, but we have a problem." She said quietly. "Mom says the command center's sensors just detected something coming through the atmosphere. It's going to hit in the forest in about five minutes."

Each of the five rangers nodded. "Okay." Mal said. "We'll take care of it…but what about classes?"

"Mom has excused you, sighting off site studies." Jane assured her. "I've also been excused and I'm going over to the command center to help mom and monitor your fight in case you need…well whatever we can do." Each of the rangers remembered Jane did guide them through the use of their powers, the calling of their weapons and the activation of their lasers.

"I'll help cover you guys too." Ben promised. "Get your notes and everything." Between his royal status and his likeable personality most of the students were friendly with him and were more than willing to help out where needed.

"Great." Mal said and gave him a kiss on the lips for a moment before all five teens headed toward the forested area near Auradon prep, being shadowed closely by Dude.

They had only just entered the forest when about the last thing they expected tried to attack them; a large Manticore. Both Audrey and Evie let out little screams of equal shock and horror and even Carlos got out, "Now there's an animal to be scared of."

"I thought manticores were fake." Jay noted. It was an ironic thing to say considering their world was one where they would be considered nothing more than fairy tales to those who didn't know better and on top of that his own father had at one point been an all-powerful wish granting genie.

"That's what I thought too." Mal agreed. "My mom always said if they had been real she would have had one guarding her castle." She had to wonder though rather or not what, if anything, their parents had told them was true and what was fake. It a rather unpleasant realization she did her best to try to ignore. "But is that what we're supposed to be looking for?"

Then their next surprise came. "If you're the rangers I've been sent to find, then yes I'd say I'm what you're looking for." The manticore replied as he then stood up on hind legs, something else Jay and Mal hadn't thought possible from what little they had been told. "But yes, you must be. I can smell the island of the lost on you four brats."

"That's him." Carlos decided. The five teens pulled out their iPhones and entered their codes to morph. They stood ready for battle, though the monster didn't seem to be the least bit impressed.

Each of the rangers formed their weapons and the manticore laughed deeply. "Yes, come at me." He taunted.

"What's his game?" Evie wanted to know. "He seems almost thrilled about this."

"Maybe it's just how manticores are?" Audrey wondered dubiously. She had never even heard of this creature before. Monster mythology was not exactly a big educational draw at Auradon Prep though she was wondering if it should start to be at this rate.

"Around the world then guys." Mal ordered. It was a simple code they had decided on which was basically short for surrounding the target. In order to do that both she and Jay made a feint attack at the manticore, allowing Carlos and the two girls to get around the monster so that Audrey was behind him while Evie and Carlos were on either side. That left the purple and black ranger up front.

Sometimes leaders make great calls. Sometimes they make not so great ones. And sometimes even the best leaders unknowingly play right into the enemies hands; most of them are only human after all. Add that it to the fact you can't always know what your enemies' strategy is and well…even a stopped watch is right twice a day after all. The manticore laughed again and shot out its scorpion tail lightning quick, slashing all five of the rangers hard and sending them sprawling backwards.

Audrey coughed just a bit and bit out, "Great plan Mal." She started to stand up only to see two things. The first seemed to be a relief as the manticore monster had moved away from the group. The second was that her team mates were not getting up. "Mal? Jay?" She repeated.

"What's going on?" Jane asked Fairy Godmother from one of the consoles. She had noticed a change in four of the five life readings. Audrey's was the only one that seemed to be okay.

"I'm not sure, I…" Fairy Godmother started but then her thoughts caught up to her. "Oh my." She gasped.

"Mom?" Jane asked worriedly.

"That scorpion tale the manticore has. It must contain some sort of venom that paralyzed them." Fairy Godmother revealed. "It must have been tailored so that it only affects those from the Isle of the Lost."

Audrey overheard enough of the conversation to catch the gist of it. "Which means I'm the only one functioning right now?" She questioned nervously. She then took a deep breath. "Okay, then. How do I help the others?"

"Normally I would suspect we would need an antidote of some kind." Fairy Godmother answered the young princess. "But from what little I've ever read about manticores they don't usually function that way." She thought a moment and then came up with the only idea she had. "I'm going to see if I can find anything to help us, in the meantime Audrey the only thing I can suggest is try to destroy the tail off of that monster. Maybe the loss of it will negate the venom."

They could hear Audrey's nervous breathing as she processed that she had to fight that thing all on her own. "Okay." She finally said nervously. "I'll see what I can do."

Jane watched her mother head upstairs and then glanced around a bit before an idea struck her. It was a long shot but she didn't see any other options. She took out her cell phone and dialed a number. When it was answered she immediately got out with, "I need you to meet me in room 203. It's really important."

Audrey took a moment more to check on her team mates and was more relieved than she honestly expected to find them breathing. She wished she could make them more comfortable but figured the best way to help them would be to reverse their paralysis. First she looked to Dude, who seemed to be watching with concern. "Watch over them…somehow." She added as she realized she was talking to a dog. Then she looked around at her friends. "I'll beat that thing and free you guys, I promise." The young princess told them and then went after the slowly retreating manticore.

As she started closer, her bow at the ready, she saw the manticore waiting for her. "All on your own." He taunted. "Culling the herd is such a fun activity. The weakest goes first."

"Weak nothing." Audrey retorted. "I know you were able to paralyze them because they were born on the Isle of the Lost." She thought a moment about what she had retained from her science classes though she readily knew that was more Evie's thing. "It's something in your venom; it has to isolate something in their DNA that isn't here in Auradon."

"Clever girl you may be." The manticore acknowledged. "But knowing what is going on and being able to change it are two entirely different things." With that he gave a roar and leapt right at the red ranger. She barely dodged out of the way and it skidded to a stop. The young princess tried to get an arrow off at its tail but the monster dodged it.

 _Calm down._ Audrey scolded herself. _You can do it, you've got years of training hitting objects smaller than that and that move quicker than that. Besides, they need you to do this…you're friends need you to do this._ She fired off another arrow and he dodged it again, proving it wasn't going to be as easy as she had hoped it would be.

The manticore leapt at her and this time connected hard with her body, sending her sprawling back painfully. He tried to bring his jaws down on her head but Audrey brought her bow up to block it. She was spared the killing blow but felt one of his teeth scrape her hand. She brought her legs up under its belly and pushed out hard, sending it away from her. It was a contrast though as he seemed to be enjoying this game whereas she was not.

"Come on then girl." The manticore taunted. "Let's see if you have what it takes to save your friends or not." He started to circle her, more like stalk her, again. Audrey drew her bow back as she paced the monster as well.

Audrey took a deep breath as she remembered everything she had ever learned about archery. She watched the way the manticore's tail moved as he stalked her and did her best to learn this things pattern.

"How alone you must feel." The manticore said as cocked his head to glare at his prey. "Your friends are down and will remain so as long as I live, as long as my venom flows through their system. Whoever your mentor is will not be able to find a cure before I end your lives, and subsequently theirs." He laughed a bit. "Then again, what a fatal flaw. Five of you and only one of you not from the Isle. Such an obvious mistake to make, if one such as my master knew to exploit it. You were all doomed from the start."

Audrey would never admit but now that it was, as the saying went plain as the nose on the face, she had to agree that was a fatal flaw to the very makeup of the team. She wondered briefly if Ben would have been able to use any of the other morphers but quickly dismissed it. It didn't matter now.

"Of course you are used to being so isolated and alone." The manticore continued. "Those four grew up together and you barely know them, not to mention vice versa." He laughed. "My understanding is that you don't seem to have a lot of close friends, as self-absorbed as you seem to be."

 _Okay, where the heck did he get that?_ Audrey wondered as she flinched internally. It did somewhat resembled the conversation she had with Ben only half an hour ago, but unless somehow Paradias had either overheard the conversation or read her mind there was no way he could have known that. "You don't know anything about me." She said, not nearly as confident as she wanted to be. "And considering who your master is I'm not sure you should be giving me advice on life." She pulled back on her bow string and released a slew of arrows right over and around him.

The manticore gave off a growl of frustration as he did his best to evade the arrow storm but it struck him several times anyway. The red ranger could have sworn that included several hits on his tail but it still remained attached.

"ENOUGH!" The Manticore roared. "No more games, girl. Your arrows don't have the strength they need to disconnect my tail anyway. You're wasting your time." He leapt at her and she barely dodged to the right and then tried to use one of the sharp ends on her bow to cut the tail off that way but it barely penetrated before the weapon struck.

The manticore lashed out a hind leg and shot it into Audrey's chest hard enough that she was surprised she didn't feel any of her ribs break. Then the monster towered over her, that same foot slamming into her chest hard. "This is over, you and your friends have lost."

The sound of feet on dried leaves got both of their attentions, though it was not enough for the monster to release the pressure he had on Audrey. From the trees stepped out a young woman, whom neither of them had expected. "Leave Audre y alone." She demanded.

The red ranger gasped. "Lonnie! Get out of here, now!" She ordered the Asian princess. She hadn't stopped to think how she could have possibly known who was under the helmet.

The manticore laughed. "Yes, little girl. Run quickly and perhaps I won't pursue you for my dessert." He mocked.

Lonnie shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere. You on the other hand have an appointment to keep." She took her right hand from behind her back to reveal that she now held an iPhone with a pink glow of its own. She input the numbers 4363 on the screen and then morphed into a ranger, looking just like the rest of her team mates but in the color of pink.

"Another ranger?" The manticore questioned amused.

"What a relief." Audrey said.

"It doesn't matter." The manticore declared as it increased the pressure on Audrey for a moment before sending her flying hard against a tree. "I'll tear you apart as easily as I tore apart this princess."

Unlike Audrey and the four isle kids, thanks to a brief but illuminating briefing, Lonnie knew what she had to do. She held out her hands and in them appeared small folded objects that the pink ranger flicked out to reveal them as tessen's; a bladed weapon designed to look like folding fans.

The manticore and pink ranger ran toward each other, but as the monster tried to leap down on her she got onto her knees and slid under the manticore. Then Lonnie heard Audrey call out, "Chop that scorpion tail off." She didn't have time to explain why but it didn't matter. Lonnie got to her feet quickly, crossed her arms together and then rapidly tossed the two tessens.

As if finding the small chink in the tail that Audrey's bow had already started in on, the two tessen slashes effortlessly cut right through the manticore's tail. He let out a large roar and then tried to slap Lonnie with his massive paw but the girl managed to back flip out of the way and then easily caught her tessens.

Audrey came over to her. "Great throw." She said. "I just hope Jay and the others recover quickly."

Jane heard her mother come down the stairs with a sigh. "I don't know what to do. We first need a sample of that venom. Maybe you and Ben could go out and get one of the rangers…" She started.

A beeping of one of the consoles caught their attention. Jane looked down and smiled. "No need to mom." She announced. "My idea worked. Lonnie did it." She took a breath. "I just hope they all get together before that manticore gets one of them killed."

The manticore leapt at the two girls but while Audrey went to the left, Lonnie went to the right. The scattering of the two rangers confused the manticore momentarily. Audrey let an arrow fly and it got him right in the face, making him flinch. Lonnie came up from the side and struck the manticore backwards with a flurry of sparks.

"Audrey!" She heard Jay yell as he started toward them. Right behind him was Carlos and the two girls, with Dude trailing just behind them. They seemed to take a moment to process the appearance of a pink ranger before shoving that to the side. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

Audrey nodded though in truth her sides hurt a lot right now. She looked to the black ranger. "I'm fine, thanks." She said.

"You're going to regret trying to keep us down you overgrown freak." Evie said to the manticore. She already had her mirror shield up and ready to go.

"No one keeps us down." Jay agreed.

The manticore roared. "Let's see if you can defeat me then rangers." He leapt right toward now six rangers.

"Move." Mal ordered. She, Audrey and Carlos dove to the right while Lonnie, Jay and Evie dove to the left. The manticore moved in with a savage paw to the left but the blue ranger let her mirror shield take the impact and force it back against him, sending him flying backwards hard.

"Guys," Came Jane's voice over the helmet intercom. "Now that Lonnie's joined you as the Pink Ranger you have a new weapon at your disposal, the Auradon blaster." The four isle kids took a moment to be impressed at the identity of their newest companion and then let it go to the back. "Combine your weapons, first Mal's staff. Audrey's bow needs to be underneath and Evie's shield needs to be in the back but the rest of you can go in any order."

"You heard her." Mal said as she looked at her team mates. "Let's bring them together." She was unaware of a red ranger from long ago that would say the same thing to his team mates about their own similar blaster of course. She then leveled up her staff to chest level.

"You got it Mal." Jay said as he placed his scimitar dead center.

"Right behind you." Lonnie said as she placed her still open tessen's on either side of the scimitar, open toward the manticore.

"I hope this turns out really cool." Carlos commented as he placed his tri clawed daggers, points toward the manticore and on either side of Lonnie's weapons.

"Let's show this side show freak who's boss." Audrey declared as she slid her bow under Mal's staff, the edges of the bow pointing toward the manticore.

Now Evie placed her shield in between bow string and the staff. "Let's finish this." She said.

Mal placed her right hand on the shield's bottom and her left hand on the staff. Audrey stood next to the purple haired purple ranger and took opposite holds on the other side. Beside Mal was Evie and Carlos. Beside Audrey was Lonnie and Jay. "Auradon Blaster, lock on and fire." The six teens intoned as the mirror took aim at the rising manticore and then fired a huge wave of energy at the manticore. It struck the monster and forced it to explode into ashes.

The rangers separated their weapons and let out whoops of joy. "We did it." Evie declared. "That's showing that manticore thing who's boss."

"Yeah." Mal said with a laugh. She looked to Lonnie. "Thanks for the rescue." She said to the pink ranger. She then looked to Audrey. "And thank you, you were really brave to try to stand up to that manticore on your own, despite all of the odds against you."

Audrey tried to wave it off. "Whatever, it wasn't a big deal, Mal. You all would have done the same thing." She replied. She would never reveal how happy she was that destroying the tail had neutralized the venom in her team mates…her friends system.

"Yeah we would have." Jay agreed as he placed his hand gently on her shoulder. "But you're the one who actually had to do it."

"That took some guts." Carlos agreed as Dude came over and he picked his pet up.

"Let's get back to the school." Mal said as she powered down. "Before someone sends a search party out for us." The others quickly followed suit.

"Now we have a sixth color coded child to add to our roadblock." Paradias said darkly. "Where did they even find these kinds of powers?" He wondered as he sat back in his throne. Last he had known only a couple universes had any powers like this running around. He didn't stop to think Zordon could have left them prepared from their confrontation of long ago.

"What is our next step sire?" Nerissa asked.

Paradias was about to admit he wasn't sure when one of the soldiers approached him. Though the language was unfamiliar to the sorceress he seemed to know exactly what was said. "Very good. We know what the rangers will do now that the pink one has been added. Prepare to stop them at once."

Jane and Fairy Godmother had left the command center with the monster destroyed. They found Ben leaving class and together they started to leave the school to find the others. They hadn't gotten far before they saw the six teens coming out of the forest. "Hey, how did the fi…" Ben started but then saw Lonnie and was unaware she was a ranger now too. "The forest walk go? Any…um, problems?" He asked.

Mal laughed as she came over and hugged him. Lonnie laughed too. "The 'forest walk' went just great." Lonnie revealed to him. "Except for the big old manticore in the forest who decided to try to make us lunch. Luckily we used our ranger powers to stop it."

"Whew, great." Ben said automatically. After a second to process what she had said he gasped, "Wait a minute. When…how…?" Mal burst out laughing again as she remembered having a similar reaction when she tried to break the love spell she had placed on Ben without realizing it washed away during their first date in the enchanted river and he had guessed the brownie had the anti-love potion in it. She was glad though that it hadn't been necessary, that he had loved her for real. She hoped one day soon to say that to him.

"She knows." Audrey told Ben. It was only then he saw that she had been leaning on Jay for support. After powering down she had discovered it was a bit hard to breathe and she had pulled a muscle in her left leg that was only now getting better.

"I guess that manticore really did a number on you." Ben surmised worriedly. Audrey may not have been his girlfriend anymore but she was still his friend, possibly one of his closest friends and he wasn't sure that would ever change.

"I'll be fine." Audrey promised. She tried to laugh a little bit. "You should see the other guy."

"He closely resembled a volcano." Carlos added. "Or a part of it."

"So how did you find out about all of this?" Ben asked.

"That was my doing." Jane said. "We've been working on other powers from the basics that Zordon left our parents, after all we know five people against an army isn't actually good odds. The pink one was in development but wasn't done at the time."

"We were hoping to have a bit more time to prepare." Fairy Godmother sighed. "In fact we were hoping we wouldn't have to do this at all."

"We'd only just finished it when the manticore showed up. I realized through what it said to Audrey that it was right, we needed a ranger who was also from Auradon Prep to shore up the weakness it exploited." Jane continued. "And Lonnie was a good candidate for it, in fact she probably would have been selected already if you guys hadn't been here."

"Sorry about lying to you." Audrey said to Lonnie. "It's just the whole secret identity thing and all."

"It's fine." Lonnie promised. "Jane explained that to me, and I can see why. We don't want the whole school, or worse, knowing who we are and what we do."

"Or Paradias using anyone else we care about as a weapon against us." Evie added.

"And I think he'll think of that sooner or later." Fairy Godmother said. "It's only a matter of time."


	4. One Way Up

In room 203 Fairy Godmother stood upon the small podium area where she not so long ago taught the four kids from the Isle of the Lost in Remedial Goodness 101. In those same desks sat the four kids, but they were not alone. They had their fellow rangers Audrey and Jane with them. Ben was also there since he was in the know as well, as he was supposed to be the red ranger but that fell to Audrey when the bonding failed. She still wasn't sure what went wrong there. Rounding it out was her daughter Jane, who was helping her in the command center. "I'm afraid we're still falling short of where we need to be right now." She revealed to the teens.

"What?" Mal asked in surprise as she and Ben held hands. It was a surprise the two weren't more distracted. "We have weapons, we have lasers, and we even have six rangers now instead of five."

"We've had a few rough starts, but I think Mal is right." Audrey agreed. "We are so on the right track here."

"We are on the right track but we have one problem." Fairy Godmother reiterated as she looked at the six rangers. "You see, we've actually lucked out that neither the manticore nor Garunx have ended up growing."

That attracted all of their attention. "Growing?" Questioned Carlos.

"It was something else Zordon mentioned could happen a lot." Fairy Godmother answered. "Through various means monsters will grow to gigantic size. At least as tall as the castles in Auradon."

"Seriously?" Evie asked in shock.

Fairy Godmother nodded and Audrey sighed. "How are we supposed to fight that?" She asked.

"With the megazord." Jane answered as she now got up. "It's a giant…what did you say it was called mom?" She looked to Fairy Godmother.

"It's like a robot." Fairy Godmother filled in for her daughter and then looked toward the rangers. "It's usually controlled by Power Rangers to fight giant monsters. There can be different combinations of them."

"Do we have to design them?" Carlos asked eagerly.

Jane laughed a little and smiled at him. "No, in theory they're around somewhere." She answered. "But we discovered that we couldn't unlock it without five core rangers." She looked to Lonnie now. "It was one of the reasons we were so eager to get your powers up and running."

"Wait a minute." Evie interrupted. "We already started out with five rangers. I mean not that I have a problem with Lonnie being here but if all we needed was rive rangers why didn't we do this beforehand?"

"It's somewhat hard to explain." Fairy Godmother warned them. "But Mal is the purple ranger and despite the fact that she started out with you she's not really a core ranger."

"Yeah, I don't get it." Jay said.

"Our understanding is that the 'core' rangers," Jane started and air quoted core since she wasn't sure how some of that worked herself. "Are red, blue, yellow, pink and either black or green." She glanced at Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Lonnie and Jay as she said it. "Sometimes colors tend to vary as the last we knew only two teams that had both green and black and only of those teams had both colors starting out at basically the same time."

A/N: Since RPM is technically not considered part of the prime universe Auradon is unaware of that.

"Other variations have occurred too. Several have either not had pink rangers or had a position like that but not in that color. We even have an instance of a team with no yellow ranger." Fairy Godmother continued to explain.

In truth the rangers were mostly able to keep up with the explanation if not the reason behind it but really only Evie showed any interest in the history behind their legacy. The others seemed impatient and Mal interrupted with, "Okay, so back to this. You need the others to get this megazord but not me."

"You have a zord out there." Fairy Godmother corrected the daughter of Maleficent. "We just don't know where."

"So what do they have to do to get this megazord?" Ben asked as he squeezed Mal's hand gently as if to reassure her this new development didn't make her useless.

"We actually did trace it to the mountains not far from the school, just after the forest." Jane told her. "All you five have to do is go out there and use your morphers to activate it."

"With a USB cable no doubt." Audrey commented sarcastically, a subtle comment at the fact there morphers were just really unique iPhones. It did draw some chuckles from Jay and Mal though while Lonnie and Evie did smile too.

"Actually judging by the look of these it's probably not a cable but a direct connection from the morphers to a connection on the top of our places in the zord's piloting area." Carlos ventured as he examined the bottom of his morpher.

Jane laughed a bit and smiled at Carlos, having no way to know his breath just fell a little short at that moment. "Precisely." She confirmed.

"Alright." Ben said. "Then you guys should go out and get your zords before Paradias strikes again and this time decides to make them fun sized."

"Fun sized?" Mal asked.

"I think you mean king sized." Lonnie corrected. "That's what they call the bigger than normal packaging for candy."

"Yeah, my bad." Ben acknowledged with a slight grimace. "Anyway, my point still stands."

"It does." Mal agreed as they all stood up. "How do we get there?"

Jane walked over and took Carlos' iPhone, their fingers brushing and both averted their gazes and not seeing the slight blush in either's cheeks. "I…I'm going to install a track, I mean an app on the iPhone so that you six can go get your megazord." She worked quickly as she spoke and then handed the phone to Carlos again, both again averting their gazes even as fingers brushed together.

"Wait, why is Mal coming with us if we don't need her to activate the megazord?" Audrey asked genuinely confused. She had no real problem with it but she felt they must be missing something.

"Protection." Fairy Godmother answered simply. "There's a good chance that Paradias will realize what we're doing, if he hasn't already figured out what's going on, and try to stop it."

"In which case the only we can really spare is Mal." Said Evie a bit unhappily. The other rangers, including Audrey much to her surprise, felt that same bit of unhappiness.

"I wish I could go with you." Ben admitted. "But of course I have that council meeting today." He thought a moment. "I could send some guards with you guys."

"What do we say when the giant megazord comes out of the mountain top?" Lonnie questioned innocently. Ben had to grant that one.

"I'll be fine." Mal said. "Let's get this show on the road and try to get this thing done before Paradias notices." She kissed Ben softly on the lips and joked, "A council meeting huh? I feel like you might be in more danger than me."

"I sure hope so." Ben answered softly as he gently stroked her hair. "I sure hope so."

With that the six rangers headed out, Carlos in the lead with the others behind as they headed toward the mountains where the megazord was supposed to be lying in wait.

"It appears the rangers are going after the megazord as you suspected." Nerissa said to Paradias. "Fortunately we have our soldiers already in wait with the psycho crystals. If they can beat them to the megazord we can take control of it and end the rangers."

"Their biggest weapon turned against them." Paradias mused and laughed. "It will be pleasure. We have the extra ranger, the purple one. Are we able to separate her?"

"Yes." Nerissa answered. "We have that set up as well. He has been looking forward to getting his revenge on the rangers no doubt, and he can start with her."

It seemed like hours for the journey to the mountain area but in reality it was only about two hours, as evidenced by the clock on Carlos' iPhone. The weather was thankfully warm enough to not be unpleasant but cool enough so as to not make the walk miserable. The wind was also mercifully not existent, a fact that both Audrey and Evie spent a few moments gushing about. The ranger suits tending to ruin their hair was at least one of the complaints the princess and the daughter of the Evil Queen could agree on, much to the amusement of the guys and to a lesser extent Mal.

The first indication that their fears were real was when they ran across two of the soldiers. They let out a grunt of recognition before Jay and Lonnie were able to take them out in a puff of ash. "Alright guys, we need to be careful." Mal said then. "We can't assume those were the only ones and we also have to assume there's something worse out here than those guys."

They found a couple other larger groups of the soldiers but chose for the moment not to engage them. Carlos looked down at the map and then said in a small voice, "I hope we can use these readings to help us start to keep track of any movements these guys make in the future. It would help us stay one step ahead of them."

"Yeah, that'd be great." Jay agreed and shoved Carlos lightly. "You can discuss it with your girlfriend when we get back." He added teasingly, talking about Jane.

Any other teasing was forestalled by the approach of heavy footsteps. They turned to see none other than the knight that Nerissa had summoned that first day. "We meet again Auradon Rangers." He stated grimly.

"We don't have time for him at all." Audrey said.

"We don't have far to go either." Carlos added as he looked down at the app.

"Go." Mal said as she took out her iPhone. "I'll keep him busy until you guys get back." With only a slight hesitation from the rest of her friends they went off toward the mountain. "If you want them you have to go through me."

"So be it purple ranger." The knight said. This time he formed a lance in his hands. "Prepare yourself."

Mal input her code 6319 and morphed. She immediately summoned her staff and then both she and the knight started to pace each other. The purple girl hated the fact that she knew this knight had an advantage over her but she was determined to make sure it wouldn't stop her from keeping him away from her friends until they found the megazord.

The two of them broke pace and clashed almost immediately, staff to lance. They exchanged several clashes, each one which made Mal feel…she wasn't sure exactly but the truth was something about it struck her as very wrong, not just the fight itself here but the entire situation with the knight. "Who are you anyway?" Mal questioned him.

"I am going to be the end of you and your friends. I will lead Master Paradias and Nerissa to victory over Auradon and the world." The knight responded simply.

Needless to say that wasn't really the response Mal was hoping for but all of her years half listening to her mother's speeches about evil and discord and blah blah made it so that the purple haired girl wasn't too surprised that was the response she got. "Yeah well good luck with that. I don't intend to fall that easily, or to let them fall that easy." She said.

Without Mal around they hadn't really decided who should be second in command but Evie had heard something about the red ranger often being second in command if they weren't the leader to start with, furthermore in the long run she was only aware of three teams where the red ranger wasn't the leader to start with. So it was with that in mind that she didn't really say much when they arrived at the mountain and Audrey looked to Carlos. "Okay, where do we go from here? Will the app even work in the mountain?" She asked.

"Looks like inside the mountain." Carlos told her. "Probably as far in as we can get." He looked to her. "As for rather it will work or not, well I think the truth is that it should pretty much work but there is no guarantee about it."

Audrey sighed a bit. "That's technology for you." She mused and then shook her head. "Alright, let's give it a shot. Lead the way." Carlos started to lead them up the mountain but they didn't get very far before two soldiers jumped down from the ceiling and landed on both Evie and Jay.

Jay responded by automatically slamming the palms of his hands into the soldier's jaw, ignoring the slight gash on his right shoulder from the bladed part of the opponents arm. He rose quickly and jump kicked the thing hard into the cave wall, taking it out.

Evie gasped a bit in surprise as she hit the ground hard, briefly seeing stars as her head hit the rocky floor. Lonnie was there in a heartbeat and kicked the soldier in the side. It turned to her and slashed at her with the bladed arm but she dodged under it, brought her left leg out to trip it. As the soldier fell her foot connected solidly with its face and it slammed into the wall before also going out.

Audrey was now by Evie's side and gently took her hand to help her stand up. "Are you okay Evie?" She asked the blue haired girl.

Evie shook her head a bit, trying to stop the slight ringing in her ears and the slight dizzy feeling. "Yeah, I'll be okay." She said to Audrey. "Thanks."

Audrey nodded. "Sure." She looked to Lonnie and the two guys. "We better morph guys. We don't want to be caught unaware like that again." She decided.

Lonnie wouldn't have argued with her, both because she agreed and she didn't see any reason not to argue about her trying to fill the role of second in command. Jay could have argued it but he figured if Evie wasn't then it probably wasn't worth making an issue of it. Carlos decided if Jay wasn't going to fight it then he wasn't either. The five teens pulled out their iPhones and morphed. Evie was glad that it made her feel a little less out of it.

"Okay, lead the way." Audrey said to the yellow ranger. Carlos nodded and they started off again. He stopped them only moments later.

"There are a couple more of those soldier things." He whispered.

"I got them." Jay said as he drew his scimitar.

"Wait." Audrey replied as her hand came up on his chest to stop his movement. "Let's try a bit more subtle approach, the less attention we draw right now the better."

"What do you want to do?" Lonnie asked her.

Audrey peaked over Carlos's shoulder to get a lay of the land, sort to speak and then leaned back. "Okay, we have a small crevice opposite us and here. Lonnie, on my signal you throw your tessen at one of them while I take the other one out with an arrow." She answered.

Carlos took a step back so the red ranger could take his place as the pink ranger stealthily made her way to the crevice opposite the other ranger's positions. "I was hoping to hurt something." Jay said in a whisper.

"Don't worry; you'll probably still get your chance." Evie said consolingly.

Audrey drew her bow back, making the arrow magically form. Lonnie unfurled one of her tessen and readied it to throw. She glanced back at the red ranger and after another moment of watching their movements the second in command gave her signal and the two of them released their projectiles, taking out their targets.

"Nice shooting." Carlos said.

"Thanks." Lonnie replied.

"Okay, let's move out." Audrey said. Lonnie joined them at the five rangers continued on for another few minutes before Carlos stopped them again. "More soldiers?" Audrey asked, sounding slightly irritated. She knew that wasn't Carlos's fault, really if anything it was for a reason she found herself hesitating to admit; like the others she was worried about leaving Mal alone to face the knight.

"Well, yeah." Carlos replied simply. "But it's not that, I can't actually see any right now. It's these other readings." He offered the iPhone to the others to see. They could see a strong indicator of powers.

"The megazord?" Jay asked.

Evie shook her head. "The megazord won't give off any power readings until we activate it." The blue ranger answered.

"There's five of them whatever they are." Lonnie remarked. "And if these readings of the area are right they're heading in the same direction as the megazord."

Audrey grimaced, though no one could see it through the helmet. "Paradias not only knows we're here but he must have some way of activating the megazord. We have to get there quickly before he does." She stated. With that the five rangers were off again, in more of a hurry now than they had been only moments before.

Despite Mal's brave words she felt as if she were exhausting quicker than the knight was. Of course it could be a simple matter that her opponent just didn't show his exhaustion. She didn't think she was showing it either but she could certainly feel it.

"Okay, maybe you missed this, but you do remember we're the good guys, right?" Mal said jokingly.

"You, the blue ranger, yellow ranger and the black ranger weren't good until recently." The knight replied evenly.

"You seem to know and awful lot about us." Mal stated. "Why is that?"

"You seriously don't think that what you've done since coming to Auradon hasn't been known about by all in the land." The knight replied.

In truth Mal hadn't entirely thought about it, but still something about it seemed off. Then her opponent cut off all attempts at talking as he renewed his attack by trying to bring the lance down on her but she knocked it off course with her staff and then brought it square against the knights face hard, enough to dent the armor just the tiniest bit. It wasn't much of a victory but just to dent the armor meant the person inside it had to feel something from the impact.

"Admirable." The knight praised simply. "But it will take more than a pyrrhic victory to save your lives this day."

"We'll just see who has the victory this day." Mal promised. Inside though she thought _Hurry up guys, I don't know how much longer I can fight this guy on my own._

Along the way they ran into a few more soldiers but Audrey decided to ditch the stealth attack and took one out of while Jay got one and Lonnie got the other. Carlos had the iPhone to track their progress and wasn't able to help much. Evie meanwhile found herself not being able to help much because her mirror shield was more a defensive weapon than an offensive one and right now there wasn't much defense being put up.

They had started up an incline. "This should take us all the way up to the top of the mountain where the megazord should be waiting for activation." Carlos told his friends. He didn't want to mention that it might not be them who activates it.

Jay looked to Audrey. "Who knows how much lead Paradias or whoever he sent has on us." He reminded the red ranger simply.

She nodded in agreement. "All we can do is try." She said. "Our first goal has to be to get the megazord but we can't guarantee where they are on this incline. I think we should make a mad run toward it." She glanced at the black ranger. "I know you can do that, I've seen you on the tourney field after all." She added with a smile to her voice that made Jay laugh a little too. "You take the lead Jay, Lonnie will be right behind you. Carlos, you stay behind them and make sure to let them know if we're wrong about the straight shot. Evie, you guard Carlos and I'll take the rear and guard all of you with my bow."

"Got it." Jay and Lonnie said while Carlos and Evie replied, "Yes ma'am."

Audrey nodded. "Let's move out." She again was worried for Mal and was sure they were as well.

Just as he would on the tourney field Jay ran for all he was worth, crashing or slashing into whatever soldiers got in his way. Some started to rain from above but those that weren't taken out by Audrey's arrows where then taken out by Jay or Lonnie. Even Evie managed to strike out against a few of them. For reasons that none of them would ever fully get they got to a ledge to just barely see the megazord.

It was indeed a massive machine that was that one could say was vaguely humanoid shaped. They could see their ranger colors built in around it, from the red on the chest and back to the black and blue metallic colored arms and yellow and pink metallic legs. As they moved just a bit they could also see the school's logo on it, which was a bit bizarre all things considered but they didn't really think much of it, especially if Zordon had worked alongside them at any point with them.

Carlos was the first to make them out. "Guys, I see five soldiers over there." He said. They were just out of visual range and the five of them ran to catch up with them. Carlos also realized one other problem; these were the ones that had the weird signatures. It was enforced when the soldiers turned around and they could see in their non-bladed hands were five crystals, each matching their colors.

"They must want to use those to activate the zords in our places." Evie stated.

Carlos wasn't sure those would actually work that way but also knew they couldn't take that chance. "We can't let them do that." He remarked.

"Already on it." Jay stated as he moved to engage them with his scimitar. Audrey and Lonnie were right behind him. Carlos was finally able to pocket his iPhone and then he and Evie brought up the rear of the attack.

For a moment it seemed as if these soldiers might be a bigger challenge but taking them out was still easier than expected. Lonnie had hoped to grab those weird crystals just in case but as the soldiers were destroyed the crystals vanished into thin air. "Damn." She mused.

Audrey was sure she knew what her friend was thinking but shook her head. "They're either not here or we have to waste time looking for them here, time we don't have." She stated and gestured toward the megazord. "Everyone inside, let's finish this mission."

Mal made a mental note to find someone who could teach her how to use a staff more efficiently than she was doing so now, but that didn't matter now as she did her best to combat the knight. He kept trying to stab her with the lance and she kept deflecting them, but knew she had to take the offensive here soon.

The knight moved in, not to stab her but to try to take her head off with the sharpest edge of the lance, and the purple ranger saw her chance as she rolled under the strike and brought the staff up to connect with the knight's chin again. Then she swung around and connected her staff with the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground. She lashed out with her foot and snapped the lance in two pieces, and the brought her staff into solid connection with his chest.

He rolled heavily but only laughed when he stopped moving. "Well done, purple ranger." He said.

"You've lost." Mal said. She wasn't sure rather she should even destroy this knight or what should happen now.

Then she heard Paradias's voice. "The first phase of this battle is over and you have won, daughter of Maleficent." He stated, making her grimace just a little. She knew it was true and she did love her mother but somehow the comparison didn't make her feel better. "But this is far from over." Then a large green circle enveloped, with the shape of a six pointed star inside of it, enveloped the knight and it glowed green. In the blink of an eye the knight grew, just as Fairy Godmother had warned them. "But the war is now over and you have lost."

"No." Mal breathed, afraid that something had happened to her team mates…to her friends. That they hadn't been able to retrieve the megazord and had been lost or killed and she was the last one standing. She had no way to stop this knight on her own now.

The knight moved to try to step on Mal and she barely dodged it. "What do I do now?" She asked herself, near panic.

Then from the top of the mountain there was an explosion almost as loud as a volcano and out of the explosion the megazord that the other rangers had seen emerged. Mal had not seen it before and let out a small gasp, "Wow. That is huge…and kind of cool too. I hope mine is just as neat when we find it."

From the cockpit in the head of the megazord the five rangers stood; first Lonnie, then Jay, then Audrey, then Evie and then Carlos. In front of each of them was a console and in center a place for their iPhones. Evie waved and shouted, "We've got it M! Enjoy the show!"

Mal had to laugh. "That's some confidence there, E." She noted lightly. "I hope that doesn't come back to bite you all. Go get him guys!"

"So you recovered the megazord." The knight noted with a small nod. "But let's see you use it."

"Let the test begin then." Carlos replied. They had already figured out they needed teamwork to make the megazord work and got it to move forward, lashing out with the right fist and slamming into the knight hard.

He laughed. "Next stage rangers." And then formed the sword they had seen him use the first time they had encountered him, though that was before Lonnie had gotten her powers. In fact this was her first time fighting him. He jumped up and brought the sword down on the megazord hard, causing it to fall backwards. The five rangers had to grab ahold of their consoles in order to remain on their feet.

"We have to have some sort of defenses somewhere." Carlos noted.

"Don't we have shields of some kind?" Evie asked.

"This is a megazord Evie, not a starship." Carlos replied a bit snappishly.

"Okay so we won't be deflecting any asteroids." Lonnie concluded. "But there has to be something we can use."

Evie glanced down at her own console and groaned. "Oh my gosh. It's so obvious, I answered my own question." She took out her own mirror shield and fit it into the hole in the console that was meant to connect with her own weapon.

The megazord formed its own shield in its left hand just as the knight swung again and collided with it. They quickly discovered that while it was certain sturdy and could take a hit it wasn't on the same reflective level that Evie's personal weapon gave them.

"We need to go on the offensive now." Audrey said. "What else is on the consoles that we can use?"

Carlos didn't see much on his console to use for weapons and guessed most of it was based more on the zord's status, which was holding up alright right now.

The answer was more obvious for Jay and Lonnie. In addition to their spaces for their iPhones/morphers their consoles connected and there was enough room to place both Jay's scimitar and Lonnie's tessens. With only a slight nod between them the pink and black rangers placed their weapons in the slots. That formed a sword in the megazords right hand. "We really look like a knight of old now." Audrey joked. "Except for the horse."

"You may look like a warrior now." The knight noted. "But let's see if you're able to do more than simply look the part." He then swung his sword at the megazord again. The sword was used to block the knight's attack and then the shield was slammed into the knight hard, sending him backwards.

"Hey guys." Carlos said. "I think we can collect energy from our surroundings, channel it into the sword and then use it finish our opponent off." He laughed. "It's so like a video game."

"Except for the lack of reset button if we fail." Lonnie added dryly.

"Let's give it a shot." Audrey decided. It was actually one her console that the energy drawing was implemented and she activated the function. Even through the megazords structure they could feel the energy being collected. Once that was complete they raised the sword high and then brought it straight down toward the knight.

Only a last minute reaction from him, namely drawing his own shield to take the brunt of the impact, saved him. The two were thrown back. "Well done." The knight said. "This fight is yours, but this is only the beginning." With that the knight vanished.

"That was great guys." Mal stated. "And I am so glad that you're all okay."

"Glad to see you're alright too." Audrey said, surprised again that she actually meant that.

For the first time since this started they heard Fairy Godmother over the helmet intercom. "I knew you guys could do it. Now that you've activated the megazord Paradias can no longer take control of it. It'll be safe in its hiding spot in the mountains. When we need it in the future all you have to do is call out for it and implement the code 0001 on your iPhones." She told them.

As the five rangers joined Mal the megazord returned to its place in the mountains. They were all glad to see none of them were worse for the wear and started back toward Auradon Prep, the rangers pressing Mal for details on her solo fight and the purple haired girl pressing for information on how the team worked without her to lead them.

"They have the megazord now." Paradias lamented. "What could have been our crowning achievement in this conflict has now become a thorn in our side in this long coming war."

"They may have the megazord, but not all of them." Nerissa reminded her master. "We can find them and use them against the power rangers. In the meantime not only do I have a new plan to keep the rangers off balance but we still have these." She held up the psycho crystals that Lonnie had thought it best to retrieve that she was unable to do. "And when the time is right these will shake the rangers up."

Jane found Ben walking toward the forest just as she was to meet their friends. Even though the girl had to run a bit to catch up to the king she noticed one thing even then; he was limping a little. "Ben, are you okay?" She asked in concern.

Ben nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was so anxious to get out of that meeting and make sure Mal and the others were okay I just sat up and slammed my knees into the oak table we were around." He answered and laughed nervously. "Can you believe how clumsy that was?"

"Yeah, sounds like something I should do, not something you should do." Jane agreed. Still, something about it just seemed odd to her, but the teen girl just chocked it up to nervousness.

The team arrived back at Auradon Prep they found Ben and Jane waiting for them. "Who would have thought you would actually make an effective leader?" Mal teased her former rival.

Audrey laughed in return. "Me?" She questioned good naturedly. "You were handed the team, I was so tempted to say the Earth is doomed." She shook her head. "Oh, it's a good thing we're both wrong, huh?"

Mal nodded as she placed her hand over her heart. "Yeah, totally. Looks like you'll be leading the megazord battles until we find mine." She agreed and after a moment's thought added, "Assuming of course that our zords can even combine."

"Why don't we worry about that one after we find it?" Audrey suggested.

"Agreed, one headache at a time." Mal replied as she went over and sat next to Ben, taking his hand and laying her head on his shoulder. "And speaking of headaches how was your council meeting sweetie?"

Ben shook his head. "All a big blur." He admitted and shook his head wearily. "I don't know how dad even did that kind of thing. I barely even remember what was discussed."

"Well have we got a story for you." Carlos said as they all sat at the table and began to recount their adventure.

In one of the broken up caves that the minions had been excavating, one of the cracked walls moved a little. Then it moved a little more before a furry fist shot out, shattering the wall. Behind the crevice in the darkness was a pair of menacing yellow eyes.


	5. Love's a Beast Part 1

A quick thanks to pinksakura271 for the monster ideas, it was instrumental to the construction of this plot ;)

It started out as a normal school day, culminating in tourney and cheerleading practice. Audrey was running the squad, including Evie and a semi reluctant Mal through routines. Lonnie had privately wondered if Mal would be okay with Audrey as cheer captain when she was leader of their ranger team, pending zord uses. But that concern quickly proved to be moot as Mal followed her without a problem bar some of the typical Mal sarcasm that often came naturally. Sometimes that drew responses from Audrey, and it resulted in what was becoming their normal friendly bickering. She and Evie even joked sometimes it was their way of keeping the other girl on their toes.

The tourney team was likewise practicing. From the bleachers where Jane and Doug were half studying and half watching practice they could make out the teams. Ben, Jay and Carlos had there plays pretty much figured during practices. In actual games there were some areas that had to be expanded.

The other side of the team was led by Chad. Jane flinched just a bit as Chad moved on the field and slammed into Carlos hard. She actually wanted to check on him but knew it was better to stay off the field. "Hey!" Jay called out just as their coach called a foul on the move.

"And you used to like that guy?" Mal questioned Audrey.

The brunette princess rolled her eyes. "Emphasis on used to." She reminded the purple haired girl. In truth she had never really liked Chad, at least in that way, but she had wanted to try to make Ben feel some of the emotions she had been feeling when he had declared his love for Mal at that time. She was actually kind of glad she was getting over those feelings of anger and envy.

"Got to watch where you're going bro." Chad said to Carlos as Ben helped him up.

"I'll make you watch where you're going." Jay snapped at him. The coach quickly told them to break it up.

While this was going on Nerissa appeared behind the bleachers. She made her way over to the girl's bags and took out a purple water bottle, putting something into the water and then closing it up. She then slipped away into the trees as she watched.

Chad started back to his side of the field and Audrey couldn't help but call out to him, "That's really uncool of you Chad. We're all still on the same side."

"Shut up, Audrey." He snapped at her. "We don't need to hear your opinions."

"Hey." Jay replied testily. "Watch your mouth, in case you forgot your speaking to a girl."

"Alright guys." Ben tried to intervene diplomatically. "Let's just try this again. And let's get it right." He added looking to the guy that was quickly becoming a former friend.

Audrey sighed irritably. "Alright girls, take five." She said to them.

"I'm getting some water." Mal said to both Audrey and Evie before taking off toward their packs.

Evie glanced over at Audrey. "Are you okay?" She asked concerned. She knew that Chad was at least supposed to be her and Ben's friend and that was not the kind of attitude one gave their friends, at least that was what the blue haired girl assumed.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Audrey replied. She tried her best not to let that irritation out on Evie as since she knew the girl was only concerned for her, something that surprised her a bit even now. In fact all of the isle kids' easy acceptance of her still surprised her a little, Ben's voucher for her in the command center notwithstanding. "Thanks."

What no one even saw was that Mal went over and picked up a black water bottle and opened it. She sighed. "Great, I forgot to fill mine up before we came out here." She realized.

"You can have some of mine." Lonnie said to Mal. "It's the purple water bottle next to Audrey's bag."

"Thanks." Mal said as she reached for the purple water bottle and then turned to the field to watch the tourney practice.

The guys were going at their routine again. As far as the girls and Doug could tell Chad tried again to ram into Carlos as he had before, but the smaller boy managed to evade it and even shot the ball out from his stick.

Chad gave out a small growl of annoyance and then stole the ball back from another guy. Mal felt a bit of annoyance at the boy as she opened up Lonnie's water bottle and took a drink of water as she watched Chad slide under Ben and before Jay could intercept him he shot the ball straight into the next. He raised his arms in victory and shouted, "That's right boys. Better than you!"

What confused Jane was she glanced back as this occurred and noticed the look on the purple haired girls face go from annoyance to what she almost swore was adoration.

"Can you believe that guy?" Audrey asked with a roll of her eyes. She found it increasingly hard to believe she had ever thought she could even like him.

"You're telling me." Evie agreed with a sigh. "How ridiculous, don't you think M?" She asked her best friend as all of the boys started toward the bleachers.

"I know." Mal said. "That was…" She dropped the water bottle and ran out to the field. Ben was ready to take her into his arms but she brushed right past him, right past both Jay and Carlos and right up to Chad. "Amazing. You are such a great player." She boasted as she leaned up next to him.

"What…what are you doing?" Chad asked her, sounding slightly disgusted.

"Um…did I miss something?" Doug asked Jane as he glanced at her.

Jane had to shake her head a bit to get past the shock. "If you missed something, then I really missed something too." She replied.

Jay and Carlos shared a look of shock from not two feet away. From the bleachers Audrey and Evie glanced at each other with shocked faces and they turned just enough to see the exact same look on Lonnie's face as well.

"Mal?" Ben asked as he came closer. "Did…did I miss something here?"

Mal looked up over at him, a picture of innocence. "What do you mean Ben?" She asked simply.

Ben noticed that she was still wearing his ring and was even more confused. "Aren't we…I mean shouldn't you be…what's going on?" He asked her.

Mal still seemed lost too. "I was just congratulating my Chaddie kins." She replied simply.

"Chaddie kins?" Jay questioned. "Since when has he been anything other than price jerk face?"

"All of you are such freak." Chad spat as he looked from Mal and then to Jay. "What game you trying to play here?"

From the trees Nerissa cursed. "Damn it, that wasn't what was supposed to happen." She looked at the three ranger girls, specifically Audrey and Lonnie and then looked at Jay. "Not at all." Then from in her head she heard Paradias, _This was not what you were sent here for._ He agreed but then she heard his laugh in her head. _But this could be just as interesting._

While a lot of the cheerleading and tourney team looked on shocked, trying to figure out what joke they were missing out on Jane frowned and then got off the bleachers and picked up the water bottle that Mal had just drunk from and then looked to them. "It can't be…could it be something in the water?" She mused.

"What about the water?" Doug asked.

"I…I don't know." She answered uncertainly. She bit her lip. "Doug, do you think you could do me a favor and analyze the water?" She asked and added. "I don't think Evie is really going to want to do that right now."

Doug took the water bottle. "Sure, Jane." He answered. "Tell Evie I'll catch up with her later." Then he was started to move toward the school.

Then there was a loud crashing through the forest that drew everyone's attention, it was making as much sound as a bulldozer. A red looking creature that seemed to be look like an ape except for it had the snout, main and tail of a lion landed hard in front of the them.

"What is that?" Lonnie asked.

"Sarmeya?" Doug questioned in shock. "I thought that was a myth…"

Mal got in front of Chad. "Don't worry Chaddie kins, I'll protect you." She promised.

Ben had to shake off his hurt and confusion in face of a slightly more important situation. "What is that?"

The lion ape creature looked around and laughed. "Ah, there we go." He breathed. He then started toward the cheerleaders and tourney players.

Jane and Doug started running over to them and Jane called out, "Your highness, we have to start getting everyone out of harm's way."

The creature barreled right through the three female rangers and they landed hard. Jay and Carlos moved as one to try to block the thing but barely in his way before being brushed aside. Ben now moved in his way to keep Mal safe, trying to ignore the fact that his purple haired girlfriend was trying to protect the one guy that had given them the most trouble since their arrival, excluding of course Audrey who was coming around to them quicker than the young king could have ever expected.

He stopped just short of the three of them and the roared back and unleashed what many could only be considered a burst of fire but it didn't burn either Mal or the two boys. Instead when the fire dissipated he only stated, "Soon, my brother."

"Mal." Jane said as she now caught up to them. "You and the others know what you need to do." She looked to Ben. "Help Doug and I get everyone to safety."

Ben nodded, feeling the desire to stay behind and protect Mal. "Y…yeah. Let's do it." He said reluctantly.

"Protect Chad." Mal ordered simply as she slipped around to her friends, who were getting up.

The three civilians in the know managed to get the people out of sight just as the six teens pulled out their iPhones, input their codes, and morphed. The beast creature laughed at them. "Do you really think you color coded kiddies can stand up to my ancient fury?" He questioned and then ran straight at them.

"I'll do whatever it takes to protect my Chaddie kins." Mal said.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Jay murmured.

"Lose your lunch later." Audrey said to the black ranger. "Let's take care of this ugly monkey thing now."

He jumped up and intended to land on some of the rangers but they dodged out of the way. He swung and his solid fist connected hard with both Evie and Carlos. They took a hard landing to the ground.

He turned around and struck Lonnie and Audrey as they tried to double team him. They flew hard as well and that left Jay and Mal still standing for the moment. Then they heard an odd roaring sound, one that was still vaguely familiar to Mal. For reasons she could barely remember she recalled it belonged to Ben, he had let it out at the enchanted lake before diving into the water.

"Ben, no!" Audrey exclaimed. But the young king didn't listen as he came back out of the forest and did his best to attack the beast creature in what one could awkwardly call a spear. It stumbled back a bit and then tried to hit Ben though he dodged it.

"What are you doing?" Mal asked him. The rangers were briefly relieved until the purple ranger added, "You're supposed to be helping keep my Chaddie kins safe."

"Oh, Mal. Barf." Carlos said.

"Let's try a double team Mal." Jay suggested.

"Sure." She agreed. She raised her staff above her head, holding one end in each. Jay took a couple of steps back and the black ranger was about to run up to her and then jump over the staff for leverage.

But they were all shocked when Ben saw it and he reached out and tripped Jay, making him sprawl hard on the ground. "Stay away from Mal, don't touch her." He warned his team mate.

Jay blinked in shock through his helmet. "Wait, what?" He wanted to know.

"What is going on here?" Carlos asked.

The beast laughed and then jumped backwards twice before taking hold of a tree branch and disappearing into the forest.

As if knowing the battle was over they each received a text from Jane:

Meet me in the chemistry room, now

"We better see what's up with this." Audrey said as she powered down. She was already sure something was going on.

"No." Mal said with a shake of her head as she powered down as well. The other four followed suit. "I have to find my Chaddie kins."

"Oh come on Mal." Audrey said. "I don't know what's going on but this has gone from being puzzling to downright ridiculous." She was now all but in Mal's face, and what surprised Evie the most is she found herself siding with the princess. "He hates you all, he accused Evie of being a gold digger and he accused Jay of liking to hurt people. He's not even worth your time even if I thought for one moment that anything was genuine."

"Back off." Ben said as he tried to get in Audrey's way now but Lonnie stopped him by grabbing his arm. She thought it safer for her to do so then Jay and knew whatever was happening right now between the girls was at least not real.

Mal gave her the kind of glare that in truth convinced the red ranger that in the starting days she was right to think they were all evil. Whatever the purple haired girl would have responded back with was interrupted by another text from Jane.

I need you guys in the chemistry room. Right. Now. That includes you, Mal. I have Chad here with us.

Like that the dark look in Mal's eyes passed. "Oh, my Chaddie kins is waiting for me." She said happily and added in a semi sing song voice, "To the chemistry room." Before all but skipping off.

Evie was by Audrey's side and the two girls exchanged looks. "I hope Jane has some kind of answer here because this is getting out of hand." The blue haired girl remarked as Ben ran off to catch up with Mal and the other teens fell into step behind them.

From the trees Nerissa had watched this all. "Did you send that beast thing?" She asked. Paradias responded instantly in her mind. _No, that isn't one of ours._

Nerissa took the bottle that contained the potion and set it on the ground. Then she raised her scepter. "From the ether of the shadows, I make thee real." She intoned. The potion bottle rose up and then grew to six times in size before sprouting arms and legs. It had a heart shaped hilted sword attached to its back and small cannons on its arms. "Heartwrecker, the rangers will come looking for a cure. Your job is to stop them."

"Your wish is my command Nerissa." The monster promised.

The rangers entered the chemistry lab. Mal almost seemed to coo happily, a sound that Evie and the boys had never heard from her before, and then she tried to go sit by Chad. Two things happened at once; the first was Ben tried to get in between them, the second was Chad trying to move away from them both. "What the hell is going on here?" He demanded to know.

"Never thought I'd agree with prince non-charming here, but I want to know the same thing." Jay said as they sat down. Then he realized Doug was here too. "No offense, but what is he doing here?"

"First off, Doug knows about all of this." Jane said as she looked at them all. "He helped my mother and I with this entire project." She shrugged sheepishly. "This…just wasn't how we intended for this reveal to go."

"What project? What's going on around here?" Chad demanded to know.

"Can someone shut him up already?" Jay asked annoyed. "Unless he knows too."

"Calm down Jay." Evie said soothingly and then gave Doug an encouraging smile. "A lot is going on and we're just hoping for some good clarification." She said to him gently.

Jane frowned a bit. "But Jay is right about this one." She conceded.

"I got it." Jay said and started to get up to punch Chad in the face. Mal was already ready to defend him and Ben was already ready to stop Jay from getting near Mal but Evie held up her hand.

"I got it Jay." She said. The blue haired girl took out the perfume bottle, complete with knock out gas she had used on Chad during parent's day and sprayed him in the face before he could do much more than start a protest. Mal caught him and laid him on the floor gently.

"Alright, what's going on Jane?" Audrey wanted.

"I'm not entirely sure." The girl answered shyly. "As far as I can ascertain this all started with your water bottle Lonnie."

"I don't get it." Lonnie said.

"I think I do." Doug said. They all looked to him. "I think your drink was laced with a love potion." He looked to Evie. "Can you verify that please?" He was pretty sure of his findings but knew not only would they trust her word a bit more but also that a true scientist would want their findings verified anyway.

Evie stepped up and took a look. It wasn't hard and she nodded. "Doug's right. I don't know where it came from but the water in Lonnie's water bottle was laced with a love potion." She verified.

"Someone was trying to spell me?" Lonnie seemed surprised.

"Makes sense." Mal pointed out. She vaguely remembered using a love potion herself on Ben but found for whatever reason she couldn't remember why. "Should have been Chad." She added to herself.

"For what?" Ben asked, sounding a bit defensive.

"Never mind." Audrey interrupted them both. "Okay, so we find the idiot who decided to do this and make them reverse it."

"Hold up a minute." Doug said as he passed a notepad over to Evie. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" He asked her.

Evie took a look at it, surprised that her knack for chemistry was paying off here as well. She also saw the problem, or more accurately the mystery, immediately. "A lot of these are basic components for love spells, but I don't recognize these two ingredients."

Lonnie thought she understood. "Paradias set this up, trying to play cupid." She said. When both Doug and Evie nodded in confirmation she sighed a bit. "Why do they care who I fall in love with? Or who Mal is in love with?"

"You mean why do they care if I'm with Chad?" Mal asked. That got a look of annoyance from both boys but the other rangers basically ignored them right now.

"I don't think Mal was the target." Jane now said. "I wish I knew why but something tells me that it had to have been Lonnie."

"So what do we do to reverse it?" Carlos asked.

"Obviously it's like the venom thing that the manticore was using." Audrey deduced. "We need to destroy the monster."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple." Doug said somewhat quietly. Calling the often haughty princess wrong was not something the son of Dopey the dwarf was used to doing. But in this case he had to because they had to realize this was not one but two separate problems. "Sarmeya is not one of Pardias's monsters."

"Okay, now I'm lost." Evie said to Doug. "What do you mean? What's going on?"

"Sarmeya is…well, was a legend that I grew up hearing about from Uncle Doc." Doug answered, referring of course to the oldest of the seven dwarves that had once helped shelter Evie's step sister Snow White a long time ago. Their connection was pretty ironic in Lonnie's opinion, much like Mal and Audrey working together considering the fact the former's mother basically tried to get rid of the latter's mother. "It's an ancient creature, one of many that existed on this planet before people were around."

"I thought that was demons." Jay interrupted. His father Jafar had talked about that kind of thing sometimes too.

"The demons were first." Doug corrected. "And for whatever reasons were either banished or went into hiding." He looked around. "But there was time in between the banishment of demons from the world and the rise of people. Creatures like Sarmeya are one of those."

"So his people died out at some point I presume." Audrey said, trying to rush things along, trying to get things settled.

Doug nodded. "Yes." He confirmed. "After talking with Jane I've surmised that Sarmeya was buried in the mountains where you retrieved your megazord. It must have gotten disturbed by you guys, those weird soldier things or both."

"So why would it use a love potion on any of us?" Audrey asked with a slight edge of annoyance.

"He didn't." Evie realized. "Whatever it's doing was separate from what Paradias is planning."

"Swell." Jay sighed. "So what do we do now? How does that help us?"

"For what it's worth, I think this Sarmeya thing is linked to how Ben is behaving." Jane said.

"You mean all jealous and possessive." Audrey clarified as she pointed to the barely concealed hostile looks that Ben was shooting at Chad while Mal was hovering over him. The princess suspected that only the fact Chad was unconscious right now was the only reason he wasn't acting any stranger. He was sure keeping an eye on Jay, Carlos and Doug. "But how did he do that?"

Fortunately Doug was about as far away from them as he could get and still be in the group, and also standing by Evie. Jay was with Carlos and his other two female team members. Carlos was the furthest away as he was sitting next to Jane.

"I think it's pheromone related." Doug said. "Jane and I saw him make some kind of attack on Ben, Mal and Chad. That's when this behavior started up."

"I think I'm still lost." Carlos admitted sheepishly.

"It's because of his dad." Audrey submitted. "He was turned into that beast form of his for like half of his life. Some lingering effect of that must have been genetically passed onto Ben." She looked to Doug and Evie for confirmation. "When he did what he did it must have reactivated some dormant gene."

"At least in some part." Doug clarified with an approving nod. "We haven't seen his appearance change physically but he is responding to as if Mal were his mate and he's trying to protect what he sees as his own."

"Such an outdated concept." Audrey drawled with a roll of her eyes. "Okay, so we have two separate problems that's being one big thorn in our sides. What do we about them?"

"The six of us need to go out there and kick some beast butt." Jay declared.

"You mean five." Audrey corrected. "Mal's not going, she needs to stay here."

"No, I mean six." Jay challenged as he looked at Audrey. "Mal is our leader and she's coming with us."

"She's under a spell. She doesn't even want to leave Chad's side. Ben's under some kind of influence and he already threw himself into harm's way out there." Audrey reminded him. "He also became possessive enough that he stopped you from attacking that Sarmeya thing just because you had to be close to Mal. As long as this is going on she has to stay here."

For just a moment Evie was surprised to hear Audrey say that. Then it occurred to her that not only was Audrey right but in her right mind, her best friend would be making that objection too. The fact she was more worried about Chad than this conversation proved that their second in command was completely right in her assessment.

Jay was about to accuse of her of trying to take control of Mal's group, a comment he would probably regret if things got taken care of and tempers had settled down but Evie interrupted, "Jay. Audrey is right. Right now the best place for Mal is here. She won't leave Mr. 'Charming' down there and Ben will go wherever Mal goes regardless of the danger and that includes to us if he feels like you or Carlos are a threat to her."

Jay stopped ,took a deep breath and thought about what had transpired. He realized that Audrey was right and that it was a good thing Evie seemed to be having some kind of rational thought. "Okay, fine." He conceded. "What do the five us do? Go hunting for the lion ape thing or find a cure for this potion?"

Carlos had been messing with his iPhone through the entire thing and he looked up. "Hey guys." He called. The four rangers looked toward him. "We have another problem. Jane and I recently developed an app that links the command center's sensors to the iPhone and we've detected a monster."

The four of them took out their iPhones to find the sensor app and then activated it to find what had attracted Carlos's attention. It was the same Heartwrecker monster that Nerissa summoned moments ago.

"Odds are that thing is responsible for the love spell Mal is under." Jane said. "Destroying that monster might release the hold on her." She looked to five rangers. "Try to take care of it. At the least we can't let that thing to that to anyone else."

"What about us?" Carlos asked. He thought he might like Jane but didn't want a monster trying to make a relationship happen before he or she were ready for it.

"Your suits should protect you guys from its influence." Doug assured him. He didn't want Evie to worry about that either. "We're going to try to work on an antidote in case you guys can't kill that monster or our theory about destroying it setting Mal free is wrong."

Audrey nodded. "Okay guys." She said. "Let's get to work."

Evie reached down and squeezed Doug's hand gently as she got up. Carlos gave Jane a smile that he hoped would convey they would be alright and then the five rangers left the room to find the monster.

Jane sighed and shook her head. "Mal's in love with Chad because of a love potion. Some pheromone thing is taking Ben's love for Mal into a possessive direction." She looked over at Chad. "And he's going to hate us even more when this is all over." She sighed. "What else could possible go wrong?"


	6. Love's a Beast Part 2

Again thanks to pinksakura271 for the monster ideas and helping to inspire this plotline.

Heartwrecker left the school and into one of the market areas. His very appearance was enough to send people fleeing in terror. "Oh calm down." The monster taunted the populace. "If you take a moment to look at me I bet you'll really get to love me." He laughed as he tried to shoot the potion out at them.

"I doubt that one." He heard from behind. He turned to see Audrey, Jay, Lonnie, Carlos and Evie behind him. It was Jay who had spoken. "We don't even really know you and we're already sick of you."

"Look, its five little rangers all ready to get knocked down like bowling pins." Heartwrecker taunted. "Shouldn't there be six of you?" He asked mockingly.

"Like you don't already know what's going on." Audrey snapped. She looked to her team mates. "Come on guys, let's get to work." The five of them pulled out their iPhones and put in their numbers and morphed.

"I'm just trying to bring a little love into your lives." Heartwrecker said and sprayed the five of them down. "Can't you feel it?"

"The only thing you're going to be feeling is pain." Jay said. Heartwrecker realized they must be immune to his effects as long as they were morphed.

"Alright then kiddies. You don't want to feel the love, then you can feel the burn." With that Heartwrecker moved in to attack.

The five rangers formed their weapons and got ready. As he swung at Carlos, the yellow ranger dodged it. Lonnie moved in and tried to strike him with her tessens but the monster blocked it. Jay and Audrey moved in tried to strike him but he caught it and flipped them down hard. He then blasted at the four of them but Evie got in their way allowed her mirror shield to take the impact so that she could reflect it right back at the monster.

"Hah, that is so cool to see." Carlos admitted.

"That kind of stings." Heartwrecker growled and then came right at her. Evie rolled out of the way only for him to take a double kick from Carlos and Jay. Audrey and Lonnie shot an arrow and threw a tessen at him respectively and he was thrown back but only rolled up with barely a scratch.

"Solid glass apparently." Carlos noted. "That's going to be a tough nut to crack."

Jane watched Doug working on what he hoped would be a good chemical solution to reverse the love potion that had been given to Mal, she assumed before Heartwrecker had been created. That was in between watching the battle between the rest of the rangers and the monster play out on screen. She heard a noise only to see Chad starting to stir. "Just what we don't need." She muttered.

"Oh, Chaddie kins." Mal gushed. "Are you okay?"

"What?" He asked as he looked around and then remembered what was going on. "What is your problem Mal?" He demanded.

"Don't speak to my Mal that way." Ben warned.

"Maybe you haven't noticed Romeo, but it's 'your Mal' that is coming onto me." Chad snapped at him. "Maybe you need to get your girl under control here." That made Jane grimace in annoyance as she remembered Audrey commenting on outdated beliefs. Then the irate prince looked at them and ordered, "Doug, Jane. Tell me what is going on here, now."

"It's kind of complicated Chad." Doug tried to side step it without lying. "But don't worry, we'll have it taken care of so you can be on your way as soon as possible."

"I want you to tell me why the purple haired freak thinks I'm going to fall for her." Chad demanded.

"She's not 'falling for you'." Ben snapped at him. "She's being influenced by a spell. And the next time you call her a freak…"

"Okay, that's enough." Jane snapped. "Sit down." She said to Ben and then looked to Chad. "And shut up." Both boys looked surprised at her tone of voice and both of them complied, at least for now. She was afraid that wouldn't hold for long though. She looked to Doug. "We need a solution soon."

"I'm working on it." Doug promised her. He felt kind of bad for Chad since it wasn't really his fault that a love potion had been accidently given to her that made her fall in love with Chad. But it didn't dismiss the fact he was unforgivably rude to the isle kids. He had long surpassed even Audrey in that regard, let alone him or Jane. He was too busy to see the look that Ben gave Chad as Mal tried to cuddle up to him.

Jay was on his feet as the others were recovering but stopped when Heartwrecker aimed his arms at them again and he couldn't help but laugh. "I thought you already learned that we can't be affected by your little potion." He said.

"I have learned that." Heartwrecker promised and then unleashed a torrent of flames on them, followed by rockets on the bands around his wrists. They all struck the rangers hard, and it sent them flying back hard, crashing into a stand.

"Now that wasn't much fun at all." Evie moaned as she tried to get up. "I couldn't even get my mirror shield ready."

Heartwrecker leapt at them again. Audrey and Evie dodged to the right while Carlos and Jay dodged to the left. Lonnie raised her tessens and blocked the downward swing of the monster's arms. He lashed out though and kicked Lonnie in the stomach hard. He then swung out his arms and struck both Carlos and Audrey hard as they tried to move in to attack.

"That's enough out of you." Jay announced and tried again to attack with his scimitar. The monster blocked with his right hand and swung with his left. The black ranger brought his scimitar down and blocked it right as the monster's foot shot out and caught Jay in the chest hard, sending him backwards in a heap.

"We could really use Mal right about now." Evie noted as she was helping Carlos and Audrey to their feet.

Jane looked at Mal. "You hear that?" She asked the purple haired girl. "Our friends are losing out there, they could use all the power they can get right now." She knew they could use the Triangle Spark Blast on their own, and in fact was thinking that might be the only way they could defeat Heartwrecker if they ever got the chance to form it.

But they couldn't construct the Auradon blaster without Mal and her staff.

Mal watched the screen from her place by Chad. Part of her felt like she should be there to help them but another part of her didn't want to risk leaving Chad's side and have something bad happen to him. "Well…" She tried.

"Feel free to go freak girl." Chad bit off.

"I told you not to call her that." Ben snapped as he stood up. He was about ready to pounce at him but Mal was in the way and he stopped himself. He looked to Mal. "Let's go Mal. We can help take that monster out together."

Jane had a sudden image of Heartwrecker lighting Ben on fire, and the young king would not endure the attack the way her morphed friends could, hence reminding herself why Audrey had said they had to do this without Mal in the first place. She sighed and looked back to the battle. "Come on you guys. It's all on you."

"We all know Mal can't be here." Audrey said to them. "Rather we like it or not it's all on us." She looked around to the team. "So get your acts together and let's send this monster back where he belongs."

"Great motivational speech there." Jay said to the red ranger simply. Not that she didn't have a point which they all knew but he wasn't sure that was the best way to motivate.

Audrey hesitated and bit her lip. "Yeah, not the best." She conceded. "But when I said getting acts, together…I did include me in that."

"You better get your acts together if you want to break me bottle." Heartwrecker taunted and shot the rockets out at the rangers again.

Since there was no flame to act as a distraction it just gave Evie enough time to react. The blue ranger took the front and aimed her mirror shield at the attack. Some of the rockets struck far enough that she couldn't reflect it but at least it didn't really cause too many problems either. The remainder were deflected right back at the monster, who went flying and got a rough landing on top of it.

"We have a few minutes to think about our next move." Carlos said.

"What about the triangle blast?" Evie suggested.

"Don't we need Mal?" Carlos asked her.

Jay thought a moment and shook his head just as Audrey realized the same thing. "No." The black ranger stated. "We only need five of us, remember. We did it with Mal, but that was before Lonnie was part of the team."

"I hate to interrupt your meeting power brats, but I just don't like to stay down." Heartwrecker stated as he charged right at the Rangers and slammed into both Lonnie and Carlos. He then twirled around and used his cannon hands to slam into Jay and the other two girls.

"Someone really needs to take a load off." Carlos commented as he started to get up. "He's looking pretty tired to me."

"I think that might be us getting tired." Lonnie replied as she stood. "Clearly his glass isn't so breakable."

"Tell me about it." Evie remarked. "Even his own rockets weren't enough to apparently crack the glass."

"Tougher than I look, huh kiddies?" Heartwrecker taunted. "Tells you something doesn't it?"

"You know, you're right." Evie realized as she stood up beside Jay and Audrey. "It does tell us something." She took a deep breath. "That you can't win."

Heartwrecker seemed taken aback. "Huh? What? Have you been paying attention to this fight?" He demanded to know.

"Your own shell seems pretty tough to get through, and so is your little potion." Evie replied. "But that's all either of that is; a shell." She stepped forward a bit more. "It's nothing compared to true love, to true power brought on not by the corrupted forces of evil but by the pure power of friendship."

"Do you realize how corny that sounds?" Heartwrecker questioned.

Now Lonnie stepped forward. "Evie is right." The pink ranger declared. "I've seen how Mal and Ben are together. What they have is real and what you're making her feel for Chad is an illusion, to say nothing about the fact Chad doesn't feel that way at all." She got ready to fight now too. "Your house of lies will fall apart, unlike what they have."

Jane looked back at Mal. "Is any of this getting through to you Mal?" She asked. "They're right you know, about all of it."

Mal felt uncertain of herself for a moment and Jane swore she saw a flash of something in her eyes for just a moment before she shook it off. "No…my love for Chad is real." She said.

For once so far Ben's new possessive streak seemed to work in their favor. "No, it isn't Mal." He said as he reached out and grabbed her hands, placing them on his chest over his heart. "What we have is real, and true, and pure." He squeezed her hands gently. "Surely you remember that."

"That…is so corny…" Mal started with a smirk but it quickly faded. "And so…so…" Again the uncertainty was on her face.

"I think you got corny right on the first time, psycho." Chad muttered. Everyone ignored him.

"And it's not the love between you two." Doug added, making an effort to stay far enough away so as not to provoke Ben. "Remember your friends, the ones you came here with and made family. They're out there right now not only fighting for Auradon, but fighting for you. Even Audrey is out there for you."

Mal glanced at the screen again. "I…"

As if aware of the conversation in the chemistry lab all of the rangers had gotten up now. "They're both right." Audrey agreed as she raised her bow. "What was it that Mal said when we first became rangers…that the strength of evil is as good as none when five hearts are as one." She shook her head as she thought of Ben, about that silly little dog Dude that was probably in Carlos' room now who was really cute actually and Fairy Godmother and Jane. Even Doug who had apparently been in on the entire project too, all for a common cause, all for the good of the land. "No, Mal got that one wrong. It's when all our hearts are as one."

"And together, as one, we're going to bring you down." Jay declared.

"All our hearts, together as one." Mal whispered. Again Jane could see the spark in her eyes as if the purple haired girl was trying to fight the love potion's effects and was starting to succeed a little. She had not pulled her hands away from Ben's.

From the corner of her eye Jane saw Chad make a face of pure disgust. She wasn't sure if it was the sentiment itself that was the cause of it or if it was because that statement had come not from one of the isle kids but from Audrey, whom for a while he had assumed was on his side. For a moment the girl wished that Chad could see in them what she, Ben, Dug and Lonnie saw in them and what Audrey was very quickly starting to see in them.

Mal still seemed unwilling to pull herself away from either boy, regardless of what the spell was telling her and what her heart was now trying to remind her. But she seemed just a bit more like herself when she whispered, "Come on guys. You can do it. Take this thing down."

From one side Lonnie moved in with her tessens, from the other Jay moved in with his scimitar. Heartwrecker raised his arms to block both attacks, allowing Carlos to move in from behind Lonnie and Audrey to move in behind Jay and bring their weapons across his sides, sending him flipping end over end and landing hard.

"We need to find a way to crack that bottle." Lonnie said. "If we can do that it should at least give us the weak spot we need."

Jay looked to Audrey. "I have an idea on that one." He said to the red ranger and gave a small laugh. "At least assuming your aim is as good as you'd like to think it is."

Audrey laughed at the black ranger. "If you're thinking what I think you are, I can do it. The question is, are you strong enough to give me that chance?" She responded with her own laugh.

"Can you guys flirt later?" Carlos questioned as he saw Heartwrecker getting up.

"We were not flirting." Both Jay and Audrey reprimanded at the same time as the red ranger got an arrow ready in her bow and the black ranger headed toward one of the stands that happened to be selling sporting goods equipment.

Lonnie couldn't help but giggle a bit. _That's what it looked like to me, unless I've been doing it wrong these last couple of years._ She thought but had the grace not to say it out loud. She also remembered the celebration after coronation where Audrey had approached Jay for a dance and thought maybe she and Carlos weren't too wrong in that train of thought after all…and that had been just after she and Mal seemed to have made their peace with each other.

"Let's see if we can buy them a few extra seconds." Evie suggested to Carlos and Lonnie. Both rangers nodded in agreement and the three rangers charged the monster as it was recovering. It lashed out and tried to catch Carlos in the stomach but he twisted his clawed daggers to catch the attack. Evie and Lonnie came in from either side of the yellow ranger and kicked him in the chest hard, which with normal glass should have broken in or at least cracked it heavily.

Jay went over and grabbed the biggest weight that he could lift and throw with any sort of distance, which was a 70lb one and yelled, "Incoming!" So that Carlos and the two girls would know to get out of the way hopefully, before tossing the weight at the monster. It flew rather gracefully through the air before smashing against the monster and causing it to get a decent crack just on what would be the chest area, not quite enough to make any of the weird liquid inside of it leak out though.

Audrey lifted her bow and pulled the string back, taking just a moment for careful aim before unleashing the arrow toward Heartwrecker. He saw the move coming in just enough time to start to deflect the arrow but wasn't quick enough as the arrow impacted the shattered glass and sent him flying back in a flurry of explosions.

"Nice shot." Evie said to Audrey.

"Thanks." The red ranger responded. "But we're not done yet." Lonnie came to Audrey's other side and then Carlos and Jay were on the girls shoulders as they summoned their blasters and fired the Auradon Triangle Spark at the monster and destroyed it.

"Looks like they have it in the bag," Jane said happily as they saw the rangers getting ready to use their Auradon Triangle Spark attack.

"Great for them, I'm out of here." Chad decided and intentionally shoulder rammed into Mal on his way out.

"Hey!" Ben growled. Chad turned around to snap back but didn't have the chance as Ben punched his one-time friend right in the face. It took him aback for a moment as the young king snarled, "Don't ever bump into her again!"

"You and your feelings for these damn criminals." Chad yelled and then proceeded with a punch of his own into Ben's face.

"Ben? Chad?" Mal asked confused as she felt the effects of the potion slowly leaving her. "What…"

Ben glared at him despite the small amount of blood running down his lip. He felt as if he should say something to defend them but didn't have the words. Instead he tackled Chad to the ground hard and hit him in the face.

"Stop it." Jane said and tried to go over and take Ben's arm to calm him but just barely missed an elbow from the ricochet of a punch.

Chad reached up and elbowed Ben in the face hard and then kicked him in the stomach, sending him sprawling backwards and accidently crashing into Mal. He reached for a stool.

"Chad, stop." Doug warned as he tried to step in. "Don't do something you're going to regret later."

"Stay out of it dork." Chad snapped at Doug and then turned back to Ben and Mal. Ben was trying to tend to Mal even as the purple haired girl was promising him she was okay. He moved forward and slammed the stool down on Ben's back hard.

"Chad!" Jane exclaimed in shock.

Mal looked at Chad confused for a moment and then back to Ben.

"You should have never invited these criminals to our school, to our land!" Chad exclaimed as he hit Ben again. "They've ruined our lives!" He hit Ben again despite him trying to block it and the sound of a finger being broken might have been heard.

One would never know for sure whether it was the image of Chad trying to beat up on Ben or if the potion's effect had been negated because of the monsters destruction but all of a sudden reality hit Mal with perfect clarity and for an instant she felt disgust over feeling any sort of affection for Chad. The next moment horror over what she was seeing.

Her eyes glowed green as she instinctively tapped into the powers that were her birthright, being the daughter of one as powerful as Maleficent. The stool went flying out of his hands and crashing into the wall, the one that just happened to be closest to Jane. With a scream of shock the girl backed up further toward Doug.

Chad was paying no attention to how it happened and was ready to go at Ben again with his bare fists even as the young king was getting up again. Then Mal was in between them, where she laid a hand gently on Ben's chest. "Honey, calm down. It's over." She said reassuringly.

"He shoved you, he…" Ben started.

"It's over." Mal repeated to her boyfriend again, gently but more firmly. He seemed to reluctantly deflate and then she turned to Chad. "I don't care what your problem is with us, do you have any idea how stupid it was to try to beat someone up like that? You could have killed your friend, let alone the fact that he is also the KING." She lectured harshly.

Chad glared at Mal with more hatred than she had ever seen, even from Audrey when they had first come to Auradon Prep. "This is another one of your little games, isn't Maleficent Junior?" He spat at her. "Turning us against each other, pretending to have feelings for Bennie boy over there and even for me? You're pathetic."

The door opened and the five rangers came into the room. Carlos and Evie saw a startled Doug and a shaken Jane and went over to their budding crushes. Evie threw her arms gently around Doug, snapping him back to reality while Carlos knelt beside Jane and took her hand, squeezing it gently and snapping her back to reality.

Lonnie saw the broken stool and Ben's condition. "What happened in here?" She asked.

Audrey also looked at the two men, one of whom she had viewed as a friend for a while that might be no more now and one who had been a friend for as long as she could remember and was even someone she thought she loved for a while. "My god." She whispered. "What's going on?"

Chad turned toward the door and glared at Lonnie and Audrey. "Do you see what they're doing to us? To this place?" He questioned hotly at the two lovely princesses. "They're destroying everything."

"No Chad." Lonnie replied icily. "They're trying to make a new life for themselves, free of their parents influence. You're the one trying to destroy everything."

"Chad, they're trying." Audrey tried to implore gently. "They really are. They're not bad people. Just give them a chance, you'll see what Lonnie means. What I'm starting to see." Lonnie could see that not only did her fellow princess mean it but could also see that the four isle kids were touched by her words, as if that vocal confirmation was just as important to them as any actions they'd taken since becoming rangers together.

Chad shook his head. "You two are just as delusional as Ben is." He stated darkly. He started toward the door and Lonnie backed away from him as her icy gaze remained on him. Audrey tried to stop him, to try to make see reason but he reached out and shoved her shoulder hard, making her fall back with a small cry. Luckily for her Jay was there to break his fall, and luckily for Chad too as that was the only reason he didn't strike at the prince for his disrespect.

The tension in the room seemed to hit a crescendo for a moment until after Chad's footsteps echoed away. "He's right about one thing." Mal said gently. "He got dragged into some game between us and Paradias. They made me toy with him. That's not his fault."

"It doesn't excuse the way he's treated you guys since you showed up here." Lonnie replied, perhaps a bit sharper than she intended too. "It doesn't excuse him picking on Carlos in the field, it doesn't excuse his trying to beat down Ben, it doesn't excuse him shoving Audrey like that, and it doesn't excuse his whole attitude of late."

"Admittedly Ben did start the physical fight, although that's do to whatever it is that Sarmeya did to him." Doug said. "Which I guess only back Mal up, a little.

Mal reached over and got a tissue, then started to apply light pressure to Ben's lips to stop the blood. "I am so sorry Ben." She said softly to him. "I know it wasn't exactly my fault but I still feel horrible about pushing you to the side just because of some stupid love potion. And for Chad at that." Her face took on a brief look of disgust.

"It's okay Mal." Ben assured her gently as he reached out and stroked her hair. "Like I said to my dad, anything worth doing isn't easy. That includes relationships."

"You sure you're okay after that beat down, man?" Carlos asked as he was moving to help, not even really near touching Mal but Ben suddenly looked over at Carlos with a harsh look.

"Stay away from Mal." He said with a hint of menace in his voice. She placed her hand gently on his shoulder again and brushed a soft kiss over his cheek, making a gently shushing noise though she couldn't recall where she had ever heard that sort of soothing tone from in her life.

Everyone exchanged looks for a moment before Jay stated the obvious. "I guess our problems aren't over yet."

"No, they're not." Mal agreed as Carlos backed off closer to Jane. Luckily Ben didn't react negatively when Lonnie moved in to help them out. "Whatever Sarmeya did to Ben needs to be reversed too before something worse than that fight with Chad happens." She looked to her team mates. "But I have an idea on how we can reverse this."


	7. Love's a Beast Part 3

Again a shout out to pinksakura 271 for the monster ideas and helping with this plotline.

"So how do you propose ridding Ben of whatever influence Sermaya has over him?" Audrey asked Mal as she settled into one of the stools by the table, still a little shaken over Chad's harsh reaction towards her and Lonnie, followed by him shoving her. She still wasn't sure what that might have damaged if Jay hadn't been behind her at the time.

"I'm hoping that the enchanted lake will wash the effect away." Mal revealed. She had moved Ben to sit at one of the tables a bit further away from the group so he didn't perceive any threat from Jay, Carlos or Doug. Her arms were wrapped around him, her hands lightly on his chest. "We just have to get him there."

"I'm not under any influences." Ben tried to assure Mal, not really getting that his possessive behavior over the last couple of hours was a result of that influence they were speaking about.

"Should be simple enough." Jay admitted. "But, why not just go out and get rid of Sermaya? I mean we're going to have to do that anyway."

"Remember we're not talking about some random monster that was created." Lonnie reminded him solemnly. "We're talking about something that is probably older than anyone in world, good or evil. Not even your father or Maleficent knew about this beast after all."

"Even Uncle Doc's knowledge of him was kind of on the low side." Doug agreed. "The odds of any of being able to destroy him right now are slim to none. If we could even find him."

"So Mal is right." Evie said from her place by Doug. "Let's worry about getting rid of this influence that Sermaya has over him and then we can worry about what to do about the beast king himself." She waved her magic mirror in her right hand a bit. "If it comes down to it we can just figure out how to trap him or seal him away or something."

"That would be easier if we knew how that happened in the first place." Jane said with a small shrug of her shoulders. Carlos sat by her. "I can ask my mom about it tonight though, see if she has any insights."

"Which is all fine and good." Mal agreed. "But we can't wait around for it. This needs to be taken care of now before something happens that isn't reversible by bandages and a little spell."

"You better get going then." Carlos said to Mal. "The sooner the better."

"We aren't going with?" Lonnie asked.

"You can if you want to." Carlos told the Asian girl. "But it might be safer for Jay and I not to. He's liable to tear us to shreds if we get too close to Mal."

"You can count on that one." Ben remarked.

"He might tear you to shreds." Jay said with a smirk to Carlos and looked to Ben. "I can handle it."

"Enough with the testosterone overload." Mal said with a pointed look at Jay and a squeeze of warning to Ben. Lonnie found it kind of ironic that Mal could give someone reassurance and warning with a touch. "Look, if it were a simple trip I'd agree that you two could stay here, or even let it just be Ben and I."

"But you can't." Audrey saw where Mal was going with this statement. "Because if Paradias doesn't do something against you guys first, Sermaya just might. He started this for a reason and unlike Nerissa I don't think it was just to make our lives miserable."

"It would actually be nice to know why Sermaya did that in the first place." Jane mused. She wondered if that had anything to do with why the red morpher didn't bond with Ben in the first place. As much of an asset as Audrey was proving to be to the team the fact was both she and her mother had planned it for their future king.

"Well if we have to go we're still going to have to maintain a little bit of distance." Carlos reminded them all. He wasn't too keen on his friend tearing into him and even though Jay might have been able to handle it, it wasn't something they cared to test out.

"Well it's a good thing we have four girls who can keep the distance between you two and Ben then." Audrey stated.

"You're volunteering yourself as a shield?" Jay said jokingly.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Don't think of it like that. Think of it as a barrier. Unlike you two Ben doesn't see us a threat to Mal." She replied. She had to actually find that a bit ironic considering the fact she was one of those most opposed to Mal and her friends not too long ago.

Lonnie too saw the irony in that, and the further irony in the fact only ten minutes ago she was all but sure that Audrey and Jay were flirting, in the middle of a combat situation no less. "Audrey's right. It's the only way to travel."

"Okay then." Mal said. "Let's get going." She looked to Doug and Jane. "We need some sort of alternative in case this idea fails, plus I don't know if doing this will be a permanent solution or a stop gap one. You guys need to find a solution that will be easier to use."

Both of them nodded. "We'll get right on it." Doug promised.

Carlos briefly touched Jane's shoulder as Evie squeezed Doug's hand. Then the other two rangers followed their team mates and Ben out of the room.

"The rangers destroyed our monster and they broke the love spell." Paradias summed up. "And it was the wrong ranger to boot." He shook his head. "Ah well, no matter. What's done is done. But all is not lost."

"You have a plan?" Nerissa asked.

"I don't know where that beast warrior came from but he was able to tear down those rangers rather easily. Perhaps he'll be able to get it done." Paradias answered. He turned to Nerissa. "If that fails, we will need to have another plan ready to set in motion to destroy those meddlesome children."

Originally Ben had taken Mal to the enchanted lake on their first date with a combination of motorbike and walking. The latter was unavoidable at a certain point but with seven of them a small motorbike wasn't going to do it. They settled on a small car that Audrey drove. Jay sat up front with her in an attempt to distance him from Ben.

In the back seat were Carlos, Lonnie, Evie, Mal and Ben. It was a bit crowded but that was alright as it limited anyone's ability to 'get to close' to Mal and as an added bonus the purple haired girl's closeness also kept the currently possessed king from overreacting .

 _At what point did I become completely okay with seeing my ex-boyfriend with the girl whose mother tried to destroy my family? Whose very plot would have made sure I was never born if it had worked?_ Audrey couldn't help but wonder. But she found she could immediately answer those questions. The crime against her family was made by Maleficent and not her daughter, who had become a reluctant friend in the last few months, and she and Ben had never really fit, not in that sense. The truth was they knew each other very well, but as a couple it felt a lot like they were doing what was expected of them more than anything else. It as a thought Audrey didn't like but was clear enough to acknowledge. She just hoped then that she could find the one she was truly meant to be with, just as Ben had.

Then Jay's voice conveniently interrupted her. "You do know where you're going Audrey, right?" he asked.

The jolt out of her thoughts and the direction they were headed in, combined with who spoke to her, caused a small reddening in her cheeks. "Pretty sure I know where we're going." She promised him. "We're going to have to get out and walk in a few minutes though."

"Fine with me." Carlos voiced. "I could use some fresh air." Audrey figured what he really meant was that he wanted more distance from the possessive Ben. She couldn't entirely blame him, even if it wasn't really his fault.

A few minutes later Audrey pulled over and they got out of the car. "Hey, this is so neat." Ben said as he squeezed his hand with Mal's. "This is where we went out our first date."

"Yeah, it is." Mal said with a small smile in her voice. "I wish we were here for another one but this visit isn't as nice of an occasion." The other rangers let their leader and her boyfriend get a little ahead before following them.

As Mal and Ben walked hand in hand toward the bridge she couldn't help but recall their conversation on the bridge that first time. He'd asked her to reveal something she had never told anyone else. That was a hard one as once she had gotten over despising Evie instead of tormenting her they had shared almost everything together, the two of them defining friendship without fully realizing what that was. Then she came up with something.

She had told him that her middle name was Bertha. That was such an embarrassment to her she wasn't even sure she should have shared that one. It was just her mom being evil, as she had put it. Ben had told her his middle name was Florian. Mal had laughed at that one but she thought it was better than Bertha, which Ben had said as well but the purple haired girl hadn't want to let him in on the fact she agreed with him.

"I suppose you have nothing like this on the isle of the lost." Audrey said to Jay as they walked behind the two lovers. She was beside him while Lonnie and Evie were in front of them, Carlos was bringing up the rear.

"Not that I've seen." Jay answered with a small shrug. "It's pretty quiet here."

"That's a bad thing?" Audrey asked. She wasn't keen on the quiet either but every now and again the quiet was nice and she could appreciate the beauty surrounding them.

Jay thought a moment. "I guess not." He relented. "I've never really known. The streets of the isle were always so full and crowded. There's not much distinction between suburban and urban."

"Sometimes I've wondered why we weren't at least exiled to a bigger island." Evie admitted. "I mean there are so many of us after all."

"Far more than was expected I'd bet." Lonnie agreed.

"Not to play devil's advocate here," Audrey replied. "But what's supposed to happen? We can't exactly relocate everyone from island to island constantly. Most of the people on that island would escape and cause trouble again in the rest of the world if they could. It'd be too easy for those who should be there to slip away in the chaos."

"And not everyone is like you guys." Lonnie added hesitantly. "Not everyone there is secretly a good person in a bad situation."

"But there are others who could be just like us if given that chance." Carlos pointed out.

"I'm sure there are." Audrey agreed simply. "And judging by how things have gone with the four of you there will be another chance for another group somewhere down the line."

"Of which we'll no doubt get to be the ambassadors for the program." Mal drawled with amusement.

Evie hesitated a moment before asking, "What about those like Chad? Those who aren't happy about us being there and will probably never accept it?"

"He's going to have to accept it sometime." Audrey said as if it were a matter of fact with no alternatives. "Even if he'll never like it."

"And to be fair he's really the only one I've met who hasn't come around to it." Lonnie said.

Privately each of the isle kids thought that probably wasn't true. There was no way Lonnie, Audrey or even Ben could have known every single person in the land and what their thoughts were about their presence. It was just a matter of no one had been that vocal about it.

As they came across the bridge they heard a large crashing sound behind them. They could almost guess what it was. They turned to find themselves face to face with Sermaya himself. "Don't you have some bananas to go pick?" Carlos asked him.

Sermaya let out a guttural laugh. "I let you go once so that my brother could start to become who he was meant to be." He answered. "But now I'm going to make sure you kids won't be getting in my way again."

"Who he's meant to be?" Lonnie echoed. "What does that mean?"

"Mal, get Ben to the lake." Audrey said to her leader and friend. "We'll keep this guy busy."

"What she said." Evie agreed. "Just…hurry back."

"On it." Mal said and took Ben's hand. "Come on Bennie-boo, time to take a swim." With that the purple haired girl took off with Ben right next to her.

"As for us, it's time to get to work." Audrey said and the five teens pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers, and morphed.

Sermaya let out a roar and charged at the five rangers. All five of them braced for impact…

Mal felt torn. On one hand she knew that if she had stayed behind to fight Ben would have done the same thing. Even though it seemed as if Sermaya wasn't interested in killing her boyfriend, more like some sort of recruitment thing, accidents could happen and Ben didn't have the protection she and her team did. On the flips side of the coin not only did she hate abandoning her friends in a fight but between being under the stupid love spell for that jerk Chad resulting in her not being able to help fight against Heartwrecker and her not being able to help with the megazord quest she was starting to feel a bit useless.

Of course that was a far from fair analysis as she had single handedly brought that strange knight that kept opposing them to his knees while her friends had been zord hunting and that they were relying on her to help free their friend from this weird curse thing, but that was beside the point to the purple haired teen right now.

As if Ben knew what his girlfriend was thinking he said, "Mal, we can go back and help fight that thing with them."

Mal took a deep breath and stopped, twirling around to face her boyfriend. "Ben, first off you are not in any shape to be fighting, your just as likely to turn on Jay or Carlos as help us right now." She realized what she was saying and shook her head. "Second off, you shouldn't be fighting at all." She felt tears brimming her eyes. "Look, I'm sorry that for whatever reason you couldn't bond with any of the morphers, but in this instance there cannot be an us here. I can take the kind of hits those monsters tend to bring, so can Audrey and Lonnie and all of my siblings. But you can't." She felt a few of those tears fall. "You can get hurt, you can die, so much easier than we can. And if that were to happen…I think it would crush me."

Ben hesitated as he saw those tears and reached out to stroke her hair. "Mal." He whispered to her gently. For the first time since that Sermaya had…done whatever he did he was seeing beyond the fact he wanted desperately to protect Mal and keep her close.

"I can't see you fight like this." Mal said softly. "I can't see you die because you threw yourself out there when we're better off for this. It wouldn't crush me. It would kill me."

Ben waited for a second and then laughed a little.

Mal looked shocked and upset. "Ben…" She started.

"And you once told me you didn't know what love is." He said with a smile. He cupped her face in his hands and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. "But what you said proves that you do know what love is."

Mal's shock disappeared and a small smile crossed her lips. "It does?" She asked shyly.

Ben nodded and smiled. "Yeah." He reaffirmed. He stepped back a bit but still kept her hands in his. "Come on, if you think it's so important to get to the lake before helping the others, then let's get going."

Mal nodded and they quickly made their way to the spot they had their first date at. For just an instant Mal wished she had some strawberries but forced the random thought away.

"So how are we supposed to do this?" Ben asked her.

"Pushing you in come to mind." Mal teased him with a small smile. "But I think just some contact should do it."

Ben nodded and leaned down, brushing his hands through the water, collecting some and then splashing his face with it. There was no immediate sign of change like there was when Mal was starting to fight the love potions effects. Still, Mal almost felt as if something were changing, or really going back to the way it should be. "Mal." He said. "You know after this is over we're going to have to apologize to Chad."

"What for?" She couldn't help but ask. "He was the one who attacked you. If anything he should be facing some serious charges. Patricide or assassination or something like that."

"Because none of that would have happened if it weren't for the love potion Nerissa used, if that Sermaya thing hadn't done whatever he did to me." Ben reminded his girlfriend softly. "He was as much of a pawn in their plans as we were."

"And those things he said?" Mal asked. "Those weren't just a result of those schemes. Those were there for months."

"We can't charge a man for his words Mal." Ben replied simply. "He's entitled to his own thoughts and feelings."

"No matter how wrong they are." Mal muttered. "But…he did shove Audrey for no good reason. That wasn't part of the spell or the scheme. That was him losing his temper at a girl for something and didn't require a physical attack."

Ben bit his lip. The young king had to admit that was something he wasn't sure he could justify himself. Even in the possessed state he had known it was wrong to lay a hand on either of the girls. "You're right." He admitted. "But that's up to Audrey to deal with."

Mal blew out an annoyed sigh, not at Ben necessarily but the situation. "I think Audrey is right, sometimes you are too trusting." She commented.

"Luckily for you and your friends." Ben reminded her gently but seriously. He stood up to face her, stroking her cheek gently. "Go. The team needs you. I'll catch up."

Mal nodded and found herself almost ready to say the l word to him but felt the normal something hold her back at the last moment. "See you soon." She said instead gently before she turned and left. Luckily for her Ben could see what her eyes wanted to say even if she couldn't give voice to it yet.

Sermaya slammed his way through all five of the rangers. He then turned around and tried to bring his massive fist down on Carlos. Jay and Lonnie just barely had the strength to stop the impact and the yellow ranger quickly scrambled out of the way.

Audrey moved in to try to slash the creature with her bow only to find it didn't do much more than scratch him. With an angry roar he slammed his other fist into the red ranger hard and she crashed hard against Evie.

He then moved very quickly and tossed Jay and Lonnie away. They had the sense to roll with the flow and were able to get up quickly but it didn't change the very outnumbered fact. "How are we supposed to beat this thing?" Lonnie asked.

"Good question." Audrey replied. "Even with Mal I don't know if we can beat this thing." She took a deep breath. "Come on monkey brains. We're still standing."

"Not for long little girl." Sermaya responded and then ran straight at her, fists raised to try to smash her into the ground. Evie stepped up and directed her mirror shield at him. It caught the attack and sent him flying backwards hard, straight past and through some of the trees.

"Nice." Carlos said.

"Think you got some more of those in there?" Audrey asked the blue ranger.

Evie shook her head. "Sure, but I don't know if Sermaya will be so reckless about his attacks now that he knows I can do that." She answered.

The five rangers followed him to find the beast creature already getting up. "Nice move." He acknowledged the blue ranger. "But the question you should ask yourself is how many of those things can I take before you wear out?" He then started to charge the five rangers again.

Several blasts struck all around him and he was sent flying back again. The five rangers turned and let loose with joyful comments of, "Mal!"

"You guys miss me?" The purple ranger asked as she stepped up beside her team mates. "Or are you guys just slacking off without me to lead you?"

"Oh please." Audrey said with a delighted laugh. "I was leading these guys just fine while you went on your little sabbatical."

"Yeah, I could see." Mal smirked. Then something about her posture turned serious. "Really Audrey, you did great. Thanks for stepping up when I can't…or are unable too." She offered her hand.

The red ranger took the purple rangers hand. "Anytime." She responded. "But that being said, you care to lead us to victory over this big ape?"

Mal nodded. "My pleasure." She responded as the two girls turned to face the Sermaya with their team mates. "Alright ape man, you are going down."

Sermaya laughed. "Five of you, six of you." He stated. "There could be twenty of you and I could tear right through you puny little beings."

The other five rangers pulled out their blasters and then all six of them aimed their blasters at him and fired. A lot of the shots didn't seem to do much more than annoy him or distract him but at least it stopped any attempts at charging them.

"This isn't enough." Carlos said. "We have to get him to leave or defeat him somehow."

Mal remembered Doug speculating that they couldn't be able to defeat something as old Sermaya now, if at all. But then she realized she was hearing the rushing of water too and realized they were near the bridge and had a thought. "Maybe nature can do what we can't." She stated.

"How do we make that happen?" Lonnie asked her."

"We have to get him over the edge and into the water." Jay said. "Maybe the rapid current will take care of him or something. Or the fall itself."

"He's pretty hefty." Audrey pointed out. "Even if that plan works how do we get over the edge? He's twice as big and muscular as any of us, even you Jay."

"True." Mal agreed. "So we're going to have to hope we can use our combined might to surpass his edge." She looked to Carlos and Evie, arguably the lightest weight members of the team. "Take my laser." She instructed the blue ranger and looked to Jay, who gave Carlos his. "Keep him distracted as best as you can."

"Right." Carlos agreed as Evie replied, "Yes, ma'am."

Mal looked to Audrey and Lonnie. "You two strike him first, do your very best to get him off balance. Then Jay and I will try to finish this up." Both the red and pink ranger nodded in understanding. She looked at them all seriously as best she could with the helmet on, though her voice would convey the same sense of urgency. "We're going to get one shot at this before he realizes what we're doing and I have a feeling we won't get another one."

The blue ranger looked at the yellow ranger. "Let's give it all we've got." She said and the two of them increased their fire power by using their friend's laser guns as well. Audrey and Lonnie moved around the blasts. Lonnie leapt in the air and kicked Sermaya in the chest as hard as she could while Audrey slid on her knees to strike at the back of the beast's right leg.

"Nice idea." Jay noted as he saw the beast start to lose his balance a little.

Mal nodded. "Not at all." She agreed. "Let's capitalize on that quickly." The purple and black ranger leapt up in the air and both of them planted both feet as firmly as they could on Sermaya's chest. It was convenient that one of the laser ricochet's also helped to blind the ancient beast as he lost his footing and tumbled right off the cliff's edge. Moments later they heard a splashing sound.

"Is it over?" Audrey asked.

Mal and Jay looked over the cliff. Of Sermaya they saw no sign. There was no way to know rather their attempt to destroy him was successful or whether they would find themselves going up against him one day in the future. "I don't know." Mal answered simply. "But he's gone for now if nothing else."

They jumped at a sound and turned only to see Ben coming out of the woods and walking toward them. The six of them powered down and Mal ran over and threw her arms around her boyfriend, kissing him on the lips. After a moment she pulled back. "I am so glad that you're okay now." She breathed.

Ben laughed gently. "Well, it seems that way." He agreed. He turned to look at the team and hesitated only a moment. "Look Jay, Carlos. I'm sorry about what happened." He said.

"It wasn't your fault man." Carlos replied.

"Yeah, it wasn't you. It was the effect that damn beast creature had on you." Jay added. Ben exchanged high fives with the two guys.

"Are you okay?" Audrey asked her former flame and best friend now. "You got banged up pretty bad."

Ben gave her a small smile. "Yeah, I'll be fine." He replied. "How about you? I remember Chad giving you a pretty nasty shove, something Mal confirmed for me."

"He was just angry." Audrey said. "It's no big deal." She didn't see the look on the purple haired girl's face that showed she didn't agree with that.

"Let's get back to the campus." Ben said.

A day had passed. No one had seen Chad at that point. After classes Ben and Mal were walking down one of the halls. He had his arm around the purple haired girl as she kept that hand in both of hers. "Doug can't be sure that the effect has been removed completely." She was saying to her boyfriend. "He's working to come up with some way to guarantee a way to take care of it. Evie's been helping him out."

Ben smiled a little. "Those two are certainly something to see." He mused.

Mal nodded a bit. "If those two were to get together I have to say I'd be surprised, given what I remember of her growing up." She said with amusement. "Still, I never thought I'd be dating a goody two shoes prince…sorry, king." She shrugged. "So there you go."

Ben laughed a bit too. "I never thought I'd be dating the daughter of one of the most reviled villains in our history either." He teased and gave his own non-committal shrug. "So there you go."

They stepped outside and found themselves in the moment they both knew had to be dealt with but dreaded at the same time. They found Chad sitting on a picnic table. He saw the two of them and glared at them before starting to walk away.

The couple separated and started after him. "Hey, Chad. Wait up." Ben requested as they moved to catch up with them.

He turned to glare at them. "What do you want Ben?" He asked rudely.

It was on Mal's tongue to remind him he attacked a king and should be facing some serious charges but held off on it since it was not going to help them repair the damage that Paradias and Sermaya had ended up making them cause.

"Look man, I just wanted to apologize for what happened." Ben started to explain. "I wish I could say that it was all out of my hands but the truth is some of that was my fault, regardless of what happened. I'm sorry about the fight."

"I'm sorry about what happened too." Mal said to him, trying to sound as sincere as she could. It was kind of hard since, unlike Audrey, Chad had not only made no effort to make amends for prematurely judging them and had in fact only gone out of his way to make things worse. "I wasn't thinking clearly that day and I let my…my careless side get out and hurt you."

Chad snorted derisively. "You didn't hurt me, Mal. That would mean you meant enough to me to be able to have that kind of effect on me." He stated coldly. "You being 'careless' just proves how evil you and yours really are."

"Hey, come on man…" Ben started.

Chad turned back to him. "At least they have a reason for how they are, even though it's a pretty pathetic reason." Chad said coldly to the young king. "But you, and Lonnie, and Audrey. You have no reason to be so blind, so stupid to what they represent." He pointed at Mal. "They're going to be our downfall and you're not only embracing it you're in the same bed with it."

"That's uncalled for." Ben said pointedly.

"Is it?" Chad asked. "I don't think so." From the other side Audrey and Lonnie were coming over, also presumably to try to talk to Chad but the prince turned around abruptly and started to walk off. Lonnie barely sidestepped him but his shoulder slammed into Audrey's hard enough that she let out an, "Ow." As she dropped her books. He just walked away, giving both princesses the same cold look.

"I see that went well." Lonnie noted as she helped her friend retrieve her books.

"So well." Mal drawled. "I don't know what we're supposed to do to change things."


	8. Magic's Back

"Magic still exists in this plane." Paradias stated as he watched the surface scroll by. "Except for the Isle of the Lost apparently." He laughed a bit. "They wouldn't want their prisoners to revolt after all." He stood now from where he sat at the throne at the center of the bridge. "But it also seems like it's been all but forgotten as they've made way for more 'modern' beliefs."

"Then it is to their detriment." Nerissa said dismissively. "It takes more than modern beliefs to deal with the ancient magic's we wield."

Again Paradias chuckled. "They wouldn't know how to deal with the magic I wield even if they had embraced magic, as my magic is over ten thousand years old." He mused. "Still, in such a limited society as theirs even a moderate magic user may be able to test their boundaries and even decimate them…even the power rangers."

"And that is what you're hoping to prove right now." Nerissa guessed with a cruel smile.

"Precisely what I intend to do." The leader agreed with a laugh. "Let's see what they can do with this."

On the nice Sunday morning they were all hoping to just hang out and do normal teenage things. At least as far as things went for them. They had chosen a nice big tree to spend the afternoon under, equipped with a large picnic basket.

Mal was eating chocolate covered strawberries with Ben beside her. He was making a ham sandwich. Evie sat across from them, dividing her time with trying her hand at eating a jelly donut and pointing out a few things to Doug as he worked on some theories to help keep any chance of Sermaya's pheormonal influences from effecting Ben or anyone else. They hadn't been able to figure out if Ben was specially targeted and if so what made him susceptible, and if that were the case who else could be just as easily targeted. They couldn't even eliminate the possibility that it was only limited to men who could affected.

Not far from them Audrey and Jane were talking as they were making sandwiches for themselves as well. Dude was lying beside her and watching them make the sandwiches, hoping for some food to fall. Every now and again the princess would glance over where Lonnie was going through a few basic offensive moves with Jay and Carlos for the next time combat would be necessary. It personally amused Jane a little though she couldn't help but glance back too.

Finally Jane looked over at her. "You could go join them you know, if you wanted." She reminded her. "I mean technically you do need to know how to fight too." She realized what she said and some old habits kicked in. "Not that you can't fight, you've proven you can, especially recently and…"

"I get it Jane." Audrey promised her with a laugh. "But no, actually I'm hoping to avoid any physical altercations today." She replied as she finished the sandwich. Her left hand reached up to rub her shoulder gently. "For some reason my right shoulder kind of aches today."

"That would be because of Chad." Jane felt the need to point out. "That's like the second time in a day that he basically attacked you."

"He didn't attack me, at least not the second time." Audrey reminded Jane. "It was an accident." The first time was more intentional and while she normally would have made sure that he paid for that she had agreed with Ben that given the circumstances surrounding the love potion and Sermaya's weird effect that cracking under the situation made sense, especially when one didn't even know the situation as a whole like they did.

"Yeah, that's one way of putting it." Jane replied. "Look, I know it wasn't exactly a premeditated assault but he knew you were there and still smashed into you. It wasn't exactly an accident either."

"We just have to give him time and some distance." Audrey said. "He'll come around."

"If you say so." Jane sighed.

Not too far away Mal had just finished telling Evie how their last encounter with Chad had went. "Can you believe that jerk?" Mal asked her friend. "I mean I know he hates us, but for crying out loud he seems willing to throw away years of friendship with Ben, Audrey and Lonnie over a simple disagreement."

"I don't know if it's a simple disagreement to him M." Evie reminded her friend. Not that she couldn't see both sides of it. The fact is that when they were growing up on the island, for the longest time Mal had despised the blue haired girl while Evie had been kind of afraid of the purple haired girl. They had learned to overcome those feelings and accept each other as friends, even sisters, but only because they had been willing to overcome those years of disagreement beforehand.

"He has to get used to the idea no matter how much he disagrees with it." Ben said reasonably as he patted Mal's hand gently. "There's already talk of trying a second round of pulling kids from the island."

"Is that even going to work?" Doug asked. When Mal and Evie looked at him kind of funny he hastened to elaborate, "I mean I know it can work, just look at you two and the guys. What I mean is would any of the island's parents really allow them to come here after what happened with all of you."

Evie bit her lip in thought a moment. "Actually I hate to say it but Doug might be right there." She seemed to continue on a bit shyly even though what she was about to say was common knowledge, at least among the group. "I mean our parents only sent us here so that we could bring back Fairy Godmother's wand for your mom so all the villains could escape the island."

Mal had been eating a strawberry while her blue haired friend was talking. She swallowed the fruit and looked to Ben. "Evie's right. That's something that will have to be watched out for, rather we have any personal input in this or not." She confirmed.

Ben smiled at the girls as he reached up to stroke Mal's hair. "Why don't we worry about that later." He suggested. "Let's just enjoy the day."

"Sounds like a good idea to me, you highness." Evie said with a small laugh.

Lonnie and the two boys finished up and started back toward the blankets. Jay sat in between Audrey and Lonnie while Carlos sat next to Jane. As Lonnie reached for a bottle of water the black ranger looked to Audrey. "You make a sandwich for me?" He teased.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Do I look like Cinderella's daughter to you?" She questioned though in truth she had made a few sandwiches and had no problem giving one of those to Jay. "Don't say I never did anything for you."

Jay laughed as he took it. "Why thank you." He said, giving a mock bow. That only caused the princess to roll her eyes at him again as she handed another of the sandwiches to Lonnie, who again resisted the impulse to tease them for what looked like flirting to her.

Jane handed one to Carlos and then set aside a piece of ham for Dude to start eating.

They had only gotten a few bites of their food when the apps on the phone went off signaling that another monster had just arrived on the surface. They all stood quickly and made their way to the command center, only moments after Fairy Godmother had gotten there. Together they all saw what was onscreen.

Walking into the other side of Auradon was a male looking monster who in what one could only describe as the kind of robes that one expected Merlin to wear in the days of King Arthur, but the attire held no stars and comets and was not blue but was in fact a really dark red, Audrey would have guessed burgundy if asked but figured no one except possibly Lonnie would care about that sort of detail.

"That guy looks kind of mean." Lonnie remarked as they noticed the evil smirk crossing his face.

"Is this another random monster of the day kind or an ancient unearthed kind of monster?" Carlos asked as he remembered Sermaya was not sent by Paradias but had instead unintentionally been awakened, possibly by both sides, when they had been trying to get their megazord.

Jane and Doug were already at the consoles. "It's hard to say for sure." Fairy Godmother responded. "But I've never heard of anything like this." She looked to Doug, the only one to have known about the ancient beast king.

He shook his head. "I've got nothing; it would seem to suggest that he's never been from around here." He replied.

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything." Ben reminded them all. "Don't forget we have a lot of cultures here in the United States of Auradon. Including things that could be from the Isle of the Lost." He looked to the four former residents of said island.

Mal stepped up next to Jane to look at the readings she was collecting. "Not from our neck of the woods." She declared immediately. "Ignoring the fact I think we'd have seen this guy walking around before, from what these reading our showing he would have given my mother a run for her money."

"One of Paradias' monsters then." Fairy Godmother concluded.

"We can't be too sure of that yet." Ben said though he had a feeling their headmistress was right. As Mal came back to stand beside her team mates he looked to the six rangers. "You guys better not approach this one morphed until we know his intentions for sure."

Carlos laughed dryly. "Easy for you to say Ben. You're not the one who has to stare this guy down face to face." He remarked.

"You can always hide behind me." Jay said somewhat mockingly.

"Enough you two." Mal interrupted the boys before they could start. "We have bigger things to worry about." She looked to Ben. "We'll try it your way but something tells me that Carlos is right and we won't be sitting down at the negotiation tables with sparkling cider and cheesecake." The latter was yet another favorite she and Evie shared, though the purple haired girl liked strawberry topping with it while her blue haired friend preferred a chocolate topping.

"Actually for negotiations we'd more likely be serving brie or…" Audrey started but stopped when Mal gave her a look that asked if they were seriously discussing diplomatic protocol right now. The princess rolled her eyes. "Okay, forget the lesson in class even though you sometimes seem to desperately need it. Let's go."

With another eye roll Mal waved her hand and the team started up the stairs and toward the rear gates of Auradon. Carlos was just a little behind as he motioned for Dude to stay with Jane.

As Fairy Godmother and Doug were at one console, starting to discuss what the readings could mean Jane glanced over at Ben. "Are you sticking around this time?" She asked. She hadn't forgotten that he had disappeared that first time the ranger's had fought and while his reasoning for doing so was perfectly plausible and kingly, well something about it just seemed off to her.

"Wouldn't miss it." Ben promised her.

Clearly many of the citizens of Auradon had to agree with Carlos's assessment because they were fleeing in the opposite direction of the approaching red clad figure. One girl tried to ask Audrey if she was crazy to be going in the same direction, how could the princess tell her that as a ranger she had no choice even if she wanted to be going anywhere but there.

The area was clear by the time the six teens showed up and even more disturbing was that his grin grew even more malicious. "Ah, the Power Rangers. I am the Red Magi. It's so nice to make your final acquaintances." He introduced.

"I guess we know who sent him down now." Lonnie said. Sermaya hadn't known who they were but Paradias would make sure his monsters knew their prime targets.

"So much for the brie at the negotiation table." Mal teased Audrey.

"Too bad to, it goes really great with whole grain crackers." Audrey retorted with a small smile.

The two girls shook off their bantering as Mal took another step forward. "Alright guys, let's get to work." They took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

"Is that your best magic trick?" Red Magi asked them with amusement. "If so then you'll never be able to beat my act."

"Does this look like an act to you?" Jay retorted.

"Only time will tell, and not a great deal of it." Red Magi answered. "Bring it on Rangers if you have what it takes."

The six of them formed their weapons at the same time that he formed a staff similar to Maleficent's. First Jay tried to bring his scimitar down but the monster blocked it with his own staff and then shot his hand out, smashing into the black ranger's chest hard.

Lonnie moved in next and started swinging with her tessen's. He started to evade them easily. He hovered back a few feet and sent a sparkling black ball of energy straight at the pink ranger, sending her sprawling next to the black ranger.

"Alright Red." Evie said as she brought her mirror shield up to her chest. "Why don't you try using some of that magic on me?"

He cocked his head. "Confident, aren't you?" He questioned and nodded. "Alright then, let's see who has the better magic trick?" With that he flung that same black energy ball at the blue ranger who promptly caught it with her mirror shield and reflected it back right at him. This seemed to amuse the monster, and in his free hand a top hat appeared. He brought it up and caught the doubly powered energy ball in it before tossing it right back at Evie with quadruple the power. The blue ranger got ready to try to deflect it again when it split into four and struck all around her, sending her flying back with a rough landing.

"Okay, back to being up close." Carlos decided as he charged toward Red Magi with his clawed daggers ready to go. He tried to swing at the monster but he dodged the attack. Another swing resulted in another dodge. The monster tried to bring his staff down but Carlos caught it in between his daggers.

The monster laughed. "Clever. Time for another magic trick." He stated and then a curtain seemed to envelope him. Carlos fell forward a moment before turning to the curtain. He figured the monster had to be in there and so he drove his weapons straight into the cloth, only to be struck from behind by his own weapons. He landed hard next to Evie as Red Magi reappeared. "Thanks for playing Yellow ranger."

"This guy is full of tricks." Audrey noted with annoyance. She wondered if the tip of his staff held the key to his power and raised her silver bow up, summoning an arrow and let it go with full intention of shattering the small glass looking object on the tip of the staff.

Red Magi heard it coming however and turned around. He raised his staff and froze it. "Such exquisite craftsmanship." He noted with seeming delight. "It'd be such a waste not to take advantage of it." With a flick of his wrist he shot it right back at Audrey. The red ranger prepared to dodge it when the monster snapped his fingers and suddenly one arrow became a hail of arrows, many of which struck her and sent her landing hard to the ground.

"Okay, I think you could teach my mother a thing or two." Mal allowed. "Pending that whole tuning into a black dragon kind of thing." She then raised her staff and swung at Red Magi. He blocked it and the two took a moment to assess each other's skills, drawing even.

"Well done." Red Magi acknowledged. "But you're forgetting who you're dealing with." And with another wave of his hand a hail of knives came out from underground and struck Mal several times, allowing him to take his staff and strike Mal in the chest hard. She rolled uncomfortably for a moment before stopping.

"This isn't going good at all." Doug noted apprehensively. "How can they defeat magic like that?"

Fairy Godmother frowned. "Mal was right, even her mother would be hard pressed to match him. I don't think even with my wand I could do it." She said.

Jane bit her lip and then exclaimed, "The book."

"What?" Ben asked her.

"Mal's magic book that she brought with her from the Island of the Lost." Jane elaborated. She had actually learned recently she had some kind of magic ability as well, unintentionally botching up a spell to redo Audrey's hair and hadn't really messed with it since. "It has strong magic's in it and maybe that combined with the ranger powers might be just enough to stop that monster."

"It's worth a shot." Fairy Godmother agreed. "Do you know where in Mal's room it is my dear?"

Jane nodded. "I think so. I'll go get it and take it to her." She answered.

"Wait." Doug said. He reached over and grabbed a small item that looked like a coin and gave it to her. "When you get the book place the coin on top of it. It should teleport the book right to Mal."

"Got it." Jane said and then was off.

Mal was starting to get up as her team mates came to her side. Evie helped her to sit up. "What do we now M?" She asked. "Everything we've tried so far he's only shrugged off."

Mal shook her head. "Working on it." She answered simply.

That was when Fairy Godmother's voice came over the helmet intercom. "Jane is going to get your spell book Mal. Maybe something in there will help you to overcome this monster, but in the meantime you have to hang in there." She announced.

"That's easier said than done." Lonnie said. She looked to Mal. "How do we keep him busy without getting killed in the process?"

"Why don't we try the triangle spark?" Mal suggested.

"Can we even do one of those?" Jay asked her. The first time it had been Mal, Evie and Audrey on the ground while Jay and Carlos were on their shoulders. The second simply replaced Mal with Lonnie. It both instances it had involved five of them.

"Sure." Audrey answered for the purple ranger. "Same formation as we used except this time Mal will have to be on your shoulders." She looked to Jay and Carlos and then to Mal. "Looks like joining the Auradon cheerleading squad is going to come in handy for you again."

"Okay, okay. I get it." Mal said with a roll of her eyes to both the red ranger and her best friend, both of who had teased her about her reluctance to do so now. "Let's do it guys."

Lonnie, Audrey and Evie stood side by side. Jay and Carlos jumped on their shoulders, not the most comfortable position but easy enough to hold for a couple minutes, long enough to make their attack. Mal then jumped up herself and just managed to stick the landing, a feat she was sure wouldn't have worked if she had not been morphed right now. They all formed their blasters and then unleashed the modified Auradon Triangle Spark at Red Magi.

The monster didn't look like he had quiet expected that one. He tried to brace for the impact but it still sent him rolling backwards. "Clever, but it will take more than that to defeat me."

Jane all but burst into Mal's dorm room and hurried over to the nightstand where the book was normally kept and saw it wasn't there. "Oh, no. Come on." She whispered frantically before noticing it on the round study table in the center of the room. She went over and set the coin like object on the book, where it immediately vanished.

"Wow." Jay gasped as the book appeared from out of nowhere. He barely caught it and handed it to Mal. "I believe this is for you."

"Thanks Jay." The purple ranger said as she took the book.

"You should have had your magic tricks ready to go before the act even started." Red Magi chastised her. "It's a little late be studying now young lady."

"I'm a quick study, unfortunately for you." Mal replied briskly.

"Not quick enough I'd bet." Red Magi stated and then sent a black ball of energy their way.

Mal found what she needed. "Rings, come to me and bring forth the boom." She recited.

Audrey snickered a bit. "That sounds intimidating." She noted.

The black energy bolt went in one the left ring and out the right ring and straight toward Red Magi. He just sidestepped it with a laugh, not realizing that the spell didn't summon two rings but four. The other two were right behind him and performed the same loop as the ones in front of the rangers but since he wasn't expecting it his own attack struck him from behind.

"Sweet." Carlos said.

"That's not all this baby's got." Mal said triumphantly.

"No more study time for you." Red Magi growled irritably. "Time to cut this class short." With that he unleashed another stream of knives toward them.

"Evie, get ready." Mal announced. With a simple page flip the purple ranger recited, "Sharp as eyes, small as scones, take the slice and send it home." The hail of knives seemed to be condensed in a cone, but with another gesture it was directed to the blue ranger who collected in her mirror shield and directed it right at him. While Red Magi tried to dodge it yet another simple gesture caused it to move with him and explode on impact, leaving little crystalline shards in its wake that dissipated when hitting the ground.

"That was cool." Audrey admitted. "And really pretty."

"You think that was cool, get ready for the penultimate finale." Mal said with a smile. "Let's play a little guessing game big red." She said and with a simple page flip she recited; "Time to play, time to guess, which door determines your fate." With that the ranger's except for Evie and Mal disappeared and four doors appeared around Red Magi.

"Childish and simple." Red Magi spat and tried to simply levitate over the doors but they floated up with him.

"Nope, the only way out is through one of those doors." Mal said with a smirk. "But one of them has my friends ready to strike. As for the other two…" She gave her own evil smile, something that she had spent years learning under the tutelage of her mother Maleficent. "You don't want to know."

Red Magi glared angrily at her. Then the magic curtain enveloped him before he appeared in front of the two visible rangers. "I'm not going to be caught playing your games, little girl." He stated impatiently.

While Evie got ready to fight Mal only snickered. "You just have." She announced simply as one of the doors silently sat on the ground as it rotated. "Welcome to what's called a bluff." And with that the door opened and her four team mates were there. He barely had enough time to turn before Lonnie slashed him with her tessen, Audrey with the end of her bow, and Carlos with his clawed daggers. Jay had a different target in mind as he brought his scimitar down on his staff, effectively splitting it down the middle.

"A warning next time before we just disappear." Audrey snapped at Mal. "That wasn't nearly as much fun."

Mal shrugged. "Sorry about that, didn't really know what to expect. The finale will be more appealing." And with that a page was flipped. "The monster's might, seemingly not found, with this circle, tighten his bounds." With that a large circle of energy wrapped around Red Magi and he found he could not move, though he struggled as hard as he could.

"Tighten his bounds?" Carlos asked, not sure that made much sense.

"It's magic, all it has to do is work, not make sense." Mal said. "Now let's finish this with the Auradon Blaster." First came her staff, then Audrey's bow underneath it. That was followed by Evie's shield behind it, Jay's scimitar in the center flanked on either side by Lonnie's tessen and Carlos's clawed daggers. Then they took their positions; Mal and Audrey in the center with Evie and Carlos to Mal's right and Jay and Lonnie to Audrey's left. They fired on Red Magi and an explosion followed.

When it was all clear all that was left was the top of the monsters staff, which disappeared.

Jane made it just in time for the finale. Ben excitedly told her about the magic spells that Mal used to turn the tide against the Red Magi monster. It wasn't long before the six rangers returned, Dude greeting Carlos happily.

"So are you glad you stuck around for the show this time Ben?" Mal asked with a teasing smile.

"It was so worth the price of admission." Ben promised her as he took her in his arms and the two kissed for a moment.

After they had parted Fairy Godmother gave them all an encompassing look. "Well done, all of you." She said with a smile. "And that includes you too Jane. That was very quick thinking on your part."

Mal actually had a memory of Jane ordering a possessive Ben and irate Chad to sit down and shut up during the love potion incident. _Come to think of it, Jane may have matured even more than Audrey since we took up this mission, and she's certainly shown she's as brave as Audrey._ She realized. She found herself thinking somewhere in the near future, if the opportunity ever presented itself, their friend would make an excellent ranger herself.

"Hey, so much for your day off." Lonnie teased Audrey.

The auburn haired princess shrugged. "Something tells me I shouldn't be expecting any days off for a long time." She lamented, only half-jokingly.

"So at least one of the rangers has access to magic after all." Paradias noted dryly. He focused on Mal's spell book. "And of all of them it was her. With that magic."

"Should we be worried?" Nerissa asked her master.

"Not really." Paradias answered. "She is strong but not nearly at the level of the one who truly mastered that magic, long ago." He looked to Nerissa. "It's been ages, I wonder…tell your knight he has a mission, I want him to find out the location of someone for me…"

Suprisingly the group found their picnic still intact. They settled down to try to try to enjoy what was left of the afternoon, though Mal now found herself focusing on something else; her spell book. She looked up suddenly. "You know what the toughest part of that fight was?" She asked.

"His annoying commentary." Audrey suggested as she reached for bottle of grape juice. Jay snickered.

"His multiple tricks." Lonnie supplied. She wasn't far off from Mal's point.

"That's just it." The purple haired girl said. "His tricks were magic, something that not only doesn't come through on the Island of the Lost but has even been all but forgotten about here." She looked to Jane. "You once told me that your mom said that the magic was in the history books, but she was wrong. That wasn't what saved us today."

"True." Jane admitted. "But this could have been a one off thing."

"But what if it wasn't?" Evie asked.

"I think we already know that it wasn't." Ben interjected as he rubbed Mal's shoulders gently. "It was a love potion that caused Mal to 'fall' for Chad and that was a product of magic. Even the Heartwrecker was made from magic."

"As was the spell that made the knight grow." Carlos added. "Even our powers and the megazord seem to be a combination of magic and technology." He looked to Jane. "Your mother even mentioned that Zordon was a wizard of some sort."

Audrey frowned a bit. "This Zordon used magic of some sort, Paradias is using magic that we don't understand at all. Our powers have some kind of magical basis. That Red Magi guy was certainly strong magically and barely got defeated by Mal's magic." She reiterated. She sighed just a bit. "I hate to say it but I'm wondering if all of our parents might have been too quick to discard magic."

Mal thought about what she had learned from her mother in her life. There were easily things she could say about her mother that those in Auradon would not have approved. But one thing her mother had certainly done for her was to make her as up on history as she could, and something confused her. "When exactly did this world stop being…you know, so magic heavy?"

Lonnie, Jane, Doug, Ben and Audrey exchanged looks as they tried to answer Mal's question and realized something perhaps a bit odd. None of them could. As Audrey had pointed out Jane was in fact born by a person of great magical power and even Fairy Godmother could quiet know when that happened.

"I think this is something that might warrant a little more investigation." Ben said simply.


	9. Dragon Terror

The sounds of thunder and lightning woke Lonnie up from her already light sleep. She got out of her bed and went to the window to see rain falling in giant sheets that if she didn't know better looked to be sharp enough to cut through anything. She wished she knew why this felt so ominous.

She jumped slightly as her iPhone went off and it took her a minute to realize it wasn't a monster call but simply a regular call from Audrey. She picked it up. "Audrey?" She asked, feeling wide awake.

The response from the other princess seemed just as aware. "Lonnie…I…don't know exactly why I'm even awake, let alone calling you at this ungodly hour but…" Audrey was kind of babbling, a rarity in itself.

"Something feels wrong." Lonnie said simply. "Maybe we're imagining things though because…" She was cut off when she realized someone else was trying to join the conversation. "Hang on." She added them in, having a feeling who it was. "Hello?"

"Is this normal in Auradon?" They heard Mal ask. "I haven't felt this way ever, and I lived on the Isle of the lost after all." They also heard from Evie, who must have been right next to her. "This feels so strange. I don't like it."

"It's not normal Mal." Audrey answered for her. "It's downright wrong. And normally I'm not even awake now but…"

"Calm down Audrey." Evie said to her. "I know it's odd. Take a deep breath."

The three girls swore they heard Audrey doing just that. "Okay. What do we do?" She asked them.

Silence followed for a few moments before Lonnie was the one to voice it. "Want to come over to my room? We'll kind of have an impromptu sleepover." She suggested.

"We'll pick you up on the way Audrey." Mal said. She was sure there would be no objections. Normally the purple haired girl might even poke fun a bit at the auburn haired princess but wasn't feeling it really.

The phone disconnected and Lonnie stood up and went to the door. "Don't take too long." She whispered to no one.

Their fear wasn't misplaced at all. Deeper in the forest was a clearing that was rarely even seen by most of the populace; let alone by anyone who knew what to do with the place. The area was now currently surrounded by the soldiers except for one area. This was where Paradias appeared with Nerissa on one side and the knight on the other. They approached the middle of the clearing.

"This should be very interesting." Nerissa said gleefully. "It will be interesting to see how the power rangers deal with this."

Paradias raised his hands to the sky and a green glow emitted from the sky and slowly something descended from the sky in a green light. It landed right in the middle of the area and several of the soldiers surrounded it and knelt before it. He then began a chant that neither the knight nor Nerissa understood the language of, or even the dialect.

After a few minutes the egg was settled down, they could all feel the intense dark energy and power radiating from it.

"The creature inside of this egg should have more than enough power to take down the rangers and even their megazord once and for all." Paradias stated with amusement. "And even if somehow they manage to take out this creature they still won't be out of the woods just yet."

Paradias, Nerissa, and the soldiers disappeared. The knight turned and walked back into the forest, heading straight for the town. The egg was left there, glowing in the dark.

Lonnie jumped when there was a knocking on the door but felt better to find her three friends there. They came in just as quickly and then she shut the door, locking it.

"So, scary stories?" Mal tried to ask teasingly.

"So, not." Audrey answered.

The four girls sat around the study table and talked; about their favorite foods, about their classes, about some of their impressions from their budding ranger careers. They munched on cookies and drank juice. The idea of sleep never crossed their minds. They were so distracted they never saw the glowing green that descended from the sky.

Morning came and the girls eagerly left to look around campus, afraid that something drastic had changed. But everyone they encountered and talked to agreed that while the storm was more intense than normal otherwise nothing was unusual about it. They were starting to feel like they might be losing it when Jay and Carlos ran up to them. Carlos was holding Dude pretty tightly and Jay practically wrapped each of the girls in a brief hug.

"What was that about?" Jay asked as he pulled away from Audrey, the last girl he hugged. "That storm last night was…" He didn't even know how to finish that sentence.

"Intense." Audrey supplied. For once Lonnie didn't even acknowledge that it could have sounded like flirting. She had no doubt this time it wasn't meant that way.

"If you two weren't so macho you could have joined us." Evie tried to joke. "We spent half the night in Lonnie's room."

"I talked to some of the guys on the tourney team." Jay said. "But they weren't seeing things the way we did."

"Have you talked to Ben?" Mal asked him and he shook his head no.

"We've been asking that too." Audrey said. "And got the same results. Until you two showed up we were wondering if something was wrong with us."

Under other circumstances a few of them might have tried to poke fun at their red ranger but they couldn't find the spirit to do so. "I think we should find Fairy Godmother, Jane, Doug and Ben and see what they say." Carlos said.

"You can't be that out of it." Evie said as she poked Carlos in the arm gently. She then pulled out her iPhone and sent a text to the three of them asking to meet in the command center, with an additional request for Jane to ask her mother to be with them. Then they headed toward the command center.

They arrived minutes later and were somewhat impatient. When Doug arrived Evie immediately asked, "Do you feel…I don't know…okay?" She asked.

Doug looked at his blue haired crush oddly. "Yeah. Why?" He asked.

"Dang it." Lonnie said. That only made Doug look at her oddly and wonder what was going on.

Jane came in next and Audrey was there first. "Jane, have you felt as if something odd is going on?" She asked her.

Jane frowned. For an instant she wanted to say yes but felt as if what was worrying her was different from whatever was now worrying the rangers. "Kind of, what do you mean?" She asked.

"Whatever are you talking about?" Fairy Godmother asked from behind her daughter. "I know the rain storm was rather intense but now it's nice outside." She lightly brushed by the two teens to go check out the consoles. "Maybe we're missing something."

Ben was the last down and Mal hugged him tightly. "Hey, where's the fire?" He asked his girlfriend.

"Ben, have you felt something odd since really early this morning?" The purple haired girl asked as she pulled back slightly to look into his eyes.

Ben shook his head a little. "I feel a little tired, but otherwise no." He answered her honestly. He reached over and stroked her hair. "What's wrong?" He asked.

Mal sighed. "I wish I knew." She admitted.

"You're all feeling this way?" Fairy Godmother asked as Jane came to stand beside her.

"Yes." Audrey said. "And we don't know why."

"Could it be something we're the only ones feeling because we're power rangers?" Lonnie asked.

"Anything is possible." Fairy Godmother answered. "We all have to remember this is all new territory for every single one of us."

"I'm going to start running sensor scans." Doug promised them, with more of a comforting glance toward Evie than anyone else. "Maybe we'll run into something that will shed some light on your feelings."

"Thanks." Evie said softly and tried to smile at him.

Ben continued to stroke Mal's hair gently. "Don't worry. Whatever it is we'll figure out what's going on and then we..." The young king stopped himself as he remembered that Mal didn't want him in these fight since he could easily get hurt or killed. "You'll take care of it." He finished a little despondently.

Mal laughed lightly despite how she felt right now. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." She replied. She squeezed his hands gently.

Audrey felt a little bad, knowing that Ben really did want to be a bigger part of this but something was dictating otherwise.

"I found something odd." Jane reported. "It was in the news; apparently there was a large fracture in the mountains on the far eastern side." She looked up. "Odd, but do you think that would be what's got you guys so on edge?"

Each of the six rangers took a moment to think about it and then Mal answered for all of them. "I don't think so. That could be anything. Or nothing."

"Including when Sermaya was released?" Fairy Godmother reminded them all.

"We didn't feel this way when he got released and except for Mal we were all really close to that area." Audrey reminded him. "I don't think this is related, though it does seem kind of disturbing anyway."

The monster alarm sounded and they turned to the screen to see an extremely muscled dragon with black skin hatching out of an egg. Even through the screen each of the rangers shuddered at the sight, something that Ben felt through Mal as they were still holding hands. Carlos gulped out, "That's it. That's the problem."

"Certainly intimidating I'll grant." Doug agreed.

"Paradias sent that." Mal said. "There's no question." She took a deep breath and looked at her team. "And we have to meet it, no question."

"But if that thing is what's got you all freaked out now, how will you feel when facing that dragon down?" Jane asked them all worriedly.

"I don't know." Carlos answered for her. "But we don't have a choice." With that he handed Dude to Jane and the six rangers descended the steps and were heading into the forest to intercept the dragon before he found his way into the city proper.

Finding the dragon was easy enough. It was like he was waiting for them. "Welcome rangers." He said in a deep booming voice. "Your end has come." His body started pulsing; red veiny like bulges appearing all over its body.

It reminded Carlos of something he and Jane had watched in the sky recently. "It's like a meteor." He noted with apprehension. "I hope this thing didn't come from a meteor."

"Just what I wanted to face in my career, a Meteor Dragon." Audrey said sarcastically.

The dragon roared and leapt at them, wings expanding. It very nearly took them all down but they barely dodged out of the way. "Time to get to work guys." Mal stated and they took out their iPhones, input their numbers and then morphed.

"You call it work, I call it fun." The Meteor Dragon stated with amusement and then released flaming balls of fire from its mouth. It was fast and strong and it sent the rangers reeling back.

"Why don't you try that again?" Evie challenge as she drew her mirror shield.

"And have it reflected back at me?" He asked with amusement. "I think I'll wait on that one ranger."

The other five rangers drew their weapons and together they were all getting ready to figure out how to wage their next attack. They charged toward him and tried to attack him but found their weapons seemed to bounce off of his skin.

He simply laughed and then lashed out with his powerful arms, slashing them all hard and they were sent flying back again. "They just keep getting tougher." Audrey said. "We have to find a way to keep up with them."

"Any spells that could be helpful to us?" Jay asked Mal.

"I don't know; try to cover me for a minute and I'll find out." The purple ranger responded. Since her spell book had proven so instrumental in their last fight against Red Magi Jane and Doug had given a way for her to access her spell book instantly, Doug had called it something similar to a pocket dimension but the details were more than Mal cared to understand.

"We'll do what we can." Lonnie replied. "Just please make it quick." With that the five rangers got up to engage the dragon again while Mal looked through her spell book. The dragon monster seemed very amused b this and easily fought them back.

Luckily that was all Mal needed. After flipping through a few pages she found a spell. It was supposed to be for a person's skin but thought it should work on the weapons too with a bit of word play. "The body is willing but the weapons are dry, take the case and give it great shape."

The weapons seemed to take on a glow of their own as Mal rejoined her team. "Don't suppose this is permanent?" Jay asked their leader.

"Somehow I doubt it." Mal said sympathetically "So let's do what we can with these enhanced versions in the meantime."

The monster that Audrey had inadvertently coined Meteor Dragon roared and charged at the rangers. Lonnie tossed her tessen's and knocked him off course. "At least our weapons are penetrating his armor now, that's something." The pink ranger noted brightly.

Jay and Carlos followed in as the monster recovered and double slashed him. Mal and Audrey were behind them with their own double team attack. The monster powered up another strike and launched it at Mal but Evie was there, absorbing the attack in the mirror and causing it to be shot right back at it.

"Let's finish this off." Mal declared. "Time for the Auradon blaster." First the staff, then the bow underneath it, the shield behind it and the scimitar, daggers and tessen's to finish the blaster. They take their positions and then fire at the monster, destroying it.

"Awesome, they're getting better and better." Ben said happily. "And it looks as if they had nothing to worry about after all."

"It'd be helpful to them if we could figure out how to make that dragon soul coating a permanent edition." Doug added and looked to Jane. "Maybe you and Mal can figure out how to do that."

"That'd be nice." Jane agreed skeptically. Dude was lying on a console watching them all work. "But that was too easy."

"And you guys were freaked over that?" Jay asked happily as they separated their weapons. "That was nothing."

"Hey, you were freaked too." Mal reminded her friend quickly.

"That was too easy." Audrey said dubiously now, just as Jane had. "I feel like we should be waiting for the other glass slipper to drop."

Their words were proven right when again that green circular light, same as what grew the knight the day they uncovered the megazord, came descending from the sky and circling the dragon. Then to their horror they saw the Meteor Dragon grow.

"Okay, too easy." Evie agreed. "I think it's time for the megazord." She looked sheepishly at their purple ranger. "Sorry, M."

"Not your fault." Mal reminded her friend. "Go, get in the megazord and kick that dragon back to the mountains."

As Mal took a step back the other five rangers called out, "Auradon Megazord, power up."

From the mountains came a roar like that of a volcano erupting but all that came out of the top of the mountain was the Auradon Megazord as it soared toward the ranger's location. The five of them were teleported into the cockpit and they placed their iPhone morphers in their proper place.

Meteor Dragon saw them coming and shot the black balls from its mouth. They barely dodged the attacks and landed on the ground. Evie immediately inserted her mirror shield into her console while Jay and Lonnie inserted their weapons into their consoles. That gave the Auradon Megazord its sword and shield.

"A nice offense your friends are presenting, at least in theory." Mal heard Paradias from behind her. She turned to face the very reason they were in this situation. "But how will it work in practice I wonder?"

"It won't matter if I can take you down here and now." Mal decided. She jumped at him with her staff, fully intending to attack him but the same green light that enveloped the monsters when they grew but this did not grow Paradias. Instead it acted as a barrier as the purple ranger slammed into it hard and sent her flying awkwardly.

"I came to enjoy the show, not deal with you girl." Paradias said to her sternly. "I can't wait to see how this turns out."

Meteor Dragon leapt out to strike the Auradon Megazord. The shield was raised and took the brunt of the impact but it still sent them stumbling back. The dragon monster followed up by a swing of its tail that caught the megazord on the side and sent it sprawling backwards.

"That thing hits hard." Carlos said as he looked up from his console. "I wish Mal could cast her spell on the megazord."

"Here it comes again." Evie interrupted as Meteor Dragon charged toward the megazord. They moved quickly to bring the sword down on the monster and it recoiled just a bit but when they tried to do a follow up attack he caught the arm and bit right into it.

"Argh, we have to get him to let our arm go." Jay stated. They in fact tried to punch the monster in the face with the other arm but it seemed to have little effect.

"How hard this must be for you." Paradias said to Mal mockingly. "Your friends are up there fighting but you have no zord and cannot help them out in these sort of fights."

"At least I fight." Mal snapped back. "What do you do besides hide where you are or around some force shield?" She shook her head. "We wouldn't even have to be fighting if it weren't for you."

Paradias laughed. "You act as if we haven't done you any sort of favors." He said simply.

Mal was about to give a very harsh retort but caught herself. Hadn't she just thought this had made Jane a much more confident woman? Hadn't this bonded Lonnie and even Audrey with her and her adopted siblings better than they ever would have had normally? Still she would never give their arch nemesis the benefit of that knowledge. "Whatever you think you've done is nothing compared to the destruction and chaos you've caused since you arrived." She said instead.

Meteor Dragon tossed the Auradon Megazord in the air and then rushed up to slam into it hard. They fell to the ground hard.

"We're starting to lose power." Carlos said. "Trying to get back up power up."

"Make it quick." Audrey said. "It's already coming toward us."

Meteor Dragon jumped up and basically performed a body slam against the megazord, causing it more damage. Evie's console all but blew up in her face as the megazord lost its shield. The blue ranger rushed to catch her mirror shield.

"I'm putting your zord back in the rock where it belongs." Meteor Dragon stated. "I'm going to give you a meteor crush that you will never forget…if you live." He shot a huge black energy ball in the air and its size started to increase as it descended down toward the Auradon Megazord.

"We have to get up." Audrey stated. "Now."

And they did get up, but not in enough time before the large meteor like object slammed into the Auradon Megazord and sent it sprawling backwards. They lost all power.

Paradias laughed. "Finish them my dragon." He ordered.

"Get out of there!" Mal called out desperately. She couldn't stand to lose her friends any more than she could stand to lose Ben. "Evie! Audrey!"

Meteor Dragon began to power up another final attack when there was a roar from the sky and everyone looked up to see a purple and black dragon descending from the sky. It unleashed a torrent of energy balls and struck around the monster dragon. It fell back hard.

"What is this?" Paradias questioned. Mal almost wished she had an answer for their nemesis, because then she wouldn't seem as clueless as they all really were right now. Still she almost had a theory about what it was.

Meteor Dragon launched another attack, this at the large dragon. It swirled around hit the attack back with its own tail. It struck hard and even as the dragon monster rose the long purple dragon was already rushing at extreme speed toward the monster and slammed hard into him. It then rose high in the air and as the Meteor Dragon rose again the purple dragon descended from the skies with flames surrounding its body and slammed into him, destroying him on impact. From the fire came the purple dragon, which ascended back into the sky.

"Looks like you lost Paradias." Mal stated

"Lost?" He questioned with amusement. "Oh no, my dear. This is only getting started." And with a laugh he disappeared.

Mal heard her friends land beside her. "I don't suppose that was a spell you just did?" Lonnie asked her.

The purple ranger shook her head. "Nope, wasn't me." She answered. She looked to her friends. "Let's get back to the command center and see someone there can tell us anything." They powered down and started back to the command center. One other thing nagged at the back of their minds; despite the fact Meteor Dragon had been destroyed by the mysterious purple dragon the weird feeling that had been plaguing them since early that morning had not faded.

They made it back and Jane, Doug and Fairy Godmother working at the consoles. Ben was standing around, not being able to contribute much right now, though he was glad to see Mal as they hugged each other.

"Mal, you and Jane will have to see if you can use take that spell you just used and apply it to your weapons permanently." Doug said to her excitedly. "That would go a long way to help you guys out."

"Yeah, it would." Mal agreed. "But what about that dragon?"

"We think that was what came out of the large fracture in the mountains." Jane told her excitedly. "And furthermore we think it might be your zord Mal."

"Her zord?" Carlos echoed.

Mal thought about it and realized that, though it might have been a coincidence, it did seem to have appeared at just as she was calling for her friends, fearful that the monster would kill them.

Which lead to another question, this time from Evie. "What about the Auradon Megazord? How long before it's repaired?" She asked.

At that Carlos went up to where Jane was. He saw she was working on that right now and started to do help her. So it was him that answered the blue haired girl's question. "Looks like it's going to take at least six hours to do so."

"Do we have to go into the mountains?" Audrey asked. Not that she was exactly a mechanical genius but she did want to do whatever she could to help.

"We shouldn't have too." Jane said. "I don't know what it has in its structure but something inside is working to repair it rapidly."

"Okay, so I have a question." Mal said and they all turned toward her. "If that dragon is supposed to be my zord, but it's acting independently, then how am I supposed to get control over that?"


	10. How to Tame a Dragon Zord

"How am I supposed to tame that?" Mal repeated as the ranger's watched the purple and black dragon that was on screen as they watched the ending battle they had just had with Meteor Dragon only moments ago when it had intervened in the battle.

Doug was currently running scans on the atmosphere, seeing if they could find it. "Isn't there some kind of spell that can be used to do the job?" He asked her.

"You can't just place a spell on someone to control them; it's not really fair to them." Ben replied simply. Although he had understood and certainly had forgiven Mal for placing the love spell on him, regardless of her motives, there was still a part of him that could remember the shock that went with that realization.

When he had dived into the enchanted lake during their first date and realized what had happened for an instant he had felt shocked and betrayed, but that quickly faded as he realized that the purple haired girl had started a chain that despite everything they felt for each other may not have started any other way. Of even more relevance of course was the recent love potion that had affected Mal (they still weren't sure of Nerissa's motives there) and the similar mind altering effect that Sermaya had had on Ben.

"Besides generally dragons are notoriously known for being immune to spells." Fairy Godmother revealed, making the others realize that although now was not the right time for it they still had to ask her what had happened to make magic all but unknown in Auradon. "Even though this is a zord, unlike the Auradon Megazord there is some…biological component to it."

"That brings me back us back to the original question." Mal completed with a flourish of her hands. "How I tame that dragon?" She laughed a bit. "That thing could eat us all in one bite and it wouldn't be a complete meal."

"That's such a comforting thought." Audrey drawled with a roll of her eyes. "But Mal is right. How can she be expected to do that, especially alone?"

"Who says she has to do it alone?" Evie reminded her.

"Because I have too." Mal realized. "This is my zord and I have to make it understand me alone."

"Is that true?" Carlos asked.

"We really have no way of knowing for sure, but yes I would be willing to bet she's right." Fairy Godmother answered.

"But first we have to find it." Jay added. "Any luck Doug?"

He shook his head. "Not yet, it must be able to scatter the kinds of energies are sensor scans run on." He answered.

"How are the repairs going on the megazord?" Audrey asked Jane and Carlos.

"It's up and running again, we could take it into combat now if we had to." Carlos replied wearily. "But it won't be fully repaired for almost another two hours. Hopefully we have that time."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Mal said grimly. "Paradias seemed to hint there was something else on the horizon." She shivered a bit, a feeling the other five rangers shared. "To say nothing about what we've been feeling."

"And still are feeling." Lonnie added and then asked. "Why was that Meteor Dragon thing so different from the other monsters we've faced?"

"I don't think the monster itself was different. I think it's about the amount of magic and power that went into its creation." Jane answered.

"Wait, isn't that the same thing?" Jay wondered.

Jane shook her head. "Two different things but they can be connected. If you look at Sermaya I don't think there's too much in the way of magic power there but he's clearly very strong." She said.

Evie thought she understood. "Whereas we already know Paradias and Nerissa are strong magically but as far as we've seen they're not exactly going to go hand to hand with Jay or M in a fight either." She supplemented. Jane nodded her agreement.

"Hey it just occurred to me, how am I supposed to get into to the dragon zord anyway? I can't fly and it seems to be spending a lot of time in the atmosphere." Mal voiced.

That brought them all up short again. That was something else they didn't really have an answer for. Finally Doug spoke. "We don't have any way. But maybe someone else does."

"What about a spell?" Ben asked her. "Anything in your spell book?" Sadly the purple haired girl shook her head.

Jane seemed to light up, much to Carlos's secret delight. "We could ask Jordan, maybe she has an idea." She supplied.

"It's a great idea." Audrey agreed. Jordan was the daughter of the Genie that befriended Aladdin, the arch nemesis of Jay's father Jafar, and another female genie named Eden. "Except how do we explain to her why we need a flying spell or a winged Pegasus or magic carpet or whatever?"

That brought them all up short. So far no civilian knew who they were unless they considered Ben one, and if things had gone as planned he would have been the red ranger. There was also the argument that as king he probably would have had to know anyway. Likewise Jane, Doug, and Fairy Godmother were the reasons they had a command center and working powers in the first place.

There was the chance Chad might have learned about them after the love potion incident but that didn't seem to change his outlook on them at all, and if nothing else it seemed to make things worse if possible. But that was by circumstances beyond their control. This wasn't necessarily one of those times.

"We're not supposed to be revealing our secret identities or what we do here." Fairy Godmother reminded them. "At least under normal circumstances."

"These aren't normal." Mal reminded their headmistress and mentor. "And if Red Magi has taught us anything it's that we might need magical help somewhere in the future. I mean my spell book and I are great but we're talking about a genie here." If anything it made the purple haired girl wonder why Jordan didn't seem to have the problem that Jane and probably others had.

Well this conversation was going on in the command center, just outside the city where the Meteor Dragon had been destroyed, the ground wad disturbed where the dragon monster had been destroyed by an egg. It hatched almost instantly, and from it emerged a large dragon, it wasn't as bulky as its predecessor but it was lankier, including the large arms that held massively sharp claws.

Paradias laughed as he watched from his view screen. "Now we have the real challenge. Let's see they or that errant dragon can withstand the awesome power of the Gandor the Destruction Dragon!" He exclaimed.

The alarm sounded and the footage of the purple dragon was replaced by something far more terrifying. This newest monster had already taken flight and had already started to attack the outskirts of the town.

"No way." Jay breathed.

"What is that?" Jane asked.

Each of the ranger's knew this was really the monster that had them feeling the way they had that morning. "Oh my gosh." Audrey whispered. "That thing is huge."

"I don't even know if the Auradon Megazord could stand up to that thing at full power." Jane said softly as she looked at the power readings on the monster. She didn't bother to say what their odds were as things stood right now.

Mal had her doubts that even the dragon that was supposed to be her zord could stand up to that monster on its own. "You guys have to try." She told her team. "And I…I don't know how, but I have to hope I can call that dragon out like I did last time."

Fairy Godmother agreed. "That's the only chance we have. We haven't found the dragon yet and we no longer have the time to worry about searching for it."

"Is there anything that I can do?" Ben asked. He of course knew he couldn't really go out there but if somehow any of their military power could help…

Mal shook her head grimly. "Just wish us luck and hope for the best. Believe in us."

Ben reached out and stroked Mal's cheek. "I believe in you." He said sincerely. He looked to his ex-girlfriend and, still his best friend, and their other friends. "I believe in all of you."

Mal leaned up and kissed her boyfriend on the lips before the team left the command center and toward the surface, where they knew the dragon was already in the process of destroying everything in sight.

Once they left the school they pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and morphed. Mal fell back just a bit as she wondered the best way of calling out to the dragon that was supposed to be her zord as the rest of her team called out, "We need Auradon Megazord power!"

From the mountains their megazord was released and the five rangers wasted no time in getting to the cockpit and putting in their iPhones in their spots on the console. This was followed moments later by Evie placing her mirror shield in the slot on her console to summon the megazord's shield and Lonnie and Jay placing their weapons in the linked part of their consoles to summon the megazord's sword.

"We're as ready as we'll ever be." Audrey said with a sigh. "Let's give it all we've got."

Carlos didn't want to point out that it wouldn't be much. Their power levels were only sixty percent and backup power at half that level. The zord's structural integrity was only at seventy percent an while repairs were being made quickly even now thanks to the zord's composition it would be taken away just as quickly in a fight like this.

"Please, if you can hear me, we need you now." Mal called out. She wasn't sure what to expect and was not entirely surprised that nothing happened.

"Making a plea to the beast, are we?" She heard Paradias from behind her. "Even if the dragon were to show even that would be no match for Gandor, my dragon of destruction."

Mal turned to face their arch nemesis again. "That was the real monster; Meteor Dragon was just the set up." She accused.

Paradias laughed. "You're right my dear. In fact, in a roundabout way if that dragon hadn't destroyed my other dragon, Meteor Dragon you deemed it apparently, then my dragon of destruction would have never been able to show up." He had an evil glint in his eyes that reminded the purple ranger a bit of her mother Maleficent if she thought about. "Though what a conundrum that is for you, if it weren't destroyed my original monster would be doing what my dragon is doing now."

Mal shook her head. "Try what you want Paradias, you won't win. We won't let you." She vowed.

"You can't stop us now." Paradias stated as if it were fact. Mal just hoped he wasn't right.

The Auradon Megazord approached the dragon of destruction just as he faced them. Unlike the previous monsters this one seemed to have no ability with speech. It instead roared and fired a volley of fireballs at its opponent. Even the shield couldn't keep the battle zord completely safe as the blasts struck all around it.

"We have to try to finish this quickly." Jay said. "While we still have the power to do so."

Audrey nodded. "You're right." She agreed. The megazord raised its sword and collected energy to try to bring the powered down blade weapon upon the monster. But when it impacted the dragon it did nothing to it. Two massive claw slashes sent the megazord to the ground and it roared in either triumph or amusement.

"This isn't good." Carlos said. "Primary power at twenty percent, I'm diverting our backup power but that's only going to bring us to half power."

"Keep it together guys." Audrey instructed. "We're the only chance this world has right now."

Their chances got a little better when a bolt of energy soared from the sky and hit the dragon of destruction though not with the same devastating results that had been accomplished with Meteor Dragon.

"It's the dragon." Evie breathed. She hoped Mal could find a way to tame it now.

The purple dragon rushed toward the dragon of destruction but the monster's large claws reached out slashed the zord hard. The ranger's gasped in shock as they saw not the circuitry that they would see from the Auradon Megazord but instead evidence of flesh and blood.

As if to make it worse the monster dragon grabbed its tail and then slammed it hard into the ground. The rangers were surprised that they hadn't heard any bones, if it had any of course, break.

"Destroy it my dragon." Paradias ordered with glee.

"No." Mal protested and for an instant she thought about attacking the mastermind again but realized that he probably had his shield up. Instead the purple ranger did the next best thing she could think of. She ran forward and jumped on the snout of the dragon zord.

The five rangers got the Auradon Megazord on their feet and did their best to attack the dragon of destruction. The good news was that it got the creature off of the injured dragon zord. The bad news was it turned its wrath on their half powered battle zord.

Mal leaned down and stroked the scales in between its eyes. She knew that a lot of people would have a huge problem petting a reptile and especially a dragon. In fact it occurred to her in any world where dragons didn't exist they probably didn't even have that kind of classification. "It's okay." She said soothingly. "I'm going to heal you." She took out her spell book and continued talking. "Fairy Godmother says that dragons are immune to spells but I'd be willing to bet anything that that immunity is dependent on your will." She again stroked the dragon between the eyes. "If I can find a way to heal you, I think you'll let me."

The purple ranger flipped through the pages and continued to say soothingly, "You were really brave to help us against Meteor Dragon and to help us again against that dragon of destruction. You didn't have to do either; you could have gotten out of here the instant you were freed from the mountains."

The dragon of destruction slashed the Auradon Megazord hard and caused it to crash into one of the gates, destroying it. It followed up with a two fireballs. One was deflected by the shield but the grip was lost and the second one struck head on.

Mal found something that she thought might work. It wasn't a healing spell in the strictest sense but she figured anything with something as typically neutral as dragons would be taken care of by it. "Hear my words, hear my cry, take these aches and lay them to waste." She recited.

Whatever part of the dragon that was not biological seemed to react to the spell and seemed to speed up the healing on the dragon, more like repairs if Mal had to be guess. It made her realize that Fairy Godmother was right, whatever this dragon's origins it matched perfectly with the Auradon Megeazord.

The dragon let out a roar and raised its head. Then it started to glow and change, looking less like a regular dragon and now looking like a Chinese dragon. Mal saw it begin to look a little less biological and a little more technological, which now included a place for the purple ranger to take her place in the zord. She had no problem getting into the zord and placing her iPhone in a small place similar to a console just as her team mates in the megazord did.

"It worked." Jane breathed. "It accepted her."

Fairy Godmother nodded. "Her willingness to heal it. The fact she saw past its exterior, both the dragonic and the mechanical." She smiled. "Even the other ranger's willingness to attack that dragon of destruction despite the weakened condition of the zord."

"Mal is amazing, they all are." Ben agreed.

Jane turned to Doug. "Let' see if we can figure out what the next step is for them." She said.

The purple dragon roared, feeling fully renewed. It flew up in the air before unleashing a torrent of energy at the dragon of destruction. The extra power sent the monster reeling backwards. The dragon of destruction roared back and breathed several balls of fire at its recurring opponent but it was fast enough to evade them all.

"Look at that thing go." Evie said. "It's gotten even better now that it's bonded with Mal."

"You can do it." Audrey tried to encourage her friend.

The purple dragon lashed out with its tail but again the dragon of destruction caught it. Before it could give a repeat performance Mal was able to take control enough to slam her zord's head into the monster's body. It didn't do too much damage but at least it forced the opponent to release her zord.

Mal felt frustrated. She realized that while her zord had the ability to go toe to toe with the dragon of destruction, they needed yet more power if they wanted to beat back this destructive force.

As if to prove that point the dragon of destruction let loose a flurry of fireballs. The dragon zord evaded most of them but they struck around the area, including some that hit the school.

"Ben." Both Mal and Audrey gasped. A similar one from Evie for Doug and Carlos for Jane were heard as well.

Lonnie activated her helmet intercom. "Jane, are you guys alright?" She asked.

"We're just fine." Jane told her. "Ben and my mother just left the command center to see about the other students and staff."

"We have to stop this thing somehow." Jay interrupted.

"I think I have just the thing." Jane told them. "I'm transmitting it to you and Mal right now."

"Did you get it M?" Evie asked her best friend eagerly from the intercom.

"I got it E." The purple ranger responded. "Let's bring them together guys."

The Auradon Megazord was taken up until it landed on the back of the dragon zord, some of the excess scales wrapped around the megazord to offer extra protection. The tail wrapped around the body of both the battle zord and the dragon itself for additional protection. A space opened up between Audrey and Carlos and in came a space for Mal, finally granting her a place in the megazord hierarchy.

"Welcome to the fold M." Evie said with a smile.

"Glad to be here." Mal said with a laugh. "And with that it's time to see what the Auradon Champion Megazord can do."

Again the dragon of destruction let loose a flurry of fireballs but with the speed of the dragon the new megazord was able to bypass the blasts easily, and these were directed harmlessly out in the area.

With tremendous speed they collided hard with the dragonic opponent and he fell back a step before lashing out with its massive claws. It struck the armored battle zord and caused its flight path to fail. But as the dragon of destruction tried to follow up on that the zord lashed out and slammed its shield hard into their opponent. The additional power of the dragon backed up the attack and hit the monster back. They flew up again.

"Now why don't we try that final strike again?" Mal suggested.

"Gladly." Jay said with a laugh.

"With pleasure." Audrey vouched.

"Sounds good." Carlos agreed.

"Ready and willing." Lonnie said.

"Yes, ma'am." Evie responded.

They flew up into the air for a moment and then all six rangers called out, "Auradon Dragon Strike!" They then descended down and brought the powered up sword down hard on the dragon of destruction and angled at the last second to avoid hitting the ground and flying away as the monster was destroyed.

"Impossible!" Paradias growled in anger. "You think you've beaten me but you're wrong." With that he unleashed a huge surge of green energy straight at the Auradon Champion Megazord. It caused a huge impact and like that the six rangers plummeted to the ground hard and were even forced to power down. The Auradon Megazord was forced to retreat back to the mountain holding bay while the dragon landed hard.

Jay helped Audrey to stand. Mal was helping Evie to stand and then Lonnie and Carlos were behind them. They all looked up to see Paradias floating above them on the green disk and looking down on them angrily. "That was just a taste of what you truly have to deal with rangers." The man warned with cold amusement. "Remember that; this goes on only because I wish it."

"If you're that powerful than just get it over with." Jay called out to him, trying to call his bluff. "All you've proven is that you can have a tantrum."

Mal and Audrey exchanged glances, not sure if provoking him was really a good idea. That question would go unanswered as Mal's dragon zord raised its head and let loose with a huge storm of meteors that slammed down on the shield protecting Paradias hard. It didn't dissipate but somehow the rangers suspected if they could strike right now they might actually damage him. It was certainly enough that he chose to teleport away.

"That was impressive." Evie had to grant. She went to move and felt her ankle give out on her. Jay and Audrey were now holding her upright since they knew Mal had one other thing to attend to; her zord.

Mal moved toward the dragon zord and reached out to brush the zord's muzzle. "You did great." She told him. "Now, what do you do? Do you fly back into the ozone until we need you again? Or do you go back into the mountains?"

"What else would it do?" Carlos asked the purple haired girl curiously.

"That's a good question." Lonnie agreed. "What are the other options Mal?"

She sighed. "None, as far as I know." She never the less took her spell book and to see what she could do as the five rangers stood by and waited.

"Are you going to be okay?" Audrey asked the blue haired girl.

Evie nodded. "Sprained ankle I think." She answered. Her voice was still strong. "Some ice and a bit of relaxation should take care of it."

"How about you two?" Audrey asked Lonnie and Carlos after taking a moment to see that Jay was just fine and was still supporting their blue haired friend.

Lonnie smiled. "Shaken up a bit but okay." She said.

"Ditto." Carlos added.

Mal looked to her team and then her zord. "Wow. This is odd. My mom never mentioned this spell at all. There's a really strong spell in here that can shrink the zord down into a small crystalline figure that I can still keep active and then turn it loose when we need to fight." She said with some awe in her voice.

"That is odd." Evie agreed, though she remembered from watching Maleficent train her daughter that they never went into the back of the book. She had surmised that she decided the purple haired girl wasn't ready for the spells but instead thought that just maybe it was because she knew it was spells that a good person might never use; but they weren't bad anymore.

"Do it." Audrey said simply. "The dragon zord came when we…when you needed it. You bonded with it, it likes you."

Mal nodded in agreement. "You're right." She said simply. "This spell is a bit longer."

"We're not going anywhere M." Evie said with a smile. "We'll wait for you."

It took almost an hour before Ben, Jane, Doug and Fairy Godmother heard the six teens return. Ben was already at her side. "I was worried about you." He said to Mal. "What happened?"

"Just had to do something." Mal said simply as she looked down to see the now deceptively small looking dragon, looking like a purple crystal, come right now behind them before floating off into the air to survey the command center.

Doug and Jane had found a chair for Evie and Audrey and Jay sat her down. Doug placed an ice pack on her ankle. "Feel better?" He asked her.

Evie smiled at him. "Much." She said with a smile.

"So how is everything?" Audrey asked, though she guessed it wasn't too bad as they had all been waiting for them.

"Structural damage to the school mostly." Fairy Godmother replied. "Some minor injuries but nothing major and no casualties."

"Thank heavens." Mal said as she wrapped her hands around his arm and laid her head on his shoulder. "It could have been worse after that dragon's attack hit the school."

"Much worse." Ben agreed. "We've got a few days of rebuilding up ahead but nothing compared to what Paradias was hoping for."

"Paradias." Fairy Godmother repeated grimly as she looked at each of the rangers as well as Ben, Doug and her daughter. "We've seen a burst of his true power today." She took a deep breath. "We can't ever underestimate our enemies."

"The Auradon Megazord will be fully repaired in about two days." Jane told them. "I'll have to get a good scan of Mal's dragon zord before I can make a full estimate of how long before it's fully rested, but clearly it's either not doing too bad or it's fighting through the pain." She pointed to the small dragon circling the command center. It exchanged a small growl with Dude before the two moved on.

"Even worse is that we seem to be making him very angry." Audrey noted. "It seems like we keep falling only a step behind him. We have to find a way to increase our powers before something goes wrong and we find we can't even reach that final step."

Lonnie's eyes glowed mischievously. "I have an idea about that actually." She revealed. "But I'm going to need you," She looked to Evie, "You." She looked to Mal. "And you." She said to Jane. "If we want to make this work."

"What's your idea?" Mal asked curiously.

"Remember my recent hip hop performance?" Lonnie asked in return. They all nodded and the Asian girl continued, "Here's what I'm thinking…."


	11. Nightmares Within

Again I give thanks for pinksakura271 for the monster idea and contributing to the plot. It's nice sometimes to not have to do all of the thinking

Near the shore's edge was a bluff. Once could see the Isle of the Lost from a very long distance there. There was also a small shrine that rumors said would also act as a doorway to the underworld. No one had tested that theory out, or if someone had they hadn't returned to tell the tale.

The area first became swarmed with the Paradias's soldiers, their green eyes glowing in the darkness. Moments later Nerissa and Paradias were there as well.

"You are certain this will work?" The master asked. His yellow and green eye glowed as well.

"Defeating them in this realm has proved difficult. If we can defeat even half of them in another realm than we will be much better off." Nerissa replied. "We lose nothing."

 _Mal stood at her locker and waited for Ben to join her so they could meet their friends for lunch. She leaned against the metal doors but felt herself brightening the instant she saw her boyfriend coming toward him but her smile fell as she saw the solemn look on his face. "What's wrong?" She asked._

 _"We need to talk." Ben said and sighed. "Mal, this isn't working."_

 _She looked confused. "What isn't working?" She asked though she felt her stomach sinking in on itself._

 _"Us." Ben answered simply. "I've tried to forgive you for that love spell, tried to make us work. But I'm just not feeling it." He shook his head. "One of the reasons you and Audrey have gotten along so well since becoming rangers is that you're both so much alike in your own ways and I just can't have that in my life." He turned away. "I'm sorry Mal, but I'm breaking up with you."_

 _"Ben, wait." Mal started but for some reason found she could not move. And was that the knight sitting on one of the benches laughing at her? Was that a caped figure she just saw? "Please, don't go…"_

"Ben, please." She whispered before feeling a hand on her shoulder. She sat up and through the pale moonlight saw Evie sitting on her bed, looking concerned. "Evie?"

"Are you okay M?" Evie asked softly. "It looked like you were having a bad dream."

Mal shook her head and only then realized she had shed a few tears at some point. "I…I had a really bad dream." She tried to smile but it was hollow. "It's ironic, considering when I was younger my mom always told me when I went to sleep to 'have a bad dream'."

Evie reached out and took her hand, squeezing it gently. "Mine did to." She replied. "Do you want to talk about it?"

After a moment Mal used her free hand to wipe her tears from her face and shook her head. "No, I'm okay E. As long as it's just a nightmare it can't hurt me. Thanks though." With a nod Evie got up and went back to her own bed. Mal flopped down on the bed and wondered if she would get any more sleep tonight.

 _Audrey left her diplomatic negotiation 102 class and headed toward the command center, where she swore she received a summons from Fairy Godmother and she assumed the others had gotten the same signal. She quickly made her way to find the screen filled with…something fighting a hooded figure. She also saw the four isle kids standing in the center but of Lonnie, Doug, Jane or her mother there was no sign._

 _"Who is that?" Audrey asked them. "Who's fighting that thing?"_

 _"That's not important right now." Jay said simply, almost dismissively. It was a tone he had not used with her since they had become rangers._

 _"But we have to stop him." Audrey said as she took out her iPhone._

 _Mal stepped forward now. "No, we have to stop him." She said. "You have to get a clue." She laughed, sounding way harsher than the princess had ever heard her in the time she had known her. "Do you really think that we need you for this? You weren't even supposed to be a part of this." She reached out and snatched the iPhone, tossing it to Carlos. "You're nothing more than some pathetic little girl, dead weight. And it's time that we drop that dead weight."_

 _Audrey wasn't sure what she was feeling as she looked from the scornful Mal to the mocking Jay to the laughing Evie and the indifferent Carlos. She turned to see Ben. "Ben, what's going on?" She asked. "I thought…"_

 _Ben walked past her and came to stand next to Mal. "It's been decided Audrey. It's better to have no red ranger at all than to rely on you." He laughed. "I mean come on, I already let you go as my girlfriend, it's time to just cut the ties that bound completely."_

 _Audrey swore she felt her heart breaking, which she found vaguely odd because she didn't think that, aside from Ben, she truly cared enough for the others to enough to have that kind of impact. "But…" She said, not sure what to follow up with that. Instead all she got out was a weak, "Ben, Mal, guys.." Was the hooded figure on the screen laughing?_

Like Mal, Audrey had a few tears falling from her eyes but since she didn't have a roommate like Evie did she had no one to even try to wake her.

Again Lonnie felt herself jolted out of bed. She felt a slight irritation as she hadn't even rested well since they had gotten rid of the dragon of destruction. There was a different kind of wrong going through her body now. She sat up and tried to text Audrey but when she got no response she assumed it was just in her mind and she tried to settle down again.

 _Evie turned around. Mal stood there. Hadn't she just asked her friend if she was okay? "Mal, what's going on?" She wondered. "Is everything okay?"_

 _Mal laughed harshly. "Is everything okay?" She questioned mockingly. "Of course not. I mean what was I thinking, having a pathetic loser like you as my friend?"_

 _Evie wasn't sure she heard right but felt as if she had been slapped in the face. "Mal?" She asked dumbfounded. She saw Jay next to her now. "What are you saying? I thought we had gotten past our differences?" She looked to Jay. "Did I miss something?"_

 _Jay laughed now too. "You are so pathetic Evie." He said. "We're villains, bad guys. We don't get past differences and we don't make friends. It's almost more like gang activity." He started to pace her now. "You really thought that any of us could really be friends. That is just pathetic."_

 _"Pathetic. Loser." Mal repeated derisively. "Of course this is coming from a girl who tries to use a mirror as a weapon." She moved forward and pushed Evie roughly, causing her to fall to the ground hard. In the past when Mal had picked on Evie she had never cried, at least then. Now without really realizing it she was starting to cry as Jay, Mal and Carlos (who had come from nowhere) looked down at her with…a hooded figure._

And Evie had a few tears falling down her face as well, but now there was no one there to wake her.

 _"You have no idea how much I missed you Bennie-boo." Audrey said in between kisses with Ben. "I knew that the bad girl thing was just an infatuation."_

 _"Of course." Ben said with a smile. "Why would I make a villain a queen? Or even care what she does?" He laughed as they both looked to Mal. Behind them were Evie, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Jane and Doug, staring at her with cruel amusement in their eyes._

 _From the side of the group came Maleficent. Her mother laughed gleefully. "I told you that you had no room for love in your life." She paused dramatically. "I suppose I should have mentioned that you weren't worth anyone loving you anyway." She shrugged. "I sure don't. You're nothing more than a rotten little brat that I should have gotten rid of years ago."_

 _Mal felt herself trying not to cry. Audrey's and her other friends apparent betrayal hurt her almost as much as Ben's did, her mother's words stung her more than she ever wanted to admit and she didn't understand why that cloaked figure was there._

And while she tried not to cry there, she again had tears falling in bed.

Tourney practice was not going so well today. That was because Ben, Jay, and Carlos had expected their friends to show up today. They hadn't had cheerleading practice but they still promised to come out for support. So far only Jane had shown up. They had known Doug wouldn't be there because of the chemistry project he was doing.

Chad stopped right near them. "What's the matter guys?" He asked. "Looking for something?"

"None of your business." Jay snapped back.

"Touchy, aren't we?" Chad asked him mockingly. "Did you get ditched by those bad girls?"

"Audrey isn't here either." The young king said, trying to remind him that he was supposed to be friends with both Ben and Audrey.

Chad gave out a derisive snort. "That girl is worse than the other two I think." He stated bitterly. "At least those two know what they are, but Audrey doesn't even realize what she's becoming. She's nothing but a two face bi…"

Jay interrupted him, this time by giving Chad a push in the chest hard. "I'd watch what you say about any of my friends if I were you." He warned. Ben placed his hand on Jay's shoulder to keep him from doing anything else though in truth he wanted to jump in to defend his best friend as well.

"You're the only one who's proving himself to be like that." They heard Lonnie say now as she came up to them. The boys could see her anger mixed with concern, almost panic. Jane was on her way over to them too, being able to read the tension in the Asian girl's body. "You need to lay off of them before someone decides to lay into you."

Chad looked ready to retort back but with the headmistress's daughter coming over to them as well he decided it was best not to push any more buttons right now. "You guys are just lame." He decided as he walked away.

"What's wrong Lonnie?" Jane asked the pink ranger, ignoring Chad as he walked away.

"I was supposed to meet Audrey for breakfast before coming over to the practice field, and she never showed…" Lonnie started.

"They're not here either." Carlos said.

"I can see that." Lonnie replied. "I went by Audrey's room and checked in on her. She's still in bed and when I tried to wake her I didn't get any response."

"What about Mal and Evie?" Ben asked her now.

"I checked on them too. Same thing." Lonnie answered.

"Okay." Jane said nervously. "Jay, go with Lonnie and bring Audrey to Mal and Evie's room." Both of them nodded. "Carlos, Ben, come with me to get some equipment and then we'll meet them there. Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this."

 _Audrey couldn't believe how broken she felt inside. She had never thought Ben would turn his back on her despite their relationship ending. And she was starting to think that Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay would do that either after what they'd been through. The fact that Lonnie, Jane, and Doug had not been there did not enter into her mind._

 _All she had in her mind was the shock and the hurt. She didn't think anything could make this feeling worse. She leaned against the wall, her right side all but pressed into it as she cried. Her head hit the wall a little harder than normal but the princess didn't feel the pain._

 _"What are you crying about?" She heard a voice ask derisively. She turned to come face to face with Chad._

 _Despite everything she knew in her heart she could not reveal the others identities. But there was one thing she could say. "Ben, Mal. Jay…everyone…they all…decided it wasn't worth….being friends. That…that our friendship…wasn't worth it…that they don't want to be around me." She wasn't even sure she was getting out what she wanted to say right._

 _Perhaps the young princess shouldn't have been surprised by the prince's reaction, but it didn't make her feel any better to hear it. "And this surprises you?" He asked in amusement and then waved his hand in dismissal. "You're selfish, you're vain, you're self-absorbed, you're pathetic." He reached out and took her by her shoulders to slam her against the wall. She flinched in pain and then opened her eyes to see Chad glaring at her…was that the same cloaked figure behind him that she saw on screen earlier? He laughed at her again, then took a step back just to slap Audrey in the face hard._

Jay looked down at a sleeping and crying Audrey and for reasons he wasn't sure he could explain even to himself he felt very upset to see her like this. He barely heard Lonnie say, "This is how I found Audrey when I came to check on her." He moved toward the princess and moved a piece of hair out of her face.

Lonnie gathered one of the blankets on a chair in the corner. "Let's meet the others." She said.

"Right." Jay agreed somewhat absently as he lifted Audrey up gently in his arms. The girl almost felt feather light in his arms as he followed the Asian girl out and toward his friend's room.

Carlos, Ben and Jane entered Mal and Evie's rooms and found them in the same condition. The purple haired girl had her crystallized dragon zord on the pillow and perked up in menace for a moment, then upon realizing who had come into the room gave up the pose but still kept its guard up.

Behind them was Dude who jumped onto the bed and licked Evie's face a couple of times as if trying to wake her up but of course got no response. Ben meanwhile was right by Mal's side and taking her hand, trying to pat it gently to wake her up.

Jane felt herself falter just a little as she saw something she didn't think she'd ever see from either of the two isle girls; they were crying. The fact it was in their sleep was beside the point. She went over and felt Evie's forehead. She wasn't running a fever.

"What do you think is wrong with them?" Carlos asked Jane as he sat at the small round table.

"I don't know yet, and I don't want to hazard any guesses until Jay and Lonnie come back with Audrey." Jane answered. She moved to the table and opened up a small kit she had with her. "I would think any monster would set off our alarm system, but can you use the app to do a double check, maybe even access the scanners and do a manual search?"

Carlos nodded. "I'll get right on it." He answered and pulled out his iPhone.

Jay and Lonnie came in. Jay put Audrey down in the unoccupied bed that hadn't been assigned to anyone yet. Jane quickly began to look at the three girls. Jay sat by Audrey while Lonnie wasn't sure where to go and found she couldn't stand still.

After a moment Jane looked up. "They're not just asleep. They're in REM sleep." She revealed.

"Huh?" Carlos asked.

"They're dreaming?" Ben asked incredulously.

"Looks more like nightmares." Lonnie remarked softly as she noticed that Mal and Evie were crying like Audrey was. "Painful ones." She looked to Jane now. "Why won't they wake up?"

Jane frowned now. "I don't know." She admitted. "I think Paradias has to have something to do with it though."

"A monster?" Lonnie asked.

"Not according to the sensors." Carlos replied as he waved his iPhone a little. "I'm currently doing a manual scan for any signs of a monster and so far nothing."

Jay wished that Mal, Audrey and Evie were up right now. He didn't want to sell himself short in the brains department but he also knew that a lot of the ideas came from the three girls who were currently apparently trapped in their own nightmare.

For better or worse though, he seemed to underestimate his friend. "Is there any place in the land that would be immune to the sensors?" Carlos asked as he looked to Jane and Lonnie.

"No." Ben answered simply. "That's just not possible."

Lonnie wanted to agree with him but remembered something she had learned from her mother Mulan. "There might be one place." She said.

"What?" That was Jane, who didn't believe it possible from everything her mother had taught her. "If a place like that did exist, my mom would know about it."

"Not if it went against the belief your mother has developed about magic." Jay pointed out.

"What is it?" Carlos asked her.

Lonnie took a deep breath as she wandered toward the window and moved the curtain to glance outside. "On the outskirts of the coast, facing the Isle of the Lost, is a bluff. No plants grow around it for over 10 miles. Toward the shore's end is a stone object, it has a small top end and two end pieces. My mom called it a torii. She told me a legend that says that it's a portal to the underworld, and that if one stares too long into it, they would get pulled in themselves." She explained to them all. "My mom said that if anything were ever made that could even scan try to scan the area, demonic powers would protect it."

"It sounds like superstitious nonsense." Ben said softly. "But given everything that's happened there might be more truth in it than we're giving credit for."

Jane seemed a bit confused. "Are you saying the devil or some other demon is causing this?" She asked.

"My dad once told me the devil was a small time player compared to some things out in the multiverse." Jay noted dryly.

"No, I don't think it's a demonic thing." Lonnie answered. "But I do think that it would make a great place if they don't want to be found."

Jane knew her three friends were restless and needed something to do. The other truth was that she didn't have any better alternatives. "Why don't the three of you go check it out?" She suggested. "I'll see what I can do from this end and Ben can assist me if I need it."

Jay stood up. "I like that idea." He said simply. Carlos and Lonnie nodded and the three rangers left the room and headed outside, heading toward that shore area.

The three remaining rangers ran as fast as they could, the boys following Lonnie's lead as she was the only one that knew where they were going. Soon it became obvious they were going in the right direction, and that was only reinforced when they saw a soldier looking toward them.

Jay picked up speed, bypassing Lonnie and then jumping up, slamming his fist hard into the creatures head. He released all of his anger and frustration over not being able to figure out or help with the situation up until now, not to mention their brief antagonistic encounter with Chad right into that strike and caused it to disappear. He looked to Carlos and Lonnie. "Time to morph." He said.

Lonnie and Carlos nodded in agreement and took out their iPhones, input their number and transformed. They tried to move as stealthily as they could and with only a few more soldiers that were easily taken out they found themselves at the appropriate clearing. There though they found a huge and unwelcome surprise. The area was all but swarming with soldiers, and just in front of the torii that Lonnie had described to them was a hooded figure, sitting Indian style and levitating slightly off the ground. He seemed unaware of his surroundings

"I'd bet you a pizza slice that that monster over there is the reason the girls are trapped in their nightmares." Carlos whispered to them, though the bet was primarily given to Jay.

"And I bet another slice that I can reach the monster and disrupt his trance before you can." Jay shot back quietly.

Lonnie wished she, Mal, Evie, and Jane had had a chance to do more than just the preliminary work for her idea because it would have been great to have here right now. "We have to get over there as soon as we can." She whispered. "Let's just cut a path through the soldiers and to the monster. Hopefully once that happens we can hold out until the other girls show up."

Jay nodded in agreement, all teasing gone from his face. "Here's what we do. Carlos, Jane, one hand weapon and one blaster. I only have one hand weapon to use so I already know I'll need my blaster. We cut a straight path; hand weapons to cut through those near us we can reach and the blaster to cut down anything we can reach from a distance as we reach that monster." He stated.

"What about behind us?" Carlos asked, aware they were going to be getting cut off from all hope of retreat.

"That's where we hope the girls come in to help in enough time." Jay replied. "We've got to trust they will." He took a deep breath and drew his blaster. "Ready?"

With clawed dagger or tessen in one hand and blaster in the other, the yellow and pink ranger gave the black ranger a nod and then the three of them came out from their hiding spot and started to blast at the soldiers. Few were smart enough to block with their blades but the numbers made it so that very soon the three rangers were doing more hand to hand maneuvers than blasting.

"Good thing these guys are as dumb as a rock." Carlos noted dryly.

"Yeah, but they make up for that with swarming numbers." Lonnie also noted as she took one down herself. "I don't know how much time we have left, if there's a time when pulling the girls out of those nightmares are going to become impossible?" She mused.

"Then we have to speed this up." Jay said. They continued on their way to the hooded monster and through sheer determination got just enough clearing that all three rangers leapt into the air and brought their weapons down on the creature at the same time. For a moment it looked as if time had stopped.

 _Mal tried to look between her friends and her mother, her visions blurred by the tears she didn't want to shed in the nightmare but were falling in real life. None of them would listen to her pleas trying to get answers on what had gone wrong, not even Ben._

 _"This is why you can't depend on anyone but yourself Mal." Maleficent said as she leaned down toward her daughter. "This is why you should embrace the evil within."_

 _From the corner of her eye she saw Lonnie step forward now and she braced herself for another insult from one of her friends. Then Lonnie laughed a little, "This is kind of bizarre. Even with us here your mother still makes an appearance." Both the hooded figure in the back and Maleficent looked at the girl oddly._

 _"What?" Mal asked, confused._

 _"You remember your mother is in the castle? That nice little terrarium thing until her heart grows or something?" Lonnie asked her._

 _"What are you talking about brat?" Maleficent asked._

 _Lonnie looked to the doppelganger. "Let me make this easy for you. You're not real." She stated simply. She shot a round house kick to Maleficent and she vanished. She looked to the hooded figure. "You are, and you've been evicted." She stated and then sent a flying kick his way that caused him to shatter, as did everything around the two girls._

 _Mal looked up as Lonnie kneeled down next to her. "Time to join us back in the real world Mal." She took her hands and squeezed gently. "Your friends, and your prince, await you." Then everything went white._

 _Evie had her hands over her ears, trying to drown out the others taunts. It wasn't quiet working and that was why the new noise suddenly caught her attention. "This isn't reality Evie." It was from Carlos. "Jay and I were your friends long before Mal was even a real part of the picture." She looked up to see him push his way past Jay and Mal. He knelt down before her. "We're your real friends and we need you. Mal is lying near you right now going through this thing too, not in here taunting you, reminding you of what was once but would never be again."_

 _"She is?" Evie asked, again vaguely remembering waking Mal up what seemed to be ages ago from a nightmare of her own. "Is this a dream?"_

 _"More like a nightmare." Carlos corrected. Evie saw the hooded figure coming in from behind him but before the blue haired girl could get a warning off he added, "And speaking of." He turned around and kicked the hooded figure, making him shatter. He then looked to Evie. "We need you now Evie, wake up please." Then everything went white._

 _Audrey pressed her hand to her face and found blood coming from her lip, just as it had with Ben when Chad had attacked him in the chemistry room. "Quite a right hand." Audrey managed to get out through her tears._

 _"You haven't seen anything yet." Chad said menacingly. He drew his fist back, ready to Audrey in the face again, and for some reason the princess couldn't think to do anything except for try to brace herself for the painful impact._

 _She heard a gasp and opened her eyes to that had been Chad as Jay grabbed his fist and turned him around. "I've wanted to do this ever since I met you." Jay said calmly before he reared back and punched Chad in the face hard. He stumbled to the ground, seemingly unconscious._

 _Both Jay and Audrey turned around to see his doppelganger and their friends in the hall. Jay reached over and took the iPhone from Mal's doppelganger and offered it to Audrey. "I believe this is yours." He said._

 _Audrey seemed confused. "But…you guys…decided to drop me…" She said softly._

 _"After what we've been through?" Jay questioned and laughed a little. "Not going to happen. You're one of us wicked kids now rather you like it or not." He placed the iPhone in her hand. "That won't change."_

 _"Oh, Jay." Audrey whispered softly and then flung her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. She swore she felt his arms go around her as well for a minute._

 _Then he pulled back. "One more thing." He suddenly reached over and took a book from Jane's hand and hurled it as hard as he could into the head of the hooded figure, which shattered on impact. Then he turned toward Audrey. "Time to wake up, sleeping beauty." Then everything turned white._

"I don't know what to do." Jane said to Ben softly. "I can't wake them up. Whoever is in their nightmares has to tight of a hold on them." She looked to the young king. "It's in their hands now."

"How much longer do you think it will be?" Ben asked. Jane couldn't answer that but after another fifteen minutes or so Mal shot up and looked around. "Mal?" He asked.

She looked at Ben a moment as if she couldn't believe he was there. "Ben." She gasped and then threw her arms around him and hugged him hard. "You're here, you're here." She hesitated. "Are…am I still yours?" She asked.

"Yes Mal." Ben answered softly as he hugged her back. "And I'm still yours."

They enjoyed the embrace for another moment before Mal got out of bed and asked, "Evie?" Audrey?"

Jane was about ready to answer when Evie woke next. She looked to the purple haired girl and asked tentatively, "Mal?" As if she were afraid of her…kind of like when they were younger.

"Oh, Evie." Mal sat beside her and hugged her. "It's okay, it's alright. I'm right here, as are Ben and Jane."

They all jumped slightly as Audrey sat up calling out, "Jay, wait." Then she realized where she was but didn't have any time to react as both of the girls were up and hugging her tightly, Ben right behind them.

Jane smiled, tears in her eyes. _I'm glad the team…my family, is awake and whole again. But they won't be for long unless…_ "I hate to interrupt you guys but Lonnie and the boys still need you."

Mal kissed Ben on the lips with a passion that caught him off guard. She then looked to her two friends. "Let's make this Invader of Nightmares pay for what he put us through." She stated as she took her iPhone and tossed Audrey and Evie theirs.

Audrey and Evie nodded. "With pleasure." They agreed at the same time. They ran out of the dorm and as soon as they were clear but in the open they input their numbers and morphed, then moved as quickly as they could to help their friends.

"How dare you little brats disrupt my wanderings?" The hooded figure growled as he glared at the three rangers.

"You're the one intruding into our friend's minds." Lonnie shot back. "You're the one in the wrong here."

Carlos couldn't help but noticed they were blocked off from all escape from the soldiers while their hooded adversary was right in front of them. Granted he had nowhere to go either as far as they could tell but there was no guarantee even their ranger powers would protect them from a long fall into the ocean.

The hooded figure leapt at them and smashed both his fists into Carlos. He swung at Lonnie and Jay next but both rangers evaded the attack. The pink ranger had the misfortune of running right into a group of soldiers that promptly tried to pin her down. It was a distraction if nothing else. Carlos likewise was getting piled up against as well. One on one the hooded figure was proving to be an equal match for the black ranger.

Then the soldiers started getting blasted from behind as Mal, Audrey and Evie appeared from the forests. More helpful than that though was the roaring stream of dragon fire that erupted from Mal's freed zord. "Let's even up the odds some." The purple ranger decided.

Audrey leapt in the air and released an arrow from her bow that struck the monster head on. "That's what you get for trying to manipulate us." The red ranger snapped and then knelt down next to Jay. "Are you okay?" She asked, her hand going to his shoulder.

"Just fine." Jay promised as he reached up and set his hand on top of hers. "And I'm glad to see you guys are too."

Audrey felt a bit hot underneath her helmet all of a sudden. "Then let's finish this off." She tried to say nonchalantly.

The large dragon zord had driven off the soldiers and the monster was all that was left. "You're going to pay for what you tried to do Invader of Nightmare." Mal promised.

"You can't stop me fools." He said.

"I think we can." Evie said. "I think you were relying on being able to divide and conquer us, because you don't have the power to take us head on."

"And it's time to find out about that." Audrey agreed. "Let's do it."

Carlos and Lonnie went first, striking the hooded monster with the double clawed daggers and double tessen. That was followed up by Mal and Jay striking with staff and scimitar, and then as they landed Audrey let an arrow fly toward Evie, who used her shield to deflect it at the monster. That was followed by a separate arrow from the red ranger. He landed hard on the ground.

"Just as we thought." Lonnie said. "You're like any nightmare, an illusion of power that can't stand up to the scrutiny of the light and the truth." She looked to her friends. "Let's end this nightmare one and for all."

The six teens combined their weapons; staff and then bow under it followed by shield and topped by scimitar, tessen and daggers. With the Auradon blaster ready to go they easily destroyed the monster.

They powered down and as Mal miniaturized her dragon zord and thanked him for the help in clearing the soldiers, Audrey threw her arms around Lonnie and Carlos now, hugging tightly for a moment. It seemed to catch the other princess off guard and it certainly caught Carlos off guard.

Then both Evie and Mal took turns giving their friends tight hugs. It made Lonnie wonder fully what had happened to them in their nightmares. Illusions they might have been but that didn't completely erase their power.

"Come on you guys." Mal said. "After the day I've had, I can't wait to be around Ben again. Let's go back home."

As the group started back Carlos whispered to Lonnie, "I'm glad that's over and done."

"Sure the monster is done." Lonnie replied back quietly. "But as for everything being done, I don't know about that." He looked at the Asian girl questioningly and she explained, "It was more than the average nightmare and just because it was just that it doesn't necessarily dismiss the trauma they endured." She glanced at her three friends, wondering what was going through their minds despite the tough façade they were throwing out there, and as she recalled some considered nightmares a foreshadowing of reality, if anything they perceived could end up becoming reality.


	12. Darkest Knight Part 1

Today was a big day as the Auradon's Fighting Knights took on the Sherwood Forest Falcons in a highly anticipated rematch. That first tourney match was also the first time that Jay and Carlos had played for their school and the black ranger and become the MVP of the game.

That also meant that Audrey, Mal and Evie were on the side of the field cheering. Though they weren't sure why both Mal and Evie had noticed that Audrey seemed even more, well cheery than usual despite their recent nightmare scenario. None of the girls had spoken to anyone about what had transpired though something seemed to have been good for Audrey in the end.

In the front row Jane, Doug and Lonnie with Dude in tow as they sat in support of their friends as they played one of the toughest games of the season. Of course as far as Jay and Carlos were concerned a lot had changed since then, including their time as rangers. Tourney suddenly seemed a lot easier to manage, even on this level.

It was a hard fought game that ended with Jay passing Ben the ball for the winning goal, beating one of their biggest rivals yet again. The cheerleaders rushed the field to congratulate the team, with Mal throwing herself into Ben's arms and giving him a kiss that had only been beaten by the one she had given him upon waking from her nightmare.

Audrey stopped short of throwing her arms around Jay though she did give him one of her brightest smiles. "You did good out there, I mean all of you did good out there." She said, kind of shyly.

Jay felt himself flush a little and quickly tried to chalk it up to the exhilarating game. "Thanks. You looked good out there, too. I mean your squad." He replied.

Audrey again tried to extend the olive branch to Chad, who was supposed to be her and Ben's friend after all. "You did really great too Chad." She said.

Ben caught onto what she was trying to do as well. "Yeah, great game man." He added.

Chad shook his head. "Yeah, great game." He drolled. "I remember when it was you and I at the head of the team, now Jay over here has to hog the spotlight."

"Dude, it's called team work." Mal reminded him with just a bit of exasperation in her voice. She understood their arrival hadn't been the most welcome but at this point everyone else seemed to have gotten over it. Granted she knew he didn't have the same bonding experience that Audrey had ended up with since becoming rangers, but it was still getting tiresome."

"You did get a few points yourself." Audrey tried to remind him helpfully. Of course she knew that both Ben and Jay had gotten a couple more than that. Carlos had been a big asset to both of their success as well.

"You know what, Audrey?" He snapped. "Just shut up and stay out of it."

Audrey tried not show how much that got to her as Jay now stood toe to toe with Chad. "I've had enough of you snapping at her, and everyone else." He said.

"And you intend to do what about it?" Chad demanded to know.

Jay probably would have followed up on the fantasy hit he had given nightmare Chad in Audrey's nightmare if Ben hadn't stepped in at that moment. "Hey, come on guys. We just had a great victory. Pizza's my treat." He looked to Mal and Evie. He couldn't see Audrey from his position keeping Jay and Chad apart. "The cheerleaders can come along too; they were just as inspirational to the crowd as any play we made."

"Sounds good." Jay said as he backed away from the prince but still was glaring daggers his way. Chad for his part said nothing but also stepped away with that same look.

The teams headed for the locker room with a promise to meet at the bleachers. A few students also stuck around including Lonnie, Jane and Doug. He actually reached out to touch Evie's arm and when the blue haired girl looked at him he said, "You looked awesome out there."

"Thanks." Evie said, intentionally shaking her hair a bit around her face to hide the small blush coming to her cheeks. Then she added, "We're going to go change and stuff, stick around and we can…talk or work on something or…or whatever."

"Sure." Doug said with a slight catch in his voice.

Then Ben was right beside Doug. "Hey, man. Do me a favor and order the pizzas." The young king requested as he gave him his credit card. "We'll be out in a few."

Lonnie, Jane and a few other students ran back to the cafeteria to get some drinks. One of them was actually a friend of the group; Ally the daughter of Alice Liddell. Doug meanwhile ordered the pizzas and by the time he had placed the orders others had set up tables and the drinks were out.

Jay and Carlos had shown up minutes after wards. Doug and the two girls took their chance to congratulate them on the well-played game. Soon after that Mal, Evie and Audrey were out and Lonnie pulled the former evil kids aside along with Jane for some quick shop talk. Carlos took Dude as and started to run him through a few tricks. For a moment that left Audrey and Jay alone. It felt awkward but not in bad sense. It was still a new feeling to the former bad boy and a vaguely unfamiliar one for the princess.

"So, uh…any trouble sleeping since that Invader of Nightmare guy a couple nights ago?" Jay asked her as they sat on the bleachers.

"No." Audrey said. "It's like…I guess everything was brought up so quickly there hasn't been time for anything else to follow it."

"That's good, I think." Jay said. Audrey's burst of emotion toward him and his reaction to that still hung on their minds but they weren't sure what it meant, if anything. Part of Audrey almost wondered if that last part had been real but she couldn't figure out why else Jay would be acting as bizarre as she felt.

"I never figured out though why it was just Mal, Evie and I." Audrey finally said a bit softly. "Why weren't you, Carlos and Lonnie affected?"

"Because I'm a man, and we don't have nightmares." Jay tried to preen but saw that Audrey was being serious and just shrugged. "I don't know, Audrey. I kind of wondered that too. Carlos thought that maybe Paradias was trying to go after the most intuitive ones."

"That doesn't seem likely." Audrey replied. "Lonnie is way more intuitive than I am. I mean it was her idea to check that torii thing by the far shore after all, even knowing the legend behind it."

Jay sighed a bit. "I wish I had the answer for you…you girls." He said abruptly. "But the only one who has them is currently lurking somewhere waiting for his next right time to strike."

The knight entered the bridge and knelt before both Paradias and Nerissa. "You have summoned me and I have come. What is your demand?" He asked.

Paradias rose and started down toward the mystery knight. "I have been examining Auradon's files and I know what I need now." He placed a small pad in front of the knight. "Find this and bring it to me. To do so though you will have to do one thing first. Deactivate the command center."

"It shall be done." The knight promised.

"This is actually a two for one deal." Nerissa said happily from behind her master. "Not only do we achieve one of our objectives but we also eliminate one of the ranger's biggest assets, aside from those damn zords."

"This is only the beginning of what I have planned." Paradias said. "Though it will soon be the last plans that involve the rangers before they meet their end."

Fairy Godmother was working on correcting an oversight that hadn't been revealed until recently. Trying to find a way to keep the entire island covered with their sensors as she had recently learned from Jane about the torii herself. She had hoped her daughter would come by to help after the game but assumed that if the team won her friends would encourage her to stay for the celebration. She could hardly begrudge her that since she had finally realized that until recently her daughter had not really been very social with other students.

One of the tools slipped from her hands and she turned to retrieve it only to find herself looking up at the knight. He had entered the command center, which seemed odd to her as only those in Auradon could enter the command center without setting off an alarm, and even then only select faculty and even more select students knew about it in the first place.

The knight lashed out and struck Fairy Godmother hard, knocking her out. He then raised his sword and unleashed a stream of energy into each of the consoles, causing many to blow apart, a few lucked out and merely short circuited. Very little of the area was intact.

With that the knight started toward a smaller hidden staircase to the side of the command area and descended down it for his next objective and completion of the mission.

"You really think this will work?" Jane asked curiously. She knew of course that initial idea would work, that much had been proven during Lonnie's hip hop act. The challenge came from the idea that they had to add in a separate chemical for effect that wasn't simply show and then get it placed into their powers matrix.

"I don't see why not." Evie replied with a shrug. "I think I already know how to mix in the needed chemical for this."

"That should be a snap for you Evie." Mal said with a smile. "You're great at this kind of thing, I think you're better at this than Doug is."

"I wouldn't say that." Evie replied but couldn't hide a small smile after the given compliment. It especially felt good to hear after her nightmare where the purple haired girl, practically a sister, had rejected their friendship. "But maybe someday. Anyway, we'd have to convert that into a gaseous state but that should be easy enough."

"Once that's done I can figure out how to overlay that in the power matrix easily enough." Jane noted and smiled a bit. "You're right, I think we can make this work."

Carlos interrupted the girls when the pizza showed up and they had started over toward it when Mal frowned. "Guys, hasn't Ben shown up yet?" She asked.

In truth of course no one had been paying attention since Carlos was busy with Dude, Jay and Audrey had been trying to make small talks in between sips from their water bottles and the rest of them had been hammering out the details for Lonnie's idea. It was Audrey who shook her head. "It doesn't look like he's here."

"You two check the locker room, maybe something happened in there." Mal instructed Jay and Carlos. The two boys nodded and headed off with Dude after them. She looked to Doug and the girls. "Could something have happened that required the king?" She asked.

"Anything is possible." Doug answered. "But honestly I don't know of anything scheduled."

Moments later the two boys came back. "The locker room is empty." Jay announced.

"I'm going to give Ben a call and see what's up." Audrey decided as she pulled out her iPhone.

Carlos realized something and pulled out his iPhone as well and frowned. "I think something is wrong." He announced.

"Monster attack?" Lonnie asked.

"I don't know, and that's the weird thing." He answered as he showed them his phone. "I had my iPhone's sensor app going when we were dealing with the nightmare thing and forgot to turn it off. I went to sign off now but it can't access the application."

"I know mom was working on trying to cover the blank spots in our grid." Jane revealed. "She wanted me to come help but said if we won and I was asked to stay for the celebration that I should do so."

"No answer from Ben's phone." Audrey said worriedly.

"Is that related to the app problem?" Jay asked.

Jane shook her head. "It couldn't be. At the heart we all still have iPhones. Your six phones have simply been modified to make use of the crystals that serve as the source of your powers. Ben, Doug and I have a regular iPhone, barring of course the unique apps we need for our jobs."

"I don't know if it's just a sensor glitch or not but I think we should go to the command center and see what's going on." Mal stated. There were nods of agreements from her team mates, ranger and civilian alike as they ran off.

A feeling of dread started to envelope the team and soon Jane was ahead of everyone else as she grew very concerned for her mother. She was the first into the center and let out a scream of alarm as a console ruptured in front of her.

The others were right behind her. "What happened here?" Lonnie gasped.

"Mom?!" Jane called out in a panic. "Where are you!?"

Mal just barely made out a figure under some of the panels. "Oh my gosh, over there." She exclaimed. "Jay, give me a hand." The two teens made their way over and pushed off the panel to reveal an unconscious Fairy Godmother.

Jane knelt beside the still form of her mother. "No…I should have come here…maybe I could have prevented this." She said softly.

"She's still alive." Mal promised her, and as if on cue they saw her chest rising and falling.

"If you had been here then there is also the chance that Mal and Jay would have had to unbury you too." Carlos said to Jane as he placed his hands gently on her shoulders. "You can't blame yourself for what happened."

"What did happen here?" Audrey asked as Doug disconnected the consoles from the power to eliminate the random surges that were still going on.

"Who could have attacked the command center?" Lonnie asked.

"Paradias?" Jay asked.

Jane shook her head to focus her thoughts. "No." She finally answered. "If Paradias or any of his monsters even managed to set foot on campus without panicking everyone, coming into the command center would have."

"Is there even any reason to come down here?" Evie asked. "I mean aside from the obvious."

No one had an answer for that, which made sense since the secret room the knight entered had only been known about by Fairy Godmother…and somehow Paradias.

Then one of the few surviving consoles working off battery power went off, which connected to the screen. On it were a bunch of soldiers and they were surrounding Ben, who was bound to a post in the ground. Then the knight came forward. "Rangers." He announced. "I know you can hear me. If you don't show up and confront me in ten minutes then you will be looking for a new ruler of your precious Auradon." Then the screen went blank.

"That was the canyon just shy of the beach." Audrey stated. The class had gone down there many times during the weekend though it hadn't happened since Mal and her chosen siblings had come to the school.

Mal stood up. "Doug, get Fairy Godmother to the infirmary. Then come back here and help Jane get things going again." She looked to her friend and frowned sympathetically. "I know you're worried about your mom Jane but if she were able to she would tell you to focus on keeping everyone safe and that means you have to start restoring these consoles."

Jane took a moment to fight back her tears. The old Jane, as it were, probably couldn't have handled this. The Jane she had become since taking up helping the ranger's would find a way. "I'll get on it." She promised but added, "Please, be careful."

"We will be." Mal promised. Then she looked to her team mates. "They can try to kill me, they can give me horrible nightmares and put me under love spells. That's fine. But they mess with my boyfriend and they pay the price." She gave them an almost cold smile. "Let's get out there and make that knight pay for this." Her team mates nodded in agreement.

They made their way to the canyon and just short of it stopped, took out their iPhones and after experiencing a moment of joy that their morphers worked despite the damage to the command center they entered their numbers and transformed.

They found more soldiers than they liked and the knight waiting for them, with a bound Ben in the back. "We're here, now let my bo…our king go." Mal ordered the knight.

"You want him back, then you're going to have to get him." The knight replied and then pointed his sword at the rangers. "Get them." All the purple skinned green eyed goons charged toward the teens.

The six of them formed their weapons and started to battle back. Very soon the knight made his way into the heart of combat and systematically started to attack each and every one of the rangers even as they did their best to take out the soldiers. It actually reminded Lonnie and the boys of the amounts they faced down to defeat the Invader of Nightmares.

"I hope you appreciate what I did to your command center." The knight gloated to Mal as he slashed at her. "Maybe your little fairy godmother will survive, if she's lucky."

"You did all that to the command center?" The purple ranger questioned in shock. "How could you? How did you get in there? Who are you?"

"I did it because my master Paradias commanded it to be done." The knight answered. "And who I am is a question that you will all take to your graves." He slashed Mal hard and she fell back, struggling to avoid being grabbed by the soldiers.

Audrey recovered from the latest assault and cut through some of the soldiers and then made her way to free her best friend when all of a sudden Ben and the post were gone. "What? Where did he go?" She asked as she then had to turn around to deal with more soldiers.

"Where is he? Where is Ben?" Mal demanded to know as she renewed her attack on the knight, but her focus was way off as she did so.

The knight blocked her attacks easily. "If you want to know where Ben is, you will have to defeat me. And you can't do it alone." He retorted.

The other five rangers were trying to make their way to Mal, each of them concerned about their friend as well. But the soldier seemed to be numerous and overwhelming. None of them were getting as close to helping their friend take out the knight and finding out about Ben.

Their opponent seemed to be enjoying their predicament and then finally called out, "Away with you all. It's time to see what they can really do." The soldier started to back up. "The last time we truly clashed I defeated you all."

"That was before our sixth ranger." Mal reminded him hotly. "And that was before you all got on my bad side for targeting my boyfriend."

"How little you understand." The knight said amused. "But I promise you, I might just make sure you understand before I put you down." He gestured for them to attack. "Let the battle commence."

Audrey and Mal, the rangers most connected to Ben, moved in to attack the knight first. He raised his shield and blocked both staff and bow attack and then pulled the shield to send their weapons off course before he took a savage swipe at both girls and knocked them back.

Lonnie and Carlos tried next, but he blocked the smaller weapons with his larger sword and then shield bashed Carlos hard, sending him sprawling. Had he not been morphed it probably would have broken his nose. Then he turned to Lonnie and brought the sword down hard on her shoulder, then kicked her in the chest and sent her flying hard, almost as hard as the landing was.

Now Jay and Evie moved in. Jay slashed at him with his scimitar and the knight dodged. He launched an attack but Evie moved in as the black ranger dodged back and she took the impact, intending to reflect it right back. He dodged the attack and leapt up, bringing the sword down against Evie hard and the shield against Jay hard. As the two of them fell back they were joined by their other team members.

"Why are we having such a hard time here?" Mal wondered, feeling upset, fearing if they couldn't defeat the knight she would lose Ben forever.

"Calm down Mal." Evie said, almost afraid that her purple haired friend would snap at her. Part of that came from the recent nightmare and part of it came from a slightly closer reality; Chad constantly attacking Audrey despite her attempts to be friendly.

Mal took a moment to touch her friend's shoulder reassuringly. "Let's try the Auradon Triangle Spark, that's what worked last time and we have Lonnie to help us now." Evie nodded in agreement, and a moment later so did the others.

"I'm waiting rangers." The knight taunted them. "Show me your true powers so that I may show you mine."

Evie, Audrey and Lonnie stood side by side, followed moments later by Jay and Carlos jumped on their shoulders, followed by Mal getting on the guys shoulders. They drew their blasters and fired their attack on him.

The knight laughed as he angled his shield to catch the blast and then kind of used Evie's own trick against them and sent them all flying in different directions. They landed hard and were forced to power down. He stood over them now. "When it really came down to it, we just got in the final proof. You are nothing." He stated.

"Give me back my boyfriend." Mal tried to demand, though it came out sounding weak.

The knight laughed at her. "You tried and you failed. You will never see your boyfriend again." He then disappeared.

"NO!" Mal cried out and tried to tackle him but the move was futile. She fell to the ground and felt tears falling from her eyes. Audrey and Evie knelt on either side of her, trying to console her. After a few moments she gently shook them off and stood to look at them. "No. We haven't lost Ben yet. We will get him back and we will make that knight pay."

"We've got your back Mal." Jay promised. "No matter what."

Dejectedly the team returned back to the command center. It was still in so much disarray. Jane and Doug were working on repairs. Jane frowned softly. "All I was told by the nurse was that she was breathing easily and that if something changed she would call me." She pointed to her cell phone on a console.

"Where's Ben?" Doug asked worriedly.

"Paradias still has him, we failed to destroy the knight." Mal informed them, her voice wavering between sadness, anger and even despair. "But we can't give up yet, we're going to get him back and we're going to stop that knight once and for all."


	13. Darkest Knight Part 2

"This is going to take a lot of time to repair." Jane said despondently. She tossed a circuit board aside as she checked on another one. Carlos and Doug were working with her while the rest of the team tried to clean the area up, being back seated otherwise. "Right now I can't even tell you how much time but it won't be short."

"We don't have a lot of time for this." Mal said with a sigh. "Ben's missing, the knight all but went rampagy on us, and I'm sure Paradias will have something else in store."

"I understand what you're saying." Audrey assured the purple haired girl. "But there's nothing we can do about it but let them do their repairs and wait it out."

The sensors were somewhat working again and it now showed a new image on screen. It was Ben, and somehow he had escaped from his bindings. He had soldiers pursuing him. All six of the rangers got up but Mal looked to Carlos. "Stay here and help Jane and Doug, we're just going to get Ben and get back here."

Carlos reluctantly conceded. "Okay, just be careful." He said.

The five rangers pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed. They quickly made their way to Ben, who was heading toward Auradon Prep anyway. Jay, Lonnie, Audrey, and Evie jumped the soldiers while Mal hugged Ben for a moment and then pulled away. "We have to get out of here while we still can…I thought I lost you." She said.

"Don't worry, M. It's okay now, I'm back." Ben said as took her hand. "Now let's get out of here before that knight shows up."

Audrey shot out a few arrows and said, "Time to go guys." The team made a quick retreat back through the gates and away from the encroaching soldiers.

"How'd you get out?" Jay asked Ben.

"They had to take off my chains in order to do whatever they wanted to do with me after they took me before Audrey could get me." Ben explained to them. "I chose that opportunity to get away. Serves them right for underestimating me just because I don't have powers."

"Yeah, that's showing them." Mal agreed, feeling happy that he was alright. The four powered down and they came to the command center.

"Wow." Ben looked shocked. "Dare I ask what happened here?"

"That knight bragged to me about causing all this damage and injuring Fairy Godmother." Mal said with some disgust in her voice. "That was right up there with kidnapping you apparently."

"Glad to see you're okay." Carlos said as he looked up happily from a console. "We were worried about you."

"It's one problem down, and we have a pretty big list on our hands right now." Doug added.

They started to again tidy up the command center even though the huge work needed to be done with the consoles and systems. A short while later though Ben received a text. "Looks like there's going to be an emergency council session." He revealed. "Something about assessing the situation given Paradias's attacks."

"What does that mean?" Evie asked him.

"Don't know, but I guess I'll find out." Ben replied and looked to Mal. "Care to walk me to the meeting room?"

"That'd be great." Mal said. She looked to her team. "I'll be back in a few minutes' guys."

"Be careful." Lonnie said. "If Paradias wanted to try anything really risky this would be the best time." Mal nodded in understanding.

"This knight guy really has you spooked." Ben said to Mal as they ascended the stair.

"How can he not?" Mal asked softly. "He's been a challenge since day one, has come on top more often than not in our fights and he somehow got into the command center without setting off any alarms, injured Fairy Godmother and all but destroyed our command center, crippling us heavily." She sighed a bit. "Sounding a bit melodramatic, huh?"

"I can't say I blame you." Ben assured her. "This guy is proving to be something else."

"I still don't understand how he got in in the first place." Mal added. "Jane says that Paradias or any of his little minions would have set off an alarm in the command center."

"I'd guess it's broken then." Ben said simply. "Or has a bug in the system that needs to be worked out."

They walked in what seemed like companionable silence for a minute and Mal laid her head on Ben's shoulder. "This feels so nice." She admitted softly. "After that nightmare thing that went on."

"Yeah, that was something." Ben agreed nervously.

They approached the meeting hall. Mal cocked her head a bit and it took her a minute to realize what seemed so weird. "I don't hear anyone inside." She noted. "Usually we should be able to hear something from inside."

"We must be early." Ben said soothingly. "That's fine I can take a few minutes to collect my thoughts. Being kidnapped isn't nearly as much fun as some people might think it is." He added as a joke.

"Alright." Mal relented, mainly because she wanted to go back to the team and figure out how to deal with the knight. "Text me when you get out and I'll meet you out here."

"Sounds good." Ben said and kissed her on the cheek.

Mal turned around and started toward the command center again, but she only had taken a few steps before everything went black…

"We have the purple ranger as you wanted." Nerissa said to Paradias. "Where are we sending her?"

"To a place long since forgotten." Paradias answered her. "At one point it was used by fellow sorcerers of evil that went by the name of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, where she will not be able to use her ranger powers and there is no hope of escape." He turned to look at Nerissa. "She may be the key to stopping that knight and I cannot allow this."

"What do you intend to do?" Nerissa asked.

"I intend to destroy the daughter of Maleficent myself." Paradias answered.

Mal had to blink in order to bring her eyesight back into focus. "Where am I?" She wondered aloud. "What happened?" She looked around to realize it seemed like a small room with bars on all sides of what looked like to be black windows, it was full of fog though she couldn't figure out why.

She approached one of the bars and reached out touch it only to receive something very similar to an electric shock. "Ooh, what the heck was that?" She asked. She turned around. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

She heard Paradias laugh as he appeared in front of her. "I can hear you just fine my dear." He replied. "Thanks to a friend of mine you have been brought here to me. Welcome to the Dark Dimension."

"What kind of lame generic name is that?" Mal wondered as she tensed, ready for a fight.

"Perhaps a tad uncreative I concede." Paradias commented simply as he started to walk toward the purple haired girl. She was trying to avoid him and they were soon pacing each other. "But this place has been around for a long time and was once used by two of the more powerful evil sorcerers to ever use this exist in the multiverse."

"Just what you need, more help." Mal remarked dryly.

Paradias laughed. "You won't even have to worry about that, this will end right now." He formed an energy blade. "I intend to end you right now."

"I won't be that easy to deal with." Mal promised as she reached for her iPhone only to realize something; she didn't have it. She didn't want her opponent to know that though. "Just you wait, don't piss me off Paradias."

He laughed again. "You seem to be hesitating for some reason. Are you by any chance missing something?" From his other hand was he showed her the iPhone she was looking for. "If you want this you'll have to take it from me."

"I've been wanting to take you apart anyway." Mal declared. She moved forward to confront him and had to take a step back though as he swung the energy blade at Mal. She lashed out a kick that caught him in the shoulder but to little effect.

"Without your powers you're nothing more than a weak little girl from the a dejected little island." Paradias mocked. "I warned you that I could take you and yours apart without a problem if I so chose to."

"I figured you were all talk." Mal responded though in fact she had easily decided that it was not all talk, she just didn't want to admit she hated her odds right now. "After all your so 'strong'" She had to air quote that one just for kicks, "that the only way you could face this 'weak little girl'" Again with the air quotes. "Was to somehow steal her morpher from her."

Paradias laughed and said simply, "I can live with that." He then lashed out and struck her hard and she fell to the ground. He tried to stab her but she caught his wrist and twisted it enough to push him back.

 _I have to get my iPhone back, or at least make him lose that energy blade._ Mal thought to herself. She tried attacking him again, focusing on his wrist and arm but either he was great at absorbing pain or he was tougher than he looked because she wasn't able to disarm him and she wasn't even sure where he was keeping her iPhone.

Jay and Evie had just finished moving some of the twisted metal aside and as Audrey wiped her hands on a cloth from working on gathering up some burnt out circuits the blue haired girl looked around and suddenly realized something. "Shouldn't Mal be back by now?" She asked.

"If she was just escorting Ben to the meeting hall, she should be." Audrey agreed as she looked up.

"We have enough weirdness going on right now." Lonnie said simply. "I'm going to text Mal and Ben and see where she is."

"Good idea." Jay agreed as he went over and grabbed another piece of scrap metal. "Hey Jane, Carlos, how hard is it going to replace these things?" He wondered.

"Getting the material to replace the outsides is easy enough." Carlos answered dismissively.

"He's right." Jane confirmed as she worked on a motherboard. "It's some of the internal wiring that I'd be more worried about, but I think we can at least jury rig something for the sensors pretty quickly here."

They continued to work for another couple of minutes before Lonnie got a text response back. She read it from her iPhone and then told the others, "Ben says they're in the meeting right now and he urged Mal to stay and help impress upon everyone the 'dire nature of our situation'."

"Might not be a bad idea." Carlos noted as he looked around the command center. "We could use a lot of repair help right now."

Audrey frowned a moment. "Wait a second guys." She stated. "Remember when Ben suggested I take the red rangers powers since he couldn't bond with it for whatever reason."

"Sure." Jane answered somewhat absent mindedly as she was working on another of the consoles. "We still haven't figured out why he was rejected I the first place."

"Then you'll also remember that your mother impressed upon us all that we couldn't reveal this secret." Audrey replied and now she looked at everyone around her. "So how can Mal make such an impact with the council without revealing this secret?"

"Well desperate times can call for desperate measures." Doug reminded the princess.

"They might." Evie had to agree as she now stood up. "But Mal wouldn't go and reveal this. Not without consulting us first."

Everyone hesitated a moment, not wanting to give voice to the thought that was running around unbidden in their heads. It was finally Jay who took that step. "So…are we thinking that Ben lied to us?" He asked.

"Why would he do that?" Carlos added.

"I suppose it could be they just wanted some time alone." Lonnie tried to speculate uncertainly. Despite it being her suggestion she found she couldn't believe that.

Evie basically dashed that thought out. "Mal would never to do that when something serious is going on." The blue haired girl said. "She's too focused, even too stubborn, to get distracted from what she wants done, whatever it may be."

"You two know each other so well." Carlos felt the need to point out, knowing she felt a little unsecure about her friendship with Mal thanks to that Invader of Nightmares monster.

The alarms sounded again and the screen revealed the knight had returned. This time he hadn't issued a direct challenge to the rangers but just his presence was basically a challenge in itself.

"What does he want now?" Carlos wondered.

"There's only one way to find out." Audrey said. "We have to go meet him." None of the others argued and Audrey looked to Doug. "I don't care what kind of impression Ben expects Mal to leave, we need her if we want to have any hope of beating that knight. Go pull her from that meeting and send her our way."

"I'll take care of it." Doug promised.

"Find out about my mom too please." Jane called after him and then looked to Audrey. "I'll continue doing what I can here."

Audrey nodded. "Good idea. Try to keep an eye on your surroundings though, we don't want what happened to your mother to happen to you too." The girl nodded in understanding, a bit misty eyed at the concern in the princesses voice, that kind of comment from her was still a rare thing. "Okay guys, let's get to work." The five of them pulled out their iPhones as they ascended the stairs and after clearing the building they input their numbers and transformed.

They found their opponent easily enough as if he had been waiting for them. "We have to stop meeting like this." Lonnie said deadpan.

"We will soon enough." The knight promised. "Missing someone?"

"She'll be along soon enough." Carlos revealed.

The knight had to laugh at that one. "I highly doubt that." He replied. He then drew his sword and charged the rangers.

Jay moved in fast with his scimitar and clashed with him, the two locking their bladed weapons together instantly. Lonnie and Carlos tried to move in from either side of him only for him to bash his shield against one of them hard, Lonnie this time. Then he angled his sword to slip out of the scimitar and slashed Carlos right before doing the same thing to Jay.

Audrey shot an arrow at him and he intercepted it with his shield. She took that chance to jump in and kick the shield hard, forcing him to lose his balance for just a moment. The red ranger moved in to slash him with her bows ends. One connected, almost to no effect, and then he blocked the other before striking her hard with the edge of his shield.

Evie moved in and kicked the knight. She knew it wouldn't do much to him she just wanted his attention. She got it as he moved to strike her with his sword. The mirror shield took the impact and sent it flying back at him and he raised his own shield to block the attack.

Doug arrived at the meeting hall and pushed the doors open shouting, "Mal, the knight is back and the others…" He was cut short when he realized he was shouting to no one. It was completely empty; no council members, no Ben, no Mal. "Need you." He got out quieter. "What the heck is going on?"

The knight went right back at Evie and she blocked it again, then deflected it back at the knight but this time rather than block it or reflect it used the force of the impact to help him as he gave a headlong charge right into the blue ranger and making her fall back.

"No matter what you do you cannot defeat me." The knight boasted as the five rangers regrouped. "Even if your purple ranger were to make it, and she will not, you would still not defeat me."

"Talk about overconfident." Jay said, also hating to admit that he seemed to be right.

"Why does he keep saying that Mal won't make it?" Lonnie asked, getting frustrated herself.

"If you must know, it is because my master has already taken care of your leader." The knight revealed. "He has her right now and will be ending her life any time now. I will be sure to return her broken morpher and her broken body to you when that time comes."

"No!" Evie shouted out in fright. "You're lying!"

"Am I?" The knight question stoically.

The blue ranger felt overwhelming fear for her best friend, for her sister practically, and reached for her laser and started to unleash burst after burst straight at the knight but this only seemed to amuse him as he kept deflecting it from side to side. She only stopped when Carlos placed her hands on her arm and Jay pulled the blaster away.

"Calm down Evie." Jay said to her. "It doesn't matter where Paradias has Mal. She can take care of herself."

The knight began a charge right toward the ranger's but Audrey had decided she had had enough. "This 'meeting' is over." She stated and shot an arrow straight at the knight's head. He raised his shield to block it effortlessly but when he lowered the object he was alone as the ranger's had fled.

"Doug." A surprised Ben said from behind him. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

Doug turned to the young king. "I came to get Mal, that knight is back and the others went to confront him." He answered. "But what's going on? She was supposed to be here with you guys for the meeting right?"

"Yeah, she was here." Ben said. "The meeting was put on recess a few minutes ago so the council could convene in private." He stepped into the room. "I was just coming back from the men's room. But Mal should have come back to the command center a while ago."

"She hasn't." Doug revealed. "We don't know where she is in that case."

"What could have happened to her in such a short time?" Ben asked concerned as he leaned against the wall, seemingly for support.

"I wish I knew." Doug said. "I have to get back to the command center, join us when the meeting is over and hopefully we'll have an answer for you then."

"Forget that." Ben said. "I'm coming with you."

The two boys left the meeting hall but didn't get very far before they ran into the returning five teens and they all looked panicked, especially Evie. "What happened?" Doug asked as he came to her side and took her arms gently.

"The knight said that Paradias has Mal somewhere." She said, breathing hard to keep herself from going over the edge as she felt she was on the verge of doing.

"What? Where?" Ben asked.

"That's what we need to figure out." Audrey said. "We need to get to the command center, now." The seven of them continued on and were thankful to see that nothing had changed for the worse in the command center and in fact Jane seemed to have made a bit more progress.

"Do the sensors work yet?" Jay asked her even as Carlos vaulted a console to check himself.

Jane nodded. "Not at peak efficiency but they're operating again." She replied. "What's going on?" She looked to Doug. "Where is Mal?"

"That seems to be the question of the day right now." Lonnie told her. "The knight says that Paradias has her."

"He must have grabbed her after the council went into recess." Ben added.

Carlos slammed his fists against the console in a rare show of anger. "I can't find her anywhere."

"Wait a minute." Evie said. She went over with her mirror and set it into an exposed part of the console that was connected to the view screen. "Mirror, mirror on the stand. Show me the whereabouts of my purple haired friend." She recited.

At first all they got was static and Lonnie was about to assure their blue haired friend that her idea had been a good one at any rate when the static mostly cleared and they saw Mal trying in vain to fight Paradias.

"Why isn't she morphed?" Audrey asked immediately. "That's the only way any of us could fight Paradias."

"Wait." Jane said. "Is that…my mother was told of that place by Zordon. It's the Dark Dimension."

"Grand, how do we get there and help Mal beat Paradias?" Jay asked.

"That's just it." Jane said. "Your powers don't work there, which might be why Mal isn't morphed. It's also not located anywhere in Auradon or our world. It's a pocket dimension unto itself. It's virtually a prison."

"Then how do we get to Mal?" Audrey asked her.

"We don't." Jane replied. "Not without magic. And what little magic I have isn't going to get us there. Even Mal's probably couldn't do it."

Each of the ranger's felt helpless as they watched the fight. Doug held Evie's hand as tears glassed in her eyes. Audrey felt herself weaken a moment and without even thinking about it grasped Jay's arm for support, and at that moment failed to note that he did not push her away.

Lonnie looked to a shocked looking Ben and suspected that shock was on her face. "It can't be…we're going to lose her." The young king said softly.

Jane watched the screen for a moment as she felt tears, then angrily wiped them away. "No." She said firmly, showing again the confident young woman she was quickly maturing into since this whole thing started. "We won't lose her. Doug, work some of these repairs. I know what we need to do."

"I…want to stay here." Ben said as he looked to where Mal was seemingly hopelessly fighting Paradias. No one thought it wise to argue with him.

Mal tried again to disarm Paradias but he caught her by her arm and tossed her. Probably only by sheer luck she struck one of the gold bars that were tingling with some sort of electrical current and it shocked her. With a gasp she fell to the ground. As she tried to recover Paradias approached her again. "I think you've suffered enough, child. It's time to put you down, once and for all."

Mal wanted to make a retort at that but the pain spasming through her body at that moment made any argument very hard to make. All she could right there was stare at up at him in defiance.

The five rangers and Jane had only just gotten out of the classroom when Carlos remarked, "Hey, that's unusual." They turned to see who they had been looking for, none other than Jordan; daughter of Eden and Aladdin's Genie. She was walking across campus as opposed to spending time in her lamp.

"Jordan!" Audrey yelled out.

With a slight look of annoyance the genie girl turned around but that annoyance dissipated when she saw the look of fear in all of their eyes. "Hey, what's the fire?" She asked them.

"Look, we need your help." Jay said to her. "We've got a lot to tell you and not a lot of time for this, but we already know if we expect you to help us we're going to have to come clean here."

"It's Mal." Evie started to explain. "She went missing just as she was leaving today's council meeting and…"

Jordan held up her hand. "Whoa there, Evie." She interrupted. "I don't mean to interrupt but I think you're missing something. I just got back on a trip from Agrabah with my parents, and as you know my dad sits on that council." Audrey was about to interrupt her, saying they weren't worried about her personal life right now when her meaning sunk into the princess just as Jordan put it to words. "There was no council meeting today."


	14. Darkest Knight part 3

Paradias moved to bring the energy blade into Mal's chest but at the last second she felt her muscle control returning and again she managed to catch his writs and kick him in the chest. He let out a growl of frustration but when he turned back to where he had left Mal she was gone, and he couldn't see her.

"There was no council meeting today?" Carlos asked, his mind refusing to consider the alternative.

"That's what I just said." Jordan replied. She noticed the looks on all of their faces. "Look, sorry to be the bearer of bad news and all but it's true."

"You don't understand." Lonnie said, her voice showing the shock they were all processing. "If there was no council meeting then that means that…" She had to take a moment to swallow her dread but got it out as Jordan looked at her curiously. "That means Ben lied to us."

"Wait. Ben, lie?" Jordan asked. "Out of all of the kids to lie in this school he's like the last one I'd expect…except for maybe Pinocchio's kids." She added after a second of thought.

Jane looked to the five rangers. "Check on Doug and bring Ben here." She said. "We have to get this figured out once and for all." She motioned for Jordan to sit down. "Meanwhile, I've got a story for you…"

The five rangers left Jane to fill in the details on their exploits as power rangers as they ran back to the command center. Evie's mirror had still been left I place and for a moment all of their hearts stopped as they saw Paradias on screen but no sign of Mal.

Then Jay gasped out, "Over there." And in the corner of the screen they could see Mal in the fog, trying to evade Paradias as he searched for her.

With the assurance that their friend and leader was still alive for now they turned to the next task at hand and had the realization that while they could see Doug working in the undersides of one of the consoles Ben was nowhere to be found. "Doug!" Carlos yelled.

"Ah!" Doug yelped as he hit his head on the console and then came out from underneath it. Evie was already coming to his side to check on him but it was clear that aside from perhaps a small bump by then next morning he was likely going to be alright. "What was that for?" He asked.

"Dude, where's Ben?" Jay asked him.

Doug blinked in confusion and then felt kind of embarrassed. "I, uh, I don't know." He answered as he rubbed the spot on his head that came into abrupt contact with the console. "He was here before I slid under this console and I didn't know anything was wrong until now." He looked at their confused and slightly exasperated faces. "Why, what's going on now?"

Audrey let out a sigh of impatience, though it wasn't at Doug. She understood they a lot of work to do to get the command center going again. It was the ever increasing complexity of the situation. "Jane is talking to Jordan right now, she was with her parents in Agrabah until just recently."

It took just a moment but Doug got it. "But if that's true then there was never a council meeting."

"And we need Ben to tell us why he lied and find out if he really knows what happened to Mal." Lonnie finished gravely. "Though I still can't figure out why he would deceive us like that."

"This is getting more and more unsettling." Evie said softly. "What is going on here? What are we missing?"

"Right now we're missing Mal and Ben." Audrey said grimly. "I don't know what we're supposed to do about him but let's see if Jane has finished talking to Jordan and seeing if she has any ideas."

"So let me get this straight." Jordan said as she stood up. "All of these weird happenings are because of some ancient evil that is older than even Maleficent and probably my parents that showed up and plagued the world, and then some intergalactic wizard named Zordon helped them to repel it, with no mention about this potentially cataclysmic event from our parents or anywhere in the history books that our headmistress says are so magical." She ran a hand through her long hair. "And before he left he helped set up these ranger powers to help if he ever came back, which he did, and now everyone but you, Ben and Doug are power rangers." She turned around to face Jane again. "Except that you and Doug, along with our esteemed headmistress, have been constructing and maintaining a command center for that day."

Jane sat patiently and waited for the female genie to finish her rant, nodding occasionally.

"That includes that knight, and those two large dragons that attacked, and that red magician guy, and that ape lion thing at the tourney game." Jordan listed.

"Actually Sermaya is a separate problem from Paradias and his army." Jane supplied helpfully.

Jordan nodded and muttered, "Swell a separate creep." Then she regained her focus. "And now somehow they swept Mal into this Dark Dimension place and you need my magic to help you get her out of there because none of your fabulous technology can do the job." She finished grandly and perhaps more than a little exasperated.

Jane waited a moment to make sure the rant was over with and then nodded a bit. "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." She answered coolly. "So, can you help us?"

For just an instant it looked as if she were about to lose it again, that it could be a major blow up. Then suddenly Jordan sat down, her arms crossed over the table as if this were just a simple discussion about the last tourney game. "Sure, why not." She leaned toward Jane a bit then added, "Here's my thought…"

"Come out wherever you are Mal." He said tauntingly. "You can't hide forever."

Mal knew he was right but also judged that his search for her and actually placed him behind her. She stood up from the fog and exclaimed, "Paradias!" As he turned she did a spinning kick and struck his right wrist, finally getting him to lose his concentration on the blade. She then followed up with two strikes to the chest that sent him sprawling. "How do you like me now?"

"I will not be out done by a child." Paradias growled defiantly as he attacked the purple haired girl with renewed anger.

Mal started to match him blow to blow. "News flash, aside from you're little occasional outbursts you have been out done by children." She retorted, and then dodged a blow aimed at her face. "You've tried dragons, you've tried magic, you've tried love spells and you even invaded some of our nightmares!" She got off a good kick to his chest. "And yet we've overcome the odds every time. You are never going to be able to beat us."

"You have spunk girl, you all do." Paradias agreed. "But not enough." And with that he unleashed a bolt of green energy that struck Mal back against the ground hard. "My victory is only a matter of time."

Jordan and Jane were just standing up when the five rangers showed up. Jane looked uncertain now. "Where's Ben?" She asked. "How is Mal doing?

"We don't know." Evie answered. "He slipped out after we left when Doug was working underneath a console." She took a quick breath. "Mal is alive but last we saw not doing so well, she was hiding underneath the fog in that Dark Dimension place to avoid Paradias."

"I don't know what to tell you about our noble king." Jordan said with perhaps just a bit more sarcasm than needed. "But as for Mal, I was just telling Jane that I think I have an idea."

"What is it?" Audrey asked her.

"The river portal." Jordan replied.

"The what?" Carlos asked.

Lonnie nodded. "There's a river as not far from the canyon where we first went to try to free Ben from the knight." She started. "It's as clear as crystal, you can see the bottom of it from the shoreline."

"How does that help us?" Audrey asked in confusion.

"On your own it wouldn't." Jordan answered simply. "But with my magic, I can use it to open a small portal to the Dark Dimension to go and bring Mal home." She looked to the five rangers. "The catch though is there is only going to be enough magic imbued in that water for one of you to go through."

"Let's get to the river first and we'll worry about who goes then." Jay said.

"I'm going to go back and help Doug, and keep an eye on Mal for whatever that's worth." Jane said. With a nod she ran off to the command center as the six teens started toward the river.

They had just gotten there and Jordan had only began weaving the spell she would need to open up the portal when they heard the sounds of someone approaching them. They turned to see Ben coming out from the woods.

"Ben." Audrey said, somewhere between relief and suspicion.

"What are you doing out here?" Carlos asked. "You were supposed to be in the command center. You wanted to stay and watch Mal."

"I…I panicked." Ben said, sounding uncertain of himself. "I saw what was happening and I just bolted…I ran…I hate feeling this…this helplessness and uncertainty."

"Right now we're right with you on that, don't forget that." Jay said as four of the rangers started toward Ben. Evie did not, thinking it best to hang back in case someone tried to attack Jordan.

The genie girl looked up just for a moment, wanting to make sure Ben was okay before returning to her portal spell, but what she saw made her stop short. "Oh, no." She said and then called out, "Guys, stop!"

All five rangers looked at her in confusion. "It's just Ben…" Lonnie said uncertainly. They all knew something was off here but they wanted so badly to believe that the man in front of them was there friend.

Jordan wished that she couldn't see it as clearly, or maybe she wished they could see it more clearly. The concept of wishing of a genie wishing at all was almost ironic if Jordan could have spared the seconds to think about it. "That's not Ben." She said. "That's nothing but slime."

"Jordan." Audrey wanted to tear into her for that comment, but laughter startled them all. It wasn't pleasant.

"I can fool these humans, I can fool those half fairy girls, and with prior contact I can even fool something as technologically complicated but ultimately inanimate objects like the command centers sensors." Came a high masculine voice from Ben's body. "But the eyes of a genie, one born to pure magic, that is scrutiny I cannot simply stand up to."

The four rangers backed up a little. "Who are you? Where's Ben?" Jay demanded.

The shell of Ben faded away to reveal a slimy blue creature. The shape of the monster was vaguely masculine and he even had white hair on his head, sticking out all around. But nothing else was discernible save the vague outline of eye sockets and the upper half of a mouth.

"Gross." Audrey stated in disgust.

"What is that?" Evie asked Jordan.

"Anaphasic slime." Jordan answered. "It's a rare form of life. In most cases life is too generous a term as it's usually not sentient. But somehow this one is."

The anaphasic slime creature laughed. "You may call me Reviveslime, and my master Paradias has enlisted me in helping to put an end to your very existence." With that statement came a group of soldier's. "I don't know what you're doing out here but I can't allow you to do whatever your planning."

"Get that portal open Jordan." Audrey said to the genie girl. "Guys, let's get to work." With that the five rangers pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

Jordan had to watch, she had never seen it before. "Wow, cool." She granted with a smile and then returned to the work of opening up a portal.

Mal struck again and Paradias stepped back. The two were at a standstill. "Alright then Mal." The mastermind finally said. "I think you've earned this." And with that the knight appeared next to Paradias. "Finish her off." Then with a flash of his eyes he was gone.

Mal hesitated as second. The knight was unarmed but in armor. She was only in her purple skirt, purple boots, black tights and purple shirt. "Maybe I was better off with Paradias." She reflected, half sarcastic and half serious.

"You're time has come purple ranger." The knight said. "This time I will end you." He swung at her and she dodged underneath the strike. She saw his impact leave a small dent in the wall. He lashed out and kicked her hard.

Mal hit the ground hard and her hand bounced off of something. She looked to see that her hand at actually hit her iPhone. _Paradias must have dropped it when I attacked him and made him lose his energy blade._ She realized. She tried to get a better grip on it, unsure if it would help but didn't think it could hurt. Then the knight stepped on her wrist, pinning her. He towered over the purple haired girl.

Reviveslime lashed out at Jay with a sword grown from his own pale blue flesh. "How'd you get that lame name anyway?" Jay asked.

"You will never know." Reviveslime answered. "Just know that it is entirely apropos." He brought his sword down hard across Jay's chest and sent him flying.

He moved into finish the black ranger off but Evie was in front of him. She had recalled her mirror from the command center console now that they were fighting and she used the mirror shield to collect and reflect the attack on Reviveslime, who was caught off guard and it blew him up.

"What a push over." Evie remarked coyly as she offered a hand to help Jay up.

He took it and started to stand up when he saw movement from the corner of his eye. "Ah, shoot." He muttered and Evie turned to see what he saw. They watched as the blue flecks of slime moved around and formed together back into the form of Reviveslime.

He could imagine the look of shock on the ranger's faces and laughed. "Now you see where my name came from." The monster stated. "And now you see why you will never defeat me."

"Great, gross and seemingly indestructible." Audrey said with more disgust for the creature if at all possible.

"Hey guys, not to interrupt but portal's up and ready but I don't know for how long." Jordan interrupted.

Audrey made the decision. "Carlos, Lonnie, help me keep slime boy and the soldiers away from the lake." Both pink and yellow ranger nodded. "Jay, stay by Jordan and keep her safe in case they get by us, if something happens to her we lose that portal." The black ranger nodded and then she looked to Evie. "Bring your sister home." She ordered simply.

Evie nodded as she powered down, knowing her powers would simply cease to work anyway. "Yes ma'am." She replied with a grateful smile on her face and in her eyes. Evie and black ranger rushed to the river's edge as the other three rangers turned to fight.

"I don't know how long you've got." Jordan told the blue haired girl. "Get in, get Mal as quickly as you can and get out."

Evie nodded. "Don't worry Jordan, I will." With that she stepped into the river and was gone from Jordan and Jay's view in a matter of seconds.

She had just enough time to take in the small space, the fog around her ankles and the isolated feeling of this pocket dimension before she saw the knight hovering over Mal. He formed his sword. "It's over, good bye purple ranger." Then she sprang into action and shoved the imposing metal figure off of her hard.

Mal gasped in surprise and delight. "Evie!"

Evie knelt beside her and, her iPhone firmly in hand, Mal threw her arms over the blue haired girl. She threw her arms around the purple haired girl and two exchanged a close hug. When Mal looked back both girls were crying. "I am so glad that you're okay." Evie said.

"I'm so glad that you're here." Mal said with a smile. "Thanks you so much, for having my back, for being there for me, even though I may not deserve it."

"You're my sister, M." Evie said as he squeezed her shoulders. "Always…"

"And forever." Mal finished and they both laughed. "Just the way it should be, E." The purple haired girl didn't know how much her blue haired friend needed to hear those words after the nightmare she had endured thanks to the Invader of Nightmares.

They both stood up now and the blue haired girl noticed the knight getting up now. She saw a slight ripple in the wall and assumed that was where Jordan's portal stood. "We have to get out of here." Evie said.

"How?" Mal asked, not even sure how her friend had gotten there in the first place.

"This way." Evie said and took her hand. She lead her through the ripple.

Mal felt her legs, ankles and boots getting wet. Then she realized they were in getting out of a river. She also saw someone new. "Jordan?" She asked.

"Hey Mal." The genie girl said. "Or maybe I should call you the purple ranger."

"She knows M." Evie said. "We had to tell her, we couldn't figure out a way to access the Dark Dimension. But she had a way."

Mal looked to Jordan. "Thanks." She said simply.

"No problem." Jordan said and then added, "As long as you keep those wet boots out of my lamp."

Mal laughed a moment and then realized something else was going on. She looked to see that Jay was distracted by a few soldiers that had gotten by Carlos and the two girls.

"I think it's time to give them a hand." Mal said to Evie. The two girls pulled out their phones, input their numbers and transformed.

"What!?" Paradias roared out. "How could she have escaped the Dark Dimension? How?"

Nerissa frowned a bit. "I don't know, I…" She then looked at the readings of the six rangers and their civilian friend only to realize what had happened. "That girl…she's a genie."

Paradias now understood but his anger did not fade. "One born purely to magic and the quiet possibly the only exceptions to the seemingly unspoken rules about the lack of magic use in this land." He said. "I didn't think they would have a genie in Auradon Prep." He tried to bury that anger now. "No matter, we will make whatever changes we need to compensate for it and in the meantime we still have our knight, and no amount of genie magic will take that away."

"Mal, good to see you again." Jay said with a smile behind the helmet when the two girls helped him with the soldiers.

"More than good to see you too. And to be able to morph again." Mal said. "Now let's help the others."

The six rangers now together again easily sent the soldiers in retreat. Carlos laughed. "Mal!" He exclaimed and the two exchanged a hug. The instant he was away both Lonnie and Audrey came forward and hugged their friend. Mal found it easy to return those hugs to both the Auradon princesses.

"I'm glad you're okay Mal." Audrey said to her. "And that you're back."

"Thanks." Mal said and then had to tease, "You just keep getting thrust into my leadership positon don't you?"

Audrey laughed a little. "The universe is trying to tell you something." She joked.

Mal nodded. "Yeah, that it's time to take some creep down."

Audrey grew serious. "I don't know if we can. We thought Evie's attack killed him but he reformed." She warned.

"You're never going to get by me rangers." Reviveslime said.

"Luckily they don't have too." Jordan replied. "Here's another advantage of a genie being in the know." With that there a puff of light blue smoke and they disappeared.

They only found themselves in front of Auradon Prep's gates. "Well I was aiming for the command center." Jordan said with a roll of her eyes. "Guess I'm not a full-fledged genie yet."

"Close enough Jordan." Mal assured her as the team powered down again. "We can walk from here. I'm sure Ben will be relieved to know that I came out of that ordeal alive."

The six of them exchanged looks of apprehension again and then Jay took a deep breath. "Mal, Ben isn't here." He told her.

"But the council meeting…" Mal started.

Jordan reflexively rolled her eyes. "Mal, as I told the others already, there was no council meeting." She said impatiently. "My dad sits on that council and I just came back from visiting Agrabah with my parents."

"That Reviveslime monster impersonated Ben." Lonnie told her.

"I guess we know how I got taken to that Dark Dimension in the first place." She mused but then moved to a more important subject. "But how?" Mal asked.

"Reviveslime is no ordinary monster." Jordan repeated, recalling that when she told this to the others Mal had been in the Dark Dimension. "It's an anaphasic slime. Normally it's non sentient life form that only exists for about twenty to thirty seconds. I don't know if Paradias is responsible for it or what but that monster has exceeded what everything the organism is about."

"So then Paradias still has Ben." Mal noted with dismay.

"Seems like it M." Evie replied sadly.

The team made their way back to the command center, with Jordan in tow. "Yikes, is it the maid's day off or something?" She asked.

"No, this was done by the knight when he came here looking for some reason, probably to cripple us." Jane said as she looked up from sealing up a console. She smiled a little when she saw Mal and went over to hug her. "Glad you're back."

"Glad to be back, except for the whole Ben is still missing thing." Mal said with a sad smile of her own. "Any word on your mom?"

Jane shook her head sadly. "Nothing." She said.

"Wait, what's wrong with our headmistress?" Jordan asked.

"When the command center was attacked, he also attacked Fairy Godmother." Lonnie explained to the young genie. "She's in the infirmary now and we're waiting to hear something back."

Reviveslime entered the bridge and bowed before Nerissa and Paradias. "They escaped through the genie's magic. I have failed and offer my life as penance."

"Nonsense." Paradias said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Your continued presence will be of much more use to us alive than dead."

"We still have the knight, but what do you wish to do now master?" Nerissa asked.

"Simple." Paradias answered. "I am going to make them pay for the retrieval of the purple ranger. By depriving them of their zords."

"You guys sure have your hands full." Jordan said. She started toward the stairs. "Good luck with this, really. And if you really need me I'll help however I can but this is really your fight. You have your battles and I have mine."

The group exchanged uncertain looks but were in no position to argue with her. "Alright." Mal said. "We understand. But we're going to call on that help if we need it again." With a nod of understanding the genie girl headed back up the stairs.

"We don't need her anyway." Audrey tried to say encouragingly. "We have you back Mal and we can deal with this knight now. We can get this command center up and running again and we can save the world."

It was then the alarm sounded yet again and Audrey almost wanted to tear that apart with her bare hands now. The view screen showed that Reviveslime was nearing the town. Then the green beams surrounded him and the monster grew.

"Him again?" Carlos asked. He was starting to think they'd never get things fixed at this rate.

"We're going to have to go confront him then." Mal said.

"But he'll just reform even if we do manage to kill him, M. This has to be a trap." Evie reminded her friend.

"I know, but we have to defend Auradon, so what choice do we have?" Mal responded and then had an idea. "I don't want him dead. I want him weakened for when I get ready to demand he tell me where Ben is."

They took out their iPhones, ready to transform and then summon the Auradon Megazord from the mountains and the Auradon Dragon from the clouds where it had been released before the tourney game to get some exercise, but when they started to input their numbers the consoles again surged and this time they had lost all power in the command center, worse yet they found themselves unmoprhed and trying again resulted in nothing…


	15. Darkest Knight Part 4

"What just happened?" Mal asked.

Jane was already messing with buttons. "I don't know, nothing is responding."

Audrey tried her phone and discovered the map app was working find and a quick text to Ally revealed that as fine. "It's not the whole grid, it's just us." She revealed.

"This isn't a good time for that." Jay said. The view screen was still working and he pointed to it where Reviveslime had grown and was now entering the city. "He's entering town right now and he's going to cause all sorts of destruction."

"I know." Jane said in between messing with the consoles and trying to figure out what happened. "But until that happens there is nothing we can do."

Evie hesitated and touched Audrey's arm. "I wanted to say thank you." She said softly, but her eyes seemed lighter than they had in recent days.

Audrey wanted to point out now wasn't the time but she was curious and concerned. "For what?" She asked softly.

"For letting me go in and rescue Mal." Evie answered and her gaze shifted downward. "My nightmare…I dreamed my friends turned against me, but Mal was the instigator and she was the cruelest of them, throwing all of our time together against me and dismissing it like it was nothing."

"And this helped you to come to terms with that." Audrey surmised.

Evie nodded. "She reminded me that we were sisters first always and forever." She said and then gave Audrey a smile. "Regardless of who else we let into our bond." The blue haired girl added, giving the young princess a sense of relief to hear that she was just as much a part of their bond in a different way.

"Glad it helped you." Audrey said sincerely. "Now let's hope we all live long enough for it to matter."

One of the students let out a scream as the giant monster blasted one of the bell towers. Jordan flinched at the impact. "What the heck? Where are they?" She asked. Then she thought no more as one a huge debris would have landed on Ally. With a flash she appeared and took the blonde girl from harm's way.

"Thank you." She said to Jordan in her light British accent. "What's going on? Where are the Power Rangers?"

"I don't know." Jordan answered grimly. "We have to help get everyone to some kind of shelter, the gym is probably the safest place and it can hold everyone." She looked around and snapped at some of the other members from various sports teams. "Everyone calm down and let's get everyone into the gym." She started to herd a couple of younger kids in that direction.

"Good call Jordan." Said Aziz, the son of Aladdin and Jasmine as well as one of the team members on Auradon's tourney team. Then he turned around and shouted, "Everyone, we have to get to safety. Start toward the gym now." He stopped a young man from stumbling and righted him quickly. "Go." He said.

"Watch your step." Ally called out. "We don't want anyone to get injured while all of this is going on." She saw a young woman hobbling, she had obviously twisted her ankle. She helped the girl under her arm for a moment until a bigger guy scooped her up in his arms. Ally nodded her thanks and said, "Come on everyone, there's no time to waste.

Jordan watched these Ally and Aziz, among others, who were trying to help just because they should, even though they didn't truly know the score like she had just learned it. She hesitated only a moment. Then she made a choice. As soon as she knew the people were safe she was going back to the command center. She wasn't sure what she could do but she was suddenly resolute to make this her fight as well. "Come on everyone, double time it before we get another after shock." She called out.

Carlos, Doug and Jane were working furiously. The five rangers watched the assault on the city with growing anxiety. They could not see Jordan, Ally and Aziz working to help the innocent. Finally Jane made a gasping sound and said, "These electrodes shorted out, it disrupted all the currents. No wonder, they shouldn't be attached to these ports."

Doug realized that was the console was working under before the team had come searching for Ben, really Reviveslime in disguise. "Sorry about that." He said. He quickly found two more electrodes and handed them to Jane under the console. "I guess my technical skills leave something to be desired, but I really am a scientist after all…sort of."

"Don't worry about it." Jane said as she took the electrodes.

"We all make mistakes Doug." Evie said. "It's alright." A moment later the power was restored in the command center and the iPhones started their faint glowing in their signature colors.

"We're online again." Carlos said happily.

Mal nodded and looked to her team. "Let's get to work." They activated their iPhones, input their numbers and then transformed. This was followed by the Auradon Megazord rising from the mountains. The rangers, minus Mal at the moment, boarded their zords.

"Look, the Power Rangers have finally come out to play." Reviveslime said mockingly. "And just when your little mice down there were probably convinced you and run away in terror."

"We don't run from anyone slime boy." Audrey retorted.

Jay and Lonnie placed their weapons in the shared part of their console to summon the zord's sword. The battle zord got in a couple swings at the monster and he fell back, only to regenerate.

"We're almost there." Jane said excitedly to Doug. "With the power restored we can get the command center running." She gave a sad smile. "If only my mother would recover."

"She'll be fine Jane." Doug assured her.

"She may be but you will not be." They heard from behind them. They saw the knight standing right there again and slammed his shield into both of the teens, knocking them down. Doug was unconscious as his head hit a console and Jane fighting the darkness.

"Now to make sure this place never functions again." The knight said as he looked down upon the two stunned teens. He moved to the controls and began to work on them, trying to force the systems into overload.

"No…" Jane whispered softly. She tried to move to stop them to find her left side was not responding.

"Yes." The knight said gleefully. "It is now time to end this game."

"Hey." They both heard. The knight turned as Jane let out a hopeful gasp. In the doorway stood Jordan, having worked with Ally and Aziz to make sure the people were in the gym, she had went to the command center to lend her aid, only to find this. "You're the one who fried tore apart this place to start with."

"And I will finish the job now." The knight replied. "You have one chance to save your life, genie. Run."

"There has to be a way to cut this guy down to size." Evie said.

"I don't know how." Carlos said sullenly.

"We worry about that later, after we find out where Ben is." Audrey declared.

"You think you have the upper hand here, but you don't." Reviveslime said. From his already slimy looking back wings emerged and he hovered over the gym. A large blast of energy formed in his sword. "While you were out licking your wounds, these sheep, led by some very brave rams, moved into this place for sanctuary. They probably didn't know that I could get here so easily and ruin all their effort."

Lonnie caught on immediately. "The students and faculty, most of them must have fled into the gym for safety." She stated.

"Back away from them." Jay ordered the monster.

He only laughed. "Sorry, but that isn't going to happen." He cocked his head. "However, you can feel free to surrender yourselves Rangers. Then no harm need come to these innocent people."

"We can't surrender." Jay said.

"We can't let him kill those people either." Audrey reminded.

That choice would become moot as the monster was blasted from the sky from the skies. Then the purple dragon zord slammed into it with its body and he landed hard.

"Nice timing my friend." Mal called as she leapt onto its head. "Let's even up the odds." The dragon shimmered, again taking on alternate form of a Chinese dragon and forming the cockpit for Mal to take command.

The dragon swooped in again and slammed the slime monster with its tail before unleashing a wave of fire from its mouth, knocking it further away from the school and the city. As it rose it was accosted by both dragon zord and the Auradon Megazord.

"You think I'm scared by you Rangers?" Reviveslime asked. "Bring it on."

"You heard him guys." Mal replied. "It's time for the Auradon Champion Megazord."

"Let's do it." Audrey agreed.

The dragon zord lowered its head so the Auradon Megazord could jump onto it's back. The tail wrapped around the zord to give it more protection. Inside space was made for Mal between Audrey and Carlos and the rangers were six once more. "Auradon Champion Megazord, ready to rock." Carlos announced.

The battle zord unleashed a stream of energy at Reviveslime and sent in sprawling backwards with a crash.

"You don't have any other chances here." Jordan announced and summoned up as much power as she could before hurling it at the knight. He flew over the console and hit the wall hard. As he started to rise Jordan was now at the consoles and helped Jane to stand.

The girl had thankfully had feeling return to the left side of her body. She could only guess she had pinched a nerve, one that had not healed since she was still sore. She ignored it though as she pressed a button and trapped the knight in the force field. "That's that." She declared.

"No it isn't." Jordan said. "We have something else we need to do with him."

"We can't kill him, not until we know for sure what's going on." Jane said sternly.

"And we're not going to kill him." Jordan replied firmly. "In fact I agree, we're going to find out what's going on now." With that she placed her hands on the sensor console and directed all of her magic and her energy into penetrating the armor of the knight so that they could finally learn the truth.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Jane asked as she now knelt down to make sure Doug would be okay. "I thought you wanted to avoid this fight as much as possible."

"Presumably you've noticed the giant slime bucket rampaging around the school right now?" Jordan asked archly and Jane rolled her eyes but nodded. "I…I helped Ally, Aziz and some of the others get the school populace to safety, and I, I saw them doing it because they knew it was the right thing to do without knowing anything else." She looked down, a little ashamed. "I realized that I know more and I have to step up to help stop this however I can."

Jane reached up and patted Jordan's arm. "It takes a lot realize that. This isn't the kind of gig one picks up just because. They have to really look at their surroundings, look at themselves, and really decide if they want to take up this fight." She smiled up at her now. "You did just that and you know what you want, and luckily for us it's to help us stop Paradias however you can."

Jordan laughed. "Yeah, genie extraordinaire at your service." She joked gruffly and then looked at the knight. "And my first service is to help you get to the bottom of this knight crisis."

Doug moaned. "Did someone get the number of that truck that hit us?" He asked.

"It was a knight truck." Jane answered softly. "But luckily for us and the command center we had genie nine one one to come to our rescue."

"I hope you got what you wanted genie." The knight said mockingly. "Because I have other more pressing concerns." And with that he vanished.

"Darn it." Jane muttered.

"I think I got what we needed." Jordan told her. "Let me get to work."

The knight appeared in the field but it didn't last long as the same green energy beams surrounded him and he grew again to giant size. Together Reviveslime and the knight prepared to face off against the Auradon Champion Megazord.

"We've never had to face two monsters at the same time before." Lonnie noted worriedly. "Maybe we should separate and go at it that way."

"We're more powerful this way." Mal said. "And we're going to need that to take out even one of these guys. The other we can simply beat down enough to have them tell us where Ben is." She glance around at her team mates. "I don't care which one we take down and which we interrogate, but one of them will talk to us."

The two opposing forces slashed at the Auradon Champion Megazord with their swords and the battle zord reeled from the impact. The dragon zord reared back its head and released a stream of energy but the knight's shield protected him while Reviveslime merely reformed from the impact.

The Auradon Champion Megazord brought the sword down on the knight who blocked with his shield. The two wrestled with their respective weapons, neither able to force the other to drop it which is what Mal was hoping for. Then Reviveslime jumped up and latched itself onto the Auradon Megazord, trying to force it off the dragon. It was causing a good amount of damage.

"We have to get this thing off of us." Carlos said. "At this rate it'll deplete the zord of energy in a few minutes."

"Let's give this a try." Jay said and used the controls to slam the back of the Auradon Megazord's head into the face of Reviveslime. He fell off the Champion zord and then laughed.

"This things laugh is really starting to get on my last nerve, not that his looks are helping matters either." Audrey groused.

Now Reviveslime lashed out and wrapped itself around the dragon part of the Auradon Champion Megazord. "Get off of my dragon." Mal couldn't help but say.

The knight jumped down now and slashed the megazord across the chest and even scratched some of the dragon as well. Then he channeled energy through his sword and shot it out at the battle zord, causing further damage.

"We have to get our advantage back." Audrey said.

"I'm not sure we've ever had the advantage in these fights as of late." Lonnie pointed out.

"Let's take this to the sky Mal." Evie suggested.

"Good idea." Mal replied. The Auradon Champion Megazord flew off into the sky and as soon as the sun was shining off of the dragon's tail the ranger's sent their zord on a downward spiral. As they were getting ready to otherwise crash land they angled up so that Reviveslime scraped against the ground and was forced to release the underside of the dragon.

The knight laughed and then struck the Auradon Champion Megazord in the back, forcing yet another harsh recoil from the attack. Then Reviveslime was right by the knight. They combined their swords and unleashed a stream of energy, damaging the Auradon Champion Megazord and forcing the battle zord to split back into two.

"We're going to unite while you fall apart." Reviveslime said maliciously. "Damage wasn't the only thing I was doing when I leached onto your battle zord." With that the blue slimed monster shifted to resemble a crude version of Mal's own zord while the knight took on the position of the Auradon Megazord. They then powered up their own energies and slammed right into the zords.

The six teens fell from their zords hard and hit the ground, forcing them to power down. Mal also heard a clinking sound as she saw the crystallized version of her dragon zord hit the ground. It meant that it had been defeated, and the fact it didn't move showed that it was also unconscious. "Oh no." Mal whispered as she took it into her hand and cradled it gently.

The five rangers looked up as the zord sparked and fell to the ground before being swallowed up by the ground. "The megazord." Lonnie whispered. "What happened to it?" None of them had ever seen anything happen other than return to the mountain.

The knight atop Reviveslime laughed with amusement and then vanished. The six teens made their way back to the command center despondently.

They entered the command center, barely acknowledging the fact that they had again been joined by Jordan. They all sat down and sighed except for Mal who stood with her hand over the crystal dragon and that hand pressed to her heart.

"What happened?" Jane asked worriedly.

"I think the megazord is gone." Carlos said to her gently. "When the knight and Reviveslime combined they took out both our zord and the dragon zord." He sighed. "They fell into the ground and was swallowed up."

"And my dragon is right here crystallized, not moving." Mal said, feeling near tears as she continued. "They've all started to outmaneuver us at every turn, and we don't even know where Ben is." Now her tears spilled over. "He could be dead for all I know."

Lonnie sighed. "Mal's right." She said, feeling glum for the first time since this had all started. She set leaned her chin in her hands. "Our zords seem to be gone, we're struggling to keep the command center active, and this knight keeps getting the best of us. It's over."

Audrey sighed now. "I don't know what else we can do now." She said glumly.

Jay sat next to her. "I want to say we can't give up, but I don't see any other options either." He said. "So much for fighting the good fight."

"Hey, I just got here." Jordan protested. "I sure don't think we should be giving up this easily. There has to be something we can do."

"Like what?" Evie asked. "Do you have a magical solution somewhere? Something that will allow us an instant recharge on the zords? Maybe a new power source or a new zord? Because what we have right now just isn't cutting it."

Doug gently placed a hand on Evie's shoulder. "Didn't you have some idea Lonnie?" Doug asked the Asian girl.

"Yeah but with everything that has gone down recently we haven't had time to implement it." Lonnie said dejectedly. "And now it's just too late."

"Even I'm not sure what we should do now." Lonnie said. "Mom is still out of it, the systems are getting up and running but it won't matter for much longer if the knight decides to make a third appearance."

"What?" Jay asked.

"Our armored friend showed up again." Jordan said. "Knocked out Jane and Doug before I got here."

"Are you okay?" Audrey asked as Evie reached out to caress Doug's cheek and Carlos reached out to rub Jane's shoulder gently. Both of them nodded.

"So I zapped the knight and trapped him in a field for a few minutes before Paradias must have bailed him out." Jordan said with pride. She patted the console gently. "Got his scans running through our system right now."

"I don't know what good that will do us." Lonnie said softly.

"We'll know who our better is I guess." Jay said.

"Oh come on." Jordan said. "Perk up you guys, we'll figure it out. I promise, I'll do whatever I can. We'll make boosts or new powers or something. We'll stop these guys." Sadly she could tell that wasn't helping them feel any better.

"I'd just feel better if I had Ben back." Mal said softly. "I feel like I've lost him without him ever having broken up with me."

"Was that part of your nightmare?" Audrey asked her.

The purple haired girl shook her head. "Yeah, it was pretty much a big part of my nightmare." She said bitterly. "Maybe it meant I was going to lose him by another way." She looked at her friend. "I obviously know you aren't with him anymore but was that part of your nightmare."

"Surprisingly no." Audrey said. "Mine involved losing all of you." She looked to Jay. "Until someone told me that it was silly and that I was one of you guys, rather I liked it or not." She sighed. "Which means we also get to experience defeat together."

"We're not beaten." Jordan said. "We can't be."

"How can we not be?" Jane asked now. "We don't have a way to stop that knight and I don't think we will have one before he and Paradias end us all."

The console Jordan was at beeped and the genie girl looked up. "You want to know whose responsible for beating you guys down so much?" She asked, sounding a bit fired up as if she thought that might help motivate them. "Then I found it. We can see the one behind that armor."

On the view screen they saw the knight appear and then the armor was slowly taken off piece by piece until they saw the man underneath the armored mask. They could all see the person on the screen, the person who had been fighting them since practically day one. "Ben?" Mal gaped.


	16. Darkest Knight Part 5

"This has to be some kind of mistake." Evie said. "Some flaw in the system since the repairs or something." She seemed shocked.

"He would never do that to us or the planet." Jay agreed. "He would never."

"Ben is too good." Mal agreed. "He's my prince, my king and he would never really betray anyone."

"There's no mistake." Jane told them all. "The system is running precisely to specs." She looked to them all. "The first time that the knight appeared Ben had disappeared, supposedly to take on his people. Until this latest thing they had never around at the same time."

"And even that was the Reviveslime." Doug added.

"But it still doesn't make any sense." Lonnie interjected. "How could this have happened? How could we have not seen it?"

"I'm afraid it is possible my children." They heard from the stairway and turned to see Fairy Godmother coming down into the command center.

"Mom!" Audrey gasped and ran over, throwing her arms around her. She let some of her tears start to fall. "I was so afraid I'd lose you."

Fairy Godmother hugged her back tightly and kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry this scared you so much my dear." She said softly. She moved to the side with her daughter. "And I pray you never have to go through something like that again." Carlos checked Jane's iPhone and saw that the nurse had tried to call Jane while they were all having their break downs.

The six rangers and Jordan waited a minute for their friend to enjoy the fact that her mother was alive and well before the genie girl finally had to interrupt them. "You said that you knew what lead up to all of this." She said softly. "We need to know what so that we can figure out what to do about it."

"I'm afraid that this, in a manner of speaking, all my fault." They now heard from the command center stairs and saw two figures. The first was the former king and former beast, Ben's father. The second was his wife Belle.

"Your majesties." Lonnie said as all the teens rose and showed them the proper respect.

"What do you mean it's your fault?" Mal asked him.

"Belle and I heard about what happened to Fairy Godmother and we went to see her. She woke and took us what was going on, she showed us some of the pictures she had." Ben's father explained. "I recognized Nerissa."

"How?" Evie asked.

"She's the one who cursed him to the beast form that I met so long ago." Belle replied simply. "The one who inadvertently put us together."

Jane now looked at some of the scans Jordan had pulled from Ben as they continued to explain. She had a theory of her own though.

"That spell that she cast on me to make me a Beast, it was apparently for more than my unkind behavior." He explained. "Even then our enemies were putting their plans into motion. A quick check of my DNA revealed something in my genetic code."

"You mean even when Queen Belle fell in love with you and broke the spell of that rose, the part that made you a beast was still in you." Evie said. "And still is." He nodded in agreement.

"And that was passed on to Ben when he was conceived." Jane finished up. She looked up. "They knew that if the curse was broken they could use the element of that to help out their plans for when Paradias returned."

"They had it set up so when they showed up they would be able to use him as their…their champion." Audrey got out in shock. "That's why the iPhone," She held up what had become her powers, what had become her connection to people she had grown to become close to and care about. "Didn't bond with him when he took it up."

Mal looked at them all with a bit of fire in her eyes. "And that's why Reviveslime sent me to the Dark Dimension. Paradias has to know this and he knew that if I ever found out Ben was the knight that I would have the highest chance of bringing him back to us again." She realized.

"There's also the beast gene in there that Ben inadvertently got from his father." Lonnie added now. "That's why Sermaya sees him as a brother of sorts. Maybe he might figure out a way to make Ben like his father was when under the curse."

"So are we still doomed then?" Jordan asked with some amusement.

"No." Mal said simply. She looked down to her hand and to look at the ring Ben had given her just before his coronation and then at his parents. "It's not over, we're not doomed. I will bring my boyfriend back here, to me. To us." She looked around. "Evie, come with me. We're going to get some sandwiches to refresh ourselves and then we're going back out there and finding that knight…finding Ben. And we won't leave that fight until we're dead or he comes home."

Everyone worked to regroup. Audrey had gone out to get some drinks and saw people leaving the gym now that the attacks had passed for the moment. She saw Chad leaving the building and had an idea. _Surely he isn't so mad at Ben and I that he'll refuse to help us bring him home again._ The brunette princess mused. She ran to catch up with him and called out, "Chad, wait!"

He rolled his eyes and turned to give Audrey a venomous glare. "I told you to stay away from me." He said dangerously. She almost swore the guy was going mad.

"Chad, we need your help." Audrey said to him. "It's Ben. You have to help us bring Ben home."

He said nothing but waited for the princess to continue her explanation.

"I don't know how to explain this exactly but Ben has been…" Audrey hesitated. Nothing had been said about letting Chad in on this secret and she wasn't even sure she wanted to. But Ben was supposed to be Chad's friend. "He's been taken control of by the creatures that have been invading our world. We have to snap him out of it or the Power Rangers may have no choice but to kill him." _We may have to kill him._ She thought and shuddered. She knew Mal didn't want that and she sure didn't want to help kill her best friend but…what if it came to that or the world falling? "Will you please help us?"

Chad seemed to hesitate only a moment. "No." He said simply. "I won't help him. Or you. Or them."

Audrey felt shocked. She knew Chad had developed issues with Ben since he had decided to bring some of the isle kids over to Auradon, and those issues had only intensified as Jay proved great at tourney and Mal and Ben had gotten together, regardless of the circumstances that made it possible. She knew he had growing issues with her since she had chosen to accept them after the coronation and after they had become rangers she had grown close to them all, especially Mal and Jay.

But even with his issues with them she never thought that Chad would refuse to help Ben when it really came down to it. "Chad, Ben needs you." Audrey said. "He's your friend. You can't walk away from him now."

"He walked away from me, just like you and Lonnie and Jane and pretty much everyone else did." Chad snapped at her.

"All of our parents were affected by someone from the Isle of the Lost over there Chad, not just yours." Audrey replied, growing angry. "If Mal's mother had had her way where my mother is concerned I wouldn't be here. But that is on Maleficent, not Mal. What happened between your mother and her step family is not on any descendant she might have. And it doesn't affect you at all."

Chad's stare seemed to grow even more hateful if at all possible. "It's not just about our parents. It's about what they will do to us too." He spat.

Audrey shook her head. "You have no idea, NO idea, what Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos have done for us since coming to Auradon, especially after the coronation. They stopped Maleficent from her plans, not me, not Ben and certainly not you." She stated vehemently. "And as for what they've done recently, it's not that you don't want to understand, it's that you don't want to understand. You won't see past your hate, fear and insecurity."

She never expected it despite the last two times. She never even saw it coming. Chad reached out and slapped her across the face hard, just as he had in her nightmares. Just like that a friend had turned against her. "Shut your mouth." He whispered to her threateningly. "The next time you speak to me like that I'll do more than just slap you across the face."

She looked shocked, she never would have imagined he could turn into the man she was seeing before him. "What have you become?" She asked in a whisper. She couldn't imagine how he could be this blind. She watched numbly as he turned and walked away.

Somehow she remembered to bring some water back to the command center with their sandwiches. Everyone started to try to eat, though for Jane, Doug, Carlos and Fairy Godmother it was eating as they went about their final repairs to the command center.

Jay looked at her. "Audrey, I think the left side of your face is starting to form a bruise." He said with concern. "Something happen?"

Audrey knew at that point she should say something to them about what happened, about Chad smacking her. They should know about it in case he ended up attacking them. She also knew what he did was wrong. Still, she also knew they needed to help Ben and stop them from destroying the world. "I…I think that I must have gotten it from the last fight, falling out of the megazord and hitting the ground."

Evie and Mal exchanged glances. They felt as if something weren't being said and by look alone knew they couldn't let that slide for long. But they too knew that time would have to come after they had Ben back and he could help them talk to Audrey. Lonnie too looked unsure but she wanted to believe that over what had really happened.

"How are we supposed to strip Ben of his powers anyway?" Jordan asked.

"We don't." Fairy Godmother responded simply. They all looked at her in shock. "The powers of that knight are not Paradias's. They belong to Ben. Their control over them has simply distorted those powers just as much as their control has been blinded from his mind."

Jane snapped her fingers. "Of course." She exclaimed. "When the iPhone scans the DNA of a potential host it's supposed to scan for any evidence of other powers in their DNA if applicable. It read the knight powers in Ben's DNA and that's why it refused to bond."

"He's not supposed to have been the enemy, he was supposed to be one of us the entire time." Mal said with certainty. "And we have to make sure that hope becomes reality."

"Here's your chance." Doug said. "The knight, Ben is back. He's heading toward town. Like he knows that it's time for the final confrontation."

"What if Reviveslime shows up or they grow?" Lonnie asked.

"If Reviveslime shows we keep him distracted." Audrey said to the others. "We can all help Ben but if it comes right down to it Mal has the best chance of bringing him home again."

"If either of them grow, your zords will be ready." Fairy Godmother added as she handed Mal back her crystallized dragon. "Your dragon zord is sleeping, increasing its regenerative properties. If you need to summon your zord, it will be ready," She looked to the other rangers. "Just as the Auradon Megazord will be."

"Then let's get to work." Mal said. The six teens rose and they ascended the stairs and out of the command center and school room and went to meet Ben before he made it to a place where he could find anyone place with civilians that could be put in arms way.

"We meet again, Rangers." The knight said. "For the last time."

"This will be the last time we meet like this." Mal said. "We're onto you now, we know who you are." She looked at him closely. "We actually know more than you, I'm sure."

"I know all I need to know." The knight said.

"No, you don't." Audrey replied. "If you really did then you wouldn't be attacking us this way. We're your friends; I'm your best friend. Mal is your girlfriend."

The knight took a few steps toward them and Carlos had to resist the urge to take a few steps back. "Mal, shouldn't we be morphing right about now?" He asked her nervously.

Mal shook her head. "Not unless we have too. That is Ben under there and he needs to see the true faces of those Paradias is saying are his enemies." She replied. "And deep down you know we're not your enemies. We're your friends."

Jay nodded. "You're being manipulated Ben. This was Nerissa's plan long before you were born, when she cursed your father. You were their back up plan in case he broke free of that curse." He said to his team mate twice over.

"When you were born you got half of your father's genes, that's basic biology." Evie added. "But one of those genes was left over from that curse and as a result some part of the beast is in you, and that's the part Nerissa manipulated to make you turn against us like this."

"But they didn't give you those powers you've been using to fight us." Lonnie put in. "Those are your own powers Ben, also yours since birth that are simply being manipulated by Nerissa just as you are. That's why the red morpher wouldn't bond with you; Jane told us that the iPhones scan a person's DNA coding to try to make sure they don't have another source of power that will clash with it." She gave a small smile despite the situation. "You've always been one of us Ben, in more than just spirit. We just never knew it until now."

"Fight them Ben." Mal implored. "Come fight for the good side, just as you asked me and my siblings to do, come back to us. Come back to me." At that her hands clasped and came up to her chest as if begging. She would have done so if she thought that would help.

"That is enough." Reviveslime said and unleashed a turret of energy at the unmorphed team of rangers, sending them flying back hard into the ground. Evie skinned her arms and elbows as she landed. Carlos swore he felt his ribs crack. Audrey managed to land awkwardly enough to cause a jolt of pain to surge through the spot on her face where Chad had hit her earlier, and splitting that cheek now. Jay landed awkwardly on his hand and felt a couple fingers break. Lonnie landed hard enough to feel the air rushed from her lungs and a rush of pain from her head as it hit a small stone hard, hard enough to start a trickle of blood. Mal had the debatably easiest landing as she skinned her left arm and hit a tree trunk roughly.

Reviveslime started toward Mal but stopped long enough to kick Carlos hard in his ribs, not helping him any. He kicked Audrey and Lonnie aside. Evie had gotten up and tried to stop him but he stabbed her in the shoulder, eliciting a scream from her before tossing her aside onto Jay. "You made a dire mistake coming her unmorphed." Reviveslime said as the tip of sword met Mal's throat. "Now all of you will pay for your ignorance."

He reared his sword back to decapitate her when the knight's sword intercepted the strike. Reviveslime looked up at him. "What are you doing?" He demanded to know.

In truth the knight wasn't sure himself, but seeing the attack by this monster to unprotected people sparked something in him. "This…is not how things are supposed to work." He stammered out. "It is not honorable."

"This isn't about 'honor'." Reviveslime retorted. "It's about victory."

Mal thought about it a moment. Even without knowing he was Ben the knight had fought the rangers all face to face in the past, even engaging Mal one on one while her friends were finding their megazords. Whatever part of Ben that had always been there had not struck them when they were down so much, like when she was under the love potion or when she, Evie and Audrey had been trapped in their nightmares. In as much as evil could ever be, the knight had held some portion of Ben's honor. She even suspected the kidnap idea was Paradias's, the knight had gone along with it because that part of the knight acknowledged Paradias and Nerissa as his superiors and were following orders, just as he had when destroying the command center.

"There can be no true victory without honor." The knight said.

"Paradias doesn't know honor." Mal said now. "He's too power hungry for that. And really, you don't know what honor is. It's Ben that knows honor, and it's Ben that knows love. It's Ben trying to protect me, and you have to embrace being Ben."

The other five teens had gotten up and were now kind of surrounding the monster, the knight and Mal. None of them looked especially ready to fight though. It was a feeling Mal understood as she tried to rise and felt dizzy herself.

"Stand back and allow me to finish these weaklings off or I'll make you the appetizer." Reviveslime warned the knight. After a moment of not moving he turned, this time toward Audrey and aimed to gut her with a loud, "Boo! As if trying to scare her.

That was also the wrong thing to do as that simple word sparked the memory of how Audrey had come to call someone…call him Bennie Boo. He lashed out and slashed the slime creature in the back.

"Ben?" Mal asked. "Are you in there? Can you hear me?"

"There is no…" The knight said and hesitated. "Mal…" He echoed.

"Fight it Ben." Audrey pleaded now, just as Mal had. "You're stronger than Paradias and his spells. I know you are."

"This is just another opponent of the field, man." Jay said. "Get by him and score the goal."

Mal made her way cautiously over to the knight. "Did you hear Audrey and Jay?" She asked. "Because they're both right. You can do it. I know you can do it too."

"Enough." Reviveslime spat and this time turned to attack Evie. Jay moved as quick as he could and with his good hand grabbed at the slime monster's wrist and it reminded the knight…it reminded Ben of when Chad had insulted Evie and Jay had stepped up to defend her during parent's day.

Except for one resounding difference. Then Audrey had been beside Chad. Now Audrey was by Evie's side and making sure she hadn't been knicked despite Jay's quick reaction. It reminded him how far his ex-had come with the others. He also dimly realized he was thinking as Ben, not as the knight persona forced upon him.

Mal was the first to notice something strange. The knight was a dark silver, almost black in many places. Those black areas were starting to fade away and that silver was getting lighter, almost as if it were being polished. "Come on Ben." She said to him. "You aren't Paradias's evil knight. You're my knight in shining armor, you have been ever since we first came to Auradon Prep."

Reviveslime was getting very irritated by now. He let his arm lose cohesion and as Jay slipped through it he hit Jay in the face hard. Then he turned and slammed into Mal hard. She felt her air knocked out through her lungs and she landed hard. He was now over her with his sword raised to stab her through the heart.

"Ben!" Evie yelled out now. "You heard Mal, be her knight in shining armor now!"

Another memory struck Ben. This one seemed like it was from another lifetime even though in truth it was a very recent memory. He saw himself towering over Mal in a dark place, ready to strike her down in that same manner.

"No!" Ben called out. He rushed toward Mal and as he did so all traces of the black in the armor faded away, to be replaced by what almost seemed to be sparkling silver as he struck Reviveslime hard, knocking him away from his girlfriend. "I won't let you harm Mal or my friends."

The purple haired girl immediately noticed the difference in his armor and felt elated. "Ben? Is that really you?" She asked.

Ben offered her his hand and helped her stand up. "Yes, Mal. It's really me. I'm back." He said.

"That's impossible." Reviveslime stated.

"That's where you're wrong." Ben said to him. "My love for my friends, my love for Mal, is stronger than any evil spell." He glanced at Mal. "It was a good idea for you all to face me as you are, not as power rangers. To make me see not my 'trained' enemies but my chosen family."

"You won't live long enough to celebrate it." Reviveslime promised. He charged toward the now seven teens.

The six teens pulled out their iPhones but Ben held ups his hand. "No guys." He said. "This one is on me." He made sure that Mal had support, in this case from Evie, and then moved to meet the slime monster himself.

"You betrayed us." Reviveslime said as he swung his sword at Ben.

Ben blocked it with the shield. "No, I finally came to my senses. If I betrayed anyone it was my team." He countered with a slash of his own that sent Reviveslime to the ground for a moment. Ben moved in to finish it and he dodged back.

"You choose them, you die with them." Reviveslime said. "Paradias will not forgive this." He swung his sword and Ben blocked with his own sword.

"Paradias won't have his dreams come true." Ben said. "He can't stop us. The strength of evil is as good as none, when all of our hearts act as one." He knocked him back and then collected energy in his sword. He swore he felt not only his own energy but that of his friends; the other six rangers, Doug and Jane, and even some he may not know of yet, enter the sword as he unleashed it on Reviveslime, and he exploded into little blue bits.

"Dude that was awesome." Carlos said as Ben came to them. "That so rocked."

"That was great man." Jay agreed.

As soon as Ben powered down he scooped Mal into his arms and twirled her around, then planted her down and kissed her on the lips. She responded whole heartedly. After the kiss he embraced both Audrey and Evie, then as he embraced Lonnie he high fived Jay and Carlos.

"Now this feels right." Audrey said with a small laugh.

"Come on Ben." Mal said. "We have to get back to the command center. There's a few people waiting for you."

"They did it." Paradias said dangerously. "They took back the king and added him into their fold."

Blue slime formed on the bridge and Reviveslime reappeared there. "I will make them all pay for this." He vowed. "Ben for his betrayal, the rangers for their constant interference. All of it."

"All is not lost." Nerissa said. "We have lost Ben, but the knight is still open to us." She held up a black orb. "This is the part of the powers that became corrupted due to our long influence over the boy. This time we shall not make the same mistake twice."

The first thing Ben got when they returned to the command center was a reunion with his parents, both of whom were overjoyed to have Ben back. They had seen the fight on the view screen and had been impressed that he had ultimately fought back the spell of his own will.

"Well it's about time you came to your senses your majesty." Jordan said jokingly as she gave him the smallest of bows. "Don't suppose I had a hand in zapping some of that sense into you?"

He actually did remember being sent to the command center to destroy it completely when Jordan had stepped in and put a stop to that. "Wait, when did you become part of the in crowd?" Ben asked.

"While you were out throttling your friends." Jordan replied coyly as she zapped some cups and for the six rangers and began to pour them a grape flavored healing potion to take care of their wounds, of which Carlos had had the worst of thanks to the cracked ribs. "Seriously, after slime bucket sent Mal to the Dark Dimension they decided they needed more magic than either Jane or Mal can provide, and after a bit soul searching myself, here I am."

"Welcome to the team then." Ben said.

"And welcome back to the team, your majesty." He heard and turned to see Fairy Godmother coming toward him. On either side of her was Jane and Doug.

Now Ben did something none of them had thought he would ever do. He kneeled before the three of them. "I am so sorry for what I did to you all." He said regretfully. "I'm thankful that I didn't permanently injure any of you. Please, forgive me."

"That wasn't you Ben." Jane said. "That was the beast part of you that Nerissa implanted so long ago."

"Yeah, it's fine." Doug added. "We know where the blame really lies.

Fairy Godmother leaned down and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You weren't in control of yourself, my king. Now you are though, and I know you'll do the right thing." She looked up at the other six rangers. "With the seven of you fighting as one, our chances of beating Paradias has never looked better." She stood now and Ben followed.

"I know you'll do great son." His father said.

"We're so proud of you, of all you've accomplished." Belle added.

"Thanks mom, dad." Ben said. He wasn't sur he was worthy of that praise but he vowed to make himself worthy of it as the days progressed. He came over and sat next to Mal. He placed his arm around her as he looked at his friends. "Everyone feeling better?"

"I sure am." Carlos said as Jane came and sat next to him now. "That stuff of yours is a miracle Jordan. You should bottle it and sell it mass market."

"Not a bad idea." Jordan noted. She herself had sat cross legged and started to float up in the air a bit as she took a drink of water.

"Look on the bright side." Jay said to Ben now. "You took a walk on the dark side, lived to tell about it and now came back to the light side. You're definitely one of us now." The two guys laughed and again high fived. Then Jay added, "Not that that's always necessary to become part of us." He looked to Audrey, who smiled herself.

"I was so afraid I'd lost you." Mal said softly. "My nightmare had a lot to do with you leaving me, and in a sense you did."

"I guess I did." Ben admitted, feeling a little guilty. "But your love brought me back. And it always will." He kissed her on the cheek and held her close.

The moment was so sweet and the feelings of completeness were running so strong that Audrey didn't want to talk to Ben about Chad just yet. She figured it could wait until tomorrow. She placed her hand on the table. "I guess we're all a team now." She said. "And we're going to show Paradias what that means."

"We're a team." Jay seconded, placing his hand on Audrey's and making her feel very warm now.

"We all stand as one." Evie and Carlos said in unison as they placed their hands on top of the two rangers.

"United as one." Lonnie added, placing in her hand.

"Ranger powers or not." Jordan added as she landed and joined in. Jane followed suit as did Doug.

"The Auradon Rangers." Mal stated firmly as she placed her hand in. As Ben placed his hand on top of her she looked at him and practically beamed. "And the Auradon Knight. Together, hearts as one, evil doesn't stand a chance."


	17. Primal Rise

A few days had passed without incident now that Ben had been freed from Paradias's influence. The Auradon Megazord was fully up and ready to go again as was Mal's dragon zord. The command center was fully active as well. The lull was great as Lonnie, Mal, Evie and Jane had gotten the time to get the pink ranger's project off the ground and Jordan was working with Jane to get it implemented before the next battle.

"So are you glad to finally be a power ranger like the rest of us?" Mal asked her boyfriend half-jokingly as they walked around campus holding hands.

"Well technically I'm not sure I'm one of you in that sense." Ben replied to her. "I mean I have powers like yours and that's good enough, it means I can help you all out. Though it'd be nice to have a zord."

"You probably do." Mal reminded him simply. "I had to get my zord separately from the rest of the team. It's only a matter of time."

Mal and Ben were taking a walk together and stopped at the statue in front of the school, the one of his father that changed from beast to man. "I guess I have a better idea of what that's like." Ben said to Mal. "After being made to be Paradias's champion. That influence Sermaya had over me showed that too kind of."

Mal kissed him on the cheek. "None of which was your fault." She promised. "And I had some issues during that time too. Being in love with Chad, how revolting." The purple haired girl made a face of disgust. "What is up with him?"

Ben shook his head. "I don't know. He hasn't spoken to me since the game before all of the knight stuff came to a head. He seems…I don't know, angrier and lighter somehow." He remarked.

"Isn't that a contradiction in terms?" Mal questioned.

"Maybe." Ben said. "It's like he's obviously still not happy with how things have gone around here but at the same time he…I don't know exactly, found a way to release some of that."

Audrey had been walking up to them at that point and heard their conversation. Her hand went to her cheek and she knew she should talk to Ben.

"You know, I told about my nightmare, losing you. Evie hasn't said specifically but I think hers had something do with me." Mal started.

"Why do you think that?" Ben asked.

"The way she's been acting lately, like she needs reminding that she's important to me." Mal answered. "You know we weren't always each other's chosen sister. There was a time when we couldn't stand each other."

"Really?" Ben was kind of surprised to hear that.

Mal nodded. "At one point I was too much of a bully to be her friend and I thought that she was too weak to my friend." She revealed a little sheepishly. "Eventually that did change but for the first like five years we had known each other we hated each other."

"Any idea what Audrey's was about?" Ben asked now. She hadn't spoken to him about it.

"That's my point." Mal answered. "As far as I know she hasn't spoken to anyone about it. I've kind of gotten the idea from watching her that we might have had something to do about it but I have no idea if it's true."

"I noticed that too." Ben said. "When Jay was giving me the 'welcome to the gray side of the tracks' speech he seemed to make sure Audrey realized that didn't men she was excluded just because she wasn't an evil kid or a controlled minion."

"Losing you guys was a large part of my dream." They heard Audrey say from behind them. "That you would take away my powers and tell me that you didn't want me around anymore." She felt kind of embarrassed to be revealing this.

Mal laughed. "I don't entirely think we could take away your powers even if we wanted to." She said consolingly. Audrey moved over to join them and three of them sat at the base of the statue. "And in case no one's told you this; you're a part of us now and you won't be getting rid of us that easily."

"Jay actually did say that, when he rescued me from that nightmare." Audrey said. She felt a similar rush of gratitude to hear that Mal as well but she didn't feel the same…emotion, that she had felt when Jay said it. It made her cheeks turn a bit red.

Mal noticed that one and she couldn't help but ask teasingly, "Anything else he's said to you recently?" That only increased the blush in her cheeks and the purple haired girl laughed at that one.

Ben looked between the girls. "Did I miss something here? What else would Jay say to her?" he looked between the two girls who decided not to respond to that one right now.

"What was the other part?" Mal asked Audrey now.

Audrey took a deep breath. "That was the other part of my dream. It involved Chad." She said.

"What do you mean?" Ben asked her.

"I…when we were looking to bring you back to our side I approached Chad about helping us." Audrey started.

"Does he know about us?" Mal asked her.

"I didn't tell him about our powers." Audrey promised her. "I didn't know how to go about doing it without telling him everything of course but he wouldn't even listen to me." She looked to Ben. "He's so resentful of everything that has happened that he didn't want to help you." She said mournfully.

Ben sighed, feeling a bit upset that Chad had let himself become so overcome by his dark feelings over it all. "I think we're losing him Audrey." He said.

Audrey touched her cheek where he had hit her, about to let the two of them know how badly they had in fact lost him when the ground started to shake, like a huge earthquake was occurring. "What's going on?" The brunette princess asked.

"This isn't normal." Ben said. "We have to get to the command center and see what's going on." Together the two rangers and Ben made their way to the command center.

Audrey got a couple steps ahead of the couple and almost took a very lopsided topple when another tremor followed but before she hit the floor Jay caught her in his arms. "I thought princesses were supposed to be graceful." He teased her.

She fought to hide the blush coming unbidden to her cheeks. "Yeah, I was out on the day they taught the chapter 'grace under earthquake'." She tried to deflect with humor. Then she added, "Thanks."

Mal and Ben were with her now and they saw they were the last to arrive. It looked like Carlos had been there already helping Doug while Jordan and Lonnie had been working to help Jane with Lonnie's idea.

"What is Paradias up to now?" Mal questioned.

"We can't be sure that it is him." Doug answered her. "All we know is we just located a disturbance just outside the canyon area."

"This could be good." Evie said. "I mean the last time we had this happen it released your zord Mal."

"It could be." Mal said dubiously. "There's only one way to find out guys."

"Go ahead." Jane said. "Jordan and I will finish this up as quickly as possible in case you need it. We even have this idea implemented for you too Ben."

"Can't wait to see it." Ben said as the seven teens headed out of the command center and toward the canyon area. They ran as quickly as possible to the area.

They found Sermaya surrounded by several rock formations. He turned to face them. "Look what I found, six rangers and my old friend." He said. "Have you come to join me?"

"In your dreams." Audrey said.

"I know what you meant now by that comment." Ben said. "But you're wrong. The fact that some part of me might have some beast inside of me doesn't make me like you."

"We'll just see about that." Sermaya replied. "You shall change your mind soon enough. Because of your friends I have returned and I intend to rebuild what I have lost." He walked toward one of the stone slabs. "You have no idea what your world holds." He told them.

"Well it held you." Lonnie noted. "It does stand to reason there are other things out there, though some of them might not be so wondrous." Jay and Carlos had a good laugh at that comment.

For his part Sermaya ignored the laughter. "One of those just happen to be right here. If you had shown up before the earthquake you might have been able to stop me." He stopped up to one of those stone slabs. "Too little, too late rangers. Now you can meet the one who will help me to bring you to the fold, my brother," He looked to Ben. "Before we return this world to what it once was."

"Why don't you just use that weird breath thing on him like you did the first time?" Carlos wondered.

"Shush." Mal said. "Don't give him any ideas."

"It's because you can't, can you?" Evie asked. "The first time you did it Ben wasn't aware of his powers. But now he is and that offers him protection from your influence."

"Interesting observation." Sermaya said with a shrug, neither confirming nor denying it. "Of course your powers didn't stop your purple ranger from being affected by that love spell." Sadly he didn't truly know the half of it but they weren't about to explain about the nightmare invasion. He then shattered the stone.

What emerged from it seemed to be centaur, a being that was a human above the waist and a horse below the waist. He twirled a staff with large staff in his hand. Sermaya grinned happily. "Rangers, welcome my mage Chiron to the new world."

"More magic." Audrey sighed. True some of it had benefited them all before but it seemed to her that more often than not it worked against them.

"Then let's make sure he doesn't get the chance to use it." Mal declared. She looked to her boyfriend and her friends. She was glad she could finally include Ben in this. "Let's get to work." The six rangers pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

Ben brought up his left arm to summon the shield, his right hand extended to summon his sword and then clanged sword against shield as he called out, "Armor up." From his hands the shiny silver armor started to form and then traveled from his arms and then once it reached his shoulders it encompassed his entire body.

Sermaya charged the Ben and he raised his arms to try to intercept the beast warrior. He felt the impact jar his very core but at least he withstood the charge which was sadly something the rangers had not been able to endure.

"I don't suppose we can talk any sense into you." Lonnie said as the six rangers started to move toward Chiron.

"Sense?" He asked, his voice not quite as loud as Sermaya's but the edge was still there. "You beings are responsible for the fact that my kind was very nearly put to an end." He laughed and twirled his staff. "There is no sense in that."

"We didn't even do anything to your race." Jay said.

"I know right." Carlos said. "None of you are anywhere in our history books."

Chiron merely twirled the staff and charged toward the rangers. Since he had the four hooves of a horse it was a pretty quick charge. He powered up a blast that he intended to deliver right against Carlos.

Evie got in the way with her mirror shield raised and it deflected the attack, sending him sprawling backwards.

"Nice trick." Chiron acknowledged.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Mal said as the rest of the ranger's summoned their weapons. Jay and Carlos struck his upper body first, followed by Audrey and Lonnie, and the last was Mal. All five strikes sent him back a few paces but despite the upper torso it barely seemed to do anything to him.

"That armor gives you a strength that is very hard to meet." Sermaya said. "At least for most people." He then head butted Ben in the head and it caused a ringing in his ears. Then he brought both his fists into Ben's chest and sent him sprawling backwards. He then jumped up and tried to land hard on the Auradon Knight but he rolled out of the way and tried to slam his shield into the monkey/lion beast warrior but he caught it and twisted it hard, making Ben sprawl to the ground hard.

The half horse mage sent a blast of magical energy at the six rangers and sent them flying in all directions. Mal had to use her staff to hook into an exposed root in order to avoid plummeting to the ground far below. She pulled herself up barely.

Ben rose and slashed Sermaya back, but again he barely seemed to feel it. He jumped back and landed by Chiron. "It's time." He told his mage. "Let's play our trump card."

Chiron laughed and formed a large circle of energy and sent it hurling into the seven teenage warriors. Ben landed hard and then started to get up. He noticed though that he couldn't find Mal and that the other rangers had gotten up only for the five of them to start toward the two beast warriors casually. "Guys, what's going on?" Ben asked confused. "What are you doing?"

"These people are under my control." The mage said gleefully. "And we will make them all walk off the bluff and into the ocean in two hours unless you agree to join us."

Ben hesitated as he drew his sword and got ready to charge them. Then the mage swallowed up the five rangers and Sermaya with the beast king echoing, "Two hours Ben, you join us or your friends die."

Ben felt his legs about to go out on him before his mind caught up with the situation. Only five rangers taken…where was Mal. "Mal?" He called out anxiously.

"Oh, that so hurt." The purple ranger moaned as she got up, holding her shoulder. "I hope Jordan's grape drink works on dislocated shoulders." She stopped as she realized they were alone. "Hey, where are the others?"

"You didn't hear?" Ben asked, shocked. Mal shook her head. "That mage took control of them, I have two hours to join up with Sermaya and Chiron or they're going to force them all to walk off the bluff near the beach." He cocked his head a bit. "Mal, how did you not get affected by that a spell?"

Mal thought a moment unsure until she realized something. "I have my crystallized dragon zord in my pocket. Since it's not something I would have wanted to be affected by its presence must have protected me from the spell."

Mal tried to reach for her spell book and flinched in pain. Ben took a hold of her and pulled her close. "Let's get to the command center. Jordan can heal you and the two of you can decide on what our magical options are. Otherwise I won't have any choice but to join Sermaya as he wants."

The last two warriors came into the command center, powered down. Ben sat Mal down on one of the consoles. Jordan already had prepared one of the grape flavored healing drinks that had healed them all after the last incident as Ben looked to her. "What are we supposed to do now?" He asked the genie girl. "How can we free the others from that spell?

"I don't know." Jordan answered simply. "The problem is that the kind of magic that horse mage used is older than anything I've ever heard of."

"What about the power up we were working on?" Mal asked, flinching just a bit. Her shoulder was healing but was still sore. "Can we use that somehow?"

Jane shook her head. "I don't see how." She answered softly. "It's an enhancement that has to be activated by the users, obviously you guys in this case." While she spoke Doug brought up an image, knowing they would find Sermaya and Chiron at the bluff already, with the controlled rangers there and ready for the order. "They aren't in any condition to activate it."

Jordan frowned in thought. "Maybe we actually can kill two birds with one stone here." She mused.

"What do you mean?" Mal asked the genie.

"We were still working on a way to let you implement the enhancement." Jordan revealed as she walked over to the console. "Originally we were going to tap it into your iPhones as an app of some sort." She continued and then looked to Ben. "But then you kind of dashed that idea when you got control of your powers, and you don't use a iPhone."

"Uh, sorry." Ben tried weakly, knowing it wasn't really his fault and that she wasn't really accusing him of anything.

Jordan just waved it off. "Technically we could still pursue that route but it'd be nice to find an option that was open to all of you."

"Sorry to interrupt, but we are on a time crunch here." The purple haired girl said, knowing they had lost at least a half hour so far. "What does this have to do with helping the others?" Mal asked her.

"You were immune because of your dragon zord, right?" Jordan queried and Mal nodded. "So I think we should make the trigger off of your zord's dragon scales." She finished and looked to Jane.

Mal nodded. "It might cancel out Chiron's spell." She agreed.

Jane thought a moment. "It might be possible to do that. The tricky part right now would be how to get it on the others." Jane mused.

"What about something like a paint ball gun?" Ben suggested. "The back of the dragon scale could be coated with some kind of adhesive that sticks to the suit." He crossed his arms over his chest. "That way it cancels out the spell and allows them access to the power up."

"Well the adhesive coating would only be a temporary solution." Jane mused as she none the less started to work on it. "But we can worry about a more permanent solution to the activator after we have everyone here safe and sound."

"The big question is how long will it take to carry out this idea?" Mal asked as she took out her crystallized dragon.

Jane thought a moment while Jordan answered, "On the magic side the spell canceller thing shouldn't take that long, we just have to hope I choose a powerful enough one." She shrugged as if it were no big deal but in fact her face showed she knew it was a really big deal. "We still don't know the extent of Chiron's magic and we have no time to find out, if I choose one that isn't strong enough then it won't work, and I don't if there could be any bad effects if I choose one that is too high, especially to Evie." As daughter of the evil queen, she was the only one of the five spelled rangers to have magical potential.

Mal found six loose scales off of her dragon zord that could be used. The dragon meanwhile seemed perfectly content to have gotten groomed up a little. She was going to give them to Jane but Ben stopped her, took the scales and took them to her himself. "What about on your side of things?" He asked.

"Linking them to the part of the grid that contains the enhancement is easy enough, the adhesive should be easy enough to apply, but the complication comes from laying the fiber optics patterns into the scales." Jane said and at their confused looks she clarified, "The patterns being in the scales is what allows the enhancement to flow from the grid into your actual suits."

"We'll also have to make the delivery system, but modifying your blaster for that is easy too." Doug said as he called up Mal's blaster from the system to do just that. "The big part is laying the groundwork in the scales."

"Well let's give it a try." Mal decided as she placed her hand over Ben's. "The alternatives are ones I'd rather not have to deal with." She wasn't sure what scared her more; Ben turning himself over or her friend's/chosen siblings being forced to fall off the bluff, probably to their deaths. She hoped she didn't have to find out first hand.

Time seemed to go by quickly, and Mal was becoming more and more anxious. The blaster was modified, simple enough. Jordan put the de spell component on the scales easily enough while reminding them that she could only guess what strength it had to be to be effective. The real nail biter was watching as Jane meticulously modified the dragon scales for their other purpose.

They were quickly reaching their time limit when Jane handed five scaled to Doug to load into the modified part of the blaster. She then walked over and handed one to Mal and one to Ben. "Put these on your upper shoulders, when you want to activate the enhancement press on the dragon scale." She instructed.

"Do I have to get the other scales on their shoulders?" Mal asked as she glanced at Doug loading up the scaled into the blaster.

Jane shook her head. "Only if you really want to challenge yourself." She said with a small joking quality to her voice. "Just get it on them, we'll worry about placement later. What matters right now is disrupting Chiron's spell."

Ben and Mal nodded and then headed out of the command center, transforming as they got outside and headed toward the bluff.

They made it close with minutes to spare when Ben stopped Mal. "I have to face them alone." He declared.

"Are you crazy?" Mal asked.

"Think about it." Ben insisted. "If I go alone they should focus on me. That will give you time to give those scales to our friends without you getting caught in the process."

The purple ranger grimaced under her helmet. She didn't like it one bit, but it didn't change the fact her boyfriend was right. "Be careful, and know that I'm going to tag them as soon as possible so we can take them both out."

"I'd expect no less." Ben promised his girlfriend. "I'll see you soon."

Ben made the rest of the way directly while he suspected Mal would cut through the rocky terrain that surrounded the bluff. He found Sermaya and Chiron waiting for him. "I see you have chosen to join us brother." Sermaya said.

"I won't just join you willingly." Ben told him. "But here's a counteroffer. Defeat me in a fight and I join you willingly. If I defeat you then you release my friends and leave me alone." He drew his sword and shield. "How about it?"

Sermaya eyed Ben curiously. He wasn't a fool, he was sure that the boy had some plan up his sleeve, including the obvious missing link he saw. "Where did your little girlfriend go off to?" he demanded to know.

"She didn't come." Ben bluffed, being glad that the helmet protected his eyes from being seen or else he was sure Sermaya would have called his bluff. Lying was not a skill they promoted in Auradon after all. "She didn't want to see me put my freedom on the line like this."

"You would think a being from the infamous Isle of the Lost would have more iron than that." Sermaya stated and he, along with Chiron, had a good laugh at that. Ben was glad they couldn't see the look of anger on his face. He wondered what Mal thought about that little comment, assuming she heard it all.

"Alright, boy. I agree to your terms." Sermaya stated and then jumped out, intending to crash down on Ben but he was able maneuver out of the way. The shockwave was still enough to catch him off guard. The beast warrior smashed both fists hard into the knight and sent him sprawling backwards. He moved to bring his fists down onto Ben's chest but he raised his shield to block the attack. "You can't hold out forever boy. Steel can bend and crumble."

"In time." Ben agreed as he lashed out and kicked Sermaya in the chest hard. The attack sent him back long enough for him to rise, the silver armor gleaming a bit in the light. "But not right now."

"Why do you fight me boy?" Sermaya asked. "As a fellow beast I can give you the world."

"You do know I'm already king of this land, right?" Ben questioned.

Sermaya laughed. "How little youth understand. Being King is nothing compared to being a monarch, being an emperor. That's real power and I can give it all to you." He said. "Just join me. Join us and help us rebuild the world as it once was."

Ben shook his head. "No one should ever have that much power." He said. "And if your world fell, it was probably meant to. You had your chance and it's gone. This is the world you live in now."

"For now." Sermaya corrected him. "That will change, sooner than you like. I can do this without you as well, the choice is yours to make. With me or against me, my brother."

"Against you. And I'm not your brother." Ben replied simply.

"So be it." Sermaya said. "Chiron, make his friends take their last plunge."

Luckily for the rangers Chiron had watched the fight between his master and the knight and had not kept a close eye on them, just as Ben had predicted. That allowed Mal the luxury of being able to tag each of them in the shoulder.

"Time to dive kiddies." Chiron ordered as he raised his staff again.

For a moment the five rangers took a couple of step forwards and Mal was afraid something had gone wrong, and knew it would cost her chosen siblings their lives. Then they stopped. First it was Jay and Lonnie, followed a moment later by Carlos. It was seemed hardest for Audrey and Evie, and the red ranger almost slipped off anyway before the black ranger got a hold of her arm and pulled her to safety.

"Are you guys okay?" Mal asked as she rushed over to them.

"We're okay." Audrey said as she gently pulled away from Jay, patting his arm slightly. "Where's Ben?"

"Fighting Sermaya." Mal answered. "Let's get through his mage so that we can help Ben keep his freedom." The other five rangers nodded and together they turned to face Chiron.

"If you're trying to help your friend you're going to have to get through me." Chiron warned them and powered up energy in the staff and unleashed a blast of energy at the ranger team.

Evie raised her shield and deflected the energy right back at him. It sent him flying backwards and landing hard. "How do you like my nice trick now?" Evie taunted the mage.

"What do we do with these?" Carlos asked Mal as he was about to take the dragon scale off of his arm.

"No, don't." Mal stopped him. "We're going to need that in a minute."

"Ben!" Audrey yelled out as she saw him barely going fist to blade with Sermaya. She looked to Mal. "We have to jump in and help him."

"Ben!" Mal yelled out. "It's time to see how well this idea works."

Ben moved past Sermaya and joined the rangers. Then they all moved their hands to their shoulders and pressed down on the scales. The scales then activated the enhancements. All seven of them began to glow, their suits taking on a distinct neon glow just as Lonnie had during her hip hop performance when Mal and Evie had given her the neon glow, but this wasn't just for show. Combined with their powers it enhanced their strength and speed.

"Glowing like that won't stop me." Sermaya told them and again began his typical charge toward the team. Ben and Jay moved into intercept the beast king and he shot his fist out. Both boys caught it, the strain to do so was still in their posture but they had done it and in the case of the black ranger that had never happened before.

Moving quicker than they had before the five rangers leapt up. Carlos and Evie struck Sermaya with their weapons, it didn't seem to do much but he seemed to feel it, unlike last time. Then it was Lonnie and Audrey's turn. Finally Mal made her strike. It did little more than faze him but at least he felt it.

"See if you can finish him off." Ben said to the six rangers as he kicked Sermaya in the midsection hard and then brought his sword down against his chest. "I'll keep distracted for a moment."

The six rangers nodded. "Time for the Auradon Blaster." Mal decided. First it was her staff, with Audrey's bow underneath and Evie's shield behind. Then it was Jay's scimitar in the middle and then flanked on either side by Carlos's claw daggers and Lonnie's tessens. They could already feel the increased power of their blaster as they took their positions.

Seeing they were ready Ben slashed Sermaya away from him again and then rolled to the opposite side. The six rangers unleashed their blaster on him and it sent him flying. It didn't destroy him, much to their dismay, but he rose with his chest smoking.

"We must retreat." Chiron said to him. "They're still too strong."

"This isn't over Power Rangers, Auradon Knight." Sermaya promised, giving Ben a glare that let him know that he would no longer be asking for a partnership as he tried to reclaim the planet. With that they were gone.

"Everyone okay?" Ben asked as he looked toward the rangers.

"Thanks to you guys." Lonnie said. "And I assume Jordan, Jane and Doug had a hand with the logistics behind it."

They powered down and went to the command center. Jane wanted to try to make sure there were no ill effects from the control while Jordan worked to make the permanent integration for their powers and the power boost.

"Great idea Lonnie." Evie said with a smile.

Lonnie smiled back. "Couldn't have done it if it weren't for you and Mal doing that the first time." Sher reminded her.

Ben looked to Audrey. "It looked like you wanted to say something just before Sermaya struck." He noted. "Want to talk about it now?"

Audrey hesitated. She didn't want to discuss it in front of everyone just yet. She thought Ben should be the first to know, that together the two who had been Chad's friend the longest could find a way to make things right again. "It can wait." She said simply.


	18. The Storm

There was the loud boom of thunder followed by a strong flash of lightning and Audrey couldn't help but flinch a little. "I'm really starting to hate those sounds." She revealed to the group at large. At large was a bigger term than usual as right now they were hanging out indoors in what many people called the commons since most students crossed her several times a day to get to classes. It was also where students ate lunch if they wanted to be indoors or if they had to be, like today. The weather had been bad since early morning.

The group at large was bigger right now too. Audrey sat in between Jay and Ben. Mal sat beside Ben as well as Evie, with Doug on her side. On Jay's side was Lonnie, Carlos, and Jane. What was somewhat a change was that Jordan sat next to Jane, and beside her sat Ally; daughter of Alice Liddell and Aziz; son of Aladdin and Jasmine.

"No argument from me." Evie agreed tersely. It kind of reminded her of her mother the Evil Queen when she screamed.

"I guess tourney practice is cancelled for today." Aziz guessed as thunder rumbled again.

"I don't think anyone wants to get struck by lightning." Carlos replied, doing a mental count. At the count of three lightning followed.

"It's rather odd." Ally noted in her British lilt. "I don't quiet recall the weather forecast as predicted to be like this."

"It wasn't." Jane said. "But so far there's been no other explanation for it." It was code to the six rangers and Ben that so far sensors hadn't revealed the presence of any monsters in the vicinity that could be causing it. Not that that meant there wasn't one, just that it hadn't been found if one was involved.

Mal thought a moment and looked to Jane. "What happens if the power goes out in Auradon?" She asked. It was kind of a double meaning, as in what would it do to the command center and their powers.

"Then we'd be sitting here in the dark." Aziz said with a shrug and a laugh, not realizing the double meaning behind the purple haired girl's inquiry.

"Some of the more critical places have back up power for about four hours." Jane replied, subtly hinting that the command center was one of those places. Ally seemed to not really notice the subtle hidden conversation but Aziz was starting to wonder what they were talking about.

Thunder crashed, lightning followed and then one of the windows in the commons shattered. This drew even more shocked reactions from everyone there. The seven warriors and their three companions looked at each other in alarm. They all knew clearly something was up.

"Maybe it's time to see if magic can shed a little light on what technology can't." Carlos suggested quietly to Evie.

The blue haired girl nodded. She knew what that meant. Consult her magic hand mirror to see if it could identify a monster. For some reason if there was one the sensors were missing it.

"I don't remember the weather ever being this bad in Auradon." Ally noted with concern. "Even our storms are never this…this climatic."

"It doesn't normally get this bad on the island either." Jay admitted. "Not natural at all."

There was another loud clap of thunder and the skylight broke now. The students ducked under tables or dodged out of the way to other secured areas. Jordan used a magical barrier to stop the glass from falling on their little group as made their way to safety.

Evie quickly ducked behind a stone pillar attached to the ceiling and whispered, "Mirror, mirror in my hand, show me what quakes the land." She was surprised to find nothing but a humanoid skull looking back at her for a moment. "Must be jammed." She concluded. She made her way back to the others and said. "Nothing is coming now."

"I think it's time to get to the command center." Ben whispered to Jane and Mal. Both girls nodded in agreement.

"You guys go." Jordan said softly. "Doug and I will stay here so as not to alert Ally and Aziz that we're all in some mass type of conspiracy…not that in a way we aren't."

"Cute." Audrey said with a roll of her eyes. Then the seven warriors and Jane headed toward a side door as Jordan and Doug worked to move their two in the dark friends more towards a bigger crowd.

Thunder and lightning rattled the school twice more before they reached the command center. A third followed that when they were down there, loud enough to rattle even that location. "This is bordering on madness." Lonnie noted. "Nothing should be striking like that."

"The sensors haven't revealed a monster; my magic mirror didn't reveal a monster." Evie said. "I don't understand what it could be."

"Did your mirror give you anything?" Jane asked.

"I guess it was a misread or something." Evie answered with a shrug. "All I got was a skull."

Jay laughed a little bit. "Out of order, or toxic." He joked.

Thunder shook the building, including the command center, again and it was followed by a strike of lightning that was only really known about because for an instant power was lost in the command center. When it came back on Audrey shook her head. "There has to be some way we can find this monster."

"We don't even know there is a monster." Lonnie reminded her.

"Somehow I'd bet my magic that there is one involved in this." Mal said. "But how do we find it?"

"All this electricity could be disrupting the sensors." Jane speculated. "I have an idea. I'm going to try to triangulate the storm."

"Triangle what?" Jay asked.

"Triangulate." Evie repeated. "Jane is going to try to track the center of the storm. It might tell us where this theoretical monster is."

"I don't understand." Mal said. "The storm is in the skies." She was glad her dragon zord was not out soaring the skies at this very moment. "How will that help when the sky is everywhere?"

"The skies are everywhere." Jane agreed as she worked, pressing a few buttons and twisting a couple of knobs. "But the triangulation's angle is what I'm looking for. Odds are any monster generating this storm would not be in the skies doing so. If that angle is coming from land then we know its location."

"What if it is in the skies?" Carlos asked, being sure that there had to be some kind of flying monsters that could do this somewhere.

Jane frowned as she thought of that. "Well, we can still check it out. Even if it's a flying monster it will still triangulate the same direction." She worked a switch this time. "But something tells me we're not dealing with a flyer here."

"I hope you're right." Lonnie said. "Otherwise I don't know how we'd even get up there."

After another moment of button pushing map of Auradon appeared on the screen. Moments later something, presumably a representation of Jane's triangulation search, overlapped the area and started to focus on one point near the edges of Auradon before the mountains.

"That figures." Audrey said.

"What figures?" Evie asked her.

"Those coordinates point to a desert spot that have been nicknamed the Badlands." Ben supplied. "Very few people actually get out there, there's nothing out there as far as anyone knows but sand. No water, no vegetation. Nothing."

Mal nodded a bit. They had something like that on the Isle of the Lost but not nearly as large of an area and it certainly wasn't called the Badlands. "No one would ever look for a monster there." She agreed. "Until now, let's head over there."

"It'll take almost an hour to get there." Audrey warned. "If this thing gets worse or doesn't let up it's not going to be a comfortable journey, even morphed."

"You're probably right." Mal agreed. "But we don't have a choice." The brunette princess couldn't argue that point. Jane promised to try to keep an eye on them and they slipped outside, the six rangers taking out their iPhones and putting in their numbers to transform. Ben summoned the sword and shield to transform into the Auradon Knight and then they were off.

The journey wasn't the easiest one, although there was no rain to go with the storm it was windy and half a dozen times they were afraid they would get struck by thunder. Mal was particularly worried about Ben, who basically wore a suit of shiny silver metal armor, but either by luck or design her boyfriend was never struck by lightning.

The ranger's first indication that they had gotten there was the crunch of sand underneath their boots. "I don't see anything." Jay said.

"I don't see anything either." Evie agreed as she looked up into the skies. Aside from the clouds that were generating the storm it was clear too. There was no way that a monster could be hiding up anywhere then up in the clouds.

The rangers and the knight started to look around and were starting to get discouraged. Then from the sand both Carlos and Lonnie were struck. They all turned and went to their team mates just as a large skeletal thing emerged from the sands. Evie gasped as she realized that the face of the monster was exactly like the skull she had seen in her mirror. "That's it." She said. "That's the monster face that was in my mirror."

"I guess you owe your mirror an apology." Jay said with a smirk.

"Greetings Rangers, I am the Lightning Skull." The skeletal thing said with what could almost be called a courteous bow. "And I welcome you to your doom." Then he unleashed a huge burst of lighting right at all seven warriors, sending them flailing to the ground.

"I think we found the monster." Mal noted dryly.

Audrey looked over at her. "What was your first clue, the lightning blast?" She questioned sarcastically.

As the seven warriors got up Lightning Skull was already coming over toward them. Mal moved over first and blocked the first strike he tried to make at Lonnie with her staff.

"We better follow suit." Jay said as he raised his hands.

"Hold on a minute." Lonnie interrupted. "We can't use our metal weapons in a lightning storm."

"She's right." Ben agreed. "Metal weapons against a monster that uses lightning is literally a metal rod. An invitation for trouble. Mal's weapon isn't really metal so she's safe." He looked to Evie. "As are you. It's glass and plexiplastic."

"But can Mal and Evie defeat that thing on their own?" Audrey questioned.

Mal was trying to strike at their opponent with her staff but was being met with good resistance, especially since she was literally striking at bones intermingled with some weird purple flesh.

Evie took her mirror shield and started toward the fight. "Our only hope is to deflect his own powers against him." She declared.

Mal saw her blue haired friend coming and kicked him back. "Come on bone head; try to give me a shock to my system." She taunted him.

"Gladly." Lightning Skull replied and shot a huge bolt of energy at the purple ranger, but the blue ranger swooped in and reflected that electrical energy right back at him.

"How do you like a taste of your own medicine?" Evie asked.

Her expression changed to one of surprise to see him unaffected. "Did you really think I'd be damaged by the very power that I generate?" He asked her. "Sorry to spoil your plan blue ranger but I'm still standing, not a scratch."

"Lonnie," The pink ranger heard from Jane call from her helmet intercom. "I know how you can stop this monster."

"I'm listening." Lonnie said. "Go ahead."

"That wind you were encountering on your way there isn't present at your current location." Jane told her. "I think that's because it needs to see its target to hit with the lightning. Combine your neon armor with your tessens and stir up a sandstorm. If Ben can keep that thing distracted long enough, everyone else can use the Auradon Triangle Spark to take him out."

"You're a miracle worker Jane." Lonnie said enthusiastically. "We'll get right on it."

Since having been rescued from Chiron's control the seven warriors had the small dragon scale the contained the activation for their neon armor placed on the upper part of their shoulders for quick and easy access, with an adhesive that had been made by Doug. Now she reached up and activated it, making her ranger suit appear neon pink.

"What's the plan?" Jay asked.

"I hope you guys can see through a sandstorm." Lonnie started.

Carlos nodded. "Sure, we've got a few vision modes installed into our helmets after all." He looked to Jay and Audrey. "The second vision mode should do it, and we're going to have to make sure that Mal and Evie know that too."

"Right." Audrey said. Then she looked to the pink ranger. "Go on."

"Jane thinks if Ben distracts Lightning Skull and I create a sandstorm then you five should be able to use the Auradon Triangle Spark to defeat him." Lonnie explained.

Ben nodded. "Okay, I'll go and fight him hand to hand as well as send Mal and Evie over." The young king declared. "Just let me know before you blast that bag of bones to dust." He then headed over to where he was fighting two on one with Mal and Evie.

Ben kicked Lightning Skull from behind and then said, "Go to the others." He then turned toward the monster. "Let's dance." He said and started to attack him.

When Mal and Evie came to the team Lonnie explained the plan with Carlos giving his additional tidbit for remodulating the view for the helmets. The purple ranger agreed with the plan and she, Audrey and Evie stood in front of the two boys.

With that done, and Lightning Skull shooting what they considered a huge amount of lighting at the metal armor clad king, they quickly got to work. Although it was hard to find a good purchase, the speed increase with the neon armor never the less gave Lonnie the foot hold she needed to start one of her hip hop twirls and stir up a sandstorm.

"What is this?" Lightning Skull questioned as the sand started to buffet him. His bones didn't care about the granules of sand but his vision, already rather dim, was going to practically nothing. "I can't see." He blurted out.

"Glad to hear that." Ben said and formed his sword, striking the skeletal monster in the chest as hard as he could.

Carlos and Jay were on the girl's shoulders and they took out their blasters, then they released a burst of energy that converged into a triangle. Before releasing it Mal called out, "Ben, now!" and then released it, hoping Ben would respond in enough time to avoid the attack while hoping the monster did not.

Ben rolled up next to Lonnie just as an explosion followed. It blew the pink ranger off of her feet but the knight in silver armor caught her before she hit the sand. "Did it work?" Lonnie asked, trying to regain her equilibrium.

"It worked." Ben assured her. "You did great, and Jane's idea was brilliant."

But the thunder and lightning storm did not go away. "Guys." Carlos interrupted as the green energy circle appeared and made Lightning Skull grow.

He looked down on the rangers. "Now taking you all out should be a piece of cake." He said.

"Won't our zords conduct his electricity as well as any of the weapons?" Audrey asked.

"We don't have a choice but to try." Mal answered grimly. "At that size he doesn't need a huge storm to crush Auradon, he can do it on his own."

Ben of course still didn't have a zord. "Good luck guys. Take him down." He said.

The five rangers summoned the Auradon Megazord while Mal brought out her dragon zord and broke the spell holding it in the crystalline form. The five rangers immediately boarded the megazord's cockpit and placed their iPhones into the slots on their consoles. Lightning Skull shot out a huge burst of electrical energy straight at the battle zord and struck it down.

"We definitely can't take another hit like that." Carlos reported. "That just did a massive amount of damage to our system. It's already being repaired but we can't take a mass strike like that again."

"It's this storm." Evie said. "It's making his abilities stronger than they would be without it."

"Is there any way we can dissipate this things storm?" Audrey asked the blue ranger.

"Not that I know of." She answered.

"Hang on guys, I'm coming." Mal told her friends as she landed on her dragon zords head. With her there the dragon zord shifted form to look more like a Chinese dragon. There was also an unexpected side effect as something about the alternate form also caused the clouds to suddenly disperse and the sun started to shine down on the area, perhaps a little too brightly. Mal was impressed as she got into the cockpit of her zord and slid her iPhone into the right slot. "That was unexpected."

"But welcome." Lonnie added. "That should make sure our zords can actually stand up to this lightning wielding skeleton monster."

"Then let's get this over with." Audrey announced. She and Evie exchanged looks, followed by her looks to Jay and Lonnie. Evie placed her mirror shield into the slot to make the shield. Lonnie and Jay combined their weapons in their console to make the sword.

"This isn't over yet rangers." Lightning Skull stated and shot another streak of lightning at the two zords. While the Auradon Megazord blocked the strike and deflected it against the sand Mal's dragon zord swerved rather elegantly to dodge the strike. It then unleashed several fire balls that struck the monster head on.

"Let's bring them together." Mal stated. "Let's do it." Audrey agreed. The Auradon Megazord got on the back of the dragon zord, the tail entwining the battle zord and merging them. In the megazord room was made in between Audrey and Carlos for Mal to join the formation. "Auradon Champion Megazord ready."

Lightning Skull again released a stream of electricity at the battle zord but with the dragon's flight speed they were able to easily dodge the assault. The path continued and the struck the monster head on. Then they took to the skies.

"It's time to bring this to a close." Mal decided. "With the Auradon sword strike." The battle zord descended and struck the skeleton monster, shattering it into pieces and as the battle zord flew away from it that was followed by the explosion.

"Great job guys." Ben called out. This time they could see it was real as the skies beyond the immediate battle area cleared up. The six rangers left the zords, the Auradon Megazord returning to its resting place in the mountains.

Mal's dragon zord settled in by her and the purple ranger reached up to stroke its side. "And here's our ride home." She stated. "Unless of course you would like to walk all the way back."

"Hey, I want to fly on this thing." Jay said with a laugh. He noticed Audrey looked a little uncertain and he smiled at her. "Hey, if you're worried I'll make sure you don't fall." If they had powered down they all would have seen her blush a little.

Mal, the most comfortable riding the dragon's back, was already on. "Alright boys and girls, the last flight to Auradon is about to take off." She laughed. Ben sat behind her, followed by Audrey, Jay, Carlos and Evie and Lonnie.

"I just wish that we knew rather this was a random monster like Sermaya and Chiron or if Paradias sent him." Audrey mused as they took off. She felt a bit shaky as she placed her hands on the scales. She felt Jay wrap his arms around her waist to keep her stable.

But after the dragon zord soared into the skies, from the sand blue ooze started to emerge and out came the form of Reviveslime. He took a few steps forward before finding what he wanted. A bone from the Lighting Skull.

He left the badlands and formed in front of Paradias. "Lightning Skull failed my lord." Reviveslime reported. "But I have found a bone fragment."

"Excellent." Paradias responded. From the side came a couple of his soldiers and one of them held up a black scale.

From his side Nerissa took the black scale and the bone fragment. "When I'm done with these, the rangers will be in for one shocking surprise." She said and then laughed.

After arriving back at Auradon Prep the seven warriors powered down and Mal let her dragon zord go take some time to soar in the now clear skies. They started to make their way back to the command center but were intercepted by Jane, Doug, and Jordan.

Evie hugged Jane quickly. "That was a great idea. Talk about a life saver." She said.

"I do what I can." Jane said with a small smile.

"Is everyone okay?" Ben asked.

"Some minor injuries but everyone should be okay." Doug told him. "You must have stopped Lightning Skull."

"Thanks to Jane's idea." Mal said happily.

"We'll have to work out some coating for your weapons." Jane said. "In case Paradias decides to use another electrical based monster."

"Should be easy enough." Evie said and Doug agreed. They decided they would get on it.

They found Aziz and Ally coming toward them a moment later. "We were worried about you guys after you disappeared. What happened?" Ally asked them.

"We wanted to go and make sure the others were okay." Lonnie said. "There are a lot more students and faculty then just the ones in the commons."

"You guys sure took a risk." Aziz noted with some pride.

As the group continued back to the commons for their stuff Audrey moved a little closer to Jay. "Thanks for…keeping me grounded, pardon the pun." She said softly. "It's not exactly common knowledge but I kind of have a mild fear of heights."

"It's okay." Jay said and shrugged. "Everyone has their hang ups."

"Even a big tough guy like you?" She teased.

"Sure." Jay replied easily enough. He looked up ahead to where the others were having their own conversations. "If you tell anyone else this, I'll deny it but I have a bit of snake phobia." He confided.

"I'll take it to my grave." Audrey said, trying to sound as serious as possible.

They could hear Mal say to Ben as she took his hand. "I just hope that we don't have to deal with anything the likes of that again."


	19. The Tempest

In a section of the ship Paradias and Reviveslime walked toward the area where Nerissa was intending to perform the ritual for their latest monster. They entered to see a brightly glowing pentagram in the center where the bone fragment and the black scale lay. She was walking around the circle, lighting candles and chanting a language almost as ancient as the magic's that her master used.

"This monster will have the combined energies of both the recently destroyed Lightning Skull and the dragon of destruction that was destroyed not long ago when the rangers acquired that dragon zord the purple ranger uses." Paradias said conversationally. "Combined it should be able to stand up to even the combination of the Auradon Champion Megazord."

The two items merged and then Paradias sent it to the surface for the monster's hatching and subsequent attack. "Now let's move on to the next task, of reviving our friend." He stated.

Audrey was moving across campus. She saw Ben and was trying to get to him. She knew she had to speak to him about Chad and the fact he had hit her when she asked for his help back when Ben was being controlled by Paradias. She opened her mouth to call out to him when she was slammed into from the side. She looked up to see the object of that need to have conversation. "Watch where you're going." Audrey snapped at Chad, though she suspected it wasn't an accident.

"Sorry." Chad said sarcastically. She started reach for one of the books she had dropped and he set his foot on it. "In a rush?"

"Yes." Audrey said sternly. "Get off of my book, now."

Chad glared down at her and shoved her back down by pushing on her shoulder. "You're not one of those bad girls Audrey. You're barely anything." He spat at her.

Audrey glared up at him, but when she moved to stand and he balled his fist and raised his arm slightly she hesitated. Then they looked to see Ben had heard the noise and was coming over to them. "Hey, what's going on here?" Ben asked.

Chad looked at him and said, "Audrey ran into me."

She hesitated as she got her books up. "I'm pretty sure you rammed, not ran, rammed into me." She countered harshly. "Just like you…" He shook his head at her and she faltered for a moment before going ahead full steam, "Like when you hit me for asking for you to help Ben."

"You hit her?" Ben questioned, tensing up.

"It was one slap and she wouldn't stop nagging me before that." Chad said.

"That's not really a good reason." Ben said tersely. "You're lucky that she doesn't press charges on you."

Chad gave her a look that almost seemed to dare her to do so. She stood beside Ben and said, "You're getting out of control Chad. If you don't check yourself you're going to go down a path darker than Jay or any of the others."

Chad gave her a darker look. "When did it become 'Jay and the others'?" He snapped.

That took her aback. "What business is that of yours?" She questioned.

"What about Jay and the others?" Jay asked as he came with Mal and Lonnie.

"Nothing." Chad said simply and walked off. Jay had his doubts but let him go.

"What was that about?" Mal asked as she up to Ben and kissed him on the cheek. "What's his problem with us now?"

"It's not you guys, at least directly." Ben said. "He's pissed at me and Audrey because we're getting along with you." He looked toward the brunette princess as he started, "She was even saying Chad hi…"

"Hates me now." Audrey interrupted firmly. "He hates me now because we've gotten along so well. I was pointing out he might be worse than he ever thought Jay and the others were when you showed up." She gave Ben a look that implored him not to mention anything about Chad hitting her.

Ben repressed a sigh and said nothing about it for now. He was going to make sure that he talked to her about it later though before things got out of hand. "Yeah, what she said." He said.

Mal and Jay exchanged looks; they had already figured they were missing something. Mal mouthed 'was she going to say hit' and Jay shrugged. He was already hoping that was not the case or he was going to have a different kind of conversation with Chad.

The three helped Audrey get her books and Jay said, "I'll walk you to class Audrey."

"Okay, why not." She said and walked over to Jay.

"And I'll walk you to class Mal." Ben said with a bow.

Mal laughed. "Special treatment from the king." She took his hand and kissed his cheek again. "Might want to be careful about that or some students might start to think you have some kind of preference for me."

Jay rolled his eyes. "If they haven't figured that out by now…" He started.

"Okay, behave yourself." Audrey mock chastised him. "If you want to walk me to class we better go now so you're not late yourself." She looked to Ben and Mal. "See you guys at lunch."

"Later." Mal said with a wave as she and Ben walked one way and Jay and Audrey walked another way. The purple haired girl looked to the young king. "So what did Jay and I miss?" She asked.

"Just a disagreement between former friends." Ben said enigmatically. Mal frowned and left it alone but she knew something was wrong now, because that was the first time her boyfriend had openly called Chad anything other than a friend.

Jordan had this thing where she didn't exactly care if she was a little late to class. Sometimes that even got her in trouble. So she was running late to her first class and she turned a corner to see Ally and Aziz coming toward her. She waved absently at them until Aziz stopped her. "Running late, make it quick." She said. Late and absent were two different things.

"Any idea what's going on with the isle kids, Audrey, Lonnie, Ben, Jane and Doug?" Aziz asked simply.

Jordan halted now, fully realizing what was being asked. They didn't know what was going on but they knew who was part of the ranger thing, except for her involvement…for now. "Shouldn't you two be in class?" The genie girl asked, evading the question for now.

"I have a free period this semester." Ally said. "And Aziz asked for time in the library for a project. He saw you and wanted to, well apparently interrogate you." She seemed a bit more reluctant to pursue the subject.

Jordan thought fast. "Yeah, I see." She said absently. "Seems a lot of special projects are going around right now, all of them are working on a…a long term special project for our esteemed headmistress Fairy Godmother." She tried to shrug nonchalantly. "You might want to ask her if you have any other questions, I've only just heard about it myself."

Aziz and Ally exchanged looks of uncertainty and Jordan took that chance. "So, got to go. Later." She dashed off as quickly as she could. As soon as she turned a corner she took out her iPhone and texted to the group **Aziz is getting suspicious, has Ally with him, need to come up with a plan soon. –J**

Lunch rolled around and the seven warriors, Jane and Doug elected to eat in the command center. They had all received Jordan's text and were wondering what to do about it.

"Can't we just like erase their memories or something?" Mal asked as she picked up a strawberry and then bit into it. She noticed that Jay was sitting near Audrey and wondered if he thought it was protecting her somehow.

"I suppose there's a spell or something you, Jordan or I could do." Jane said dubiously. "I…just don't even know if we should."

"But if they're figuring out who we are, what we do, shouldn't we make sure it doesn't cause a problem for us later on?" Carlos asked.

Now Lonnie chimed in. "It might be important at some point. I mean we weren't trying to bring Jordan into this but here she is…and if Aziz was getting suspicious already we wouldn't even know it if it weren't for Jordan." She voiced as she tore of a chunk of chocolate chip bread. "In fact, maybe we should just come clean with them too."

"Doesn't that pose a risk in itself?" Evie now asked. "The more people that know the more risk it is to those who can't protect themselves when Paradias finally decides to take that route." She had a small chicken salad in front of her. "Jordan has magic, you two practically run the command center and Fairy Godmother made all of this possible, but they don't really have anything to help."

"But they can learn." Jay said. "Guys, we are in a war rather anyone wants to acknowledge it or not, and we've always been on the lower end of those numbers. Anything we can do to narrow that, even by a bit, cannot be a bad thing."

"Except that only seven of us are actually prepared for this war." Audrey countered. "No one else is, even Fairy Godmother, Jane and Doug have to work on the side lines. Jordan is only barely qualified as far as we can tell."

Ben remembered that he had injured them both, as well as Fairy Godmother, when they had tried to have him as their knight make their final planned moves. "I'd hate to put any more innocents at risk than already occurs every time an attack happens." Ben admitted reluctantly. "I don't know that memory wipe is a good idea even if we could do it but telling them what's going on, I can't say I like that either." He looked to Mal. "What do you think? Is that what you want to do?"

Mal bit her lip and took a moment to think. She knew as their leader it might make an impact, except for one thing. She didn't have a thought yet. "Let's see what happens." Mal finally brought up. "Suspicions are just that, suspicions. It's not a confrontation yet and it's certainly not proof."

The alarms sounded and they turned to the view screen. This wasn't some monster trying to subtly hide. They watched as a large black skeletal dragon appeared on the screen. With a ferocious roar the skies turned black again. It started to thunder but instead of lightning a small fiery meteor came from the sky and crashed into the forest.

"What is that?" Carlos asked, sounding kind of freaked out.

Jane was already up and looking at her sensors. She let out a small gasp of shock. "That…that monster has the combined power of that Lightning Skull monster and that dragon of destruction Gandor that we fought last week." She revealed shakily.

Thunder sounded hard enough to shake the school, and even send some plaster dust off the ceiling. "We have to stop that thing." Mal declared. It was so big they had no choice but to go for the megazords right off the plate.

Doug looked to Jane. "We need to find Ben's zord." He declared.

"Easier said than done." Jane mused. "We don't even know what we're looking for. We weren't even sure about Mal's, her zord found us."

"Do what you can." Mal told the two of them. She looked to Ben. "Stay here and cross your fingers we defeat this thing or they find your zord in a hurry. Both would be nice." He nodded reluctantly and then the purple haired girl looked to her friends. "Let's get to work." The six of them took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

The Auradon Megazord came out of its mountain hiding spot while Mal had to summon her zord from the skies. It would take a moment for it to get there and that made the purple ranger nervous. Meanwhile the five rangers boarded the Auradon Megazord, placing their iPhones in their slots on the consoles, followed quickly by Evie's shield as well as Lonnie's tessens and Jay's scimitar.

"We meet again Power Rangers." The monster said. They could indeed hear Lightning Skull's voice but it was much more guttural, almost like a growl. Audrey recalled that the dragon of destruction had not actually spoken. Paradias had done that while taunting Mal until her zord showed up. "I am the Skull Destructor Dragon and I will bring this place to its knees."

"You're going to have to get by us first." Jay declared. Evie and Carlos exchanged glances, worried that that wouldn't be as hard as they would have preferred.

"So be it." Skull Destructor Dragon replied and then shot a massive meteor blast the zords way. It struck hard despite the attempt to use the shield. Then it charged forward and rammed into the battle zord hard.

"How are we doing?" Audrey asked Carlos.

"Integrity is down twenty percent, power holding for the moment." The yellow ranger reported.

"Time to strike back." Audrey declared. "While we still can." They struck with their sword but it didn't seem to do too much damage to the monster. Two repeats swings had the same minimal effect.

Skull Destructor Dragon flew up and began to power up another attack when it was struck from the side, and the dragon zord flew up and around it. It then sent an energy ball at the monster, which retaliated with its own, cancelling each other out.

Mal got up to her dragon zord and it changed form from its standard to the Chinese dragon like one. She got inside and put her iPhone in. Then the dragon zord tried to smash the monster in the head with its tail but was caught and tossed aside hard.

Jordan appeared in the command center out of nowhere thanks to magic. She saw the screen. "Wow, what is that?" She asked.

"The offspring of Lightning Skull and some destruction dragon." Ben said morosely. "And I don't have a zord to help them out."

"We have another problem." Doug said. "That first meteor strike lit the forest on fire."

"Can they even put that out?" Jordan asked him. The look of uncertainty on both of their faces confirmed the genie's fears. "Even my magic can't do that so easily either."

"That monster has to come first anyway." Jane said. "Putting out one fire won't do any good as long as the pyromaniac is around to light more."

"Okay, so they need that Auradon Champion Megazord then." Jordan said. "They need to do that thing they do then."

Doug shook his head. "I can already tell that won't be enough to take that thing out." He looked to the girls and Ben. "We need Ben's zord right now…somehow."

They heard footsteps coming down the command center and they turned to see Fairy Godmother with an old book in her hands. "I've been working on that dilemma right now my children." She said. She placed a book down. "It stood to reason that a knight would have no less than the traditional noble steed."

Jordan had to stop herself from giggling. "A horse. Ben's zord is a horse?" She asked.

"It's not unheard of." Fairy Godmother said to the genie girl in chastising manner. "One of the more legendary, though somewhat dangerous zords, was in fact a horse zord known as Catastros."

"If that is Ben's zord, then how do we find it mom?" Jane asked her.

"Like Mal's zord, it might be hidden somewhere in this world." Fairy Godmother replied. "And maybe it will show itself." She looked to Ben. "If you really feel it, and if it feels that in you."

Ben seemed to be in thought a moment and then nodded. "I'm going to that fight." He declared and left the command center.

"Are you okay M?" Evie called out to her chosen sister.

Mal moaned just a bit. "That wasn't the best landing I've ever experienced." She answered softly and moved to get her zord to rise. "Still, it could have been worse E." She took a deep breath. "Okay guys, it's time to bring them together."

Auradon Megazord was on the back of the dragon zord with the tail now around it for the extra defense. Room was made in the cockpit for Mal to join them. Auradon Champion Megazord was now levitating just slightly above the Skull Destructor Dragon.

"This time you can't expect you as a pathetic dragon fighter to beat me, a much stronger dragon." Skull Destructor Dragon gloated. Then it charged at the battle zord. The Auradon Champion Megazord tried to take to the skies but the monster simply followed after it and brought several meteor balls brought down on it. They fell to the ground hard and the monster landed with a thud.

"Everyone okay?" Mal asked them. She got nods from her five friends.

"You won't be for long." Skull Destructor Dragon stated and brought its claws down on it hard, followed by the tail, rocking the battle zord.

Ben showed up in enough time to see the last attacks. "Come on Mal, guys." He whispered. "You have to beat this thing." He looked around. "I wish I could help." He wasn't sure what was worse, the dragon monster beating down on his friends and girlfriend or the fire raging in the forest that would be half an hour away at most from reaching the school. "I feel so helpless."

The Auradon Champion Megazord started to rise again but Skull Destructor Dragon bit down hard on the battle zord, piercing its scales and pulling, very nearly tearing the Auradon Megazord off of the dragon zord. Then he tossed it hard resulting in an awkward landing. A final blast split the two zords, forcing the retreat of the dragon zord and Mal landing hard on the ground.

"Mal!" Ben exclaimed and ran over to his girlfriend. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." She said mournfully as she picked up her dragon zord, now in inert in a crystallized form. "But we're out of the fight anyway, and even then we weren't able to beat that thing."

"I'm sorry Mal." Ben said. "I wish I could help you and our friends. But without a zord I've got nothing to contribute to these kinds of fights."

"Ben." Mal started softly. She wasn't even sure what she could have said to make him feel better but it didn't matter at that point. There was a rumbling sound like hooves on the ground and they looked up. If the purple ranger had to guess she thought it might have come from very near the badlands. "Is that a horse?" She asked.

Ben smiled a bit. "It looks like it. Good call Fairy Godmother." He said.

"How are we doing now?" Audrey asked a bit fearfully.

"Integrity below fifteen percent. Power levels at forty percent and dropping." Carlos said softly. "We're in trouble unless something happens in the next minute."

"Look!" Lonnie called out as she noticed the silver horse coming toward them.

The horse zord raced by the monster and the Auradon Megazord toward the forest. "What is wrong with it?" Jay asked. Only then did the five rangers notice the fire burning.

The horse zord stopped just before the forest fire and then turned to the monster and then began to rear its paws back and forth, stirring up a huge storm of dirt that doused the fire. Ben laughed. "Looks like the horse zord is killing two birds with one stone." He stated. Then with a reassuring pat to Mal's shoulder he started toward his zord.

As soon as the fire was out he charged toward the monster. As if timing it together Ben jumped up and landed on the horse's head. "Let's go." Ben said. "Let's make that monster pay." The horse turned around as approaching rammed its hind legs into the monster hard.

He landed roughly. "You can't stop me with that robo pony." Skull Destructor Dragon growled and fired another round of meteors from the mouth at Ben and the horse zord again. The horse zord did its best to dodge but wasn't able to do so completely. It landed hard and Ben barely managed to hold on.

"We have to help him." Audrey said.

Jay nodded in agreement. "His back is turned, let's try to get him again." The Auradon Megazord moved in and brought their sword down on the monster but again he barely reacted.

"Foolish rangers." He slashed the battle zord with both claws and sent it falling down again. "We don't have the power on our own to do this again." Carlos said.

Then Jane's voice came over both Ben's helmet com and the five rangers. "Good news guys, I found something that should help us with this fight. Bring the Auradon Megazord together with the Defender zord and form the Auradon Defender Megazord. It should have the raw speed and power to stand up to that thing."

"Let's do it." Ben said. "Hear, hear." Audrey agreed. The horse zord ran again toward the monster but as he tried to bring his claws down on the zord Ben pulled lightly on a small portion of its mane and jumped right over the monster to land beside the Auradon Megazord.

The Auradon Megazord again leapt onto the back of the horse zord. Room was made for Ben in the cockpit of the zord, in this case in between Audrey and Carlos, the place where Mal would be standing if she were there as the megazord interlocked with the horse zord. The sword grew larger and transformed into a lance but the shield stayed where it was. "Auradon Defender Megazord ready to go." The six warriors called out.

Skull Destructor Dragon launched another meteor at the battle zord and they raised the shield to block the attack, when it struck it didn't do enough appreciable damage to it. "We have to finish this off quickly." Carlos stated. "Our power is up to seventy five percent but it could fall from all the damage."

"Then let's do it." Audrey said. She looked at Ben for a moment. As king he should technically be the leader but no real command structure had been decided since he had joined the team. Ben only nodded and Audrey looked to the other rangers. "Time to give this dragon the knight strike."

The battle zord picked up incredible speed as it charged toward Skull Destructor Dragon. Its arms were brought out and together around the horse's neck. The lance and shield were connected together and then they shot forward like a rocket and slammed into the monster hard, and by the time it slowed down the monster had been destroyed.

"We did it." Lonnie stated with a smile in her voice. She saw Ben and Audrey high five in victory and below they saw Mal jumping up and waving at them happily. The six warriors left their zords and joined the purple ranger on the ground again. The Auradon Megazord again returned to its place in the mountains. The horse zord did not.

"So is it yours now?" Jay asked Ben. Before the knight could answer the shield glowed and formed a small light blue line around it.

Ben looked at them all. "I guess so." He looked to the zord. "So does it go into the woods now or something?"

"It could." Mal said simply as she came to stand next to her boyfriend. "But maybe it can go about things in a different way…"

When the seven warriors returned almost an hour later it was with a small crystallized horse that was galloping with them. "Now it will have to be let loose to roam, it is still a wild animal…er, zord…whatever." Mal was telling Ben. "And you've seen that it will become inert when damaged."

"Luckily it also seems to have the same regenerative abilities as the dragon zord or the Auradon Megazord." Jane said as she looked up from the console. Fairy Godmother was with now as was Jordan.

"Jane told me what was going on after I sent the text." Jordan said. "Sounds like we don't have a concrete idea on what to do about Aziz and Ally."

"What do you think mom?" Jane asked her.

"I don't think taking away their memories is a good idea." Fairy Godmother answered simply. "Ignoring the moral side of it, there is always the chance that something could happen and those suspicions would simply rise again."

"Whatever we decide to do we better figure it out before their investigation gets them, and possibly us, into trouble." Mal said.


	20. The Dark Heart Rises

"This insect is on its last rope." Mal declared as she slashed the creature calling itself Ultimate Insect down from the skies with her staff.

"No kidding." Carlos agreed. "Did we just defeat the last of Paradias's best monsters when we defeated Skull Destructor Dragon?"

"Remember not to get too confident guys." Lonnie reminded them. "This could just be a fluke, or a diversion."

Ben moved in and brought the sword down on the insect monster and then started to pursue the engagement. "Mal, it's time to end this." He said.

"No problems over here." Mal agreed. She looked to her friends. "Let's bring it together."

First was Mal's staff followed by Audrey's bow underneath. Evie's shield went behind and then it was overlaid with Jay's scimitar and then had Carlos's claw dagger's and Lonnie's tessens both on either side. They opened up and destroyed the insect monster.

"That was not how I prefer to start my long weekend." Audrey revealed after they had taken apart their weapons and powered down. "I would have preferred to start out with a good breakfast." They were now walking back to Auradon Prep.

"I hear that." Mal said with a sigh. "Can we still make our breakfast date?" She asked as she looked to Ben.

The young king nodded. "I'm sure we can." They waved at their friends and headed off toward the castle, where he and Mal planned to spend some time in the garden and have a breakfast picnic.

Jay looked to Audrey. "Do you ever miss that kind of thing?" He asked her.

In truth Audrey had given that a lot of thought. "That kind of thing, sure all the time." She answered and when Jay seemed disappointed she felt she had to elaborate, "I mean it's nice to spend time with someone and to want to dress to impress someone else and to feel that someone wants you." She shrugged a bit. "But do I miss that with Ben, truthfully not anymore, haven't for about a month or so now."

Aziz came up to the five of them now. "Where's Ben?" He asked Jay and Carlos.

"He just left with Mal to the go the castle." Carlos answered.

"I have to catch up with him." Aziz said and started off.

"Dude, they're on a date." Jay said firmly. "Can't it wait?" He didn't want Aziz ruining it by broaching his suspicions about their activities of later, no matter how accurate it might be.

"I don't know." Aziz revealed as he shook his head and looked at the two guys. "Chad just quit the tourney team." That revelation seemed to catch all of them off guard.

"Why?" Evie asked. They all knew he wasn't getting the star attention that he thought he deserved, even recently complaining that Jay had all but taken his spot. But this just seemed to be too far even for his attitude lately.

"I don't know." Aziz answered, sounding like he was just as perplexed as they were despite everything. "That's why I wanted to know if Ben knew something that we didn't."

"Okay look, let's go find Chad and try to talk to him." Carlos said. "Maybe we don't need Ben for this." He was more accurately hoping that he could give his friends a little bit of peace.

"Hey." Jay said to Audrey before they left. "Why don't we meet up for lunch? Give that new Italian stand a try?" It was the closest he could come so far to getting the nerves to ask the brunette princess out on a date.

Audrey hesitated a moment, not because she wanted to refuse and find a polite way to do so but because she was taken aback by the offer. Then she nodded. "Sure, sounds great. I'll meet you by your locker at noon." She replied.

"Great, see ya then." Jay said and the three boys ran off.

That just left the three girls, with Lonnie and Evie both looking at her a little shocked. Then Evie said, "You know you just kind of agreed to have a date with Jay?"

Audrey was privately aware that it seemed that way but she didn't want to make a huge deal out of it yet. "We're two friends meeting for lunch is all." She replied nonchalantly. "If it was a date we'd be going for dinner at night where I could wear a beautiful gown and show off some of my jewels."

Lonnie laughed. "Whatever you say Audrey." She drolled. Then she shook her head. "I have to catch up with the hip hop club, we'll talk about your lunch later." With a wave she was gone.

"And I'm going to meet up with Doug so we can study for our chemistry test on Monday." Evie said. Audrey was about to make a small protest about a three day weekend but the blue haired girl cut her off. "I know, day off, day of rest, etcetera. But we happen to like chemistry and…I rather like spending time with him."

"You two are dorks." Audrey said with a mock roll of her eyes. "Go, have this thing that you call fun." She said and then waved back as Evie waved good bye. That left her alone and she decided she would go to her dorm and take a look at her clothes, decide if she needed anything to enhance her wardrobe.

She had started up the stairs when she bumped into Chad. She couldn't help but jump slightly. "Chad." She gasped. "You startled me."

"That a fact?" He asked nonchalantly. It set her senses up on alert. He moved down a couple of steps and she found herself backing up a couple of steps.

"I need to get by you." She said coldly. She was getting tired of his attitude and she was getting tired of him taking it all out on her.

"So you can get ready for your date with Jay?" He asked her condescendingly. Audrey's temper flared a bit knowing he had been spying on them. She wondered how much he had heard.

"Not that it's your business who I spend time with, but it's not a date, we're just getting together as friends." She snapped at him. "You really need to get a reality check Chad, before you do something we're all going to regret." She tried to move past him. "Now please get out of my way."

His hand shot out and pushed her down the stairs, where she hit the ground hard. She felt pain in left side and thought a couple of ribs might have broken. She had to struggle to keep conscious and when she had fought the darkness away she had Chad walking down the stairs toward her…

Mal was once again eating a couple of strawberries as Ben was buttering up a piece of toast for himself. It was a nice day and they were sitting next to a stream. It made the tension of the last fight just seem to melt away. She looked up to Ben. "So when do you think Audrey and Jay will stop dancing around?" She asked.

"I haven't seen them dancing." Ben said simply as he set the knife down.

Mal laughed at him. "Wow, you are definitely clueless there aren't you?" She teased him as she poked his arm gently. "Audrey and Jay are really starting to like each other. One of these days he'll ask her out, just you wait."

Ben nodded a moment but frowned. "Mal, I know it would be really cool, and kind of epic, if they were to…to emulate our love story." The young king started as he took Mal's free hand and started to stroke the top it softly. "And I won't deny that Audrey has changed a lot in the last couple of months but…regardless of how she might feel, when it comes down to it I don't know if she can ever see past the fact that Jay isn't a prince."

"I can see how you would think that." Mal replied. "You know her better than anyone, even Lonnie, and you might be right." She licked her lips. "But I think it's just as possible that she could look past it too."

"I hope she does." Ben told her simply. "She can be a great girl, and Jay is a great guy too. They'd fit well together if they let themselves." He leaned forward and kissed her lips gently. "Just like we do."

Mal closed her eyes to enjoy the kiss and then when she felt him pull away she reached for jelly donut. "Let's see if I can eat this right this time." She teased. Ben nodded and Mal added, "At least Evie and Doug shouldn't be so complicated, or Jane and Carlos." She took a bite into it the donut.

Ben laughed. "Just as soon as Jane and Carlos get over their shyness of each other. Of course for the longest time Jane wasn't exactly miss popular." He noted.

"Yeah, I got that one too." Mal said, feeling a bit guilty. She had tried to use Jane's insecurities against her when the four had first shown up at Auradon Prep. She regretted that to this day. "Carlos wasn't exactly a big shot at Dragon Hall, our high school back on the island either." She revealed. "It didn't make for a confidence booster."

"Doug also has that same problem." Ben said. "I've been friends with him almost as long as Audrey and Chad." His voice kind of hardened at his name and Mal tried to ignore it. "He spent the first few years in our friendship waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"I'm sure having a father named Dopey didn't help either." Mal said with a smirk and then tried to correct that. "Sorry."

"No, you're not wrong." Ben admitted to her. "That didn't do any favors either. Doug finally accepted I was on the level, but for the longest time Audrey just kind of tolerated him. It's one of the things I've seen change about her since this whole ranger thing started." He reached for an apple. "How about Evie?"

"Well by the time of high school Evie and I…had discovered we could really get along. So that was a non-issue." Mal said before finishing off her donut. She licked her lips the way Ben had taught her during their first date at the enchanted lake and he nodded in approval. "On the surface she doesn't lack confidence but it's kind of an act." She said softly. "Still, I think she'll find the confidence to ask Doug out."

"What about Lonnie?" Ben asked. "She's kind of…well I hate to say but when it comes our romantic dynamic she's a bit of a third wheel, sort to speak."

Mal thought a moment. "You know, maybe she just guards it well or maybe no one's really gotten her attention but so far I haven't seen her really show much interest in dating." She admitted. "I mean of course there's more to the school and life than that, but if the rest of our friends were to get together…well, wouldn't that bother her." She asked.

Ben shook his head now. "I don't know." He admitted. "I guess only time will tell. One thing is for sure though, we all have other concerns besides school and our social lives these days."

"Tell me about it." Mal agree as he looked down at her iPhone, glowing with a slight purple hue. Her five friends had their iPhones glowing in their own ranger colors. That was a result of the crystal inside that also acted as the basis for their ranger powers. Ben didn't have that with his iPhone but that was only because his powers were activated by summoning his sword and shield. "But that's all the more important to find the fun Ben. To enjoy your friends and your significant others while we have those chances. It's something others really should learn. Like Chad."

Ben's expression again darkened at the mention of the guy she thought was his friend. "Ben, what is going on with you and Chad?" She finally asked, a bit exasperated.

Ben bit his lip and then looked to Mal. "I…shouldn't really say." He said. He saw the look of confusion in Mal's eyes. He was surprised he didn't see any hurt in them and realized that was because she trusted him implicitly. "Mal, it's not my secret to give." He said.

"It doesn't matter." The purple haired girl said gently. "If something is wrong with any of our friends than we should know. Not just because of our team dynamic but because we're family, we help each other with anything."

Ben nodded, hoping Audrey would forgive him for telling this without approval, but Mal was right on both levels. "When Audrey asked for Chad's help to break Paradis's spell, he hit her." Ben said grimly.

He swore Mal's eyes glowed green a moment. "I am going to kill him." She said flatly, between this news and the fact that Chad had attacked Ben during the love potion incident. For the first time he could see a glimpse of Maleficent in her. He reached out and took her hands gently, bringing her back to reality. "How could he?" She asked. "Does he really hate having us here that much that he would turn on you two?"

"It stemmed from that, but it's all on him Mal." Ben said firmly.

"We have to tell the others. We have to tell Fairy Godmother." Mal said. "Before it gets out of hand." They were both about to stand when they received another text from Jordan…

They had a long rush from the castle and ran into Evie and Doug first. The blue haired girl's look of shock mirrored the purple haired girl's. They reached for each other's hands reassuringly for a moment and then continued on. Continuing on they found Carlos and Jane with the same looks of shock. They heard a loud curse from Jay next.

"I am going to kill Paradias for this." Jay said.

Mal gave him a very sympathetic look that made him hesitate a moment. "Jay, don't jump to anything yet." She said. "Let's make sure we understand what is going on here."

They entered the infirmary, right where Jordan texted them to meet. They found Ally and Jordan with Audrey. She had a black eye and several bruises on her body. The blonde girl had been holding her hand as the nurse gently reset her leg, not normally something she would recommend but Jordan insisted that it had to be done this way and she was working a potion to help out.

"What happened Audrey?" Jay asked as he came to her other side. His voice was full of concern.

Audrey looked around and considered asking to speak to Ben alone or something but when she took a deep breath she found it hard to do so for a moment and sighed. "It was Chad." She said to them all, a bit surprised to note that Mal did not see shocked by this news. "He attacked me."

"Chad?" Carlos asked. "That seems…weird, even for him."

"They're better be a damn good explanation for this." Jay said. "Or he's going to be the next one here."

Audrey looked to Ben and Mal. "You told her, didn't you?" She asked her best friend resignedly. With a look of apology he nodded his confirmation and she just sighed. "Guess it doesn't matter now."

"What doesn't matter now?" Evie asked her.

So Audrey told them all about approaching Chad for help with Ben's problem, leaving Ally confused she didn't know about the ranger aspect of it, without revealing their secret and that also confused Ally since she was not privy to that either, and that he slapped her for it. Jay looked ready to kill him while the others looked somewhere between horrified and disgusted.

"No, Jay's right." Lonnie said grimly. "He's going in here next."

"I know he's been a real jerk since you all got here and all." Jordan said. "But why is he going to this kind of extreme?"

"I don't care." Jay practically spat. "I don't care what his problem is, I don't care how insulted he is about me 'taking his place', I don't care what betrayal he perceived from you, Lonnie, Jane, Doug, or Audrey or anyone. He had no right to do this and I am going to make him pay for this."

"How long will you be in here?" Mal asked Audrey gently.

Audrey took a moment to realize that she had been hurt badly, and when the call went out every one of them had come running to her side. It helped to prove what Jay had said to her as her nightmare had come to an end; she was one of them now. "Not long." She said.

"I'm making the strongest potion I can." Jordan said to them all gently. "She shouldn't be jumping into action today but I promise that she'll be fine."

Their iPhones went off again with a text. It was from the last person they expected. "I can't believe it." Mal said derisively.

"He wants that, he's going to regret it." Jay stated simply. He almost moved down to kiss Audrey on the cheek but stopped himself, settling himself with reaching over and patting her hand gently. "We'll be back." Each of her team mates did the same thing and headed out.

Audrey looked down at the text message. **Meet me outside Auradon Prep in the forest, it's time to move on –Chad.** "I wish I was going with you guys." She whispered, but knew she wasn't able when she coughed and her entire body ached.

They all saw Chad waiting. Jay was about ready to charge at him but Evie stopped hm. "Let's hear him out before we beat him down for what he did to Audrey." She said.

"I've finally been told what's going on." Chad said grimly. "You thought these villain kids could keep Auradon safe by making them power rangers." His glare hit Carlos, Evie, Mal and Jay. The purple haired girl figured that was the order in which he hated the four of them.

"Then Lonnie and my dear ex Audrey were stupid enough to think they were good too and are helping them out." Chad spat out with a glare at Lonnie. "You already know I've spoken to Audrey about this." He added with a laugh.

"I've got a retort for you about that." Jay promised with a glare.

"And now you, my dear friend, have finally exposed your true colors by doing the same thing." Chad concluded. "On hindsight I should have realized it sooner since all of this started with you and your decree." He sad venomously.

"All of that is your problem, not ours. Not Audrey's." Lonnie said to him coldly. "She told you, I told you, Ben told you, you needed to chill out before you did something that crossed a line." She wanted to take a step toward him but Carlos stopped her. "You just beat up Audrey, you crossed that line."

Chad shook his head. "You and Ben and Audrey have blurred those lines a long time ago." He stated coldly. "Good and evil might as well not exist."

"If you know who we really are then you know that's a lie." Mal said. "If anything the line between good and evil is far more obvious now than this land has ever known."

"And it's time for you to learn that lesson." Jay said, real fire in his voice.

"You want to attack me, with no powers?" Chad said and laughed. "Wait, no. Go ahead. That isn't really true."

"What are you going on about?" Ben asked him. "You don't have any powers, thank god."

"I do now." He said. "Thanks to my new allies." Reviveslime, Nerissa and dozens of soldiers appeared behind him. Nerissa stepped up next to him and handed him a shield and sword like Ben's except it was pure black, like the night. "You chose your side, 'Bennie-boo', and now I've chosen mine."

"You'll regret that." Mal promised him sternly.

"Chad, if you use those items you will have chosen your side, and we'll do whatever we can to stop you." Ben warned him. "This is the last chance you have to choose good Chad. To choose us."

Chad combined the shield and sword and transformed into the dark version of Ben as the knight. "Let's see who is the best knight here Ben." He said, his voice harsher and colder now than he had ever been. Nerissa vanished from the fight.

"So be it." Ben said grimly as he formed his weapons. The other five pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed. They all were ready to fight but for the first time since picking up their powers they were not looking forward to it.

The soldiers charged toward the rangers. Jay would not let Ben get the first shot at Chad, after what he did to Audrey he just couldn't let him. He started toward the dark knight. He needn't have worried as Reviveslime attacked Ben himself.

Jay tried to attack with his scimitar and Chad blocked with his shield. "You want to come after me, for what I did to that pathetic little girl I left lying on the ground?" He asked.

"Yeah, I want you to pay for what you did to our friend." Jay replied hotly. "You had no right to do that to Audrey." He swung again and Chad blocked with his sword.

"I had no right perhaps, but I had too. It was the ultimate proof that I was ready for this." He said and deflected the scimitar, then indicated the armor he wore, the power he now used. "Beating her down was the final proof that I was ready to think another way, and to be honest I had a good time doing it too. Maybe she should be glad that's all I did."

Jay took out his blaster and started to shoot at Chad. The knight blocked the blasts and Jay jumped out at him and kicked him in the chest and slashed him hard. He moved in for another attack and he blocked it. "Losing your cool? Has Audrey gotten into your head that much? I thought you'd be better than to be manipulated by one girl." He said tauntingly.

"Jay, keep it together." Mal tried to order the black ranger. She, Evie and Carlos were getting swarmed by the soldiers. "You can't lose yourself in Chad's taunts or he'll take you down too."

Ben was likewise clashing with Reviveslime, neither warrior getting an edge on the other.

Lonnie however took out a few of the soldiers and before others could make their way over to her she ran forward and jumped up, landing a kick herself into Chad. "Jay isn't the only one who has problems with what you did to Audrey." She said.

Chad had stumbled back and shook off the attack. "All of you so concerned for your friend. You didn't show that for me." He said.

"We did." Lonnie said. "We were trying to remind you that we were your friends too. That you were one of us. You were just as vital to the tourney team as anyone else was. All you had to do was realize that we're all kids, every one of us, trying to find out ways. That included Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay. You didn't even have to like it, just to accept it."

Chad moved in to attack Lonnie and she barely managed to deflect it. Jay moved in and got in a strike at the dark knight now.

The soldiers were getting cleared out now. Mal and Evie moved in to deal with Reviveslime while Ben went to confront his former friend. Carlos stayed behind to finish up the soldiers that were still around.

"Chad." Ben called as he attacked his former friend. He blocked and the two began to clash. They had both taken fencing together and knew each other's moves well but that didn't stop the Auradon Knight from clashing with the Dark Knight, wanting to avenge Audrey for what he did.

However Chad noticed that Carlos had just finished up with the last soldiers and he moved into help Mal and Evie with Reviveslime. It became clear they were outnumbered. "Alright then, Ben." Chad said with a sneer in his voice. "Looks like you get the first point in this match, but we're not done. In fact, we'll be trying this again after I get myself some better soldiers of my own." With that he vanished.

They fight was over and they had technical won. But as they powered down and glanced at each other they all could tell, they didn't feel like winners today.

"This isn't the best start into your foray with us." Paradias said simply from his throne on the bridge.

"No it wasn't." Chad agreed. "Next time give me a better army than these minions."

"And you shall have it." Nerissa promised him. She held up the crystals they had used to try to take control of the Auradon Megazord when that race was going on. "Each of these will be enough to counter your ex and the four basic rangers. Reviveslime can handle Mal and you can handle Ben."

"I look forward to it." Chad said, his eyes now dark.

Audrey finished up her drink. "I am so glad that you at least don't make these things taste like garbage." She remarked. She still felt sore but she was feeling much better than when her friends left to confront Chad.

"I try not to." Jordan said simply. "When I have to make these things I already know how horrible the recipient has to be feeling."

"Are you feeling better?" Ally asked gently in her British accent.

Audrey nodded and rubbed her neck. "I still feel sore but compared to how I felt when you found me it's quiet an improvement." The princess told her. She looked to Ally. "This must be confusing you, I'm sorry."

Ally gave her a small smile. "Quite right it's confusing. But right now what matters is that you're okay." She said.

"And I am." Audrey said and thought _At least physically. I wish my heart was feeling as good. Chad is…he was supposed to be our friend._ She thought though that maybe somehow Ben and the other rangers had talked him out of his current mood.

That hope was shattered when the six teams came into the infirmary room. Ben looked torn between anger and sadness, Jay was full of anger, Carlos and the girls were between shock and sadness as well. They all had the same feeling of betrayal that reflected in Audrey's eyes.

Jordan took Ally's arm. "I think we need to leave them alone for now." She said softly and lead the blonde girl out of the room.

Audrey looked up as Mal sat on one side of her, Evie on the other side of her. Lonnie sat behind her. Ben stood in front of her on one side while Jay stood on the other. Carlos and Jane were just behind them. To the brunette princess she almost felt like they were trying to protect her, it was actually nice all things considered.

Ben bit his lip. "Audrey, you're right…I'm pretty sure we lost Chad." He said softly. "His attack was definitely premeditated. And in part it was because it was the only way for him to…to take on the dark knight powers, similar to what I had when I was possessed."

"Except Chad isn't possessed." Jane said softly. "He's got nothing controlling him."

Without really thinking about it, she burst into tears. She felt Ben reach out and hug her first and she could feel a few tears land on her head too and knew it could have only come from him. Next she felt the arms of her female ranger companions encircling her. "I'm so sorry Audrey, this feels like this is all my fault." Mal whispered.

"Like it's all our fault." Evie whispered softly.

"It's his fault that he's reacted this way." Lonnie said to the two girls. To Audrey. To all of them really, including herself. "This is his fault, not ours."

Jane felt some tears of her own. "Where did this go wrong with Chad?" She asked softly. She had never been close to him but this wasn't the direction she wanted anyone she knew to travel down.

She felt Carlos wrap an arm around her. "Lonnie's right Jane." He said softly. "Remember that, this is all on him. He's been traveling this path for a while, regardless of what any of you have said."

Mal reached a hand up to stroke Ben's arm gently, then took his hand while keeping the other around Audrey. Her teary eyed face met the teary eyed face of her boyfriend. "I'm sorry it has to come to this between you two." She said softly. "Even if it was his own doing." She didn't want to tell him that for every person on the Island of the Lost that might be like her and her chosen siblings, there were at least two that really were bad…that would be just like Chad had just turned out.

Jay reached over and stroked Audrey's hair gently. "He won't get his hands on you again, I swear." He promised her softly.

Audrey wanted to thank him but she couldn't find her voice. She looked at him, her eyes expressing that gratitude. Then her eyes filled with tears again and cried, with her best friend holding her and crying himself. She had the other three girls with their arms around her too, all of them crying for reasons of their own. Mal was also rubbing Ben's arm gently, working to console him too. None of them could say this day was won.


	21. In a Jam Part 1

The new week started and the team checked around. Chad had not been to any of his classes. They weren't entirely surprised by this, but it was one thing to turn to the side of evil and another entirely to disappear altogether. The school was trying to keep things as tight lipped as possible but knew eventually it would be figured out. Fairy Godmother had already gone to deliver the news to his parents, Jane didn't know rather she would tell Cinderella and her husband where their son currently was or not.

"I'm starting to feel smothered here." Audrey joked as she had all of her friends around her during lunch that day. Since she had gotten out of the infirmary she had gotten almost no privacy, Lonnie had even spent the last few nights in her room. The bigger group outings included Ally and Aziz who did not know all of the details but Ally had been the one to find Audrey after Chad had attacked her and naturally it gone to Aziz. That was on top of the fact that Aziz knew he had quit the tourney team not long before hand.

"Well good." Mal said with a laugh. "You know if you think you're in a sandwich just remember the stuff in between the bread is usually the best part."

"Yeah, Carlos can be one of the slices of bread." Jay joked and laughed. Carlos rolled his eyes at him but said nothing. He slapped his friend on the back. "Just kidding man."

"Yeah, yeah." Carlos said waving his joke away.

"Don't worry, you'll get some sort of privacy later." Ben told her. "Mal and I are going on a date this afternoon. I'm going to teach her to ride a horse."

Mal rolled her eyes. "So looking forward to it" She drolled and looked to the princess. "I am more than willing to stay with you." She said jokingly.

"It's no different than that a dragon." Audrey said vaguely, referring to the dragon zord she had that she sometimes rode.

"Doug and I are going to the chemistry lab, we have to do an experiment." Evie said as she patted his hand gently. He was not complaining about the contact.

"I'm helping Jane with some upgrades to some computers." Carlos said, also vague as he was referring to the command center.

"I've got a hip hop club meeting." Lonnie said.

"And we have a history project to work on." Jordan said, indicating Ally and Aziz as well.

"And what are you doing?" Audrey asked Jay.

He shrugged. "Not a thing, you're still stuck with me." Jay answered simply. "But that's okay because we have a lunch appointment that we never got to meet." He shrugged. "It'll be a bit more like a snack now, but at least we can make the original appointment."

Audrey nodded and smiled softly. "I think I can live with that." She said.

Ally and Aziz exchanged looks too. The blonde hated to admit but it was clear that her friend was right, there was something going on with them that they didn't know about. The idea that they were keeping things from them was kind of hurtful but she had not wanted to believe it. Now she was just hoping they had a good reason for it.

"I still wish I knew what had gotten into Chad." Aziz said with a shake of his head. "Dropping out of the tourney team and now disappearing from school."

"That's going to cause quite a bit of gossip around campus." Ally agreed. "Regardless of what the truth is."

Only the seven warriors, Fairy Godmother and Jordan currently knew what the truth was. And right now they weren't sure anyone outside of the council needed to know what was going on in full.

Lunch ended and the group broke up. Carlos told Jane he would meet her after classes and began to make his way to the other side of the school for his animal handling class but halfway there he heard a noise. He looked around. "Jay?" He called and got nothing.

He picked up the pace to get to his class but before he could get much farther he heard a noise an turned around and let out a gasp of shock as he was rushed…

Classes got out and Lonnie hurried to another classroom only to find she was early. She set her bag down and looked out a window. She was still seething at what Chad did to betray them, but to her the worst thing was that he hurt Audrey, he hurt her friend and that was a personal line, not a professional one. She was very protective of her friends.

She heard the door open and she turned around but saw no one. But then she heard laughter. "Who's here?" She asked. "Show yourself." She didn't know if this was some practical joke with a magical element or not. She almost wondered if the school could be haunted, stories had been told before.

Then two hands clad in black showed up from behind her and grabbed her mouth and back of her head…

Evie made her way to the chemistry lab first and sat her bag down on the chair. She started to preheat the water on a Bunsen burner for their experiment. She found herself looking at her magic mirror and making some adjustments to her hair. She felt she should look her best for him but almost figured it wouldn't matter. He seemed to like her just the way she was.

"I wonder if Mal would agree to go on a double date." She said to herself. She had never dated before but her purple haired friend had practically jumped into a very stable relationship with the king of the land. It was a nice contrast and she wished when all was said and done she had that kind of confidence.

She heard a crashing sound and turned to see a glass beaker had fallen to the ground and shattered. There was no way she could see that it could have fallen on its own. She leaned down to investigate it. Then there was a shadow behind her and she turned out and gasped…

Mal and Ben were walking on the school grounds, heading toward the castle again for a light snack in the garden themselves. They hesitated when they saw Audrey waiting alone by the lockers but felt better when they saw Jay run up, and even the purple haired girl felt a bit of surprise to see a red rose in his hand. They turned to return on their date when they heard Audrey scream.

Both turned, expecting Chad but finding that Audrey had just been pulled through a wall. Jay kicked at his own assailant but he grabbed his foot and then both vanished. "What's going on? What's that about?" Mal asked. She and Ben both turned around to make sure they weren't ambushed. A sound made Mal jump until she realized it was her iPhone. "Not a good time." She said as she picked up.

"Sorry to interrupt your date but Carlos hasn't shown up to the command center." Jane said on the other line. "And I…took a look at the school records. He didn't show up to any of classes after lunch."

Mal couldn't help but smirk a little. "Took a look? Is that your way of saying you hacked school files?" She asked amused. Then it caught up to her. "Wait, what do you mean that Carlos never showed up at all?"

Ben was listening to the conversation and almost missed his iPhone. He picked it up. It was Doug. "Ben, I just got the chem lab. There are a few broken items here, as well as Evie's bag and magic mirror but there is no sign of Evie." He told her.

He looked to Mal, who had looked to him. "Doug says Evie is missing too." Then he said into the phone. "Go join Jane in the command center and text Jordan to check in on Lonnie." After an acknowledgement Ben hung up as had Mal.

They quickly made their way over to the command center but received a text from Jordan. **Found Lonnie's bag and nothing else. Ally and Aziz may not like it but I won't be coming back to our session, see you in command. –J.** That only worried them more.

The two showed up in the command center, near panic. "What are we going to do to find them?" Mal asked immediately.

"I'm running scans now." Jane said. Doug was also helping her while Jordan felt kind of useless. "So far I haven't found their iPhones."

"Do you think the same thing that grabbed Jay and possibly Audrey grabbed Carlos and the girls?" Ben asked as he looked to Mal.

"Maybe." She said. When the three civilians looked at her curiously she told him about the cloaked figure that grabbed Jay and the idea that the same one or another grabbed Audrey. "But we saw nothing but the figure in black."

"Paradias? Sermaya? Or some other random big bag to make our lives miserable?" Jordan wondered with a roll of her eyes.

Then a message came in, not from the iPhones but from the view screen. On it was Chad, Reviveslime and some soldiers. "Hello Ben. Hello Mal." Ben said as if he had joined them casually during lunch. "How are things at Auradon?"

"Where are our friends?" Ben demanded.

"They're right here." Chad said calmly. "We're all enjoying each other's company." Whatever they were using to communicate with the command center panned out and they saw the five rangers bound to posts like they thought Ben had when the knight thing had started…in hindsight they figured it was Reviveslime playing games with them.

"They don't look to comfortable." Mal noted dryly. "How did you get your hands on them?" She asked.

"If you want to know that you're going to have to come join our little party." Chad said with a shrug. He walked over and glared at Jay, remembering what he perceived as him being replaced on the tourney team.

"Release me and I'll end this little 'party'." Jay threatened as he pulled on his bonds.

Chad laughed, giving dismissive glances to Lonnie, Carlos and Evie. He stopped in front of Audrey. "Hello again Audrey." He said.

"Don't touch her." Jay warned.

Audrey shot him her own warning glare. "Don't touch me Chad, or I will find a way to break you." She warned.

Chad only laughed and slapped her across the face hard. "I keep telling you to shut up. Maybe one day you'll do what your told." He said coldly.

"When I get out of here…" Lonnie started now.

"None of you will unless your leader and her brave knight decide to join the party." He stepped away from the bound teens and back to the camera. "Come out to play Ben, Mal. Or else it will be your friends who pay the price." Then the screen went black.

"He really knows how to push buttons." Jordan mused with anger in her eyes. It reflected everyone else's eyes well.

"We don't have a choice but to meet as Chad wishes." Ben said with steel in his voice. "But if I have any say in it, this will be the last time we meet."

Mal wondered if he was really ready to end Chad's life. Even for the daughter of Maleficent it seemed to be a huge leap to take. She suddenly feared if Ben ever went through that door she might lose him forever.

"Remember that Chad and Reviveslime have something up their sleeves." Jane warned them both seriously. "We may have no choice but to spring this trap but that doesn't mean you have to go in with blindfolds. Stay calm and be mindful of the situation."

Both teens nodded and left the command center. As they started to toward the forested area Mal frowned. "Why is it that Chad chose to leave you and I alone?" She asked. "I mean it seems he really hate Jay and Audrey right now. Why not leave them to be the ones he has this confrontation with."

"I don't know Mal." Ben answered. "Maybe because you're our leader. Maybe because my powers are similar to his." He shrugged. "If he survives the fight I'll let you ask him, but right now we need to worry about us surviving this fight."

When they grew closer Mal took out her iPhone and transformed. Ben summoned his sword and shield and transformed. It was good timing as several warriors jumped the two teens but they were easily dealt with.

"I'd still feel better if I knew who had grabbed the others in the first place." Mal said.

"I would too." Ben agreed. "But I saw no signs of a monster, or a group of monsters for that matter, anywhere in the image we got from Chad. From what we saw it couldn't be Reviveslime or any of the soldiers." After a moment he suggested, "Paradias or Nerissa could have done it."

"They wouldn't have hesitated to go after me, in fact they wouldn't have waited this long to do it." Mal responded. "No, this has to be someone, or more than one monster, new."

More soldiers showed up and again Ben and Mal took them down easily. They wanted to think that would make the rescue easier but they found they couldn't believe it.

They soon found Chad, Reviveslime and their bound friends. They found a group of soldiers standing by to keep an eye on their friends but no signs of whoever, or whomever, had grabbed them in the first place.

"We're here Chad." Ben said. "Let's get this over with."

Chad formed his sword and shield. "I agree." He stated. "It's time to end this developing problems of ours Ben. Once and for all." He transformed into the Dark Knight.

"I guess you're mine then slime head." Mal said to Reviveslime as she formed her staff. She reached over and touched the dragon scale to activate the neon armor. "Let's see what you're made of."

Reviveslime formed his sword and said in his high pitched voice. "Then let us begin the battle purple ranger." He leapt at her and she blocked with her staff.

Ben and Chad met and began to clash, sword to sword. "We spent too much time training together in fencing Ben." Chad said with a smirk. "We're basically evenly matched.

"We're not." Ben said firmly as he slashed at Chad, only to get blocked by his shield. "You're fighting for evil and I'm fighting for good. And good will always triumph over evil."

"This isn't a fairy tale Ben." Chad said. "This is real life, where the bad guys can win." Their clash continued.

Mal swung her staff at Reviveslime and he blocked it again though barely. "I haven't faced you or your friends since that nifty little neon armor was added to your repertoire." The slime general said with some glee. "I hadn't realized how strong that really made you or your friends."

"Glad to give you some surprises." Mal said deadpanned as she moved past him and struck him in the back as hard as she could. It caused a hole that soon resealed. "Thanks to Lonnie for the idea."

"Then I'll have to make sure she regrets having that thought." Reviveslime said enigmatically. "But then again all of you will be regretting your actions to our master by the time we're done with all of you."

"You won't get that chance." Mal retorted and moved in to strike him with her staff as many times as she could. The attacks seemed to be doing some damage but regeneration was occurring very quickly, far more quickly than any of the strikes they could currently deliver individually could handle.

"It's not too late Ben. We could still work together, as we used too." Chad said as they continued their clash. "Return to Paradias's side and we could be like brothers again."

"That won't happen Chad." Ben replied. "Unlike you I won't go to the side of evil as long as I have that choice."

Chad shrugged. "I figured that would be your answer, but I thought I'd give you that chance. Of course would you change your mind if I said that was the only way to save Mal from dying?" he asked now.

Ben hesitated only a moment. The truth is he thought there was a good chance that his former friend was lying to him. Paradias wouldn't spare Mal or any of the others regardless. He doubted even if somehow Chad was telling the truth that didn't mean that Paradias would hold up to his word. "It will never happen." He responded simply.

"As I suspected, this can only end one way." His former friend said with a shrug. "It's your loss old friend."

Reviveslime unleashed a stream of energy and it struck Mal hard. She fell back and found she had lost her grip on her staff, which flew into the shrubbery. "This is going to cost you." Reviveslime said to Mal in a tauntingly singsong voice. "Your life is going to end here."

"Mal!" Ben yelled out, losing focus on the one he was supposed to be fighting. Chad took advantage of that opportunity to strike him in the back and fell to the ground hard. He ultimately landed by his girlfriend.

Reviveslime came to stand by the Dark Knight. "This should be a blast from your past Ben." The slime monster said gleefully. The two combined their swords and blasted at the two warriors again. They found themselves flying up in the air and then landing hard. They were then forced to power down as the two of them lost consciousness now.

Chad motioned for six soldiers to grab the two unconscious fighters as two more pillars rose from the ground now. "Bind them up." Chad ordered. "They will have some questions when they awaken that I will be only too happy to answer before we end your miserable lives…at least eventually."

"As I told the brat of Maleficent I have a pink ranger to thank for the neon armor idea." Reviveslime said.

Lonnie had to laugh a little bit. "When it comes down to it the only way any of you could ever do anything to us is when we're bound or in our nightmares." She said with some scorn. "You and your master are pathetic."

Jay saw a bruise appearing on Audrey's cheek from where he had hit her and he had to stop himself from growling. He looked to Chad. "When I get out of here you're going to pay for what you did to her. And what you've been doing."

"You are just so dense." Chad said condescendingly to Jay. "I keep telling you, you're not going to be getting out of here." He then nodded toward the soldier's and the five conscious teens slipped into darkness.

Jane struggled to find a way to bring up a visual for them to figure out how to find to help Ben and Mal rescue the rest of their friends. "Next project is going to be helmet cams." She said to herself though of course she knew Doug and Jordan were close enough to hear her. She had already texted her mother to find out what they should do if all seven of their warriors had somehow been captured.

"What are we supposed to do if they have been captured?" Doug asked. "We don't have powers, we're not fighters and only you two have magic?"

"And not much of it in this corner." Jane said with a frown.

"I have some but I don't know how I can use that to deal with Chad, Reviveslime and whatever Paradias used to kidnap them in the first place." Jordan said as she found herself bored and looking through some of the information from past adventures. She then realized something as she was glancing around. "Oh, no." She gasped.

"What's wrong?" Jane asked as she tried to work the consoles.

Before the genie girl could respond they got a visual. They saw all seven of the warriors were indeed bound on pulls.

Jane altered the image, which she guessed was coming from either Mal or Ben's dropped weapons. She worked to shift their view and found they had gotten a view from Mal's inert crystallized dragon. They saw Chad in the Dark Knight armor. They saw Reviveslime. And they saw five figures in dark black, but each of them had the same colors to match Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Lonnie. They had splashes of their colors on their helmet and their chests.

"Those had to have been the abductors." Doug said.

"No doubt." Jordan said. "How could they be here?" She asked.

"Do you know who they are?" Jane asked now.

Jordan nodded. "Yeah, when your mom mentioned Zordon I…used my powers to get some information from Zordon's world. Those are one of the most dangerous adversaries the power rangers have ever faced, evil versions that call themselves the Psycho Rangers."

"I don't know much about them." Jordan said. "But they gave other rangers a hard time."

"What are we supposed to do now?" Doug asked.

Jane texted her mother and after sending it she almost accidently dropped her phone from her shaking hands. Often enough she was the idea girl, but this time she had nothing to offer.

Fairy Godmother had gotten her daughter's latest text. She used her own iPhone now to access an app she had had found on her screen most recently that she had yet to activate. She had been hesitant but now had no choice. It opened up another text window and she put in **Rangers and Knight have been captured. Daughter saying it was by two generals and what Jordan has identified as the Psycho Rangers. Please advise.**

Moments later she received a return text. **Understood, will take care of it. Don't worry, everything will be fine. –A**

A/N: I do not own the Psycho Rangers, they are part of Power Rangers in Space and don't belong to me.


	22. In a Jam Part 2

Mal opened her eyes and let out a small yell of alarm as she saw Reviveslime right front of her. When she tried to move she found herself bound, and that was when she remembered the predicament that she, her boyfriend Ben, and the rest of her team were in. Chad had sent someone to kidnap her team and then lured her and Ben into a fight they had lost.

"I'm glad to see that you're awake, daughter of Maleficent." Reviveslime said. "We're rather eager to get this party started."

She saw her other friends starting to wake as well. She wasn't sure when her team had been knocked out but knew it could have been any time after she and Ben had been. She saw Ben look at her. "Sorry Mal. I should have known better to turn my back on Chad, even if it was to check on you." He said softly.

"Your heart was in the right place." Mal replied with a small smile.

"Soon his heart will be in a better place." Chad said with a smirk, still in this dark armor. "Outside of his body and in my hands."

"Not the least bit disgusting." Audrey noted with disgust.

It was then they noticed the black clad figures with their own colors permeating their helmets and chests. "Who are they?" Carlos asked.

The yellow one stepped forward. "We are your end ranger." They were a bit surprised to discover this one sounded like a female despite Carlos being a male.

"It's about time that we finally get to tear a helpless ranger limb from limb." The blue one stated as he reached up to grab Evie's chin hard and forced her to look at him. It was another oddity to them that the blue one was male when Evie was a female.

The red one stepped toward Audrey. "I've been told to make your death as painful as possible." This one also sounded like a man despite Audrey being a female. "Considering my history with red rangers, I'll gladly make it so."

"I won't fail this time." Said the pink one, who sounded female at least, just like Lonnie. "I came so close to ending one pink ranger, it'll be a pleasure to finish some semblance of what I started."

"And you're mine." The black one said to Jay.

Reviveslime laughed. "We're going to have a good old time with you fools." He gloated.

The seven villains started to approach the bound team when laser blasts halted their approach. They turned to see seven figures in the distance. One in red, one in yellow, one in pink, one in blue, one in black, one in silver and one in purple.

"Not them again." Growled Psycho Yellow venomously.

Psycho Red glared with the same amount of hate. "The Space Rangers." He spat with equal venom.

A/N: Like the Psycho Rangers I do not own the Space Ranger, except for the purple space ranger who I named Amber. I will try to explain her history as best I can.

The seven warriors had been unconscious for over an hour after their defeat. Things can change in that time frame, and not just in their world. A theory state that some worlds run close together and as Evie, Doug or Jane would relate that meant the barriers that separated the world of Auradon from Zordon's world had to be pretty thin. The Psycho Ranger's presence was also a good indication of that.

It was also thin enough for Alpha 7 to receive the unexpected signal from the nearly forgotten world of Auradon. Though Zordon had helped in that dimension not long before being trapped in a time warp by the evil empress Rita Repulsa and had in fact left several things designed to help in case evil surfaced there, events in their world had spiraled to the point that became a distant memory.

Everything from Rita's reappearance and choosing the first five ranger's in Earth's recent history to the rise of the green ranger, the arrival of Lord Zedd who forced the end of the green and beginning of the white, the marriage of Rita to Lord Zedd and subsequent appearance of her brother Rito Revolto and father Master Vile, the arrival of the Machine Empire and the destruction of the original powers, transitioning from Zeo to Turbo, and then getting the space powers when the United Alliance of Evil led by Dark Specter started to make its move, and the power holder's transitioning as well until newer powers led to new Rangers instead of moving with them. This inevitably created more rangers in the galaxy, but with one or two unique exceptions none of them would be able to lay claim to the experiences possessed by the veteran rangers.

So it was a surprise when Alpha 7 received the message from a place relegated to the back of his memory circuits, left over from the memories of his predecessor Alpha 5. But thanks to that knowledge he knew what that meant. He was startled to discover that somehow the Psycho Rangers had resurfaced again despite their destruction at the hands of the Space and Galaxy Rangers on Terra Venture a long time ago. And so he called in the people with the most experience dealing with them.

The first to arrive were Andros and Ashley Hammond, the red and yellow space rangers. That came as no surprise since both lived on the Astro Megaship Mark II. Although they got back to Earth or KO-35 whenever they could they tended to think of this ship as their home. They had gotten married on said ship a little over a year ago.

Not long afterwards TJ Johnson and Cassie Chan, the blue and pink space rangers, showed up. They were working at the same school together, TJ as a gym teacher and baseball coach and Cassie as a music teacher. TJ was dating a woman while Cassie remained single, her friends teased that she was still pining for the Phantom Ranger, something she didn't deny nearly as vehemently as one would expect.

Next was Carlos Vallerte, the black space ranger. He was a soccer coach for his step daughter's soccer league.

The next one in was Amber, the purple space ranger and the only person who could lay claim to being in active service longer than Tommy Oliver. While she had become Zordon's purple ranger months after Tommy had become the green ranger she had also been a ranger when Tommy had lost his green ranger powers the first time and in the brief time after losing his powers the second time before becoming the white ranger.

She had also been the only veteran ranger to stay on after TJ, Cassie, Carlos and Ashley had been selected to take Tommy, Kat, Adam and Tanya's places as Turbo Rangers. That was because Amber had declared to Zordon and Dimitria she was not ready to retire from ranger services and thought it would be wise to help guide the next line of the power rangers. They had agreed to her request. This also meant that she had been present when Divatox destroyed the power chamber and destroyed the turbo powers. She too had followed her friends into space.

Finally arriving was Zhane, the silver space ranger. With him was Karone, Andros's little sister who had once been the princess of darkness Astronema, abducted when she was young and raised to be evil before falling for Zhane and learning who Andros was. After the United Alliance of Evil had been destroyed she would later become the second Pink Galaxy Ranger, the last time a ranger would be replaced on active duty.

"What's going on Alpha?" Ashley asked him. It hadn't been that long since the ranger's had united together to help the Megaforce Rangers stop the Armada's invasion. None of them had hung up their powers yet, and in fact the Quasarsaber, the source of the Galaxy Ranger powers, could be seen on a holder on Karone's back.

"You guys might want to sit down, this is a long story." Alpha told them. The eight rangers exchanged looks and then did as he suggested. "I've received a distress signal just now."

"I didn't see one come in." Amber voiced. She had been on the bridge for her watch when Alpha had called them in.

"That's because it wouldn't come through there." Alpha replied. "It came in through a circuit node in my systems, which was left over from my predecessors." He was moving to one of the consoles. "It came from a world parallel to ours called Auradon, and apparently the Psycho Rangers are there now."

"What?" Cassie asked, feeling a little panic. She had nearly lost her life to Psycho Pink, and for months they had all felt Karone's predecessor Kendrix Morgan had lost her life to Psycho Pink. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know yet." Alpha told her gently. "But the Rangers of that world are in danger now because of them." Thanks to his communication with Fairy Godmother he now knew as much about the Auradon Rangers and Ben as she did. He in fact brought up their images and their corresponding Ranger colors.

"They're the rangers I take it." Zhane guessed.

"They are. This is Ben, the son of Belle and Adam, once known as the Beast. This is Audrey, daughter of Phillip and Aurora, once known as Sleeping Beauty. This is Lonnie, daughter of Mulan and Li Shang. This is Carlos, son of Cruella Devil, this is Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen sometimes known as Grimholde, this is Jay, son of Jafar, and this is Mal, daughter of Maleficent and leader of this ranger team." Alpha introduced.

"Wait." TJ said in shock. "That…seems…those names belong to fairy tales."

Being formerly evil, Karone was full of knowledge most others didn't know or refused to know. "Even fairy tales have a basis in reality guys."

"I can accept that." Ashley said simply. "But how did children of villains, especially two of the more renounced ones, become power rangers, champions for good?"

"For them, when the fairy tales as you call them, come to an end the villains were eventually exiled to a place they called The Isle of the Lost. When Belle married her prince he united the kingdoms into the United States of Auradon." Alpha explained to them now. "Recently Ben became king and he sought to give the next generation a chance. Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos are the first run for that experiment."

"It must have worked well for them to become rangers." Cassie said with some awe.

Andros stood up now. "I won't pretend to understand your world's fairy tales." He said as he looked to the five terran rangers. "But we all know the Psycho Rangers. If they've learned their fighting styles then they are in danger."

"We can't forget they abducted the Galaxy Rangers, except for Leo." Karone added.

"There was no Psycho Purple." Amber reminded them. Since her skills had come from a number of sources her style was generally unpredictable and hence it became impossible for Astronema to create a purple psycho. "And there was no Psycho Silver either." That had made a difference in their fights.

"I don't have the details but apparently a dark knight and a slime monster are with them right now." Alpha informed them.

"More distraction." Zhane translated.

The seven space rangers exchanged glances. "How do we there?" Carlos asked Alpha.

"This is where the most recent mission will come in handy." Karone said. "We took that Iconian Gateway from the Borax and now we can use that to get to Auradon and help them."

"We will help them." Andros said. He looked to his younger sister. "You should stay her Karone. If this is part of something larger you need to be able to go to your team at a moment's notice." She hesitated a moment before understanding her brother's point and nodding.

They made their way to the cargo bay area. Alpha activated the doorway device that shifted from Earth, to Aquitar, to two planets of unknown origin, and then finally to Auradon. "Let's rocket!" Andros announced. The seven rangers activated their astro morphers and morphed before stepping through the portal.

"More rangers?" Chad asked incredulously. "How is that possible?"

"They're not from your world, boy." Psycho Black told him simply. "They're from ours."

Amber took out her weapons, the solar sais. When Zordon had made her a power ranger so long ago, she had discovered a special ability. These days' abilities seemed to come with the ranger territory, but at that time it was unheard of. Now she intended to use that ability to help free the Auradon Rangers. She gathered up a stream of lighting and unleashed it. The Psycho's dodged it as did Reviveslime. Chad ducked under it, falling to the ground.

It struck the posts and upended them, freeing the six rangers and the knight.

"No." Chad gasped.

Jay gave him a nasty look. "Remember what I said I'd do if I got my hands on you." He taunted.

"You're not getting away from me that easily." Psycho Black reminded him.

The seven rangers' bypassed their adversaries to land by the teens. "Thanks for helping us escape." Ben said to the Red Ranger.

"Anytime. Ranger's stick together." Andros told him. It was a bit of surprise to the Auradon Rangers to hear a male voice from a red ranger.

"Let's get to work." Mal said after exchanging a high five with Evie. The six rangers pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed as Ben summoned his shield and sword and combined them to activate his powers. They stood side by side with their counterparts.

"Doesn't this look familiar?" Psycho Red asked mockingly. "We stood like this on Terra Venture, so long ago."

"And this won't play out any differently than it did then." Andros vowed as he stood by Audrey.

TJ stood by Evie. Carlos stood by Jay. Ashley stood by Carlos. Cassie stood by Lonnie. Zhane stood by Ben. Amber stood by Mal.

Chad hesitated at what seemed to be a superior force. "Do we still attack?" He wondered.

Reviveslime answered that question as he summoned soldier's up. "Destroy all Power Rangers." He ordered. With that Chad and the monsters started their attack.

"Watch the blade arm." Jay advised Carlos as he struck one down with his scimitar.

"Got it." Carlos replied as he summoned his lunar lance, blocking the attack and striking two of them down.

Psycho Black moved in and tried to hit Jay but Carlos blocked with his lance. Jay moved in and slashed him with his scimitar. Carlos then kicked him in the chest hard.

Cassie used her satellite stunner to blast incoming soldiers. Psycho Pink jumped over them to attack her old nemesis when Lonnie got in the way and slashed her with her tessens. They both kicked her hard as they moved to deal with more soldiers.

Psycho Blue unleashed a stream of energy at TJ but Evie got in the way with her mirror shield, collecting the energy and deflecting it back. Psycho Blue jumped out of the way even as it took out a bunch of soldiers. Psycho Blue intended to attack Evie but TJ leapt off of her shoulders with his astral axe and struck him down.

The yellow rangers were doing the same thing as the pink rangers. Ashley was using her star slinger to take out soldiers while Carlos was working in close range and intercepted Psycho Yellow as she moved in to attack Ashley.

Psycho Red had his sword out and was clashing with Andros and his spiral saber. "I'd rather tear your head from your body any day." He said as he swung.

Andros dodged and struck back only to get blocked. "The feeling's not really mutual." He remarked.

Audrey shot an arrow out and struck Psycho Red in the shoulder. Lightning quick the female red ranger moved in and struck him with the edges of her bow in rapid succession. "You're not leaving me out of the fight just because I'm a girl, are you?" She chided.

"I hear someone else would like to finish you off." Psycho Red stated as he moved in to strike her though Andros blocked it and kicked him back.

He switched his spiral saber to booster mode. "Whoever that is will have to wait." Andros stated and then he shot at Psycho Red, along with Audrey unleashing another arrow at him. He fell back hard.

"That was your lightning strike?" Mal asked Amber as the two of them fought with the soldiers. "I have to say I think even my mom would be impressed by that."

"I don't know if I should be honored or not." Amber said with a small laugh as she took out some soldier's with her daggers.

Reviveslime flew toward them and slashed them both hard. "These soldiers are one thing, but now you have to deal with me." He said and looked to Mal. "And you know how impossible it is to deal with me."

"He's tougher than he looks." Mal warned Amber.

"Let's see how tough he really is then." Amber declared. She twirled her sais around and then gathered energy into her sais as she wound them together and shot out a huge solar beam right at Reviveslime. He tried to fly up but the purple space ranger simply angled the blast and followed him. It struck and he exploded in a puddle of slime. She looked to Mal. "Think that did it?" She asked.

Mal shrugged. "I don't know if he's gone forever, but I certainly think that he's out of this fight." She said gleefully. "So let's see what we can do to help our friends out."

Chad swung at Ben and he blocked it. He got ready to ram his shield into his former friend when Zhane intercepted and kicked him back. The silver ranger then charged him with his super silverizer and Chad blocked that only for Ben to leap over and strike him hard in the chest.

Chad unleashed a blast of energy from his sword that sent Ben and Zhane falling back hard. He moved in to stab Ben but was intercepted by Mal and her staff. She kicked him back hard. "I won't let you hurt anyone Chad." She stated.

The Psycho Rangers each blasted their targeted rangers and the ten of them landed hard. The five Psychos gathered together again. "We told you that we could defeat all ten of you." Psycho Red stated. They started to charge forward for a further assault when lighting struck all around them and sent them back instead.

When they looked up the rangers were recovering. Amber was helping Cassie and Lonnie to their feet. "Forget about that little spark?" She asked the Psycho Rangers. "Sorry, but unlike the first time Darkconda isn't here to keep me away from this fight."

Ben and Zhane were on either side of Mal now. "Go help the others." Ben said to Zhane. "We've got him."

Zhane nodded. "Alright." He relented and went to join his team and the Auradon Rangers.

"I never thought we'd bond by fighting." Mal said to Ben. "And especially not against Chad."

"You never know." Ben agreed with a shrug. Then the two of them went at Chad.

Zhane joined the rest of the team. "So how do we finish this off?" He asked.

"If you guys have a weapons combination, we could probably do it together." Carlos said to them.

TJ nodded. "I think we can do it." He said with a laugh.

Amber looked to Zhane. "Then let's give them the time they need to do it." She said. The silver ranger nodded and together the two of them charge the five Psycho Rangers.

TJ, Carlos, Ashly and Cassie brought their weapons to form the Quadrablastser. Standing beside them was Andros with his boosted spiral saber. Behind them Audrey, Lonnie and Evie stood side by side. Jay and Carlos got on their shoulders and then they formed their blasters. The two groups of rangers unleashed their attack and trailing right behind was the Auradon Triangle Blast. The five attacks combined struck the Psycho Rangers and caused a huge explosion as they seemed to be destroyed.

Chad heard the explosion and made the mistake of turning his head to see what happened. Mal and Ben struck him at the same time and he fell back hard, rolling a little before coming to a stop. He looked to see the fourteen warriors assembled and looking at him.

"You want to try us out now?" Lonnie asked him.

"I still owe you." Jay said. "But at the moment I'd make the exception if it allowed us to put you in your place."

Chad seriously doubted that the new rangers would stay around forever. He stood up slowly and said, "This isn't over Ben. You and your friends, including my little ex over there, will pay for everything." He then vanished.

They couldn't quite help it. Jordan, Jane and Doug stared in amazement as the fight concluded with thirteen power rangers and the knight standing in triumph. "That was cool." Jordan finally got out.

"Where did they come from?" Doug asked.

"They came from a world parallel to ours." They heard Fairy Godmother say from behind them. "The one that Zordon originally came from." She walked over to join the three teens at the command consoles. "After you told me our team had been captured, I used a hidden app on my phone that contacted his assistant, a robot named Alpha, who in turn must have told Zordon, and sent these rangers."

From the helmet intercom the seven warrior's listened in. "Is that true?" Audrey asked them.

"Not exactly." Andros said solemnly. After all these years what Zordon had instructed him to do in order to prevent the United Alliance of Evil from winning and taking over their part of the galaxy, the Alpha Quadrant, still haunted him. "Zordon is dead, he sacrificed himself a while ago to save the…our universe."

They heard a slight gasp of shock from Fairy Godmother, the only one among them to have known Zordon. They could imagine Jane hugging her mother right now.

Mal looked around at the seven rangers. "Looks like he left a fine legacy." She stated.

"And he continues to do so." Amber replied as she stood in front of Mal now. "Further proving that even those who aren't necessarily good to start with can always find their way."

Audrey wondered what the purple space ranger meant by further proving but didn't get the chance to ask.

"Again, thank you all for what you did." Ben said. "There was no way we could have gotten out of this without you."

"I think you could have." TJ said to the young king. "But sometimes it's nice to be able to rely on others to give you a helping hand."

As each of the Auradon Rangers faced their Space Ranger counterparts, as Ben faced Zhane, the fourteen heroes reached out clasped hands.

"Good luck." Amber said to Mal. "Just remember, if you need us just let Fairy Godmother know and we'll come running."

Mal nodded, a smile on her lips as well. "Thank you. And the same goes for you, just tell us how we can come to you and we'll help you anytime you need it."

"So the ranger's that defeated the Psycho Rangers , not once but twice, returned a third time to stop them." Paradias mused. "Some would consider this an irony and hope the third time would be the charm."

"What do we do now?" Chad asked. "The Psychos were destroyed and Reviveslime is gone now as well."

"Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." They heard as the door to the bridge opened and the blue slime genera l walked in. "Very exaggerated."

"We will do what we always do, what we must." Paradias said to the dark knight. "We will move on until we find a plan that works."

After seeing off the Space Rangers through what they called an Iconian gateway they arrived back at the command center where Jane, Doug and Jordan greeted them happily. "I am so glad you're okay." Jane said. "I was all but kicking myself for not being able to find a solution to help you."

"Hey like TJ said, sometimes it's nice not to have to do all of the work yourself." Carlos said as he impulsively wrapped an arm around her. "How weird was it to have two Carlos's at the same time?" He asked.

"Kind of weird." Evie agreed with a small laugh.

Jay laughed too. "Yeah, but at least theirs isn't the litter of the bunch." He joked and then gave his friend a light punch on the arm. He then looked to Audrey. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

Audrey nodded. "Yeah. I'm okay." She said though she reached her hand up to touch her face where Chad had hit her. "He really needs to get over himself." She said with sigh.

"If he could do that we wouldn't be fighting him right now." Ben reminded his best friend.

Mal looked to Fairy Godmother. "Hey, I'm sorry about what happened to Zordon." The purple haired girl said to their mentor. "It sounded like you were pretty fond of him."

"He died for what he believed in." Fairy Godmother said with a sad smile. "It's the best any of us can hope for if we can't have a long life." She looked to the teens. "And speaking of living life, I believe all of you had later afternoon activities scheduled. You should go do so now while the dust settles."

"We can still get our late snack." Ben said to Mal.

"Sounds good." She said.

"I've already missed by hip hop club today." Lonnie said with a shrug.

"Come on and join us then." Jay said to Lonnie, and the brunette princess nodded in agreement. "We'll go and hang out in the commons or something."

"Mind if I come with too?" Jordan asked. "I'm sure Ally and Aziz have finished up by now." The three rangers nodded in agreement.

Carlos and Jane were already moving off toward one of the consoles.

"Think that water is gone?" Evie asked Doug.

He nodded. "Yeah, probably. But we can always get more, that won't ruin our experiment."

And so the seven warriors and their three allies moved out of the command center to live their lives before the next attack. No one said it but each of them realized they felt a little better though knowing that they were not the only ones out there fighting the good fight as power rangers.


	23. White Rise Part 1

"Audrey!" She heard from behind her. For an instant she felt a moment of panic, thinking it was Chad somehow on campus coming after her again. But when she turned she saw Jay coming toward her and she relaxed. "Hey, where you going?" He asked.

"I'm on my way to design 101." Audrey answered. She didn't think she'd ever be doing clothes design professionally but she had agreed to take the class with Evie and Lonnie. Mal had bowed out of it thanks to her, Jane and Jordan studying with Fairy Godmother on magic. Not something they do in a normal schedule but exceptions were made for them because of the power ranger's thing, it was simply labeled as an extracurricular activity. "What about you?"

"Heading to gym." Jay said. "It's softball week starting today." He shrugged. "It's not tourney but that's okay."

"Have they decided to do about Ch…the vacant spot?" Audrey asked him. She found it was kind of hard to mention Chad's name.

Jay shook his head. "Not yet. The problem is most of the guys that want to be on the team have been for a while." He replied.

Audrey nodded in understanding. "So, um, parent conferences are tomorrow and they'll be staying on campus for that time." She said to him. "I, kind of guess that your parents won't be here, and they have this thing…kind of get together beforehand tonight…I, was wondering if you wanted to come with me." She was clearly nervous about basically asking him out.

Jay had already heard about it. He knew Mal was going with Ben, Belle and his father. Evie had said something about hoping Doug would ask her to go with him and his father. He didn't know what was going on with Carlos though. Still the invitation from Audrey startled him a little but he recovered himself quickly, "Um, yeah. S-sure why not." He agreed just as nervously. No ideas he had about dating involved meeting her parents right off the bat but he decided to take what he could get.

"That's great." Audrey said with a smile. "Ben can help you find something better…I mean more formal if you'd like…I, I'm helping Mal with that, Lonnie and I, I mean." She was still having a hard time with this and she didn't know why. She hadn't had this problem when pursuing Ben. "Evie too if she wants it."

"Cool." Jay said, because he wasn't sure what else to say. "So, uh, I'll see you after class then."

"Okay." Audrey said. "Later." They found it hard to pull away for a moment but the warning spell snapped them back into action.

Jay met Ben at gym class. He hesitated a moment but then stepped up. "Hey, Ben." He said.

"Hey man." Ben said with an easy smile. "What's up?"

Jay rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I…I, kind of want to ask you a favor, for the parent conferences..." He started nervously.

"He asked you to help him get ready for the conference dinner?" Mal asked Ben in amusement as they walked to the library an hour later. "I mean I'm doing it because I'm dating the king of Auradon, I have to look the part to the best of my ability rather I want to or not, but he doesn't have to."

"He is going with Audrey." Ben said simply. "I mean theoretically if something happened to me Audrey might very well be in line for the throne." He leaned in a bit toward Mal. "But personally I think if he really does like her he just wants to look like he belongs by a princess's side."

"He doesn't need to change for that." Mal replied dismissively. "And Audrey has to know that if she asked him in the first place."

"And you don't have to change either." Ben reminded her gently as he stopped her and made her face him. "That isn't why I fell for you."

Mal smiled just a bit. "Okay, I see your point. It's not about having to; it's about feeling like we should, to do our best for those we care about." She relented and leaned up to brush his lips with hers. "You're more understanding than you give yourself credit for, Sir Ben."

"Doug still hasn't asked you out yet?" Carlos asked Evie as they walked with Lonnie.

Evie shook her head. "Not yet." She tried to shrug nonchalantly but it was a bad imitation of not caring. "I guess maybe he doesn't like me that much after all."

"Oh, no. He's totally into you." Lonnie told Evie dismissively as she waved her hand. "He's not asking you because his father and his six uncles are out of town but he's afraid to say anything to you because he thinks you'd feel like he was just trying to save face. You know, the idea that some people still look at you as 'villain kids'."

"But doesn't that mean he can't be at the conference dinner?" Carlos asked.

Lonnie nodded. "Afraid so. I never understood why but those are the rules." She said. She looked now at Evie. "But my parents will be there." She said. "If you want Evie you could come with me, at least you can see what it's like."

"What about Carlos?" Evie wondered.

"Jane's mother is headmistress. She and Jane have to be there." Lonnie said. She looked to Carlos. "I think she thinks you wouldn't want to go with her." She revealed to Carlos. "Her confidence has grown a lot since this started but she still doesn't feel it outside of dangerous situations."

"Find her and ask her then." Evie said. "Ask to accompany her."

"You think that's okay?" Carlos asked.

Almost as if they had rehearsed it Lonnie and Evie answered, "Absolutely."

"And I'll talk to Doug later; let him know that I know he's not ashamed of me, that some things just happen." Evie said. "I want him to know it's him I care about and not about what it seems he can do."

Lonnie laughed. "Always a good policy."

"See you later then." Carlos said and ran off.

He found Jane making some last minute adjustments in the command center. He leaned against the doorway. "Don't you ever do anything but work?" He teased her.

For the first time she didn't even look in his direction. "We have to be as prepared as possible." She replied simply.

"I get it." Carlos agreed. "So, does that mean you don't have time to show a poor isle boy the glories of the dinner pre-conference?" He asked.

Jane turned, barely concealing her shock. "You…you want to go with me?" She asked, seeming a little surprised.

Carlos nodded. "I'm doing you a favor." He teased. "Adding some excitement into what sounds like a dreary affair. You deserve to have some fun after all, not more monotony." He came toward her. "So how about it, want to risk taking a rebel into order?"

Jane laughed and stepped up to him. "Sure, I think I'll take that risk." She said easily. She then leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, making him blush. "Two hours." She added and then brushed past him to get ready.

Two hours passed quickly and everyone showed up tuxes and dresses. Mal's one off shoulder dress made Ben blink twice, especially since it seemed rather sparkly too. Lonnie wore a simple sequined pink top and a pink and white skirt that came below her knees, but as she put it she was not 'dressing to impress'. Evie wore a dress very similar to what she wore at the coronation but the fabric was very shimmery and in certain light almost seemed to shine fully. Jane wore a magnificent white dress that looked very much like the one Fairy Godmother had given Cinderella so long ago. Audrey meanwhile had basically left the pink behind in favor of her new color; red. She wore a red gown with a slit up the right leg.

Mal couldn't resist laughing when she saw Jay's draw drop for a moment. Then she turned to see Belle and her husband approaching. Both of them hugged Ben and congratulated him again on how well he had done so far. Then Mal was taken by surprise when Belle gave Mal a hug. "It's good to see you again Mal." She said.

"Um, thank you ma'am." Mal managed to get out.

"Fairy Godmother has told us how much you've done since the coronation." Adam said to her with a fond smile. "For Auradon and for Ben."

"Did you talk to Doug?" Lonnie asked Evie as she took a few potato skins from the buffet table.

"I did." The blue haired girl responded. "I told him it wasn't his fault that his dad had to go with his uncles, and it's no reflection on him. I even told him I'd hang out with him in the student lounge tonight but he told me I should see what this was like." She reached for a crème puff. "He had to work with Aziz on a history project anyway."

Lonnie nodded. "Jordan is working with Ally on that same project. On top of that her parents Sultan Aladdin and Queen Jasmine are busy in Agrabah anyway, a diplomatic function with another neighboring city." She said.

Audrey meanwhile took Jay's hand. "I have to say you look dashing in that tux." She said flirtatiously. "Very becoming."

"You look really great in that dress." Jay said with a smile. "Really pretty…I mean, princessly."

"I don't think that's a word." Audrey said with a laugh. "Of course I guess it's better than being a pretty pink princess or whatever it was that I heard Mal once say she called us when you first found out you were coming here."

"That's all Mal." Jay tried to protest and they both laughed again.

She then led him over to her mother Aurora and her father Phillip. Both of them embraced their daughter, with Aurora taking a moment to pull Audrey to the side to ask her something. Jay suspected somehow despite the lack of official details released she knew Chad had been starting to hit her daughter. After a moment he saw Aurora kiss Audrey on the cheek and the two came back. "Mom, dad, this is Jay. He is Jafar's son but don't hold that against him. He really is a great guy."

"Hello Jay." Aurora said to him, and he swore again that maybe she knew exactly what he had been doing to help Audrey feel better lately. "It's very nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you young man." Phillip said. "I'm glad to see that you and your friends are living proof that the sins of the parent do not have to drop to the children."

"Thank you, sir." Jay said. He looked now to Aurora as well. "I'm honored to meet you two as well." Because he couldn't think of anything else to say at that moment he added, "You have a very nice daughter," He elbowed her a bit. "Even it if takes a bit to draw that side out." That made her laugh a little.

Evie received a text and looked to Lonnie. "Doug just texted and said that he saw Paradias's soldiers in the window." She said.

"Wonderful." Lonnie said. She quickly texted for her other five team mates to meet them by the buffet table. She saw Audrey look at her iPhone and then politely excused themselves from their parents. Ben told his parents that they had business to attend to; it was easier since they knew about his son and his friends being rangers. Carlos was able to easily get away as well and Jane went with him.

As soon as they were together Evie reiterated Doug's text to them. "I hate to say this but we're not exactly dressed to fight right now and if we take the time to change we might be too late." Audrey pointed out.

"This is one of the reasons I prefer simpler clothes." Mal noted pointedly and then looked to them. "We don't have a choice but to try."

"Once you leave this room, transform." Jane advised them. "Your suits should protect your clothing from most of the, I guess messy is the word, effects of fighting. I'll grab mom and we'll see if we missed something on the scans."

"Thanks for that." Audrey said. "At least I won't mess up this dress. It's brand new."

"I'd hate to see that dress ruined too." Jay chimed in.

"Okay fashion connoisseurs." Mal said. "If that's the case let's get going before people wonder where we went." They slipped out the doors, took out their iPhones and input their numbers and transformed. Ben summoned his sword and shield to transform. They then ran off toward the student lounge.

The figure in the shadows watched them leave. "Excellent." The voice, belonging to a man, said happily. "You've taken the bait." He then went to one of the windows and placed his hand on it. Slowly fog seemed to envelope the building.

Not knowing what was happening in the conference building the seven warriors showed up to find a few dozen soldiers but made short work of them. "We all didn't have to come out here apparently." Carlos said with a laugh.

"What were they doing out here anyway?" Mal wondered as she looked around. "Why would Paradias even want the students, let alone send only soldiers to acquire them?"

"Do you think this was a diversion M?" Evie asked her friend.

"Could be." Mal said reluctantly. "Let's head toward the command center and see what Jane found out."

They made their way to the command center and instead of powering down they removed their helmets and set them on the consoles. "Did you find anything?" Carlos asked Jane.

"I don't know." She answered. "There is some weird readings on campus. I thought our sensors should have warned us in advance but I've got nothing."

"Really strong magic might bypass all of our technological blockades." Fairy Godmother replied. "Though I don't know who could possibly wield such magic. In theory even I couldn't do so if I were evil."

Then the view screen flickered and showed the conference hall enveloped in fog. Then what seemed to be an elderly man in red robes appeared in front of the building. "Greetings again, Power Rangers." He said.

"Who are you?" Lonnie asked. "What did you do to our parents?"

"Your parents are safe for now." The man said. "If you want to keep them that way you better meet me in front of the conference hall." Then the screen went blank.

"If I didn't know better I'd swear that was an older version of Red Magi." Evie noted reluctantly.

"Maybe you guys aren't the only ones whose parents showed up for a visit." Jay suggested grimly.

"We've never met his father, if he has one." Mal said suspiciously. "But there's no way that could somehow be Red Magi, could it?"

"I guess there's only one way to find out." Ben said. "Which we have to do anyway if we want to keep our parents safe."

The seven warriors made their way quickly to the conference hall and found their opponent waiting for them. "Hello Rangers. It's so nice to see you again." He looked to Ben. "And hello to you king of Auradon. Are you needlessly putting your life on the line or do you now possess powers of your own?"

"How are you back here?" Mal asked. "And…how did you get so old?"

"What makes you think you've seen me before?" The old man questioned.

"You're Red Magi." Mal stated simply. "I can tell that.

"I guess there's no fooling you, daughter of Maleficent." The man that the purple ranger said was Red Magi. "But I have changed, I've aged." He floated upwards into the air. "Even I don't quite know how but when you destroyed me part of my essence remained in this." He held up his wand. "Somehow a huge amount of time passed for me and I was exalted."

"Dude, you're an old man." Jay said with a smirk as he summoned his scimitar. "I wouldn't say you were exalted, more like petrified." He jumped up to attack the old man but hit a force shield and sent him flying to the ground.

"That is where you're wrong. From now on you can call me the Crimson Sage." He said. "And you can surrender to me."

"Like that's going to happen." Audrey retorted.

Crimson Sage laughed. "Then give me your best rangers."

They all were kind of uncertain after seeing what happened to Jay but knew they had to try it. Carlos worked to flank him as Ben tried to attack him. Crimson Sage easily deflected the knight but that was what they were going for. He had played diversion so that Carlos could get behind him, then he and Lonnie tried to double team him only to discover that the force shield protected him all around.

"Okay this is so not good." Mal reflected as she started to pace their opponent. He seemed to be waiting for her attack eagerly. The purple ranger didn't quite know what to do. He was so intent on the purple ranger however that he again didn't seem to notice that Audrey was moving behind him.

She was hoping that his force shield wouldn't be able to block something as small as an arrow. It was a small chance but one they had to take. As he watched Mal, the red ranger lifted her silver bow and released an arrow, aimed straight at his wand.

There hope was in vain as the arrow struck the shield, but instead of just bouncing off as Jay, Lonnie and Carlos had it instead seemed to release a wave of energy all around. It struck all seven warriors hard to the ground.

"I feel like this guy is stronger than he was last time." Evie said. She hadn't even been able to try to deflect that right back at him.

"With age comes experience kids." Crimson Sage said with a laugh. "That time period made my magical powers strong, stronger than anyone could hope to match. Even when I was a young caster my powers rivaled that of Maleficent. Now I am stronger than her."

Mal wondered if that was true, what would happen if that test were ever to come to pass. Not that it mattered since she was pretty sure her mother would ally with this man anyway. "I don't know about that one." She said anyway.

"With that magical experience also comes knowledge." He said. "And now we come to this." He motioned to the fog enshrouded conference hall. "You see, this spell is being used to hold your parents in place. They don't know what is going on. But by the same token if I die the spell will fade…with the hall and everyone inside of it. If I release the spell in a certain way, it will take your parents with it."

Audrey let out a gasp as she realized what she was hearing. Lonnie's arm shot out to grip hers as if she were trying to stop herself from losing her footing. Ben tensed completely and his sword slipped from his grip.

"That's just low." Mal stated darkly. "Let them go."

"I will, as long as you surrender." He replied. "What do you say rangers?"

Jordan found it hard to study. She couldn't understand why the soldiers had shown up in the first place. They might have realized her and Doug were there and wanted them use against the rangers but she didn't know why that would really matter. She also suspected that if it came down to it some of them could fight back against the soldiers. Aziz was a good example of that.

"You seem lost in thought." Ally observed as she looked at the genie girl. "Are you alright?"

"Sure, just kind of tired." Jordan said with a shrug. She looked at the blonde now. "Say I know why my dad can't be here, he's with Aladdin and Jasmine in Agrabah." She nodded a bit toward Aziz. "Which is why he's here too. But where is your mom?"

"As weird as this might sound, she was asked to come back to Wonderland. Something about an emergency of some sort." Ally answered. "I don't quite know if I should be worried about hearing this or not."

"I'm sure it's nothing major." Jordan tried to reassure her but she was caught with a disturbing thought. _Has Paradias or Sermaya somehow made it into Wonderland, or is there some other threat that we don't know about?_

Then the doors burst open, followed by the shattering windows moments later. In trumped over a dozen of the soldiers. They quickly had their blade arms out and positioned themselves around the room. They were followed in moments later by the dark knight, who Jordan and Doug knew was Chad.

"Keep calm everyone." The dark knight suggested with some amusement. "If you cooperate all of you will get out of this alive and well." Jordan hid her frown. She found she seriously doubted that. The question she asked herself is what should she do now?

"Then we surrender." Mal said without hesitation. That seemed to surprise everyone, especially her chosen siblings.

"So you say." Crimson Sage said with a laugh. "But you will have to prove it." He formed a box and opened it. "Your iPhones are the center of your powers. Turn them off and give them to me." He looked to Ben. "Your shield and sword on the ground, young king." He added.

"Guys, we can't do this." Carlos said. "Auradon is depending on us."

"Our parents are in there Carlos. Other students who aren't a part of this war are in this." Ben said as he set his shield by his sword. "They're innocents. We have no choice but to do this." His armor faded away now.

Lonnie powered down, followed by Audrey a moment later.

Evie bit her lip. She sighed just a bit and powered down.

"We have to do this, bro." Jay said as he could see the look in Audrey's eyes. He powered down.

"We can't do this." Carlos repeated.

"They're our parents Carlos!" Audrey snapped automatically. "We love them! You guys might not have had that on the island but we have it here, and we can't make that sacrifice!"

Carlos was about to protest again. Mal knew realistically he was even right about what he was saying. Realistically their sacrifices would be a small price to pay if they could stop Paradias from his ultimate plan. Yet, she knew exactly what her Auradon friends were talking about. "Carlos," She said softly. "Stand down." Mal then powered down herself.

The shield and sword levitated up and around the box. Mal was the first to place her iPhone in the box, followed by Audrey and then Jay. Carlos hesitated, still clearly not okay with this but he realized he was in the minority here. He then placed in his iPhone. Evie and Lonnie followed moments later.

Crimson Sage laughed and closed the box. He then floated up in the air and placed the box with shield and sword on the top of the conference hall. "We gave you our powers, let everyone go." Mal said venomously.

"Oh, right." Crimson Sage said. "About that…I lied."

"No, you said you would." Audrey said despairingly. She tried to approach the conference hall and slammed into a field. "You said you would." She repeated despondently.

Mal came over and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Time to regroup." She said softly to her second in command. "This isn't over."

Audrey nodded but felt as if it were. They went to the command center, the three Auradon teens sitting down dejectedly on the bench. Carlos went up to the consoles but didn't really know what to do.

Mal stood behind Ben and started to rub his back gently. "We will find a way to undo what he did." She said. "We'll get your parents back."

"Yeah, of course we will." Ben said. He tried to sound confident but it was obvious that he wasn't feeling it either.

Audrey wasn't so keen on trying to be hopeful right now. "How?" She asked, near tears. "We gave him our powers, not that they were working anyway. If he wants to kill them, he kills them. If we find a way to kill him, we kill them. I don't even know if Jordan's magic is strong enough to help now."

Jay came over and placed her hands on Audrey's shoulders. "Calm down." He said softly. "We'll figure it out. We will free them and stop Crimson Sage."

"I'm eager to hear how we're supposed do that." Lonnie said softly. "It seems like he holds all of the cards."

"He wouldn't if we hadn't given up our powers." Carlos said. "Which we shouldn't have."

"They weren't our parents Carlos." Mal said softly. "We weren't the ones who would lose everything."

"Look, I agree that you guys did the right thing even though Carlos was also very right too." Jane interrupted, despite the fact that her mother was the only parent safe on campus right now. "We have to find a way." She turned toward one of the consoles. "Look, we already know that Crimson Sage might be strong magically, but I think if we can get by the magic we can stop him."

"How?" Lonnie asked again. "We don't have the magic to counter him, not even with Jordan."

They were interrupted by the sound of alarms. The view screen showed the dark knight and the soldiers holding the students in the commons. "Just wonderful." Jay said. "Not what we needed on top of this sage stuff."

"Because things didn't seem bleak enough." Evie added. She looked at Lonnie, Audrey and Ben's expressions. "Or hopeless enough."

"Things aren't as hopeless as they seem." Fairy Godmother said. She had remained silent as she watched the team work through this dilemma. "There is one other hope." She looked to Jane. "You."


	24. White Rise Part 2

"Me?" Jane asked. "What can I do?"

Fairy Godmother approached her daughter. "There is one source of magic in Auradon that I know of that can counter even this Crimson Sage." She revealed. She held up her hand and in it appeared the magic wand; the very same one that she had used to help Cinderella so many years ago, the same one that Maleficent had sent Mal and her chosen siblings to steal, the same one that Jane had wanted at the coronation to make herself beautiful as she couldn't see the beauty that she already had. Now she presented it to Jane. "And you must use it to help your friends regain their powers."

Now she had the seven teen's rapt attention.

Jane herself looked stunned. "I…I don't have the experience to fight…or defeat him." She said in shock.

"You don't have the experience, but with the wand you will have the intuition." Fairy Godmother replied, still holding the wand out. "But in your hands as you are right now, it's more than just a magic wand, but the key to you taking your rightful place as the White Auradon Ranger."

"You'd be one of us Jane." Lonnie said with measured excitement.

"But I held the wand at the ceremony, I couldn't control it…" She started.

"You weren't ready for it then though." Mal said with a small smile. "You took it because I manipulated you; it was gotten for the wrong reasons." She took a small step forward. "This time, you'd be taking it for the right reasons."

Jane very reluctantly reached out and took the magic wand from her mother. The instant her fingers came in contact with it though it seemed right this time. It didn't fight her at all. In fact this time a white glow came from the wand and enveloped her just as the iPhones had done to the other six rangers.

"So what's the plan M?" Evie asked as she looked to the view screen where the students, including Doug, were currently being held.

Mal bit her lip. "Jane can't go confront Crimson Sage on her own." She said to herself. "We can't let the students stay held hostage too." She looked to Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos and Lonnie. "Go with Jane. I don't know how much you can help, but at least she won't be alone." She looked to Ben. "You and I have to go help those students."

Fairy Godmother looked at the three Auradon teens. "You three will have to pull yourselves together long enough to support Jane then. Only that way can she stop Crimson Sage and allow you to rescue your parents."

Each of them nodded their heads in agreement. "We'll make it through." Audrey promised.

"When they get our powers back we'll have Fairy Godmother transport your iPhone and your equipment to you." Jay promised their two friends.

"We just have to take out some sick grape things." Mal tried to joke. "We have it easy. You guys have the hard part. Be careful."

Mal and Ben reluctantly split from their friends while Jane joined the other five rangers to deal with Crimson Sage. It didn't take long for the six to get to the conference hall where Crimson Sage had remained.

"Release our parents right now." Audrey demanded as the old monster saw them approaching.

"We've been over this young princess." Crimson Sage said tauntingly. "Perhaps in the future but not now." He shrugged. "Or perhaps not."

"They will be set free." Jane said with a confidence she wasn't entirely feeling. "Or you'll have to deal with me."

He laughed. "I know who you are; it's too bad that you and your mother weren't trapped in my spell." He said. "But I know that you don't have what it takes to stop me, nor would your mother even at her prime."

"You're wrong." Jane said and then held out her mother's…now her magic wand. "With this I can restore my friend's powers and stop you without losing those we care about." Or so she hoped.

"What do they want?" Aziz questioned quietly. "Why are they holding us here?"

Doug and Jordan exchanged glances. They each suspected it had something to do with their friends, either as a trap or a diversion, they weren't sure which. But they couldn't tell that to Ally and Aziz or anyone else for that matter.

"Perhaps they want something from our archives." Ally suggested softly. "Something in our history perhaps."

"That seems unlikely." Jordan said. She was sure there was nothing they would have needed from them, even if that were true and not just a way to deflect the rangers and Ben. Of course they had no way of knowing that Crimson Sage had stolen their powers from them. She then quickly added, "But I guess anything is possible."

They found the dark knight coming up to their table. "Nice to see you again." He said with a smirk.

Ally and Aziz didn't get it but Jordan and Doug did. "Don't you have something better to do you wash out?" Jordan snapped.

Chad laughed. "Very overconfident aren't you?" He asked her. He knew that a genie could probably deal with him if she felt so inclined. So instead he reached out and grabbed a hold of Ally's arm, forcing her to stand up. He brought the sword to her neck. "Feeling confident now?"

Aziz shot up and shoved the armored Chad in the chest hard, forcing him away from Ally. "Back off hotshot." He snapped.

He only laughed though it held no humor. "Aziz, pretty confident too. Even though you know nothing." He raised his sword. "You're not your father and I am not Jafar. If you fight me you will lose." He stated.

Two of the soldiers were sent flying over a study table. Everyone turned to see Mal and Ben standing where the soldiers had been only a moment earlier. "Miss us?" Mal asked with a glean in her eyes.

"You're not supposed to be here." The armored Chad said. "But if you two insist on being here then you'll die here." The soldiers started to move in on them.

Jane raised the wand, where for the first time she felt a bit of a break in it. It traveled down as if it were meant to be twisted. She did so and it proceeded to turn her into a power ranger, in this case a white ranger. Unlike the others she actually had a pair of small white wings. She wouldn't be crossing the globe in a heartbeat but she could reach Crimson Sage's level. This also included a light feathering that encircled her upper arms and chest. A brief touch of the feathers revealed that despite their soft looks they were really firm enough to provide some extra protection. She also saw that somehow this one had a dragon scale on the mid arm, which when needed would allow her access to the same neon armor that she and Lonnie had made for the other rangers and Ben.

"Wow, awesome." Audrey said quietly.

"I would have loved wings." Evie added with a sparkle in her eyes.

"So you can fly." Crimson Sage said with a laugh. "How delightful. But it will obviously take more than that to stop me."

Jane was wondering how exactly she could stop him. Then she heard her mother's voice over the helmet intercom. "Jane, I finished the test that you started when he first showed up." She said. "It looks like somehow that piece of wand was affected by the Iconian gateway that Alpha used to send the Space Rangers to help us deal with the Psycho Rangers. It penetrates worlds, time and space."

Jane brightened beneath her helmet as she put the pieces together. "It got caught in some residue from the gateway when they showed up and was returned when they left. Some part of his essence was in the wand and that brought him to his current form." She replied.

"I think that's what happened too." Fairy Godmother said. "If you can reverse the effect than his magic won't be strong enough to hold that spell. He wouldn't be gone at that point and it wasn't his choice to release the spell. It would free the building and everyone inside of it without killing them."

"But I can't reverse time." Jane protested. "It's a lucky break that I learned how to morph."

"Trust in yourself and follow your instincts." She advised her daughter. "You'll figure it out."

Jane hoped her mother was right. Crimson Sage floated over toward her. "Well I wasn't aware of another ranger when I did this so apparently I'll have to take you down the old fashioned way."

"I guess you have old down pat." Carlos said.

"That'll be quiet enough out of the peanut gallery." Crimson Sage declared and shot a blast of energy at the five teens. In a flash Jane was in front of them, using her magic to make the wings grow and shield herself with them as she protected her friends.

"So you can defend." Crimson Sage noted. "But it will take more than defense to defeat me."

"I know how I can defeat him." She revealed to her friends. "But I don't think I have the knowledge or experience to do it. I have to reverse the effect time had on him."

"Wow, that will be quite a feat." Carlos agreed.

"Can't you just like bippety boppity boo him into the past or something?" Audrey asked.

"Sending him back into the past isn't the solution." Lonnie corrected her. "Jane has to reverse the time effect on him to make him Red Magi again."

"The only ones who might be able to answer that is Mal or Jordan." Evie reflected. "We need them here."

Chad expected Mal and Ben to start fighting against the soldiers. What he wasn't expecting was for some of the other students to take advantage of this to help resist them. Aziz slammed his elbow into a soldier's face hard and then kicked another that tried to attack him.

Jordan gathered up a small magical shockwave and then unleashed it on a small group of soldiers.

Doug scrambled under the table only to come back up, having tripped the soldier nearest him.

Even Ally reacted, throwing one of the books at an approaching soldier. As it brushed the small object aside she had a chair in her hands that she slammed into the creature hard.

Ben leapt down to land in front of Chad. "In case it wasn't obvious, you are expelled from this school." He said to his former friend casually.

Chad was nice enough to put his sword and shield away, back into the ether where they seemed to come from. "I'll beat you down with my own iron fists. Something you seemed to lack." He vowed.

Jordan used a bolt of lightning to take down a soldier. _Why aren't Mal and Ben morphed? Why aren't the others here?_ She wondered to herself.

A soldier tried to swipe at Aziz but he ducked underneath it, took the arm and flipped it over his soldier and then drove his elbow into the creature's chest.

Ally shrieked a little as two of them approached her from either side and tried to swipe at her. She ducked both blows and then swept her leg out to trip one while Doug sprang on the back of the other one and forced him to topple to the floor.

Chad swung at Ben and he dodged it. The young king kicked him in the chest but the armor made sure the impact had very little effect. He then had to dodge a downward punch from his armored former friend, which probably would have crushed his skull had it connected.

Mal noticed that she didn't have as many soldiers on her as she thought she would have. She noticed from the corner of her eye that they had help fighting in the form of Jordan, Ally and Aziz. She wasn't too surprised to see the genie girl helping but seeing the other two students fighting was a bit of a surprise, albeit a pleasant one. She stole a yardstick from a table and started to use it as a staff to help her fight.

Jane knew Evie was right. They had the most experience with magic. She had all but passed out when she realized she had magic of her own. Still she had been watching the ranger's fight, guiding them and even coming up with many of the solutions. This should have been no different. Then she knew what she had to do to help even the odds. She had to restore her friend's powers.

The white ranger used her wand to make a couple doppelgangers of herself. Even her friend's couldn't tell which was real and which was fake. The three forms started to fly toward the box.

"Oh no you don't." Crimson Sage barked and sent a huge stream of energy at the left one. That just resulted in that one vanishing.

He lost balance just a bit as the center one put up an impressive aerial maneuver to get over him. He shot a hail of knives at the one who had just gone above him but that only resulted in a vanishing as well.

"Looks like you've been discovered white ranger." Crimson Sage taunted and unleashed an energy storm at the final form, who was only halfway to the box. But to his surprise the final one simply vanished as well.

"I'd think an extremely experienced caster like you would recognize a variant on the magic curtain trick." He heard from behind him, on the roof of the conference hall. "Just added a duplication spell to it." He turned to see her floating just above the roof actually as Jane decided she did not want to touch the fog surrounding the building. "I think I'll take my prize now." With that she reached down to take the box containing the iPhones, surrounded by sword and shield, into her hands.

"Way to go Jane." Carlos called out happily.

Crimson Sage unleashed another stream of energy, hoping to stop her from taking the powers back but with the box firmly in hand she moved out of the way of the attack. She faltered at the last second and ended up landing hard on the ground. She kept a hold of the box and found her friends beside her.

"Good job Jane." Audrey said softly as she took her shoulder to help her up.

"Thanks." Jane replied and handed the newly reinstated red ranger the box. "Make sure you guys get your powers so I can send this back to Mal and Ben."

Audrey nodded and started to open the box but Crimson Sage called out, "Remember young princess that if you open that box I will cancel the spell out and kill all of those inside the building."

"No you won't." Jane said confidently. It had taken her a moment to realize that the wand felt firmer now than it had the first time she had held it and she knew why. It had been reinforced to be used as a physical weapon, just as Audrey's bow had. "I won't let you extend that kind of concentration." She headed toward Crimson Sage, ready to fight him.

Carlos was about to call out to stop Jane, remembering the force shield that had stopped them from fighting Crimson Sage in the first place but before he could get out the warning the white ranger slipped through the shield and swung her wand.

"How did you do that?" Crimson Sage demanded as he blocked with his staff, proving he was not quite as weak as he had been going on about. "My force shield is still up."

"I know." Jane replied. "The wand gave me a force shield that matched the power levels of yours. It allowed me to slip through like it wasn't there."

"Impressive." Crimson Sage granted. Then he swung again and Jane dodged it, only to have to avoid a follow up attack. "You wanted in so let's see how well you can handle me."

With him distracted Audrey opened up the box and held it out to her four friends. Carlos had his iPhone almost immediately, followed by Jay. Lonnie took hers next and last was Evie. Then Audrey took out her own and set the box with Mal's iPhone on the ground, still surrounded by Ben's shield and sword. The brunette princess then texted Fairy Godmother to bring the box to them. It disappeared moments later.

"Okay guys." Audrey said. She felt her confidence slowly starting to return now that they seemed to have the edge over Crimson Sage again. It didn't completely sway her worry that something would go wrong and now cost her mother, father and everyone else in the building their lives. "Let's get to work."

The soldiers were so thinned out by now that Jordan looked to Doug, Ally and Aziz. "Start helping everyone get out of here." She told them. "Mal, Ben and I will finish this up."

"We'll be back to help." Aziz promised before he and the blonde began to usher students out of the door and the nearest window.

Ben was keeping Chad distracted from the evacuation and was avoiding any injuries but it was about all he could do against his armored former friend without his own powers to back up his strength. He was glad that Mal and Jordan were almost done with the soldier's and hoped that perhaps three against one they might be able to overcome Chad's defensive advantage.

Jordan backed up to Mal. "Why didn't you two come here morphed?" She asked. "It would have been better for both of you, not to mention safer for King Bennie-Boo over there."

Mal chose to ignore the slight poke of amusement that Jordan had just done, knowing that was just her nature. "Bennie Boo," She inflected, which drew a smile from both of them. "And I couldn't do that." Now the purple haired girl's expression was more grim. "We had to give up our powers to Crimson Sage to save the people in the conference hall from death by some fog spell."

Jordan cocked her head. "Say what? A fog spell?" She asked as she shocked out a few more soldiers.

Mal nodded. "Yep, a gray fog that he placed there." She answered as she kicked took out a soldier.

"At least it wasn't black." Jordan noted with some relief.

Mal was about to ask her why the fog color mattered when the same box that she had last seen on top of the conference hall roof appeared. It was open and only had one iPhone; hers. She reached in and took it, then called out, "Ben! Incoming!" She tossed the box toward him.

The young king saw the box coming and moved to the side just as Chad's fist would have connected with his head. The box shattered into pieces and Ben reached over, getting a hold of his sword and shield. He then stood up and looked to Chad.

"Let's see how you like a fair game field." He declared and combined his sword and shield to give him his sparkly silver armor.

Mal meanwhile input her numbers 6319 into her iPhone and transformed herself. Using the dragon staff to take out the last soldiers was easy enough and then she joined Ben to confront Chad.

Ally and Aziz had gotten out the last of the students only to find that Mal and Ben were gone, to be replaced by the purple ranger and the silver knight. They both exchanged looks of slight puzzlement.

"It's two against one." Ben stated to Chad. "Game over."

"Four against one." Ally corrected from behind the dark knight. "At least, for what that might be worth." She already knew she and Aziz wouldn't bring much to this fight.

The knight glanced around and then took that chance to vanish.

Mal knew they had more important things to worry about. She looked to Ben. "We have to go help the others." She declared. The two brushed past Doug, Ally and Aziz as gently but quickly as they could and headed toward the conference hall.

Both students looked to Jordan. "When did they get here? Where did Mal and Ben go?" Aziz asked. The genie girl looked kind of lost on how to explain that one for a moment before she hastened to explain they had chased a couple of soldiers out the window. She wasn't sure they bought that.

The five teens put their numbers into their iPhones and transformed. They weren't sure what good it would do without the ability to penetrate the field but they wanted to be ready. Jane seemed to be holding her own well enough for the moment.

Mal and Ben quickly found them. "Glad to see we're all back." Mal said. "How did Jane get in there?"

"She said the wand instinctively cast a force shield of its own to get her past his." Carlos answered.

"Jane also said that her mother thinks we can reverse that effect, turn him back into the Red Magi he used to be." Lonnie said. "By reversing time."

"Is that even possible?" Ben asked. "And what does that do to everyone in the conference hall?"

"According to them since he'd still be alive and he would have lost control of the spell that should dissipate it without causing him harm." Audrey answered a little uncertainly. That seemed to be a mighty big if to her. "And Fairy Godmother says it is, but I don't know how, nor does Jane."

"We were hoping you would know Mal." Jay said. "Or at least have an idea."

Mal bit her lip, overwhelmed for a moment as anything involving magic and time were beyond her knowledge except on a rudimentary level. Then she had an idea, "There is one thing I can think of but it's risky." She said. "Time magic."

"What is that?" Audrey asked.

"A way to reverse time in an isolated area." Mal said. "The thing is it's a gamble. It could reverse time…or, hurt the user."

"We need another way." Carlos stated automatically.

"There is no other way." Mal replied. "Not unless we come up with one as in right this second."

Jane had heard their conversation from her helmet intercom. She made her decision. "There is no other way, not right now." She declared. She took a step back and let her instincts and the power of the wand take over.

Ben and the six rangers saw a clock face appear out of nowhere. Audrey and Ben even swore it looked like the one that struck midnight when Cinderella had gone to the ball, somewhat of a bitter reminder at this point. The two hands on the clock began to rotate.

"What is this?" Crimson Sage asked. He apparently had not known about time magic, not too much of a surprise considering that it wasn't exactly safe magic, more of a risk than a trick.

"What do we have to hope for Mal?" Jay asked her.

"Midnight." Mal answered simply. "Twelve on the dot."

"Those are pretty small odds." Carlos said with a shake of his head.

"Is there anything we can do to influence that?" Lonnie asked with worry.

"Pray." Audrey answered.

Mal had an idea though. She closed her eyes and began a small chant of her own.

They watched as the clock hands spun for a moment and then they started to slow, stopping once at ten and then another time at eleven. Then it seemed to stop moving altogether.

"Oh no." Carlos gasped. "Jane."

Audrey wasn't sure how far this effect would go. She tried to brace herself and saw the others following suit except for Mal. It looked to the red ranger like their leader was praying. It seemed an odd thing to do right now.

Then the clock chimed again as the hands moved to twelve. A vortex moved swirled around Jane and Red Magi. They others looked unsure of whether this was a good thing or not until Red Magi, not the old man that was calling himself Crimson Sage, landed hard on the ground. They saw Jane land softly to her feet as the spell on the conference hall shorted out and then vanished.

The seven warriors ran over to the stand with their eighth companion as they all looked to Red Magi. "Looks like your gambit failed to pay off." Jay said with a grin. "Time for you to pay for that."

"Not today Rangers." Red Magi said an then vanished.

For a moment they all felt frustration. Then Audrey, Lonnie and Ben powered down and ran toward the conference hall doors, desperately wanting to check on their parents.

After a moment the four isle teens powered down, as did Jane. "Welcome to the team Jane." Evie said as she gave her a one armed hug. "I think you'll do great."

"Me too." Mal agreed. "We can have that creative brain of yours on the field now instead of in the command center."

"Mom will still need someone to run it in my absence." Jane said. "I bet Doug is more than up to the task though." Together the five of them went into the room.

Mal saw Ben had just pulled away from Belle to talk to his father. She separated from her friends and went over to them. "Are you okay?" She asked Belle, feeling some concern for who she assumed would be her future mother in law.

"We all seem to be just fine Mal." Belle answered and patted her shoulder gently. "Thanks to you, Ben and your friends."

"Including Jane." Mal added and then stopped. "Wait, you know?"

Belle nodded. "Most of those on the council and their spouses know." She replied simply. A look passed between them at what was not mentioned. The knowledge that Chad's parents had to deal with his apparent betrayal of Auradon.

Lonnie was over with her parents celebrating their safe return. Evie and Carlos melted over to the side with Jane though she was awaiting her mother's return to the hall as well. Jay saw Audrey go over and throw her arms around both of her parents, who both hugged her back. He thought it might have been helpful to her on more than one level; he still wasn't sure she had even acknowledged Chad's anger with her, let alone dealt with it.

Then Audrey waved Jay over and he kind of relucatantly went over to her. Audrey took his hands in hers, in front of her parents. "Thanks for trying to keep me sane when this all happened." She said. She looked away embarrassed. "It seems I've need that a lol recently."

"It'll pass." Jay tried to assure her. "But in the meantime we're all here for you, remember that." Audrey wrapped her hands around his arm as she talked again to her parents and Jay decided he was okay with this, it was after all only for one night…he didn't know if that short time was good or bad.

Fairy Godmother came in moments later. Jane hugged her. "Thanks mom, for believing in me. Probably more than I've believed in myself."

She stroked her daughter's back gently. "Perhaps. But I think that will change now that you're a ranger, fighting with your friends to keep the world safe from harm."

As the evening progressed there came a time to dance. Ben led Mal out to the floor, as did Adam did to Belle. Carlos impulsively took Jane's hand to lead her to the floor, and their newest ranger let him do so. Evie and Lonnie conversed quietly though the blue haired girl wished she had Doug there. She hoped Lonnie found someone to spark her interests as well.

"Care to dance?" Jay asked Audrey with a gentlemanly but perhaps slightly exaggerated bow.

Audrey gave him a small curtsy. "I would love too." She replied. He took her hand and lead her to the dance floor.

Mal watched the two of them and laughed softly. "They're going to be an item sooner or later, mark my words." She said to Ben.

"Should we start circulating the nickname The Queen of Hearts for you?" Ben asked her with a teasing smile as he stroked her hair.

Mal laughed again. "No thank you." She replied and leaned up to kiss him on the lips gently. "Between being a ranger and being with you, I think my work is cut out enough for me."


	25. She's Back

"It has to be around here." Carlos said with a roll of his eyes as the newly minted eight warriors approached the Badlands. The place wasn't stormy without Lighting Skull plaguing the place but instead it was hot and very dry. They walked near the sand but stayed close to the borders as a sandstorm was starting to kick up. They had not transformed yet.

"What do you think they're doing here?" Evie wondered.

"I don't know E." Mal said as they tried to patrol the outer edges. "But whatever the reason, Paradias and Nerissa are supposed to be down here directly." She shook her head. "Whatever that purpose might be."

"Any ideas?" Jay asked the four Auradon teens. "You know the area better than us."

None of them had any ideas and shook their heads. "There's nothing out here that we know about, and it's pretty inhospitable to life." Jane replied. "That's why they call it the Badlands." She assumed her mother didn't know anything, if she did she hadn't said anything to them about it.

Thy edged closer into the Badlands but wanted to make sure they didn't lose sight of their way out. If they got too far into the Badlands they'd be lost in the desert area, perhaps to never be seen again.

Evie was taking a few landscaping classes this semester so she was the first stop. "Hey guys, this area is different." She reported.

"Looks the same to me." Audrey drolled.

"No arguments here." Jay agreed.

"How is this area different Evie?" Mal asked her blue haired friend. "I have to admit it looks the same to me too."

"It's the sand drifts." Evie answered as she leaned down to examine it. "This area is lower in level than the surrounding ones."

"So?" Carlos asked.

"Couldn't it have just been a dust tornado?" Lonnie asked.

"It's too centralized." Evie replied.

"Alright so what does it mean then?" Audrey asked her.

Evie sat up to face her friends. "I think it means this area had a bunch of sand removed, leading to something under the ground." She answered.

"Is that possible?" Jay asked. "For something to be under the sand?"

"Maybe." Ben said. "No one knows much about this place."

"How do we find out if Evie's right then?" Carlos asked. "We can't spend the next who knows how many hours, or days, digging."

"We do it with magic." Mal stated and she looked to Jane. "What do you think?"

Jane took the magic wand from a holder on her waist, something she had recently added to her wardrobe with help from Evie for instant access as it also let her become the white ranger. "A sand storm of our own. Of a smaller more compact variety." She declared.

The seven stepped back a bit as Jane cast a spell to create a small sand tornado that started to bury itself into the sand. They hesitated just a bit. If Evie was wrong than they could bury themselves in the unending sand. Then they started down the curving path that the sand tornado was making for them.

It took maybe a half an hour. Mal had started to use an app on her iPhone to trace the pattern they were making. Jane noticed the dust tornado disappear and she held up her hands to stop the team. "We lost it." She said.

"I think I see parts of a cave formation." Evie noted.

"You do." Jane said. "Everyone watch your first step. It looks to be a bit of doozy." She warned and then took a step down herself. She landed a bit roughly but didn't sprain or break anything. She was followed by Carlos, who did his best to aid Evie down.

Jay was the next down; he was athletic enough to be able to make it easier to get down. He took Lonnie's waist to help her down, setting her next to Evie and Carlos. Then he took Audrey by the waist and helped her down. She almost seemed to lose her balance and her hands wrapped behind Jay's neck as he held her against him. "I would think a princess would be more graceful." He noted with a smile.

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Audrey asked with a small coy smile.

Lonnie resisted the urge to tease them about flirting, rather they realized that's what they were doing or not.

Next was Ben who dropped down to see that. "Get a room you two." He said jokingly.

"Dude, you should talk." Jay pointed out as he sat Audrey on the ground beside him now.

Mal let Ben take her waist to help her down and she even kissed him on the lips briefly. "Thanks." She said.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "At least I didn't kiss him." She noted, though in truth she had thought about it for a second. She still didn't know entirely what to make of what seemed to be going on between her and Jay, and if she should even let it happen.

"We're down here now." Mal declared, trying to put this mission back on track. No date or flirting should really be happening at this moment. Too many unknowns to feel comfortable about it. She looked to Evie. "Any new assessments E?"

"These are natural formations M." The blue haired girl responded. "Made hundreds of years ago, long before all of this sand buried the place, I think."

"So we have natural and unknown places under here." Ben noted. "This has to be discussed at the next meeting. We need to know what's going on and we shouldn't leave this place unexplored." He wondered briefly if Sermaya knew about this.

"Okay, so assuming this is where Paradias and his entourage went to, how do we know which direction they went?" Lonnie asked.

"That's easy." Evie said as she took out her hand held mirror. "Mirror, mirror in my hand, show me the path last traveled." This time the seven teens let the blue haired girl lead the way to on what they hoped would be the right path. Mal continued to do her best to map the area so that way whatever happened with Ben's planned exploration they would have something to work with beforehand.

After what Lonnie figured was about twenty more minutes it came to the point they didn't need Evie's mirror to guide them as the area started to take on a more greenish hue, which seemed to be the signature color that went along with Paradias, his powers and his energies.

"I hear chanting of some sort." Carlos said. "But I don't recognize the language."

A small flash of insight passed through Ben as he remembered Paradias doing that several times during his time as the evil leaders 'champion'. "He's casting a spell." Ben said.

"For what?" Mal wondered.

As they took a few more steps they saw again that there were a bunch of soldiers acting as guards. Toward the center was Chad, Nerissa and Reviveslime. In the center was Paradias himself but no one could tell from that position what he was doing down there.

"What are waiting for?" Jay asked as he reached for his iPhone.

"Hold up." Evie said as she stopped him, placing a hand on his arm. "We have to be careful. We don't know how stable these underground caverns are."

"She's right." Audrey agreed. "With whatever rock we have over our heads and a bunch of sand too, we'd get buried to death."

"Not that I'm particularly upset over this, but where is Red Magi?" Carlos asked. "I mean he is Paradias's monster."

None of them really had a good answer for that one.

As they watched Mal couldn't ignore this horrible feeling that was invading her fiber of her being. She unconsciously found her hand reaching out and clutching Ben's arm. "I…don't like this…this situation, this feeling I have." She said softly.

"What feeling?" Ben asked her softly.

Mal hesitated. "I don't know. If I've ever felt it before I don't know what it is." She replied and tried to think. "It feels…like I was sick, my stomach is kind of twisted in a knot." She looked to Ben. "It's like the feelings I felt when I thought we'd have to kill you."

"Fear." Audrey said to her softly, almost sympathetically. "Fear and dread."

"What makes this different from any other time?" Jay wondered.

In a small voice that Mal barely recognized she said, "I want to stop this now."

"What about the risk?" Carlos asked. "The collapsing and the burying?"

Mal knew that was indeed something to remember. "We have to stop this; I feel it in every fiber of my being." She insisted.

Then they noticed something else from another cave corridor. It looked like a dragon at first but they realized that it wasn't a flesh and blood dragon. It was literally composed of gears and other electronics. It took a few steps and then looked up. In a mechanical voice it stated, "We have company." Then he looked directly at the cave entrance where the eight teens were.

Chad, Reviveslime and several warriors looked in their direction too and then started toward them.

"Ah snap." Carlos muttered.

"Time to go." Mal decided. But when the eight of them turned they found that they had soldiers behind them now.

"Why don't you join us old friends?" Chad said mockingly from behind Ben, Jane, Lonnie and Audrey. "You're just in time for the ceremony."

For the moment the eight of them played along as they were brought to the center of the chamber. Nerissa smiled at them. "Welcome. You're going to love this. Especially you Mal." She stated.

"Somehow I doubt that." Mal replied icily.

"You should actually thank us Mal." Reviveslime said with a smirk. "We're going to do something that otherwise could take years, or even decades to make happen any other way."

Paradias finished his chant and then stepped back. "Welcome Mal, Ben, power rangers." He said simply and glanced at Jane. "I suppose congratulations would be in order for you." He said to her and shrugged. "If it weren't for the fact that becoming a ranger guarantees your death."

Then the green light flared again in long oval pattern and when it extinguished Mal let out a gasp as she saw what had occurred. Paradias had restored… "Mom." She whispered.

Maleficent laughed. "How nice to see you again, daughter." She said though she sounded somewhat condescending. She looked around. "Ah, it's been a while since I've seen the chamber of restoration."

"Welcome back to the land of the living, sort to speak." Paradias said with a smile.

"It's been a while indeed." Maleficent agreed. "And I don't mean being free from that little state." She strolled up to Paradias. "It has been a while since you graced this world with your presence. If Zordon hadn't interfered this world would be a far better place."

"And despite his death," Paradias started, which drew a small smile of delight from Maleficent. "His meddling continues on." He looked to the eight teens. "And your daughter is part of that. She has become a power ranger."

Maleficent looked to them. "Mal, a power ranger?" She questioned. When Mal stared back evenly she tsked at her daughter. "Oh, Mal. First you fall in love with a prince, then you choose 'good' and then you insult further by becoming one of those 'defenders of justice'." She lectured mockingly. "You've become quiet the disgrace but not in the way I would have wanted."

"What you've wanted." Ben repeated. "Not what Mal wanted."

"Yeah, yeah." Maleficent said dismissively.

Audrey looked to Chad. "You were livid at Ben and all of us for giving villain kids a chance but you support Paradias bringing back one of the most dangerous villains in our history?" She asked incredulously. "How could you?"

He reached out and again slapped Audrey in the face hard "You just don't learn to shut up, do you?" He snapped. Jay moved to attack him for it but was held back by three soldiers holding him back, one on each arm and one across his chest.

"Ooh, I see that not all changes have been for the bad, sort to speak." Mal said delightedly. "Someone here has learned the joys of being bad."

"I had some good incentives." Chad said with a glare at the four Auradon teens.

"Then you are truly lost." Ben said with a shake of his head.

Paradias looked to Maleficent. "We'll make sure you're properly brought up to speed." He promised her. He looked to the mechanical dragon. "Gadgetron Dragon, bring this cave down around the rangers." With that Paradias, Maleficent, Nerissa, Reviveslime, and Chad vanished. The soldiers stayed behind as the mechanical dragon started toward them.

Mal wasn't sure what part of her made her feel so sick, or so numb, or even fearful. But right now she only knew one thing. She had to protect her team. "Time to act, let's get going."

Each of the teens fought free of the soldiers and then started toward the way they had come from. The other soldiers and the Gadgetron Dragon were behind them as quickly as they could. The mechanical dragon even shoved by the henchman.

As the eight teens made their way toward their entrance and exit point they saw sand already there. "It's time to morph guys." Mal said. The six teens pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and morphed. Ben formed his sword and shield and combined them to transform. Jane used the magic wand to morph too.

"Hang on guys." Jane advised to them as she made sure they all got on the sand before charming it to act as a geyser and carry them all the way up to the surface. They had gotten up and were already starting out of the Badlands when Gadgetron Dragon rose to the surface.

Then the green glow followed an Gadgetron Dragon grew to enormous size.

"Time for the zords." Mal declared as she took out her crystallized dragon and brought it to life and normal size. Ben did the same thing though it required Mal in order to bring his horse zord back to its original state.

Meanwhile the other five rangers summoned the Auradon Megazord. The five of them entered the cockpit and placed their iPhones in their proper slots.

Mal and Ben boarded their zords. Mal's shifted to the Chinese dragon form and then input her iPhone into the proper slot. Ben called out, "Jane, plenty of room in here." The white ranger nodded and joined the knight.

The three zords surrounded the mechanical dragon but he lashed out and slapped all the zords hard with his tail. It then launched an attack on all three of them, already causing a massive amount of damage.

The dragon zord shot into the sky and unleashed several blasts at Gadgetron Dragon but it didn't seem to do much damage to him.

Jay and Lonnie placed their weapons in the combined spot on their consoles to form the sword for their battle zord. They brought the sword down on the mechanical monster but were dismayed that it didn't seem to do anything more than scratch the surface.

Ben had his horse zord try to give the monster a good kick but the impact also seemed to have very little effect. "This thing is as hard as…" Ben started but stopped, not really sure how to finish the sentence.

"Metal?" Carlos suggested.

"Our zords are metal too, or at least constructed with a similar composition." Evie reminded him simply. "That shouldn't be causing so much trouble."

Jane was watching the battle from Ben's zord as she wasn't able to do much else at that point. She did reach over to check some of the readings on the console. "This monster isn't just metal, it's coated with some sort of alloy that seems to be acting a protective shell." She reported. "We have to increase our power levels to compensate for the armor."

"So it's either the Auradon Champion Megazord or the Auradon Defender Megazord." Audrey voiced. "Which do you think is the best idea here Jane?"

Jane thought a moment before coming to her recommendation. "Go with the Auradon Champion Megazord." She advised. Then Ben noticed her return to the console.

"Let's do it then." Mal and Audrey said in unison. The Auradon Megazord got on the dragon zord's back, the tail wrapping around the battle zord. A spot was made in between Audrey and Carlos for Mal to take her place in.

"Let's see what that toy of yours can do." Gadgetron Dragon growled and launched itself out at the new battle zord combination. It struck the Auradon Champion Megazord hard but it managed to recover.

They soared toward the mechanical monster and struck it with the wings. It stumbled back a little, proving that they did have the power to damage it now. Ben just wondered if it would be enough power.

They swerved around again and slashed it with their sword, then turned around for a repeat performance. Then Mal said, "Let's finish this off." The Auradon Champion Mega descended into the sky as it gathered up power and then rapidly descended down on the monster, intending to finish it off.

Gadgetron Dragon's wings lashed out and caught the sword in between the tips of its metallic wings. It then unleashed a close range energy blast at the battle zord, causing it to fall back and land hard. It seemed only sheer luck kept this battle combination together.

"That did a lot of damage." Carlos told his team mates. "Integrity is down by fifty five percent, power levels are sixty and dropping." He pressed a couple of buttons. "Auxiliary power is diverted to those but it won't last and it's not stopping the decline."

"Maybe it's time to try the Auradon Defender Megazord." Jay suggested.

"Dude, it won't have the physical power to defeat that monster." Carlos replied.

"Maybe we don't need power." Jay surprisingly retorted. "Maybe we need the defensive strength instead."

"That thing seems to be already packing huge defenses." Lonnie replied. "We can't expect to beat that monster with the same tactic."

"We've got to pull it together guys." Mal said. "We have to find a way to defeat this thing."

Ben was hoping Jane was working on an idea. Sure enough he heard her speaking to the others now too. "We have a new combination to try here guys." She announced. "Bring the Auradon Champion Megazord on top of this zord. I think we can turn around and make the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord."

Evie placed her mirror shield into the slot and the Auradon Champion Megazord took off and then arced in the sky before making a landing on the back of the horse zord. The saddle seemed to clamp onto the underside of the battle zord, and two more slots were made in the cockpit on either side of Audrey, one for Ben beside Mal and one for Jane beside Jay.

Gadgetron Dragon shot out a huge stream of energy at the newly created battle zord but the shield was raised, combined with the defense of the dragon scales and the power from all the zords combined to block the shot and deflect it harmlessly.

"Deflection is one thing, defeat is another." The mechanical dragon warned as it ran straight for its opposition.

"That it is." Mal agreed. "So let's see what this baby has got." Again the shield was used to block the slashing attacks from the Gadgetron Dragon and then the horse zord's head rammed into the monster hard enough to send it flying back.

The battle zord brought the sword down on the monster hard and then took to the skies as the Champion megazord would do, the shield was brought down around them as what happened with the Defender megazord and then they came down just before hitting the monster as speed was further increased by the horse zord's rapid pace. It struck the monster hard and that resulted in its huge fiery explosion of defeat.

"They've always managed to pull it out in the end." Paradias said with a shake of his head. "I often wonder how such pathetic life forms managed to do that."

"Careful, one of those pathetic life forms is my daughter." Maleficent scolded though it didn't seem like she really meant it. "Oh, Mal. Such energy put to waste on the side of good."

"They will endeavor to trap you again." Nerissa said to her. "You must be careful about what actions you take."

Maleficent waved her off. "We'll see about that." She declared. "Now that I'm out and about, away from the Island of the Lost, I'm free to implement whatever plans I dream of." She gave a wicked smile. "And it's time for me to check up on the coup I implemented not long before my capture and placement on the island."

"Watch yourself Maleficent." Paradias warned. "The rangers should not be overestimated, a lesson I learned the hard way."

"We'll see just how good they really." Maleficent promised.

"Are you okay M?" Evie asked Mal on their way back to Auradon Prep. She recalled talking as they prepared for her purple haired friends first date with the boy who was now king. She had confessed of being afraid of her mother sometimes. Mal had sidestepped the issue by saying she just wanted her mother to be proud of her, but she read in between the lines. Sometimes Mal had been afraid of her mother too, she was just too proud to admit to even herself.

"Sure, just great E." Mal said with a shrug. "My mom is back and really hates what I've become, but hey that's really nothing new."

Ben wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders. "Things are different now." He promised her. "Together we can defeat Maleficent too." He gave a slightly uneasy laugh. "We've already fought and defeated things that rival her."

"Except that was before Paradias, and all of those 'rivals' sprang from him." Mal reminded them all. "And now my mom seems to be working with him."

"Anyone else find that strange?" Audrey asked.

"That evil sided with evil?" Carlos questioned. "Let me think." He pretended to think hard about it for a second. "Nope, nothing strange."

"Not that you dork." Audrey said, with just enough affection in her voice that the others knew she was teasing. Mal and Evie had even exchanged glances, silently agreeing that he had even all but asked for that response. "How come Maleficent seemed to know Paradias?"

"Now that you mention it, my mother had said that he had shown up when they were getting people on the island." Jane mused. "But she never said anything about one of the most feared villains of our history having anything to do with the one villain that required outside help to even chase away."

"Maybe they didn't know about it." Jay suggested. "My father suggested that Aladdin had some kind of outside help from someone that wasn't even known about by anyone until he showed up, except for maybe Jordan's father."

"Like what?" Lonnie asked.

Jay shrugged. "Didn't get real specific about it. Probably hated to think about his first defeat, if not his last one." He replied.

"I think Maleficent's return shouldn't be told to anyone outside of our circle." Ben said. "No council, no parents aside from Fairy Godmother and no students aside from Doug and Jordan should know about this."

"I don't know how long that can really stay a secret." Evie reminded with a shrug. "It won't be long before Maleficent makes her restoration known." She looked to Mal. "Unless you think otherwise."

"You're right." Mal replied simply. "We can't keep this thing a secret for long. But maybe inciting a general riot with no more proof than our word wouldn't be a smart idea either."

"Also, think about yourselves." Audrey reminded. "How will people take it to learn that the ones who found out about it were from the Isle of the Lost, and one of them being her daughter to boot?" She asked.

"We might end up with more Chad's on our hands." Jay noted.

"Either way, if it we didn't before now we definitely have some rough times ahead of us." Mal said grimly as she leaned against Ben's side. "Really rough times."


	26. The Wonderland Journey Part 1

Evie and Audrey expected another day in their class as they sat around making dress designs for their next project. Evie looked to the brunette princess. "I think we should try shifting colors." She suggested.

"What?" Audrey asked. She had not exactly been paying attention though in truth she's not sure she would have understood anyway.

"You know, like the neon show Mal and I did for Lonnie's hip hop performance or for our…improved attire on the field." Evie explained, referring to their neon armor upgrade.

"Oh." Audrey blinked. "Sure, sounds good."

"Okay, what's on your mind?" Evie asked. She thought it was either her crush on Jay that both parties seemed to be doing their best to deny or her worry about Chad and how much he seemed to strike out at her.

Audrey hesitated. "I…was thinking about Jay." She admitted softly. "Just how well he was received by my parents. I wasn't expecting that, especially from my dad." She leaned forward a bit. "The way he seems to be with me…I never expected that from him when I first met you guys."

"Honestly, I never expected that either." Evie confessed. "I mean he's always been chivalrous, but not always so..." The blue haired girl struggled with a word that wouldn't sound so bad. "Empathetic." She finally decided on.

"Don't forget we've all changed." Audrey replied. "I mean I never thought Mal could ever be so…I don't want to say respectable but I don't really know what other word to use. I never thought I'd end up becoming the kind of girl I have, and I thought for a while you were almost like a less intense version of what I was."

"And the confidence both Carlos and Jane have built." Evie started. They were interrupted as Ally came in late to the classroom and set her books down. Both girls cocked their heads, it looked like as if she had been crying.

"Ally, are you okay?" Audrey asked her with concern. For a moment she wondered if someone might have hit her. She certainly felt like crying sometimes if she let herself think about it enough, and the fact her assailant was supposed to be her friend hadn't helped any.

"Yes, thank you." Ally responded though her voice was still down. "I just thought I'd hear from my mother before class." She sighed a bit. "She was supposed to have come back from Wonderland last night and she promised to call me first thing this morning."

"Did the conversation go okay?" Evie asked her.

Ally looked down. "There was no conversation Evie. When she didn't call I did only to be told she had not made it home." She revealed.

The two girls exchanged looks of concern. The first thought Audrey certainly had was Red Crimson casting the spell that might have killed her parents. She wondered if something like that had just happened to Ally's mother Alice Liddell.

"I don't know what to do." Ally said softly. "Of course, there is nothing that I can do except wait…and worry." With that she opened up her book to read up on sketching methods.

The eight warriors, Doug and Fairy Godmother met at the command center for lunch. They had not invited Jordan only because they wanted her to keep an eye on Ally but the genie girl never the less knew why this lunch meeting was happening.

The two girls had just told the rest of the team about Ally's predicament. They had all ranged anywhere from understandably worried to horrified. "What do we do about?" Mal asked automatically. "How can we help her out?" Ben couldn't help the pride he felt to his girlfriend be the first to volunteer.

"I wish I knew." Fairy Godmother said as she picked up a carrot stick. "Wonderland is…separate but apart from here." She paced a moment. "We hear things from them but not as much as we'd like to sometimes."

"Do you know why Mrs. Liddell would have been called to Wonderland?" Doug asked her.

"I'm afraid not." Fairy Godmother said softly.

"Sounds to me like the next best idea would be to go to Wonderland ourselves." Jay said as he picked up a hamburger he had been working on.

"It's not off limits." Ben supplemented as he picked up his own hamburger. "We could go there easily enough, but we have to decide who goes."

"What do you mean? Why?" Carlos asked him as he picked up a potato chip. Right on the floor below him Dude was eating some dog food and seemed to be listening to every word.

"Because in theory some of us have to stay here so that Auradon isn't left defenseless from Paradias." Jane answered for him as she stirred a carrot stick in her ranch dressing.

Evie had finished a bite of her chicken Caesar salad and then asked, "So who has to stay behind then?" She asked.

"Probably Mal, Jane and I." Ben answered. "You five are the main team, sort to speak."

"Historically accurate." Fairy Godmother started. "But not necessarily practical, especially in our case."

"By that logic it could also be the three of us that go." Jane said. "While you five stay here to defend Auradon."

"That isn't how that works." Fairy Godmother stated simply as she turned to the eight teens. "All eight of you are a team, regardless of when you came in." She looked from the original five to Lonnie who came in very shortly afterwards. "Or if you're not officially classified as a ranger," She looked to Ben, who was the Auradon Knight and hence fell into a unique but small category that was once referred to as ranger like allies, who acted and often morphed as rangers but were not rangers. "Or if you just came into the team." She looked to her daughter Jane.

The eight teens looked at each other and realized that she was right. Lonnie literally had to save Audrey and the isle teens out on their first mission. Mal had gotten her zord late despite being one of the original five and had used that dragon zord to help them after their megazord had been damaged. Ben had also gotten his zord late and had had to help them out too. Finally of course there was Jane becoming a ranger when the team had been tricked into surrendering their powers to try to save their parents and students.

"I feel bad that we can't help Ally then." Audrey said sadly.

"If you all feel that you need to help Ally find her mother than that is what you will do." Fairy Godmother said to them all a bit sternly. "I'll simply alert Alpha that we may require some assistance from one of their ranger teams."

"That seems kind of wrong somehow, to expect them to aid us because of a personal matter." Jay remarked gently.

"It's what we would do for them." Mal said.

"And has happened once before." Fairy Godmother added. "When the Space Rangers came here I was able to get some information for Alpha when I gave him information about us. It turns out that at one point one of their villains Master Vile, who was father to Rita Repulsa, reversed time and then the power coins were destroyed later. Zordon requested the rangers of Aquitar come to Earth to help out, which they did despite their own problems with a villain of their own called Hydro Hog."

"So regardless of what was going on here, they would send someone over to cover for us while we help Ally." Jane said with a small smile.

Mal smiled too. "Amber was right, we are part of a fine legacy." She reflected. "The one thing we have to discuss though." She looked to her team and Fairy Godmother. "Either we go and we swear not to use our powers or we have to make sure Ally knows who we are before we go so we can use our powers."

Each of them exchanged glances as they considered revealing their identities to another civilian. "That presents another thing." Audrey now said. "If all of a sudden Ally is in the loop and covering our secret, that might make Aziz even more suspicious."

"So it might be a two for one deal." Carlos noted.

Again they exchanged looks. Then they started to talk about what to do.

Aziz hugged Ally against him as she told him and Jordan about not being able to contact her mother in Wonderland. Jordan stroked her arm gently and frowned. She too wished she knew what to say but she was afraid that something horrible had indeed happened. Paradias had taught her that very early on that things in life were more dangerous than they first appeared, even she suspected in Wonderland.

"I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't get in contact with my parents." Aziz said to her as he stroked her hair a bit. Then he frowned. "No, I know what I'd do. I'd go to Agrabah, even if I had to do it on my own."

Ally pulled away a bit. "I can't just run off to Wonderland without knowing anything about what's going on. If my mother is hurt or something else had happened I probably wouldn't know how to help her." She replied softly.

"Then I'll go with you." Aziz told her simply.

"You said you talked to Evie and Audrey too." Jordan said. "We could ask them if they're willing to come with us too." She knew Aziz would be a bit suspicious about the sudden invitation but she thought there was a good chance that the eight warriors would want to help their friend anyway.

"I feel kind of bad to put anyone through this." Ally said shyly. "To drag everyone else into what might be my problem, if there is one at all."

"If there is a problem, then working together to overcome it is what friends do." Aziz reminded her.

"He's right." Jordan said simply. "It's a lesson I've had to learn myself recently." _A lesson I learned from you two._ She added silently. Seeing these two work to help those in need when the school had been in danger after Reviveslime attacked the first time was what made her realize the idea of friendship helping to overcome all the odds.

"I haven't seen them yet." Aziz noted as he looked around. "Where are they anyway?" He already found it weird that Mal and Ben had helped in the library when the soldiers and dark knight had shown up only to be replaced by the purple ranger and the Auradon Knight. He was doing his best to ignore every impulse saying that his two friends were behind the suits.

Jordan was relieved to put that fire out. "They had a meeting with Fairy Godmother over the trip field trip they had to take to the Badlands yesterday, but here they are now." She said and pointed to the eight teens as they came into the room. The genie girl waved them over and they came to the table.

"Feel any better?" Evie asked Ally.

Ally shrugged. "Perhaps a little." She replied as she looked at them all. "Aziz and I are going to go to Wonderland and find out what is going on, particularly with my mother." She took a deep breath. "I would like if you all wanted to go with me, but I obviously can't make you go."

Each of the teens automatically agreed to go with Ally which did indeed seem to make her happy. There was no discussion about their secret identities, making Jordan think they were going to try to do this without their powers. It was an admirable idea but depending on what was going on they might not have the luxury of keeping that secret from Ally and Aziz.

"Do we need to do anything special?" Audrey asked Ally.

"No." Ally replied simply. "But we won't be able to go until tomorrow morning. The door won't open until then."

"Where is the door anyway?" Mal asked. "I've heard of Wonderland of course, especially once we came here, but I don't know much about it. There's no one residing on the Isle of the Lost that used to live in Wonderland, at least so far as I know."

Evie and the two boys also confirmed the same thing, no one they knew living on the Isle of the Lost had once resided in Wonderland.

"I asked my mother about that once." Ally replied. "She told me that even though Wonderland is indeed connected to Auradon, the place plays by its own rules. Despite my mother having spent time there Wonderland is not under the standard rules of Auradon."

"I'm surprised that more villains didn't flee to Wonderland." Lonnie said.

"Some tried." Evie volunteered. "My mom was one of them. She said that Wonderland wouldn't let in. They wanted to basically remain neutral in anything between the two sides in Auradon."

"She's right." Ally seconded. "It wasn't until it was clear that Auradon had established the Isle of the Lost fully that Wonderland became so open with its borders again."

"Hey, are you sure we're even going to be welcome in Wonderland then?" Carlos asked dubiously.

"I doubt they'll even know who you are." Ally assured them. "Rather that's a good thing or not I suppose could be debated."

"Where's the entrance to Wonderland?" Ben asked her. He wasn't even fully aware of that, he assumed that was because of its relative neutrality to the rest of Auradon.

"In the forest, toward the mountains." Ally answered. "The best way to be ready for our window would be to camp out for the night."

"Camp?" Audrey asked. She'd never heard of it and despite all the progress they had made since becoming power rangers the isle kids couldn't help but exchange small smirks of amusement at her obliviousness.

"I've heard about but never done it." Ben said. "Sleeping out in the wilderness, making food by firelight."

"That doesn't sound too fun." Audrey noted.

Jordan waved it off. "There are some advantages to me being along. Can't do much about the sleeping in the wilderness but we can get whatever kind of food we want." She said.

"We camped a lot on the Isle of the Lost." Evie said. "It was a good way sometimes to get away from our parents and all of the other things that could go on. It's not that bad."

"And with a genie and more friends around it should be even better." Carlos added.

Audrey gave off a sigh but then shrugged. "Well if that's our best bet for getting into Wonderland then that's what we have to do." She replied simply. "And I'm guessing Wonderland isn't exactly crawling with first class inns."

"Certainly nothing that you would find here in Auradon." Ally replied.

"Okay," Ben said. He looked to Aziz Jay and Lonnie. "Let's get the gear we need in order to go camping for at least…tonight. We'll worry about Wonderland stuff when we get there. We already know it's not a desolate place after all."

The four of them got up to take care of it.

"I want to try again to contact my mother before we leave." Ally said, though her tone indicated she had an idea of what would happen. "Maybe we won't have to make the trip." She got up and left as well.

Jordan looked to the remaining rangers. "So is Doug coming with us? Are we telling them about you being power rangers?" She asked. She wanted to know what should be said or what couldn't be said.

"Doug is going to stay behind with my mother." Jane answered. "Just in case we either end up needing help in Wonderland or if something where to happen here."

"How does that work?" Jordan asked.

"Fairy Godmother says Alpha will send one of the ranger teams if they need help here." Mal replied. "We might have to repay the favor later on of course, but that's part of the legacy." She smiled. "How weird to say that, but kind of cool too."

"And the identity issue?" Jordan asked. If they were lucky it wouldn't be so difficult and they would be back without a problem. But if her worry was any indication, they might need their ranger powers before this was done. "Do we tell Ally and Aziz about that?"

That seemed to draw a bit more hesitation from the rangers before Audrey answered, "No, not unless we have too. We still have to worry about putting them in danger or trusting the wrong people."

"I trust them." Jordan insisted.

"We all do." Mal promised her. "But any danger we face will come from Paradias, or my mother, or Sermaya, or who knows what else. We can't control that but we can try to minimize it. Likewise they may not intentionally reveal our identities but that doesn't mean accidents can't happen."

"Don't forget that a lot of the reason Chad got into the position he is in now is because I all but spilled out our identities to him when I asked him to help us bring Ben back to us." Audrey said, feeling embarrassed about it.

"What if you guys have to morph?" Jordan asked. "Do you not do it to protect your identities or do you take the risk of revealing it?"

"We reveal it." Evie answered simply. "Keeping our secrets isn't worth losing any of us on this expedition, no matter how harmless we're hoping it'll be."

"And let's hope it is." Jordan said. "But if Ally hasn't heard from her mother by now I have a horrid feeling that it might not be so easy."

The group met again several hours later with the appropriate supplies. They had a few tents, sleeping bags for all of them, water bottles for all of them. Jordan promised she would make sure they had enough food. They then began their journey into the woods.

"You've never camped out before, huh?" Jay asked Audrey as they walked beside each other.

"Never." Audrey replied. "It's never appealed to me, I'm sure this information doesn't surprise you."

"No offense, but not really." Jay admitted. "You never struck me as the outdoor type."

From just ahead of them Mal laughed. "You can learn if you wanted to Audrey." She said. "Just like everything else. Truth be told I didn't think you would be into the kind of thing we're doing even if we gave you the chance right off. Too much work and too dangerous after all." That was her subtle way of inferring being a power ranger. That did get Ally and Aziz's attention a little though.

"You certainly would have been right in what seems like another life time ago." Audrey agreed with a small chuckle. "So many things have changed since you guys showed up to Auradon."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Carlos asked from behind him where he walked with Jane.

Audrey bit her lip a bit. "Sometimes I don't know." She admitted. "But most days I'd like to say that's a good thing."

"For what it's worth I think Paradias would have shown up regardless." Ben said as he held Mal's hand. "Which means the power rangers would have still been needed, but things might be different any other way."

"You guys seem to know a lot about the power rangers." Aziz noted with some suspicion and some amusement.

"We like the danger." Evie tried to tease with a fake sinister laugh. "We're still descended from evil after all."

Ally laughed a bit. "Oh, please." She replied. "Liking danger is far from being evil." She looked to Lonnie. "Otherwise you wouldn't have Auradon kids in this little danger club of yours too, including our fair king."

They continued along in comfortable silence. This was something that still amazed Audrey at times, that she could be so comfortable with everyone. She couldn't agree at all with Chad's actions but she had at one time understood the spirit of his protest. She already knew that if and when Ben brought over another set of island kids, she'd still feel a bit apprehensive. It was of course something that had been discussed before, and even her island friends had agreed the next time might not turn out so well.

As they got closer to the area that Ally indicated would be the best place to camp they were stopped as they realized that some of Paradias's soldiers were patrolling the area.

"What are they doing out here?" Jay asked.

"Trying to get into Wonderland maybe." Aziz suggested.

"Why would they want to do that?" Ally wondered. "In fact, would this Paradias even know about Wonderland?"

"If he didn't know when he showed up, he would after Chad joined him." Mal pointed out. "Not to mention my mother."

"We either can't camp out here or we're going to have to clear this area of these things." Jay said as he narrowed his eyes at a soldier. "I'm okay with the latter." He was sure at this point they could take out the soldiers even without moving.

"Is there any other place we can camp?" Ben asked as he tried to assess how many of them there were around.

"Nothing as close." Ally said and then retorted, "Besides what happens if they decide to expand their path?"

"Then we have no choice but to chase them away." Aziz declared, sounding determined.

"We don't even know how many there are here." Evie reminded. "Even with eleven of us they could overwhelm us." _Especially if we don't morph._ She thought.

"I might be able to magic them away." Jordan said with a pointed look at Mal. "But it's going to have to be a pretty powerful burst to do so, we're talking dragonic…I mean gigantic."

The purple haired girl resisted the urge to roll her eyes at what she saw as the lack of subtlety, but she got what the genie girl was saying. She would create a pyrotechnically impressive display for distraction while Mal could summon her dragon zord and take out the soldiers that way. "Alright then let's give it a shot." She decided.

"Keep an eye on them, let's make sure we're driving them all away." Audrey said to the group at large, her way of trying to keep Ally and Aziz from seeing Mal summoning her zord.

Everyone except Mal watched as Jordan weaved a spell that would do what she wanted as Mal brought out her dragon zord and whispered, "Soldiers in the woods, make them go away." The dragon zord flew out of the trees and into the sky.

Evie had kind of glanced that and said, "I think it's time for that spell Jordan."

Jordan nodded, waiting just a moment as she was sure she saw the flight pattern of the dragon zord as it zoomed around and unleashed it's stream of dragon fire. Jordan released her pyrotechnically impressive spell at the same time.

Almost at once the soldiers seemed to poof out of existence. "Check the surrounding areas." Audrey said to the group with a look at Mal. It was really a way for her to retrieve her dragon zord. "Make sure we have no stragglers."

"I'll go with you M." Evie volunteered quickly and started toward the right where the dragon zord would be waiting for Mal.

"Come on." Aziz said to Ben and they went to the left.

"Let's make sure somehow nothing slipped through the spell." Lonnie said to Jay, getting into the covering their backs act. The two of them moved ahead and as they expected found nothing. Aziz and Ben came back moments later saying they were covered.

Another minute later Mal and Evie came back with the lie that they thought one had survived and they had gone after it only to find out it was a deer running from the noise. It was really the cover for Mal to have recovered her dragon.

Ben, Jay and Aziz set up the tents while Mal, Lonnie and Ally got a fire going. Jordan set up a little mini bar that was pretty impressive looking but in reality the genie girl assured could give them whatever food they wanted for the night.

As they ate Aziz suggested, "I think we should play it safe and take guard shifts."

"It'll be better if we do it in pairs." Lonnie added as she picked up a chicken leg, courtesy of Jordan's min bar system. "Probably three shifts."

"Some of us won't have to take any shifts then." Carlos noted. "Who gets lucky?"

"Volunteers are the best idea." Mal said.

"We should probably avoid certain pairs taking guard duty at the same time." Jordan said pointedly. She didn't entirely trust that some of them would stay focused when it was really needed. This was primarily Mal and Ben as well as Audrey and Jay though she had some concerns about Carlos and Jane too.

"I'll take the first watch, I'm used to later nights." Mal said.

"I'll take watch with Mal too." Audrey said. Truthfully everyone was a bit surprised that the brunette princess would take a shift when she didn't have to, but as it had been pointed out she had changed along with anyone else.

"I'll take the second shift." Jay said.

"I will too." Ben agreed.

"I'll take the last shift." Ally said. "I'm not much of a fighter but that last shift would also be when we'd have to worry about any anomalies with getting to Wonderland and I'll be the one who will notice them."

"Good thinking Ally." Ben said with a small smile.

"I'll take the shift with her." Lonnie said. "It's a bit early than normal get but I'm an early riser naturally." 

"It's settled then." Ben stated. "If anyone really wants to volunteer to help they can. Otherwise we leave for Wonderland at first light."


	27. The Wonderland Journey Part 2

Daytime came around and the group approached the tree. It seemed to be a long way down from the hole and there was end in sight. Even Ally was a bit intimidated as she didn't remember getting to Wonderland that way though she remembered her mother talking about that as her first journey.

"Alright, well, let's get this going." Mal said with a bit of uncertainty. Ben took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"You people give up to easily." Jordan laughed. "Of course that might be because of the fact none of you are genies."

"You have any better ideas?" Audrey questioned.

"Pick your choice." Jordan said. "I can make us a ladder of some sort, or we could go in style of a sorts and I could conjure up a large magic carpet for us to take down."

None of them were sure what would be safer; both of them presented their share of dangers, especially when they didn't know what they were descending into. Finally Mal said, "Well if we're going to do it this way let's do it in style."

Evie laughed. "Magic carpet ride please." She said.

Jordan laughed a little. "I like that idea better anyway." She revealed. "My dad actually is friends with a magic carpet, it's sentient or at least as sentient as a rug can be. I don't think he created it though."

"Will ours be sentient?" Carlos asked.

"Not as far as I know." Jordan answered. "If somehow that happens I'd be surprised."

"I think I'd rather not have an intelligent rug anyway." Audrey replied. Being slightly afraid of heights going down this hole via magic carpet seemed only marginally safer than dropping right in, which like Mal is what she expected to have to do. "Decorations shouldn't be moving on their own."

"I think there's a point where my parents might not have agreed with you." Ben pointed out teasingly.

"That was different, the people in his castle didn't start out as decorations and stuff." Audrey commented with a smile and roll of her eye.

Jordan magically formed a magic carpet big enough to accommodate them all. It had some barriers around it to help stop anyone from falling out of it and even seemed to have seatbelts. "Safety first." Jordan said half-jokingly.

While Jordan used her own magic to levitate on the carpet and on the front where she would presumably using the labels to try to drive, Ben helped Mal on, Carlos helped Jane on, Jay helped Evie and Audrey on, Aziz helped Ally and Lonnie on. Then the four boys got on the carpet themselves. "Here we go ladies and gentlemen." Jordan announced.

"You'll finally get some answers Ally." Lonnie said to the blonde softly. "You must be looking forward to it."

"Sort of." Ally said with a soft shrug. "I mean, the fact that we have to do this makes me feel apprehensive, that we're going to walk into something bad."

"Look on the bright side." Carlos tried to say lightly. "Maybe she just got stuck having tea time."

"I wish it were that simple." Ally replied honestly.

"Any idea how long this descent will take?" Mal asked her.

"I'm afraid not." Ally answered. "It could be another minute or it could be hours…possibly longer."

It soon became clear that it was going to be more than a minute. It seemed like the tree route was growing grooves and other characteristics. There wasn't much to do except for watch the scenery and a little bit of conversation. Mal laid her head on Ben's shoulder and he wrapped that arm around her.

Jay looked to Audrey. "How are you doing?" He asked. He was the only one who knew she was afraid of heights, at least as far as he knew. He figured only Ben might know that and he was a little distracted himself at the moment.

The brunette princess nodded. "As long as I don't look down, I can handle it." She said softly. "Thanks for the concern though." She was looking to the side, trying to help that feeling when she tensed just a bit. "I think I just saw something moving." She reported louder to the others.

"I didn't see anything." Carlos said, who had been looking around but in the opposite side.

"Everyone keep an eye out." Mal instructed. "If something is trying to ambush us I'd rather it not work."

They kept alert. Each of them could have sworn they saw some form of amusement but nothing concrete. Lonnie cocked her head a bit. "I thought I saw wings, like a bugs…a wasp." She said, her voice growing a bit quieter.

"Can we move any faster?" Aziz asked Jordan.

"It's a carpet, not a race car." Jordan said simply. "We're going as fast as we can, sort to speak."

They saw several large wasps emerge from the crevices of the tree's tunnel. And they also had bows and arrows, which they immediately started to shoot at the carpet. They heard Ally say, "My mother said nothing about this at all."

One arrow cut across Lonnie's cheek and she yelped in pain. "That's very sharp." She noted as her hand went to cheek and came away with a bit of blood on her fingers. "We have to be very careful about this."

There was one resource that Mal had at her disposal that she could use in front of Ally and Aziz. She took out her spell book to find a spell to protect them. "Slings and arrows, give us a scape to avoid our sorrows."

Evie looked at Carlos. "Not one word about the spell." She warned him. He was the one who usually had to mock the words that never the less made the intended spell happen.

Some of the wasps now flew out into the open and started to shoot at the magic carpet again. For a minute the arrows did protect them. Then Evie gasped in pain as one came through the bottom and scraped her thigh. "Why did that happen?" She asked.

Jane ran the spell through her mind. "Scape…land…it's not protecting the underside of the carpet." She revealed.

"We need another spell." Audrey said to Mal.

"Try taking the carpet into a spin." Jay suggested to the genie girl.

They were so concerned about finding a new spell and distracted by the wasps around, flying or stationary, shooting arrows at them that they didn't notice another much bigger figure that leapt up from some unknown place and brought a huge axe up with it that chopped the carpet in half. It was a miracle none of the teens got injured as well.

Each of the team wanted to ask what that was but the rapid descent was enough to break off any words that might have been said. Being in the back Carlos and Jane barely glanced a large figure that they swore was in white and red as it seemed to land on another crevice.

The fall seemed even longer than the flight. It started out with darkness and then gradually turned light, like they were falling from the sky. They even passed several clouds before seeing the ground coming up. It was a forest and before the group could really be worried about a killer landing they struck a blue mushroom and while the landing was not soft it lessened the free fall so that when they hit a small stream it didn't do much more than cause a rough landing.

"That could have been worse." Lonnie said as she started to rise. "Though not by much."

"Any crash you can walk away from…" Jordan started.

"It's probably a good thing that the carpet wasn't sentient after all." Evie noted as she stood.

"I don't recall anything about samurai wasps anywhere." Ally said as she tried to comb as much water out of her hair as possible.

The six original rangers checked their iPhones in order to make sure they were okay. They found that they were intact and they could still morph if they had too. But it seemed as if texts and calls weren't going to go through to Auradon. "We have no signals here." Carlos said. "We can't contact Doug or Fairy Godmother."

"What about your…your special apps?" Jordan asked.

"Working as far as we can tell." Mal answered.

"And are they really going to help us here?" Aziz questioned.

"You never know." Jay replied.

"Where do we go from here?" Lonnie asked now.

"I suggest we head into the forest." Ally replied. "I think it best that try to find some kind of cover before those wasps things decide to come down to our level."

"Or that thing that took out our carpet." Audrey added. "I'd rather that than the long fall we ended up taking."

The teens headed into the forest. Carlos and Jane told them what they had seen from their vantage on what had destroyed the carpet and everyone was slightly dismayed. "It almost sounds like a large and bulky playing card." Aziz said half-jokingly.

"That wouldn't be exactly consistent with what my mother has told me about Wonderland either." Ally said. "Though perhaps I should get used to the idea that things have changed around here, and certainly not for the better."

The eight warriors exchanged private glances. If they encountered that thing with no other knowledge of how to deal with it then the only alternative was to expose Ally and Aziz to the truth by morphing.

They were walking through the forest when they heard some rustling. Each teen tensed, ready to fight, but they saw nothing. They proceeded a bit further with the knowledge they were being followed but couldn't see anything. Then a voice said to them, "Are you lost or merely wandering around?"

"Show yourself." Jay demanded.

The figure appeared before them and Ally blinked in confusion. "If you are who I think you are, you've changed quite a bit." She remarked.

The figure in front of them was feline, tall and gaunt, with perhaps a shade of purple but certainly more grayish, almost dark. He smiled at them all and it seemed a bit weird, very Cheshire in appearance. "I am the Cheshire cat." He introduced with a glee. "And I believe I know exactly who you are, daughter of Alice." He looked to the others. "I see that, unlike your mother, you have brought along friends."

"Do you know where Mrs. Liddell is?" Jane asked the gaunt cat a bit nervously.

"There is no need to fret young lady." Cheshire cat said. "My growl is worse than my bite, or my scratch." They exchanged glances, not sure they believed what this animal was trying to sell. "I am sorry to say that I don't precisely know where Alice has ended up at."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Mal asked, feeling almost like she was dealing with her mother.

"Several days ago, when she decided it was best to go fix the mistake she left a while ago." Cheshire cat answered.

"Mistake?" Evie asked.

"If you wish to know more, you should go see Alice's closest friend, the Mad Hatter." Cheshire cat answered simply. "I am sure he would love to see you, daughter of Alice. It has been so long since you have been here." And before anyone could stop he vanished, that ingratiating smile the last to fade.

"He could have at least told us where to find this hatter guy." Lonnie said.

The group continued on, the forest was virtually silent and this was a sensation none of them were used to. Auradon Forest was almost always teeming with life. They found a connection of water that they suspected led back to the stream they had crashed by.

"Are we going around in circles?" Carlos wondered.

"I don't think so." Mal said. "But I wish I knew where we were going too."

Ally thought a moment. "I think we need to leave the forest. We might find the hatter toward the end of it, undoubtfully having some tea with mock turtle and the hare." She said. They started to follow her.

"Even in our world, it's hard to imagine talking animals." Ben remarked as they started on. "Except for Sermaya we don't have anything like that anywhere."

"Mom said Alpha said something to her about the Space Rangers meeting up with talking turtles." Jane said. "Didn't say much about it beyond, including how that happened."

"It had to be magic." Aziz said simply. "The fact is everything that happens that doesn't fit scientific belief is generally linked to magic."

"Not true." Mal replied. "In many ways people classify something as magic because they don't understand it." She stepped over a loose root and also took Evie's arm when she didn't see it. "Obviously I know firsthand magic exists, but sometimes the unexplainable is just science that they haven't understood yet."

"Sometimes they're one in the same." Jane added, giving Carlos a smile as he helped her over a tree stump. There was an unspoken question on rather it should be there or not, tree chopping was not supposed to be common in Wonderland. "Some areas of Auradon are run by equal amounts science; primarily technology, and magic." She was referring to their command center specifically but was willing to be other parts of Auradon might run in the same fashion.

"They're right you know, to the unenlightened the magic of science is the science of magic." They heard from behind them. They turned around Ally was once again uncertain of what she saw verse what her mother had told her.

The demeanor screamed insane while he wore a top hat of sorts; this all but spelled out Mad Hatter. But he was far taller than Ally had ever anticipated and they all swore the man's arms and legs were almost mechanical in nature, though not nearly as obvious or advanced as their own zords.

He cocked his head at the blonde. "You…you seem familiar." He said and came closer to look over her. Mal and Ben held close together, as if trying to offer each other some form of comfort, or to stop them the other from trying to get in the way. Jay and Audrey seemed to do the same thing.

Nothing however stopped Aziz from stepping in front of Ally protectively. He said nothing but the look in his eyes showed that he didn't need to. Mad Hatter didn't seem intimidated or concerned. "I haven't seen you since you were a wee lass, Ally." He cocked his head. "Or I don't remember it at any rate."

"I don't think he remembers much." Evie whispered to Lonnie. A smile crossed her lips and she had to stop herself from laughing even as she gave her blue haired friend a shushing gesture. They heard Jordan giggling a little though it didn't seem as if the hatter cared.

"Yes, I am Ally Liddell." She said firmly, her British accent stronger than they harder than they had ever heard in her softer terms. "I want to know where my mother is."

"All in good time, all in good time." Hatter promised as he stood up. "It's tea time now, come and join us. It's been a long time since I've had so many guests for afternoon tea." Standing he seemed almost two heads taller than even Ben or Jay. "Come, come."

"Hey, we don't have time for that. We have to find Ally's mother." Audrey tried to protest but was summarily ignored by the tall man. When he ignored them the group followed him.

It was only a few minutes' walk to an area that had a long table that was basically set up for tea. They saw what had to have been the mock turtle and the mouse. They noticed though that below the mouse's waist was instead what looked like a wheelchair.

"Once we sit down, I assure you I will do what I can to answer all of your questions." Mad Hatter told them all as he started to on what they assumed was making tea. "Never you mind, mind you never mind." He babbled.

"My mother always said Hatter was a bit off, but I don't think she meant it in quiet this way." Ally said softly to her team.

"What happened to the mouse?" Evie wondered with concern.

"It's yet another new development as far as I know." Ally answered.

"If we're having tea, don't we need crumpets?" Jay asked with a small smirk.

"Are we like supposed to bring something to this little party?" Mal asked Ben.

The young king shrugged. "I don't know." He answered. "That sometimes how it works in Auradon, especially with pot lucks. But how it works here, I just don't know."

"Well I'll zap up some cookies for this, just in case." Jordan replied.

A few minutes passed, and after Jordan zapped up some cookies they all sat down for the tea party. Mal and Evie frowned just a bit, finding it too bitter for their preference. Carlos and Jay hardly even touched the tea.

For what it was worth the Auradon teens seemed a bit better off with it, or at least their reactions were harder to read. Then Audrey asked, "So what happened here?"

"I normally prefer Darjeeling in the afternoon, but we seem to be out so I settled for Early Grey." Mad Hatter answered absently.

"She meant with Wonderland." Mal emphasized a bit impatiently. "I don't know much about this place, but wasps and big things in your tunnel, and all of these mechanical things I'm guessing are not part of the normal line up."

"You know time tends to pass differently between our precious Wonderland and your little United Auradon Kingdom." Mad Hatter said almost idly just before sipping some tea. "What passes here is far from different from there."

"We didn't really come for a temporal lesson." Evie said a bit nervously.

"Ah, but you must understand." Hatter said to her. "Things are different from the last time that your mother was here before now."

"I think you mean my mother." Ally interrupted.

"Yes of course." Hatter said dismissively. He was getting on Mal and Audrey's nerves, the fact that they could agree on that, even privately, was kind of a miracle. "The last time your mother was here was just after you were born if I recall correctly."

"It had to have been later than that." Ben interjected diplomatically. "Auradon has had peace for decades, and we're only in our teens."

"Time passage my lad," Hatter reminded as if it were that simple. "Time passage." He cleared his throat. "Now then, my point is that Alice brought Ally here quite a long time ago, and after that happened things changed."

"What things?" Jay asked, barely keeping his temper in check.

"You all must think I'm mad." Hatter stated. "And no doubt I am. But not the same way that the Red Queen became mad." He suddenly rose as if forgetting they were supposed to be having tea time. "She's become mad with power, drunk with control."

"What do you mean?" Mal asked, suddenly having a bad feeling and fearing that they were getting to the point.

"Somehow the Red Queen became possessed of power unheard of in Wonderland…or I suspect even in Auradon…possibly the world." Hatter answered.

Jay again remembered his father saying something a bit similar to that. "And she caused all of this destruction?" He asked.

"Oh, no. Not alone." Hatter assured him. "She has her cards, and her multiple wasps with their queen running amok and the large guardian that roams for trouble and keeps things in nice disarray."

"What are you babbling about?" Aziz asked.

"Remember those wasp's that shot at us?" Jane asked him. "They have to have a queen somewhere, all bees and wasps do."

"The Jabberwock." Ally whispered. "That has to the large roaming guardian."

"What is that?" Audrey asked. "What did your mom tell you about that thing?"

"Nothing, she never mentioned it but I found it in some of my mother's things." Ally responded. "Large, almost insectoid of some sort. A predator of Wonderland."

"Yes, yes. The Jabberwock." Hatter agreed with some pride. "That's it. That's the guardian that roams Wonderland, destroying as it pleases. Playing with wasps. All in service to the Red Mad Queen."

"But how did all of this even happen?" Audrey asked. "Things can't become this distorted overnight, not even a place as bizarre as I've heard Wonderland is."

"Ah, that's the question of the hour." Hatter agreed a bit gleefully than either of the teens liked. "No one knows how Red Queen came to power precisely. Rumor has it that it started as all life does, with a seed. But this is no seed of life, but a seed of chaos, seed of destruction, even a seed of death."

 _A seed._ Mal mused silently. _Why does that sound so familiar?_ "What if we stop the Red Queen?" She asked.

"And we do that how?" Aziz asked. He didn't know that he was traveling with seven rangers and a knight.

"Even Wonderland isn't that flexible." Hatter replied. "You can't fix the damage, no no no. But stopping Red Queen, stopping Jabberwock, stopping the wasps, might stop the stopping."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Can't we get an interpreter?" She asked.

"All we can do is prevent more damage, not reverse it." Ally translated and then looked to Hatter. "We can certainly try, but I have to know where my mother is?"

"You have to try. You have to try." Hatter seemingly repeated, seemingly inanely. "That sounds exactly like what Alice said. And where is she now, where is she now?" He drolled on, making Jay want to smack him. "In the Red Queens clutches she is now, and if she hasn't lost her head already she will soon enough."


	28. The Wonderland Journey Part 3

Needless to say the idea of Ally's mother losing her head didn't sit well with the young blonde. It took everything she had not to go into hysterics. After a few more minutes of the tea party the group excused themselves. At that point they weren't even sure hatter noticed.

"Do you think my mother is dead?" Ally asked softly, almost not sure she wanted to know the answer.

"I don't think she is." Evie answered, trying to sound as confident as possible. The blue haired girl wasn't sure if she was as confident as she was hoping to sound.

"So what's first and how are we going to kill it…you know, as powerless as we are and all." Jordan asked with a slight droll in her voice. She knew they weren't powerless, eight of them had powers presuming they worked like Jane thought.

"I think we should deal with the wasps first unless something else decides to show up." Mal said. "Maybe we can get some weapons from them while we're at it."

"I'm sure they'll be willing to share." Ben said with a small smile at Mal. She smiled back at him.

"I think we're talking more the beat them down until they give up kind of willing." Jay emphasized. "If talking with them worked this wouldn't be happening."

"Something about what Hatter said is bothering me." Mal confessed.

Carlos laughed. "Shouldn't that be like most of what he said?" Carlos questioned. "I mean it was either bordering on insanity or scary, sometimes both."

"What is that bothers you specifically Mal?" Audrey asked her.

"Hatter was babbling about a seed." The purple haired girl answered. "And I remember my mother talking about seeds when I was younger. She called them Seeds of Darkness and she said she had them."

"Could Maleficent be responsible for this?" Aziz asked her.

"It's possible." Mal said.

"But Hatter said that this happened after the Island of the Lost was established, your mother would have been there at that time. On top of that their borders were up so no one could cross into Wonderland." Ally reminded her.

"That might not stop Paradias or Nerissa." Ben replied. "Maybe it's their doing. Maybe they got Maleficent in somehow. That would explain why she seemed so familiar with them."

Mal stopped at a tree and pointed a little way up. "That branch looks pretty sturdy." She said as she looked at her team. "It would make a great makeshift staff." She added pointedly.

"So what?" Aziz asked. He of course wasn't aware that Mal used a staff as her weapon and was pretty good with it, even if he did have suspicions about what they did outside of school hours.

Jordan zapped the branch off the tree and Ben picked it up and gave it to his girlfriend. She weighed it in her hand and nodded. "I think it will work." She confirmed.

They heard some buzzing above them and they all looked up. "Good to hear that Mal, because I think we've got company." Jay announced.

"The wasps found us." Aziz said.

Jordan saw the six teens reach for their iPhones, and Jane reach for the magic wand, before remembering they were trying to do their best to not use their powers and expos their identities. Instead they got prepared to fight as best they could.

An arrow shot out, aimed straight at Ally's head. She gasped and dodged it. Jay and Aziz charged where the arrow came from and found the wasp archer again and double teamed it, knocking it out. Hay took the bow and arrow set and tossed them to Audrey.

"It's not as pretty as mine." Audrey said, trying to lighten the mood. "It also isn't as sturdy." That was a more valid observation even though there was only one way to change that.

"We have to work with what we have." Mal replied as she twirled the staff. She missed her staff though.

Another wasp tried to jump Mal, this one wielding a katana blade. She raised her staff and blocked it, though it wasn't nearly as efficient as her own staff was. She kicked the thing in its abdomen hard and then brought the staff down hard on its head. "Ben." She called out as she kicked the hilt to him.

Ben picked it up and then raised it just as another wasp tried to attack him. He clashed with his opponent for a moment before taking its appendage off with the sword and then he kicked the thing in the chest hard. It hit the tree hard. "Jay!" He shouted out now and kicked the sword in his direction.

Jay caught it and knocked an incoming arrow off course. The wasp that shot at him took aim at him again before getting pierced in the chest by a shot from Audrey.

Another sword wielding wasp approached Jane and Carlos and tried to take off their heads, but the two teens dodged under the strike. Carlos caught its appendage while Jane brought her elbow up into its chest and sent it back.

Another approached Lonnie, swiping at the Asian girl's head. She caught it and kicked the wasp in the leg and as it fell she slammed her knee into what passed at its jaw.

Aziz took up a branch, longer and thinner than what Mal was using but almost as sturdy. He slammed the end of it into the wasp's face and as it recoiled back he used the other end to trip the wasp, whose head hit the ground hard.

A few others tried to attack Ally, Carlos and Jane but Jordan was there and sent a small shockwave and sent them flying backwards. "Like a bug repellor." She said with a small laugh. "Sometimes I love this."

Evie dodged a strike from another wasp and as she rolled up she saw it coming toward her again. She kicked it in the abdomen but it started to come at her again. Then her chosen sister came in from behind and knocked it in the back of the head.

"Are you okay E?" The purple haired girl asked as she held her hand out.

The blue haired girl took the offered hand and accepted the help up. "Yeah, it's just a lot harder to fight without my mirror shield M." She answered.

Mal stepped closer to her. "Do you think it's time to morph?" She asked quietly.

Evie bit her lip and then shook her head. "No, I don't think so…yet." She replied.

They realized that no one else had come out. The wasps had either been defeated or retreated, they weren't sure which one. "Does anyone else feel like we've just been tested?" Lonnie asked.

"If we did, I hope we passed. Put a little bit of fear into them." Jay answered.

"They'll likely report back to that Queen Wasp, if she didn't already know on some collective level." Jane commented. "We might need to be ready for more."

Jay walked over to retrieve a few fallen arrows and then walked over to Audrey and handed them to her. "I guess you're actually going to have to find arrows and use them this time." He remarked.

"Yeah, the only thing more annoying than the fact I don't have my real bow." Audrey replied. "We should have at least replicated our weapons for this."

"We probably would have if we had really expected this much trouble." Jay said. "We still have that option, but we have to make sure if it comes to that it's for the right reasons."

The group got together and again continued their journey. It began to grow colder. Soon the found they were indeed out of the forest but were instead facing a large area of open water like the Antarctic.

Jane shivered a little and Carlos wrapped an arm around her. He was just as cold as she was.

Audrey leaned against Jay. "Think our suits would protect us from the climate weather?" She asked.

"Maybe." Jay answered as he pulled her against him with one arm. "But it wouldn't help Ally and Aziz. Don't even know how much that would help Ben."

Mal leaned against Ben for warmth. "Mom used to say that my heart should be as cold as ice, but somehow I never thought that expression had any real meaning. Guess now I know otherwise." She remarked. Ben wrapped an arm around her.

"Unless you guys would rather continue to cuddle," Jordan interrupted lightly as she saw Aziz wrap an arm around Ally. "I could simply give us all snow gear."

"Probably a good idea." Evie agreed. She really didn't have anyone to cuddle since Doug hadn't come with and she knew it wouldn't really help them anyway.

Jordan replicated snow gear for the eight warriors in their colors, Ben looked more light gray than silver. Jordan had coated herself in gold while Jay wore silver. Ally wore a very light blue, kind of like crystal.

"Sweet." Aziz remarked. "Are you going to bring us a boat now?"

"That could be a bigger problem." Jordan said. "I mean in theory I could do it but I don't know exactly what could happen. Simple things are easy but in Wonderland I could create the Flying Dutchman or something."

"The what?" Audrey asked.

"It's a legend." Jay answered her. "It's a ship that's cursed to roam the seas. Anyone they find are either forced to join their crew and sail the seas with them or they kill them." He looked to the brunette princess. "The vessel is dead, and even if someone joins the living can't live on a ship for the dead."

Audrey felt a chill at that moment that had nothing to do with the weather conditions.

"Okay, so we don't want to make another Dutchman." Mal agreed. "But we do want to get across, so what are our other options?"

"We don't know that we need to cross this." Aziz reminded. Though in truth he didn't see another alternative either.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to cross this if you wish to reach the mountains where the Wasp Queen lives." They heard. They turned to see a penguin waddling up to them. "At least I assume that's where you are headed. The mountains are a barrier for the Red Queen, along with the Wasp collective."

"Where will Jabberwock be?" Ally asked.

"No one knows." The penguin answered.

"Guys, the penguin is talking." Carlos said quietly. "That is so bizarre."

"How do we cross this? Does someone have a boat?" Audrey asked the penguin. She had to blink a moment as if reminding herself that she was talking to a penguin.

"You might try Walrus's cruise line." The penguin answered. "He has cruisers going between the locations three times a day and I believe it will be leaving in about ten minutes." The penguin pointed left. "Go that way about half a mile and you should find the dock, with luck Walrus hasn't left yet."

"Let's go then." Jay said.

"Be careful though." Penguin advised. "Lest you cross Snowblaze, the ice guardian that Jabberwock was rumored to have left behind years ago. No one has seen him in a while but the rumors persist."

"How do rumors persist if no one has seen him?" Evie asked.

It was Lonnie who answered the question. "Because anyone who has seen him hasn't returned to warn others. But someone would know if anyone who ran into this Snowblaze didn't show up."

"Then we'll have to keep an eye out." Ben said. "We need to go there and cross so we can save Mrs. Liddell."

"Going to rescue Alice, are you?" The penguin asked. "I'm glad to hear that, I just hope the poor girl is still alive to be rescued."

"Thanks for your help." Audrey said as they started off, Aziz again placing a comforting hand on Ally's shoulder.

They started off in the direction the penguin indicated. Again Carlos questioned, "Does anyone else realize that we're taking directions from a talking penguin?"

"Yeah, we figured that out about two minutes ago." Mal replied as she rolled her eyes. "You're having a really hard time with the concept of magic doesn't have to make sense as long as it works and that animal talk here in Wonderland aren't you?"

"Wouldn't all of you be weirded out if Dude started to talk to us?" He questioned back.

Each of them paused to wonder about that. Finally Evie answered, "Maybe a little but again this isn't our world. We all know enough to realize that what we expect in our lives isn't what we should expect from this place."

"Not just here." Ally interjected. "We have to remember that everything that has happened in the last couple of months goes above what most people expected to ever happen in Auradon."

Mal had to give her that one. Becoming a ranger was even more unexpected than even discovering that she wanted to be good. To realize that her boyfriend was the evil knight they were fighting was one of her most bizarre moments ever, even if it was accompanied by the fact it was done without the young king's knowledge.

They also had to remember the love potion that Mal was under…they still didn't quite know who the original target was, just that it had been placed in Lonnie's water bottle but she had let Mal take some water at her request. Had Nerissa known who the water bottle was supposed to belong too? Had she meant to do that to every water bottle and Mal inadvertently ruined the plan? They'd never know. What they had known was that it made her fall in love with Chad.

Perhaps even worse were the nightmares that had Mal, Audrey and Evie had been forced to endure. It had all caused them a good amount of anguish and the truth was that while Mal and Evie seemed to have gotten over most of those effects, the purple haired girl having been assured by Ben several times while the blue haired girl had been assured by Carlos and her own chosen sister, Audrey still seemed to have at least part of still lingering within her. Aside from her surprising fear of losing her friends there was still something else in there that only Jay even suspected was present.

And no one had forgotten what Red Magi had done the first time, or even with his somewhat mysterious ascension to the Crimson Sage. Magic none of them had understood and only had barely been defeated had been used to trap their parents and several students inside the conference hall, where they had been conned into giving up their iPhones and Ben into giving up his sword and shield. Only Jane becoming the white ranger and outsmarting their adversary had allowed them to recover their powers, rescue their parents and save the day.

"Is it me or is it getting colder?" Lonnie asked as she wrapped her arms around herself. "More snowy?"

"It is." Evie agreed. "It's like a blizzard is starting to move in."

"Do you think we've found this Snowblaze?" Ally wondered.

"Maybe." Jane said. "I would think with a name like that it might foretell blizzard conditions." She held up her hand a moment. "And we seem to be getting that."

A gust of wind picked up and all but blinded them for a moment despite their attempt to shield their mitten clad hands with their eyes. Then Carlos cocked his head. "Guys, I think I hear a snarling sound."

"That you Ben?" Aziz asked him jokingly.

"Not me at all man." Ben answered.

One thing Audrey learned in her archery class was how to spot things at longer distances, even if that was a skill she didn't always employ. So it was the brunette princess who first saw the large crystalline snow beast bearing down on the group. "Incoming!" She called out as she raised her bow, took an arrow and placed it, then fired straight at it. The arrow bounced off harmlessly. "Oh, come on."

The snow beast crashed right into and right through the team, forcing them to all land hard in the snow.

"It looks like ice." Ally noted with some awe.

"It's harder than ice." Audrey added. She hadn't really gone into details about her archery training but her father had once had her shoot an ice sculpture from a long distance. She had doubted a single arrow would destroy it even she hit it. But she had done as her father had asked and she hadn't been sure what surprised her more; the fact that she hit it or the fact that it had shattered into lots of pieces.

"We'll just see how hard it is." Jay declared as he had the borrowed sword out. Aziz stood right with him, which Mal thought was kind of ironic that both boys would get along well enough when their fathers were, and probably still would be, mortal enemies. The two of them charged the snow beast and brought their weapons down on the monster.

Aziz's makeshift weapon shattered on impact while the sword Jay had scarped in the ice and got stuck there. Snowblaze slapped both boys aside and then pulled out the sword. It demonstrated its strength by breaking the sword into two in its large icy hand.

"Okay, so what chance do we have?" Mal asked as she looked at Ben.

Audrey again drew an arrow and shot an arrow at the Snowblaze. This time he caught the arrow and tossed it toward the brunette princess at a rapid speed. She brought up her arms to protect her head but the arrow shattered the bow she held. With slight shock she dropped the broken weapon and took a step back.

"I guess we're going to have to give this a shot." Ben said to his girlfriend dubiously. The truth was he too had his doubts about this. Nothing was different between what he and Mal were about to try and what Jay and Aziz already had tried.

Mal shook her head a little and said, "Alright, here we go."

The two of them launched their attack, but as both Mal and Ben expected it was the same result; a shattered staff and a sword that was crushed. Snowblaze slammed a huge fist hard into the ground and the shockwave shook up all of them, even sending Mal and Ben against the snow hard.

"We're out of weapons." Ally noted. "What do we do now?"

"We give magic a try." Jordan announced. "If it's ice than it's really going to hate this." She powered up a fireball and launched it straight at the monster. It melted the snowflakes around it and even melted some of the snow underneath it. But when it struck the monster itself, it was like it dissipated into nothing.

"What just happened?" Mal asked.

Evie bit her lip as she thought quickly. "Its internal temperature must be really high, I mean low in order to take the fireball like it was nothing." She revealed.

"At the very least it would have to be negative double digits." Jane added. "And probably lower than that."

Snowblaze swung again and the team barely dodged it.

Mal had about had it and was severely tempted to morph. She was trying to remember though that they were trying to use that only as a last resort so that they could keep Ally and Aziz as safe as possible. It wouldn't matter though if this snow beast got its hands on them.

"I think it's time to make a run toward the docks." Aziz said.

Audrey took a few steps back and then nearly fell back into a snow draft. "Wow." She gasped and then shook her head. "I just found a snow drift behind me." She revealed. "If one of us found one those while trying to run then that would be a problem for us."

Jordan brought her hands up and spread them, subtly picking up each of the team. "Hold on." She advised them as she started to use her magic to get them in the air and start to levitate them away as fast as she could.

They only got a foot or so before Snowblaze jumped up and descended straight down in the middle of the group. It sent them flying. Jordan herself flew hard and hit her head against a snow covered tree.

Aziz landed hard on the ground, Ally landing right beside him. Something, perhaps a stray icicle on the ground, made a small gash on the side of her head.

The eight warriors landed hard. Carlos reached over and started to help Jane up. Jay started to help up Audrey. Mal was already on her feet, as was Lonnie. The purple haired girl helped up her chosen sister as Lonnie helped her king to stand.

"Mal, I don't think we have a choice." Audrey said to their leader. "Without a miracle we can't stop this thing without our powers." She glanced around at the icy woods and the blizzard. "And I don't see a miracle coming our way."

The purple haired girl bit her lip in thought, knowing she needed to make a decision.


	29. The Wonderland Journey Part 4

Now even Ben looked at Mal. "It's your call." He said to her. He might be the king of Auradon but as far as leading the team all final calls came down to the purple haired girl. In fact if or more likely when Ben and Mal got married, if something happened untoward happened to Ben afterwards she would in fact be Queen of Auradon, sole ruler.

They watched as the monster paced around them. It seemed to ignore Jordan for the moment, who was unconscious from being slammed into head first from the impact of the monster landing around them. It instead seemed to focus on Ally.

For a sinking moment Mal had the horrible realization that despite its brutish but simple impacts this thing was smart enough to know the young blonde was the daughter of Alice, who it had been implied at least once that the Red Queen wanted revenge on. "Hey, ice man." Mal called out. "Don't turn your back on us." He stared back, almost amused.

Mal glanced at her friends and took a deep breath. "Okay guys." The purple haired girl hoped she was making the right call here, but it was time to stop playing games. If Snowblaze was this tough she was sure it would take everything they had to stop the Jabberwock and ultimately Red Queen herself. "Let's get to work."

The six teens pulled out their iPhones. Jane took out the magic wand. Ben formed his sword and shield. The six teens input their numbers and transformed. Ben combined his sword and shield and transformed. Jane used the magic wand to transform.

"I knew it." Aziz said to himself. "I knew they had to be the Power Rangers." He hesitated a moment. "Well, except Jane. That was a surprise to me." The white ranger hadn't been around long enough for him to develop a suspicion she was a ranger but even then he suspected she had known something.

"Wow." Ally murmured entranced.

"Hey boys." Mal said to Ben and Jay. "Let's see if this thing can remain unimpressed with our weapons now." She suggested. She formed her staff as Jay formed his scimitar. Ben already had his sword out since he needed it to morph.

The two rangers and the knight leapt at him. The two swords struck the ice creature in the arms as Mal drove her staff into its chest. The three were more than delighted to see their weapons did not break, or catch in him, and that they even did him damage.

"Our turn Carlos." Lonnie said to the yellow ranger. "Now we're not defenseless." She pulled out her tessen's while Carlos formed his clawed daggers. The two rangers dodged under the monster's attempt to ram his bulky arms into them and struck them from behind.

He turned toward them and Jane struck him with her wand, surprised sometimes that it could even be used as a physical weapon. The others joined the white ranger. "Now we just have to…"

Ally realized it was getting ready to launch some blizzard like attack. "Look out!" She called, feeling that it was already too late.

Evie was in front of them though with her mirror shield and reflected the attack back at the monster, causing it to land in the snow hard. It didn't seem to deter it though. It started to rise again.

"Let's see what you think of this bow." Audrey declared and shot one of her magically appearing arrows at the monster. It struck him and that was followed by the red ranger, Mal, Jay and Ben striking him hard.

Ben looked to the rangers. "It's time to finish this monster off. Use the Auradon blaster while I keep this thing distracted from you." He said.

"Be careful." Mal said to her boyfriend as the three of them moved back to the other four rangers.

"I'm going to check on Jordan and make sure she's okay." Jane told them. "You guys send this Snowblaze thing back to the ice age."

The six rangers nodded. First of course was Mal's staff. Under it Audrey's bow was placed. Behind it was Evie's mirror shield. On top were Jay's scimitar and then on either side Lonnie's tessen's and Carlos's claw daggers. Then Carlos, Evie, Mal, Audrey, Jay and Lonnie stood side by side as they took the Auradon blaster and unleashed a stream of energy, destroying Snowblaze.

"Hey Jordan, wake up." Jane said as she knelt beside the genie girl and shook her shoulder gently. With a moan she opened her eyes. "That was a nasty fall, are you okay?"

"I'm thinking not." Jordan moaned softly. "You look like the white ranger."

Then she looked up to see the other six rangers and the Auradon Knight coming toward her. Jane helped her rise and together they turned to face Aziz and Ally, who were still kind of shocked to see them that way.

"Time to get up you two." Mal the purple ranger said as she came to help Aziz up.

"You two don't want to catch cold, especially right here and right now." Ben the Auradon Knight voiced as he came to help Ally up.

"Aziz was right." Ally whispered in awe. "You guys are all the Power Rangers."

"How could you keep this from us?" Aziz asked, going between anger and shock despite his suspicions for days about this.

"We didn't really have a choice." Evie answered as they all powered down now. "This is the kind of thing that puts people in danger, even more so if they know what's going on."

"Remember that attack at the library?" Mal asked him. "That was orchestrated to separate us because even if you didn't know who we are, we knew who all of you are." She looked between Aziz and Ally. "Our friends, and we needed to help you."

"Is this why Chad left the tourney team? Why he left school?" Aziz asked, feeling confused.

"Yes." Ben answered him. "He disliked that Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay were given the chance to come to Auradon and to help the way they have. He's gotten mad at Lonnie, Jane and especially Audrey over the fact we've all bonded over this experience."

"You've got to be kidding me." Aziz muttered.

"It's not their fault." Ally said to him.

"No, it's not." Aziz agreed. "Man, I knew Chad could be kind of stubborn, but I never thought he could have gone over the edge like this." He realized something then. "The Dark Knight that led those soldiers, that was Chad, wasn't it?"

"I'm afraid so." Audrey said softly, her hand instinctively touching her cheek where he had hit her several times over the last week or so.

"You knew too?" Ally asked Jordan.

"Let's get to the cruise boat." The genie girl said. "I'd rather not stand out in the snow talking anymore." As they started to walk again Jordan got back to the question. "Not at first, I only knew just before Reviveslime, that giant ugly thing that attacked our school. They needed me to help get Mal back from some parallel micro world called the Dark Dimension." She brushed some snow off of her shoulders and hair. "I wanted to duck and run after that, but I didn't." She looked to Ally and Aziz. "Thanks to you."

"Us?" Aziz asked. "What did we do?"

"We only helped get everyone into relative safety." Ally added.

"Yeah, but you didn't have to play the good Samaritans like you did." Jordan replied simply. "The selflessness you two displayed despite not knowing anything about the situation made me realize I couldn't just stand by and do nothing if I could make a difference." She looked to Jane. "That was a lesson I still learn, because until recently Jane did everything she could to help even though she didn't have ranger powers either or even genie magic."

"Don't forget Doug." Evie said. "He does the same thing Jane does and he isn't a ranger either."

Jordan laughed. "Nope, can't forget him either." She agreed.

"But if Auradon needs you, then why are you here?" Ally asked them.

"Because you're our friend." Audrey replied simply. "And we help our friends." She looked toward the woods a bit. "It took me a while to learn that one though."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I guess that explains why you've changed so much recently." Aziz noted.

"No offense because you're right." Audrey responded simply. "But it also explained why Chad changed so much, and I was kind of afraid that it would make you guys feel like he did, that we'd lose your friendships too." She confessed.

"After all you've done for Auradon? After all you're doing for me now?" Ally asked and shook her head. "That isn't possible Audrey."

Ben and Jay were on either side of Aziz now. "So, are we cool?" Ben asked him.

Aziz clapped both of them on the back. "Yeah, we're cool guys. I get why you had to keep it a secret." He high fived with Carlos. "I'm just glad I don't have to be in the dark anymore."

"Me too." Ally said as she gave Lonnie a hug. "And now for the first time since this started I actually feel that if my mother is alive we can defeat the Red Queen and her forces and rescue her."

"It's what we do." Lonnie said as she rubbed her arm. "We help our friends and we stop evil."

"Hey, guys." Audrey called. "I see the docks." She started off and the others were right behind her. They approached the docks and they saw a moderate boat sitting at the docks. Weirdly a walrus with a captain's sailing hat was at the helm while two penguins were boarding some other animals on the boat.

Another penguin looked at them. Then he blinked. "Alice?" The penguin asked and then took another look. "No, you're her daughter Ally. And I see you brought some friends."

"Yes." Ally answered. "We need to cross this ocean in order to rescue my mother from the Red Queen. Can we please come aboard?"

"Do they have tickets?" The walrus asked, making them all jump slightly. They weren't sure the walrus could hear them.

"Tickets?" Lonnie asked nervously. "We don't, we didn't know we needed any."

"Without tickets we're not supposed to let anyone on board." The penguin said almost apologetically.

"You have got to be kidding me." Jay said.

"We have to go." Ally insisted. "We need to rescue my mother from the Red Queen before they kill her."

"Another of you said that this is the only way." Carlos added as he pointed to the penguin.

Walrus shook his head. "I'm sorry but without a ticket I can't let you on. It's company policy." He replied.

A small bird flew up, a ticket on its back. "Thank heavens I didn't miss the boat." The bird said with a sigh. "I was afraid I would when I was trying to avoid Snowblaze. Glad that won't be an issue anymore." The bird glanced to the side and saw the teens, then gasped. "Hey, you guys are here!"

"Yeah, stranded." Aziz said with a roll of his eyes.

"You have to let these people on." The bird said to penguin and walrus. "They just destroyed that awful Snowblaze. It's now much safer to cross this arctic death trap."

"You destroyed Snowblaze?" Walrus asked shocked.

"Yeah, he was a pushover for us." Mal noted.

"It was really very entertaining." The bird noted with delight. "It was nice to finally see one of Jabberwock's little minions put in its place."

"You've given this area some sort of stability and finally showed Jabberwock and the Red Queen that Wonderland isn't theirs." Walrus said with a delighted laugh. He waved a flipper toward the boat. "Forget the tickets then, come on board."

"Thank you." Mal said with a smile.

"Thank you so much." Ally agreed as the group of teens boarded the boat. They took seats near the edge and a few minutes later the boat took off.

"You don't get seasick, do you?" Jay asked Audrey, kind of teasing but also since he was the only one who knew for sure that she didn't like heights.

Audrey waved it off. "No, I love it out here." She looked to the ocean. "I prefer Auradon where the weather is usually nicer and the water isn't as dark, more like a nice clear blue. But other than that." She looked to Jay. "What about you?"

"I've never been on the ocean before, for obvious reasons." Jay reminded her. "So I guess we'll find out." He was pretty sure he didn't get seasick though.

"Audrey and I sailed a lot with our parents when we were younger." Ben said as he placed his arm over Mal's shoulder. The purple haired girl leaned against his body. "Her parents own a yacht, her mother Aurora loves the water."

"What about your parents?" Mal asked him.

"My mom liked the water well enough but she much preferred the library." Ben answered her with a laugh. "My dad was fine with it but he didn't exactly enjoy it either."

Evie looked a little nervous. "I don't' like how dark it is down there." She admitted reluctantly. "Hook used to talk about the dangers of the sea all the time, and that was just the piranhas, sharks and octopus that would be in the water. It doesn't take Wonderland into account at all."

"Don't worry, E." Mal said. "Nothing will happen, and even if it does we're all here."

As the minutes passed it seemed as if no one had to worry about being sea sick. The rangers answered whatever questions Ally and Aziz had to the best of their abilities and even told a couple stories of their own now that they didn't have to hide that.

Then the boat shook and Carlos glanced up. "Did we hit land already?" He asked. There was nothing in sight. "Nope, but at least we didn't hit an iceberg either."

"What was that?" Lonnie asked.

The boat shook again and this time they saw a large skeletal shark jump out of the water and then returned under the surface. The eight warriors got up cautiously.

That same bird that vouched for them destroying Snowblaze flew around announcing, "All hands brace for impact, we have a Skeleshark attacking the boat. All hands brace for impact."

"What do we do about that?" Aziz asked.

"Get inside." Mal said to the three civilians. "Make sure everyone else is safe and tell the captain to continue on course. We're going to protect the boat."

"Alright, be careful." Jordan said reluctantly as she started into the boat with their friends.

"Let's get to work guys." Mal said. The six teens took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed. Ben summoned his sword and shield and transformed. Jane took out the magic wand and transformed.

"A Skeleshark." Jordan heard a passenger say. "It has to be for revenge."

"Revenge for what?" The genie girl demanded to know.

"For your friends destroying Snowblaze." The penguin that had been at the docks answered. "Jabberwock must have heard about it already and is looking to make you guys pay…and everyone else on this boat too."

"Don't fret." Ally told him. "They'll stop the Skeleshark too. I guarantee it."

Audrey handed Ben her blaster. "I'm sticking with my bow, but on water our close range weapons aren't going to work here." She said.

Ben sheathed his sword and took his blaster. "You're right Audrey. Thanks." He said.

Jay, Carlos, and Mal were in the same boat as their weapons were primarily short range. Evie kept both blaster and shield ready. The shield would work well if something was reflected but without it she was left with the blaster too. Lonnie's tessens could be tossed and would return to her automatically so she stayed with her weapons. Jane stayed with her wand but also had her blaster ready.

"Come on bone head." Jay said softly. "Come on out and play."

The boat rocked again and they saw the Skeleshark emerge from the water toward the boat. Then it started to jump from the water but each of the team unleashed a blast, or a tessen and arrow in Lonnie and Audrey's case, and it recoiled into the water.

"It's going to take more than that to defeat that bag of bones." Evie noted. "We need to use the Auradon Triangle Spark." Mal, Jay, Carlos, and Jane nodded in agreement. They'd never tried it with Jane before but it made sense that if Lonnie could fill in for Mal, or that they could do it all six of them, that Jane could fill in for one of them as well. It even made theoretical sense that all seven of them could make one together.

"I think you're right." Mal agreed. She looked to Audrey, Ben and Lonnie. "Keep that thing distracted if it shows up before we're ready." She looked to the two boys. "And you two be very careful, if that thing strikes the boat you two might be the ones to take a swim."

"Looks too cold for that." Carlos joked weakly. It wasn't the swim that bothered him so much as the idea that Skeleshark was down there. It might not eat them but tearing to shreds was always a possibility.

They saw the rising and falling of its tail and its back as it swam through the water. Ben shot Audrey's laser as the red ranger herself fired an arrow at the figure, but it didn't seem to care much about the attack.

Jane stood next Mal and Evie. "I don't think any of those bones are all that sensitive, except the ones on the face." The white ranger volunteered. "That's why the shot made it recoil."

"So even taunting it to come out isn't going to work." Ben said. "We're on its time table."

"Maybe it'll just let us go about our way." Lonnie said, even though she didn't believe that. "Get bored and sail off for something else to terrorize." She raised her tessens and prepared for a strike.

Ben was sure the Skeleshark was angling toward the boat to try another attack. "Get ready Mal." He advised them. "I think it's getting ready to strike again."

Skeleshark instead slid under the waves again and struck the boat hard, almost causing the eight warriors to lose their balance. They did lose their positioning and then Skeleshark leapt out and aimed to take Ben down but Mal tackled him to the ground. In that process its fin cut into her side and she fell hard.

"Are you okay Mal?" Ben asked her even as he heard it splashing into the ocean again.

Mal touched her side. "A bit tender but nothing broken and the suit made sure there was no bleeding." She answered softly.

"Thanks honey." Ben said softly.

"Anytime Bennie-Boo, anytime." Mal said with a small smirk.

The Auradon Knight helped her up and then she returned to her place next to Evie, with Jane handing the purple ranger her laser. Then they took up waiting positions again.

"Come on you bag of bones." Jay whispered. "Stop stalking us and get up here."

"I think I see it." Lonnie said as she pointed to the opposite side of where Skeleshark had originally landed back in the water. "That thing is fast, I wish we had some kind of lightning strike to use against it."

"It's probably better we don't." Jane replied. "As a skeleton shark I don't even know if it would care. Meanwhile who knows what is down there that could get hurt or killed just by the act."

This time it was pretty obvious that Skeleshark was going to the front of the boat again. But it still seemed to be pacing them.

"We need to make it come out." Mal said.

"How do we do that?" Carlos asked.

"We bait it out." Jane decided. She looked to Lonnie. "You're just using your tessen, so give Aziz your blaster." She handed the pink ranger her own blaster. "Give that to Ally. Have them come out to help us."

"I don't get it." Audrey said. "So we have two more possible defenders but what good will that do?"

"I'm going to want the extra protection in case this goes wrong." Jane said. She unfurled the little wings on her back, a cross between fairy wings and small angel wings. "I'm going to be the bait."

"You're kidding." Carlos gasped.

"I'm not." Jane replied and then looked to Lonnie. "Get Ally and Aziz."

They both hesitated again and looked to Mal. The purple haired purple ranger hesitated only a moment and then confirmed, "Do it."

Lonnie opened the door and called for Ally and Aziz. They were given the lasers and brought onto deck with them. Then Jane took flight a little above the boat. "You want something to snack on, come and get it your inflight meal." Jane called out.

"This is a bad idea." Carlos said with a shake of his head. He was kind of wishing that Jane wouldn't be so eager to throw herself to the wolves, even if she had her friends to keep her out of those jaws.

"No it's actually a good idea." Mal said to him gently. "You just don't want to see it because it puts Jane in danger." She understood, she had wanted to keep Ben off the field of battle for similar reasons but had to put that desire aside when he had been revealed to be the Auradon Knight.

They watched from all three available sides as they waited for Skeleshark to strike. From behind Jane Ally called out, "Its coming up from behind."

The white ranger fluttered to the side and she literally felt the air move as it soared by her. They all watched as it splashed down into the water again. It quickly circled around to go after Jane again. The white ranger backed up a little and waited as it came up again.

Ally, Aziz, and Ben fired their lasers. Audrey released an arrow while Lonnie threw one of her tessen. It struck but it was merely a distraction.

Jay and Carlos jumped onto the girl's shoulders and they combined their laser blasts and the Triangle Spark lashed out and blasted Skeleshark in the face, causing the bones to explode into pieces, many of which fell scattered into the water.

"We did it." Evie said. "So much for that thing."

"That was great." Jordan said as the door opened. They heard applause from inside, from the crew and passengers.

From the top deck they saw the ship's captain now. "Very impressive." Walrus said happily. "I wasn't sure if the story of all of you destroying Snowblaze was an exaggeration or not but now I can see for myself that it was all true."

"You guys did great." Jane said as she fluttered down. Ally handed the white ranger her laser as Audrey got hers back from Ben and Lonnie got hers back from Aziz. "All of you, even without powers."

"Glad to be of help." Aziz said sincerely and Ally nodded in agreement.

The team powered down. "I just hope that we can get a bit of peace for a while." Mal said.

In the darkened conference lounge one could see the Red Queen sitting regally in a throne room. One side had a large opening and there sat a large creature with almost mechanical wings with green skin and what seemed like a fire in its belly. One spot was currently empty and another had a figure enshrouded in shadow.

Then from the open spot a large wasp flew in with a large spear to take the last seat. First she looked to Red Queen. "It's true, the daughter of Alice has shown up here to find her mother." She looked to the large creature. "It's also true that Snowblaze was defeated, as was one of the Skeleshark's that you have scattered in the oceans, Jabberwock." Then she looked to the shadows. "All of it done by the very people you cautioned us about, including your daughter."

From the shadows Maleficent leaned forward. "My little brat and her pathetic little friends are coming here to undo all of the progress that you made since I left you the seed that was given to me." The evil fairy stated. "We can't allow that to happen."

"We will stop them Maleficent, I promise you that one." Red Queen promised.

"First they have to cross me, and they will fail." The Wasp Queen responded. "When they come to my mountain my army will squash them flat…like a bug."


	30. The Wonderland Journey Part 5

The rest of the ocean cruise was incident free and they arrived at the next dock and the group disembarked, receiving several words of appreciation over getting rid of Snowblaze and the Skeleshark. "It doesn't seem to occur to anyone else that if we weren't on the ship they might not have been attacked." Jay noted with some amusement.

Audrey shook her head. "It seems to me that if it hasn't occurred to anyone that would seem to say that Skeleshark has attacked ships before for no good reason." She ventured.

"I'd bet anything on that." Ben agreed as he looked around. It was still pretty cold and it wasn't more than a couple of miles to the mountain. "So I guess we should start on our way then."

"That's what we're going to do." Mal agreed. "We have to be as quick and quiet as we can be."

"So if we run into more of those samurai wasps what are Ally, Jordan and I supposed to do about them?" Aziz asked.

Jordan laughed a little. "Speak for yourself, I am a genie after all." She remarked.

"We can always lend you a blaster." Mal answered simply. "That Skeleshark situation was pretty unique, most of the time we can just use our main weapons." She side stepped to avoid a large rock that she could see twisting ankles in its long life.

They stopped by a small inn long enough to get an idea of where they needed to go. A reluctant grasshopper told them about a small entrance in the mountains eastern base that they could use to climb the mountain if they wanted to take that chance. He also cautioned them about that being the wasp's base.

Afterwards they started toward the mountains. They had to cross a wooded area, almost like a forest but wasn't nearly as lively as Auradon Forests or even the wintry forest they had crossed to get to the cruise ship. "Sometimes I think we should start dreading the forests." Jane noted. "Very little good seems to come from it lately."

"The enchanted lake that was used to cure me from Sermaya's hold was also in the forest." Ben pointed out reasonably and then shrugged. "Though maybe that's the exception to the rule."

"Really it's not the forests fault, or the sea, or wherever these monsters might emerge from." Lonnie pointed out reasonably. "The one who's at fault here is the things that create these monsters, be it from Paradias or whoever influenced Wonderland to this point."

"I'm still a bit confused on that." Ally admitted. "If Sermaya isn't linked to Paradias where does he fit into this?"

"He's an ancient beast that was reawakened from his slumber, either by Paradias's soldiers or by us accidently when we went searching for the Auradon Megazord." Evie explained as she moved some hair out of her eyes. "He wants to rebuild his civilization which was apparently wiped out before we came about on the planet." She ducked under a low hanging branch. "We don't know what happened that resulted in their civilizations near extinction."

Carlos jumped over a log and then helped Jane over it. Aziz got over and helped Ally over it as well. "So when we were coming here and we found those soldiers, it wasn't really Jordan's spell that drove them away was it?" He asked.

"My spell was mainly for show." Jordan answered with a shrug. She simply floated over the large fallen log. "The real work was done by Mal's dragon zord."

The purple haired girl took out her crystallized dragon from her pocket and showed it to Aziz and Ally, even letting the blonde hold it when she looked at it curiously. "I used a spell on my dragon zord that lets it stay near me in that condition, though I have to free it in order to use the zord or to let it get some exercise." Mal explained. "I did the same thing for Ben's horse zord."

Ally handed the crystallized dragon back to Mal. "What about the Auradon Megazord?" She asked.

"Our battle zord isn't composed of animals like there's are, it's one big machine." Audrey explained as Jay helped her over the fallen log, making sure she didn't lose her balance on the way down by keeping his hand on her arm gently. "It resides in that mountain when we aren't using it to fight."

They soon reached the mountain base and turned to the east to find the opening the grasshopper described, sticking to the wooded area in case any of the samurai wasps were patrolling the area. Ben rationalized it made sense since this was the base access for the hive.

About a half hour later they found the opening, as well as discovering the young king was right. There were two guards standing by the entrance. It seemed a bit odd and they briefly wondered if they were supposed to be heading into a trap but ultimately it didn't matter as they had to go this way and confront the enemy anyway.

"So how do we get rid of these guards?" Carlos asked quietly. "I mean I know we could attack directly but maybe it would be better if they didn't know who had knocked them out, just in case there's any sort of secrecy we can exploit."

"Too bad we don't have an enchanted spinning wheel." Jay joked lightly and he and Carlos couldn't help but exchange a quiet high five.

"Oh, will you two get over it." Mal responded quietly with a small glare mixed with annoyance and amusement. She then looked back to the wasps on guard. "They're facing toward us. We can't really do anything to them without them knowing we're coming."

"I think there is a way." Ally said. "Maybe I can confuse them." She looked to the group. "If I run away fast enough they might think I'm my mother and that she got away. They'll pursue me."

Evie shook her head. "No way, we won't leave you behind." She protested.

"We won't have to." Audrey told the blue haired girl. "Ally runs, they go after her. They won't realize when someone takes them out from behind."

"Give it a few minutes Ally." Jay said to her and he pointed to a small grassy area in the east. "Carlos and I can sneak over there and lie in waiting. When the wasps pass us we'll take them down. They won't even know what hit them."

"Are you sure that's going to work?" Ben asked at the same time that Aziz questioned, "Why is it that you two get to do that?"

"We're as sure as we are of anything if we want to keep our cover for now." Jay said to Ben and then looked to Aziz, who should have technically been his own rival rather than a team mate or friend. "And unless you've been spending time sneaking around Auradon, pretty sure we're the biggest stealth experts here."

Mal knew technically she and Evie could have done it too, but that was beside the point. Jay was still the ex-thief among them plus he was the strongest of the four of them and Carlos was smaller than both girls and it made it easier for him to move undetected though the purple haired girl knew she was stronger than he was. "Alright then, get going." She told them.

The two boys nodded and started moving through the brush. Aziz realized that Jay was indeed right. If he wasn't watching them move right now he would never have known that they were moving. In fact after a minute he wasn't even sure where they were, for all he knew that had just stopped.

"Hey Mal, how does Ally get their attention without giving us away?" Lonnie asked her quietly. "I mean this was the entrance we were given, we don't know if there are any others."

Mal bit her lip as she thought about that one but it was Jordan who came to the rescue there. "I can take Ally into the cave with my magic. If she makes a mad dash they shouldn't question the poof of our entrance." She said quietly. "Or look inside to see that she wasn't alone."

"Can you get by the guards that way?" Ben asked Ally quietly as he looked over at her. He felt kind of bad that so much of this plan relied on her.

Ally nodded. "They're not expecting it, I can slip under their appendages and then make a dash toward the east where Jay and Carlos are waiting...presumably." She answered as she looked that way but saw no sign of them. Which was the point really but seeing some sign would have made her feel better.

Mal waited another moment, feeling tense. Ben placed his hand on hers made her relax slightly and she shot him a grateful smile. Sometimes she wondered how she handled the strain of leadership as well as she did. She had read somewhere that great leaders did not seek it out but rather had it handed to them and she hoped she would someday exemplify that line. After another moment she looked to Ally and Jordan. "Hit it." She said.

The genie girl took Ally's shoulder and the two of them were gone. They appeared in the cave and Jordan quickly ducked behind a medium sized boulder as Ally made a run for it. The noise attracted the wasp guard's attention and they turned in time to see Ally.

They made a grab for her and the blonde was tempted to panic for a moment but the movement actually made it easier to dodge under their appendages and then run toward the east. She heard them pursuing her and ran as fast as she could. She didn't see Jay or Carlos and that worried her.

The boys saw Ally run by them. They heard the wasps coming because of the buzzing sound they seemed to be making before they saw them. As they were going by Jay reached over and grabbed his wasp by the neck, putting a good choke hold on it and making it pass out. Carlos meanwhile had gotten a hold of his own and was keeping on its back, almost wrestling it. He didn't have the strength to choke it or anything but it was enough of a distraction for Jay to give it a good punch to the side of the head, knocking it out too.

They heard footsteps but saw it was only Ally. "I must say that was a very impressive show gentleman." She said between taking a few breaths of air, her chest heaving a bit from exertion she didn't usually put out. "Glad that you were watching my back after all."

The three of them continued back to find Jordan coming out of the cave and the rest of the team coming out from their hiding spots. They all converged by the cave entrance. "Is everyone alright?" Mal asked.

The two boys and Jordan nodded. Ally's breath had returned to her by that point. "No worse for the wear, surprising as that might be." She responded.

"Then let's get inside and find the Wasp Queen so we can take her out of power." Mal said with a wave of her hand. The group nodded in agreement and followed the purple haired girl into the mountains.

They found themselves surrounded by gray rocks. In a way they were all disappointed, considering the majestic forest with the animal sounds and the far large than should be hatter with the wheel chair bottomed mouse, and the wintry forest with the talking birds and penguins and walrus captain's and snow beasts and yet the mountains looked….like they didn't belong in Wonderland.

"Somehow this is the most bizarre place of all here right now." Evie said quietly, as if she were afraid to disrupt something.

"How ironic that in the kingdom of the mad, it's a place that looks so normal that would draw the comparisons of psychotic thought." They heard from in front of them, but saw nothing for a moment. Then the odd smile appeared followed a moment later by the tall gaunt form of the Cheshire cat.

"It's you again." Aziz said with no joy.

"I promise that I haven't really missed you all that much either." Cheshire cat said with his trademark grin. "Though I see you've already made remarkable progress. You haven't even seen the Red Queen or the Jabberwock and you've already managed to make them really mad."

Mal waved for the others to continue into the mountains, and the Cheshire cat seemed to walk above them as they did so. "I take it that what we did to Snowblaze has already been heard about then." The purple haired girl remarked dryly.

"Oh not just Jabberwock's winter fiend, but what you did to one of his water bound bone piles as well." The Cheshire cat answered with almost a shrug. "At this point I'd say the only reason your faces aren't on posters is because it would do more harm than good."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing for them?" Lonnie asked dubiously. "If they want us that bad people would be on the lookout for us."

"Ah, to live in your orderly little world." The Cheshire cat said with a smirk in his voice. "Where the monarch…sorry, patriarch, is loved by all, even if they don't have purple hair." That brought a bit of annoyance to Mal and Ben's faces. "The Red Queen doesn't rule by just, she rules by fear. And that fear is diminished if Wonderland knows about the opposition she found thus."

"Again with the riddles?" Carlos asked with a roll of his eyes.

Jane put her hand on his arm to calm him. "He means that if the world really knew about what would happen the population would lose fear of the Red Queen and would be more inclined to resist her." She translated for him.

"Better for her to use those under her command than the people who would be okay if she was kicked out of power." Ben agreed.

"I kind of feel like we're walking around in circles." Audrey said as she looked to Mal. "We need a better plan than that."

"Any better ideas?" Mal asked her archly.

"Stop and look around maybe." Audrey said with a bit of ire. "Make sure we're not missing anything."

"We're in a mountain Audrey, not a maze." Mal replied back. "It's not like the wasps are going to hide anything from each other, they have brains the size of walnuts."

"Okay you two, stop." Ben commanded. "That isn't going to help us either." The two girls exchanged looks of agreement but of course both of them were too stubborn to say they were each wrong out loud.

"I'm afraid Audrey is right." Ally said diplomatically. "We should take a better look around, although one would expect that they wouldn't be so…closed off with one another that hardly means anything."

"We of all people should know how well villains really work together." Evie reminded Mal gently. "If I were the Wasp Queen I would do what I could to make sure that the Red Queen and the Jabberwock can't get to me though any unexpected ways, and the mountain would be the way to do it."

"Spread out and look around everyone." Mal decided as she started over to examine a wall that at least to her seemed unnaturally smooth.

They had searched around the cave area as far as they could without losing sight of each other and Audrey was starting to think she may have jumped the gun when Jane looked up to ceiling and then called out for them. When they gathered around she asked, "What do you see?"

"Lots of stalagmites." Aziz answered with some boredom in his voice.

Mal caught on and frowned. "You were right Audrey, we should have been paying more attention." She relented and then pointed to the ceiling. "That stalagmite is different from the others, almost tapered down."

Evie caught on. "It's not just part of the cave, if a wasp were to fly up there it could pull the stalagmite down and they'd have an underground access to get into the hive." She replied.

Jane, Carlos and Aziz went back a little bit while Lonnie, Ben and Mal went further in a little bit. The two teams reconverged where they left the others. "It's not just this one either." Jane reported. "They have sections like these every two feet or so."

"So they can evacuate in a hurry." Audrey started.

"Or come out in one big army." Jay added ominously.

Evie had to admit she was a little impressed. "So they might even be hearing us talk right now." She said quietly. "They might know we're here."

"I don't know about that one." Mal replied softly. "Otherwise they would have attacked by now." A horrible realization struck the purple haired girl. "Unless they have some invasion planned."

"Or unless you're expected." Cheshire cat pointed out with a seemingly in appropriate huge grin given the dire conversation they were currently having. They had all honestly forgotten he was there.

"You think that's a real possibility?" Carlos questioned.

Ally didn't even have to think about it. "Yes." She answered softly but firmly. "They have my mother, they knew I'd be coming." She motioned toward the still but grinning form of the Cheshire cat. "He's already confirmed that they know about Snowblaze and Skeleshark being destroyed. They know I'm not alone, that I have people strong enough to accomplish just that."

"Either way we have to go this way if we intend to rescue Mrs. Liddell and stop all these negative forces in Wonderland." Ben reminded them all reasonably. "So let's get of these down and see what's in the hive."

"Piece of cake." Jordan said with a smirk. She raised her hand and twirled her pointed and middle finger and forced the stalagmite trigger to be released and open the hatch. Jay and Ben got one knee and set their arms out, hands together, so that they could start boosting up the girls. Mal went first, followed by Lonnie, Audrey and Evie.

"Your turn." Carlos said to Jane.

She shook her head. "I'm going last. We should have one person with powers down here just in case, and I can use the magic wand to boost me up there." She said to the man who secretly liked her, not that it wasn't exactly one sided. "Get everyone else up there."

They helped Carlos up instead, though with some reluctance on his part. That was followed by Ally and Aziz. Carlos and Mal then got on their stomachs to help Jay and then Ben up while the girls kept watch to make sure they weren't ambushed. That left Jane, who despite her brave words made sure to get up to the same level as the others as quickly as magically possible.

"What is that smell?" Audrey asked disgusted. "It smells…I don't know what…"

Mal wrinkled her nose in disgust too. "Despair." She answered simply. "Some of the outskirts of the Island of the Lost smell like this too." She looked to the Auradon teens. "These wasps are just the cornerstone of Red Queen's army, I think most if not all things come through here to get to Jabberwock and the Red Queen, for even the slightest infraction."

Evie nodded as she understood it too while Jay and Carlos just looked overly grim with the realization. "I think one of the ideas of the Island was to try to give some kind of normal life, but truly evil people don't need magic and technology to inflict pain and suffering." Evie seemed to speculate, but then shuddered, making Lonnie think it might be more than speculation.

"So where are the wasps then?" Aziz asked.

"They have to be further up in the mountains." Jay said. "These look like tunnels more than anything else."

"That works out better for us." Lonnie noted. "That means we don't have to search for the area we need. It should lead us straight there." The Asian princess frowned a little bit. "Of course that would also further prove what Cheshire cat said was right." It was then that they noticed Cheshire cat had not followed them up, nor did they know when he had walked away from them, or faded as the case might be.

They followed the tunnel for what seemed like hours but really couldn't have been more than one hour tops before they found a large boulder in the way. Working together the four guys, Mal and Lonnie managed to push it aside enough for everyone to be able to squeeze through. They found more rocks, and beyond that a village.

"Think they built it?" Evie asked softly. The village itself didn't look at all like the hive they expected. Instead it looked like an old 16th century feudal oriental village, at least from everything they had seen in history books. "Or did they steal it from someone else?"

"My money is on the latter." Jay stated flatly. "So far I don't see anyone but something tells me they're all just waiting to ambush us." Further on they could see a large wooden gate that they figured they would have to pass to get to the Red Queen.

They heard a roaring sound and stayed put for about two minutes before realizing it never changed and Ben tried not to laugh. "That's only a waterfall." He informed them. "It's to the left of the village, and it doesn't sound that far away."

Mal nodded and smiled at her boyfriend. "Okay, we have two options. Run and hope we make it to the gate before they jump us or we try to sneak across and hope we get there before we get spotted." She told the team. It was unsafe to assume there weren't some wasps around despite none of them seen from their position.

"I think we should try to sneak our way through." Audrey volunteered. "Better to ride the rapids then face the hive."

"Can all of us really sneak across the area?" Aziz asked. "We have eleven of us here, and not to be mean but only four of us grew up sneaking around."

"Oh please." Mal said dismissively. "Like I ever snuck around. I'm the daughter of Maleficent."

Aziz shrugged. "Fair enough." He granted.

"You eight go on ahead." Jordan said to the fighters. "I'll stay back here with Ally and Aziz. If this works I can take these two and we can all but zip across without a problem." She didn't want to point out that the two civilians were safe if they were caught for whatever reason.

"Follow my lead, try to do what I do." Jay said. "If we do this right and they're not paying close attention we can sneak our way through." As he stood up he took Audrey's hand and told her. "Just to make sure you do it right."

The brunette princess would have been more offended if she hadn't enjoyed the feeling of his hand over hers. "If you insist." She said with an exaggerated eye roll.

"Oh, gag me." Mal said jokingly as she swatted their enjoined hands lightly. She none the less took the same idea with Ben. Carlos did the same thing with Jane. Evie reached out and took Lonnie's hand. Together the eight of them started across the area, following Jay's lead.

Ally noticed he lead them to the left, toward the waterfall. She surmised that was because it was harder to detect any noise that may or may not be made by the four coupled parts. It might have been fortuitous as Jane almost tripped over a half buried rock, while Audrey almost knocked over a basket of what they hoped were peaches.

Jordan watched too and then realized their mistake. "Ah, shoot." She muttered and was about to stand up when it became moot. From the houses and mountainside across from the waterfall the doors burst open and there were over two dozen samurai wasps. The mountainside held another dozen samurai wasps along with a dozen archer wasps.

The eight warriors turned around to see several wasps with spears fly up from the edge that lead to the small lake that the waterfall made.

And the gate that was their destination opened to reveal more samurai wasps and wasps with spears along with the one they had come looking for; the large Wasp Queen. She laughed. "Welcome to my trap, kiddies." She said derisively. Then from behind the three civilians they heard the tunnel collapse. "Your journey ends here."


	31. The Wonderland Journey Part 6

Jordan was not the only one who realized their mistake. Mal realized it too as she glanced around the village as they passed the waterfall. She realized that only the sides of the house missed the view of the waterfall, every other house had one. Forgetting for the moment that passing close to the other side would have been like sticking their heads in a guillotine obscuring any noise meant nothing if they were being looked at directly.

The next moment they were surrounded on three sides by the Wasp Queen and her drones, and Jane jumped just a little as she heard the small but loud rock slide. It took a moment for her to be glad that Ally, Aziz and Jordan had not been dragged out of their hiding place.

"Your journey ends here." Wasp Queen repeated. "Surrender now or die."

Mal shook her head. "No." She answered simply as she licked her lips a bit nervous. The odds were not exactly in their favor. She tried a long shot here. "Bring us Alice Liddell and we'll leave Wonderland." She bargained. All they had really wanted was their friend's mother back after all.

It didn't stop Ben and Audrey from looking at her slightly shocked. Freeing Wonderland from Red Queen's tyranny ranked pretty high on their thought process, by products of Auradon at its finest.

The Wasp Queen laughed. "I hold the advantage girl, and you think you can bargain with me?" She questioned. "I can admire the guts but the truth is that even if I wanted to go with that," She narrowed her eyes dangerously. "And let me stress that I do NOT want to, it wouldn't matter. The Red Queen would have my head for that agreement."

Mal expected as much. She hadn't been keen on abandoning Wonderland to them either. Now it didn't matter. "Then you're right. For one of our groups this journey does end here, but I think you've got odds on the wrong side." She looked to her team mates. "Let's get to work."

Mal, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Audrey pulled out their iPhones, input their codes into their number pads and transformed. Ben formed his sword and shield and brought them together to transform into the Auradon Knight. Jane used the magic wand to transform into the white ranger. They all stood ready for battle.

"Bring me their heads." Wasp Queen commanded her underlings. "The Red Queen will appreciate the gesture I'm sure."

"Well we don't want that to happen." Audrey noted as she formed her silver bow.

"No we don't." Mal agreed as she formed her staff.

Lonnie formed her tessens, Jay formed his scimitar, Carlos formed his clawed daggers, Evie drew her mirror shield, Jane had the magic wand ready to use as a weapon and Ben had already drawn his sword and raised his shield.

It was not a moment too soon. Lonnie, Jay and Ben turned to deal with the spear carriers by the waterfall while the rest of the team got ready to deal with the ones moving in from the houses, all except for Mal who faced in the same direction as the Wasp Queen.

"I don't like this." Ally whispered softly. "They have to face a fight on three sides and are practically outnumbered." The blonde looked to her two friends. "And this side is barricaded so retreat isn't even an option…not that it exactly was in the first place."

"Let's see if we can even out these odds a little." Jordan said mischievously as she formed a magnet in both of her hands. "If I can get ahold of the blasters or one of the wasp's weapons we can ty to back the rangers up."

The wasps came in from all sides, aiming straight for the rangers. Audrey had no time to worry about using her weapon as a bow, it made her grateful that each of her weapons sides were sharpened to a fine point so she could fight up close.

Jay was more than at home with close combat with the scimitar and Lonnie was doing almost as well with her tessens. In another situation it could have been likened to an elegant but dangerous dance. Carlos almost fought like a wild animal, ironic given his original fear of dogs that had turned to love.

Evie was finding it harder to fight. She could deflect attacks well enough with her mirror shield but since they were physical attacks there wasn't really much to reflect. She used her blaster to help her offensively as she would blast any of the wasps that came to close to her.

Ben and Mal were working together to take out the wasps as much as they could. That lasted only moments before they were separated by a huge landing figure between them. It was the Wasp Queen herself. And she seemed to have eyes for Mal.

Jordan drew a sword from one of the first fallen wasps that Aziz took into hand. The genie girl knew she couldn't take Evie's blaster, the blue ranger needed it herself. She aimed for Audrey's blaster since the red ranger had her hands full already but it was harder to take a weapon from a moving target, especially since she didn't want to take the bow and leave Audrey defenseless.

Ben wanted to go to Mal's aid but didn't for three reasons. The first was that there were still too many wasp's around them. The second was that he wasn't sure he could make a difference on his own, they all had to go to her together and in fact out of all of the other warriors he was probably the only one who couldn't do much to help her power wise. The final one was that he knew she could take care of herself.

"Oh no." Ally gasped as she saw the Wasp Queen all but towering over the group, starting toward Mal. Jordan glanced at the sight too and grimaced. It was kind of a catch twenty two as the Wasp Queen was bigger than a regular monster but not big enough to make it worth using any of their zords, assuming they even had access to them in Wonderland.

"I have my eye on you purple ranger." Wasp Queen declared. "There is someone who will be quite happy to see you brought down a peg or two."

Mal's face would have shown confusion had she not been helmeted. She didn't know that her mother was behind a good portion of what had been wrought upon Wonderland. "I don't know who around here would be so interested in me." The purple ranger declared. "But you're going to find that I'm not easy to bring down."

Jordan finally got a hold of Audrey's laser and handed it to Ally before making the magnet vanish. Ally looked at her in confusion. "Don't you need one too?" She asked.

"I'll get one on the field." Jordan answered the blonde. "For now my magic will be my weapon." Now she moved her glance to include Aziz. "Let's go help out Jane and Ben so that way the other rangers can go to Mal's aid."

That idea was in fact implanted in the minds of Jay, Carlos, Evie, Lonnie and Audrey but were running into the wasps which seemed to be endless. One of the wasps with a polearm struck Lonnie and she landed hard.

"We're coming M!" Evie tried to reassure her but was then subsequently struck in the back by another wasp.

"Evie!" The purple ranger gasped and tried to run to her chosen sister but the Wasp Queen turned around and slammed into her with her stinger. She fell back hard and her back hitting the pole near the gate didn't help either.

Audrey drew her bow in an attempt to shoot an arrow directly at Wasps Queen's head only for two of the samurai wasps to strike Audrey hard. Before they could finish her off Jay was defending her, but he had brought two more samurai wasps with him.

"Finish them off my minions." Wasp Queen commanded as the wasps were descending on all three sides.

Then two laser blasts and several magic strikes struck around the wasp warriors, sending many of them sprawling. Ben and the seven rangers were really glad to see Aziz, Ally and Jordan coming in from the one unguarded area. It was a mixture of relief that they had back up and relief that their friends hadn't been in the way of the rock slide they had heard as the trap was sprung.

"I had wondered where the daughter of Alice had gone off to." The Wasp Queen admitted. "Do you three really think you can change the flow of this battle?"

"Damn right." Jordan stated heatedly as she unleashed another wave of magic at some of the approaching wasps. Aziz dived in to help Lonnie get to Evie's side. Ally helped Jay to take out the wasps that were trying to descend on him and Audrey.

The Wasp Queen let out something that was between a growl and a hiss and made to leap at Ally but Mal had recovered by that time and moved to intercept, delivering a jump kick right into the Queen's back and then as the monster turned she drove her staff hard into her chest. "You said you wanted me." Mal reminded her dangerously. "Don't you dare turn your back on me now."

"Little brat." Wasp Queen growled and tried to bring her appendages down on either side of Mal's head but the purple ranger blocked with her own weapon and then came down to one knee to slam her staff again into the Wasp Queen's chest.

Aziz helped Evie to stand. "Mal can't stop the Wasp Queen on her own." He stated to the two girls. "Give her a hand."

"You can't do this alone either." Lonnie pointed out. "You're less protected than we are."

"Don't worry, I've got his back." Jane promised. "Go help Mal."

Lonnie stopped just long enough to take out her blaster and give to Aziz. "Just in case you need it. If not, then give it to Jordan." She instructed and then the two rangers moved toward their leader.

Carlos and Ben, combined with Ally's long range support, helped back the wasps off of Jay and Audrey. Ben then looked to the three rangers. "Mal needs you. Go help her. I'll make my way to Jordan and Ally and help them deal with these wasps." He instructed.

Carlos gave Ben his blaster. "Give that to Jordan." He instructed. "Just in case she needs more than her magic."

Ben nodded and then started to make his way to the two female civilians who still seemed pretty capable of holding their own. The young king suspected that Jordan's magic had a lot to do with that one. He also saw Aziz and Jane fighting as well but he thought they were dangerously close to the edge near the water fall.

The Wasp Queen slammed her head hard into Mal's chest and she fell back, finding it hard to breathe. She hit the ground hard, coughing. The Wasp Queen laughed and leaned down to grab Mal but Audrey leapt out and shot an arrow right into her chest.

That caused her to back off a step and that was followed by a double strike from Carlos and Lonnie, and a follow up kick from Jay that sent her flying back.

Evie knelt down to Mal. "Are you okay M?" She asked as she gently rubbed her chosen sister's back.

"Y-yeah." Mal got out as she took a deep breath. "That was a one heck of a wallop."

"I don't know if that was from her head striking your chest or if it was a delayed reaction from her stinger." Evie told her gently as she continued to rub her back. "Either way I think that your powers protected you from the worst of the effects."

"Shouldn't her dragon zord have protected her?" Carlos asked.

"None of those are magical attacks Carlos." Audrey reminded him. "One is purely physical and the other is poison, or venom, one of those two."

"Venom." Evie supplied helpfully. "At least in this case."

"Let's finish this." Mal said, sounding stronger than she had a moment ago. She took Lonnie and Audrey's offered hands and stood up at the same time as Evie did. Then the six rangers turned to face off against the Wasp Queen.

Ben cut his way through to the two girls. "Are you two alright?" He asked them.

Jordan nodded. "We're alright Ben." She said. She looked around. "We better go help Jane and Aziz, it'll be easiest if we're fighting back to back."

Ben nodded. "I agree." He said. "We're going to have to cut through them. I'll take the front, Ally you stay in between us and cover us. Jordan, do you want to stick to your magic or use this?" The knight held up the blaster Carlos had given him.

Jordan took the blaster in her left and let the magic crackle in her right hand. "I think I'll choose option c." She said with a smile. "The more the merrier."

"Good enough." Ben stated and then the three of them started to make their way over to the white ranger and Aziz.

The Wasp Queen had risen again by that point to see that six rangers ready to go. "I wanted the purple ranger, but if I have to take all of you down as well then so much the better." She stated and then raised her appendages and shot out stingers at them. It sent them all scattering and flying in all directions.

"Look what you did to my beauty." The Wasp Queen growled to Audrey as she ran an appendage over her face. "I'll make you pay Red Ranger." She leapt and tried to bring the large stinger on her rear down on Audrey but she rolled out of the way and kicked her back hard before standing.

"I might have done you a favor." Audrey said as she tried to bring her bow edge down on the queen but she was blocked and tossed aside. She landed by Evie and Carlos even as they were getting up and heading toward her.

Jay and Lonnie again tried to double team the queen only to be intercepted by her appendages this time and slashed across their chests hard.

Mal moved in and struck the queen again in the chest. She tried a follow up only to have the queen get a hold of her staff and then using it to strike Mal hard. She rolled back and landed by her friends as the staff was tossed back to her. "You're starting to bore me power rangers." She warned.

Mal glanced back to see the wasps were barely being held back by her knight, their white ranger and their three civilian friends. "We have to find a way to destroy the Wasp Queen." She concluded as she looked to her friends. "If we do that I think that it will kill off her drones and end this fight."

"That's now how it works in nature Mal." Lonnie reminded them softly. "In nature even if somehow you kill the queen, and normally it requires going through most of the hive anyway, there's always the chance of another one to take her place."

"That may be." Mal allowed. "We're going to have to hope the rules of Wonderland monsters don't follow the rules of reality." She looked at her team again. "We have to defeat the queen and hope it stops the drones."

"How do we do that?" Carlos asked her. "So far we've done little but bore her apparently." His voice sounded dry and sarcastic.

"Let's up the power level then." Mal answered. "Show her the power of neon."

"Great idea." Audrey replied. "Let's do it."

The six rangers again turned to face her and then each of them placed their hands on the small dragon scale embedded in the suit of their right arm, activating the neon powers. Their suits changed from regular colors to neon, though in Jay's case it was almost hard to see that.

"What is this?" Wasp Queen asked. "You think your little color change will do anything for you?"

"We'll find out, won't we?" Mal asked. She gestured toward Jay and Carlos and the two boys nodded. Quicker than before they leapt out and double attacked the Wasp Queen with their weapons.

Now Audrey leapt and used Jay's shoulders as leverage to get behind the Wasp Queen. As she turned to face the red ranger she shot a kick out at her abdomen and then struck her with the bow's edge. She twirled in recoil only to find a strike coming from Lonnie.

That allowed Mal to retrieve her fallen staff. She twirled it around and then brought it up in both of her hands, right above her head. Evie jumped off the staff and brought her mirror shield right now on the Wasp Queen's head. It would have broken the glass if it had been a regular mirror.

Then Mal rushed in and slammed her staff right into the monster's chest and she went sprawling back again.

Lightning quick the six rangers surrounded the Wasp Queen and then moved in with their weapons, bringing them down hard onto her body. That sent her recoiling even further and even crashing into one of the houses.

"Did we do it?" Lonnie asked.

"Don't think so." Carlos answered as he saw their five friends still fighting against the wasp army.

The Wasp Queen rose from the rubble. "Very nice rangers, you're stronger than I gave you credit for." She relented and then laughed. "But you're still not strong enough to defeat me."

Mal looked to her team. "Let's give the Triangle Blast a shot…" She started only to realize that wasn't an option. Jordan had Carlos's blaster while Ally had Audrey's blaster. "Scrap that, let's go with the Auradon blaster."

Mal's staff was the first placed, followed by Audrey's silver bow underneath it. Evie's shield was placed behind and then Jay laid on his scimitar. This was followed by Lonnie's tessens and Carlos's dagger claws on either side. They stood together and fired their blaster at the Wasp Queen.

They were all surprised to see it strike her hard. Clearly it had done a lot of damage. Also equally clearly was the fact that it didn't destroy the Wasp Queen. "Is that all you have power rangers?" She asked them, clearly working to catch her breath and collect herself. But she was still standing.

That surprised Ben and Jane as well, who saw that from their position. Jordan saw it too and looked to the two. "You two go and help them out." She told them. "We'll hold the fort. If we're lucky destroying Wasp Queen will end this fight." She had no way to know that Mal was hoping for the same conclusion.

Jane unleashed a stream of energy against a group of wasps and then looked to Ben. "Come on, let's go help the rangers out." She said. Together the two of them ran past the wasps, Ally covering their backs.

"It's up to us to keep them back." Ally said a bit nervously. She fired at another incoming samurai wasp.

"Don't worry Ally, we got it." Aziz promised as he continued to fight the samurai wasps up front. Jordan's magical energies was also a huge boost to their chances.

"No way." Evie gasped. "What do we do now M?"

"I don't know E." The purple ranger answered simply.

"Wait a minute." Audrey said. "What if we channel our neon energies into the blaster?"

"It's worth a shot." Mal agreed with their red ranger. "Get ready for round two."

Wasp Queen growled, "There won't be a round two, rangers." She started toward the six of them as they got ready for another attack but was interrupted as Jane and Ben kicked her back hard.

That was the time they needed to feed their neon energies into the Auradon blaster and again unleashed it against the Wasp Queen. This time she was destroyed in a blaze.

Aziz and the two girls exhaled in relief when the wasps fell to the ground too, dead now that their queen was gone. Jordan reflected that normally it's not how it would work in nature but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Alas, poor queen." The genie girl stated sarcastically.

For a moment every member of the group; ranger, knight, genie and human stayed where they were trying to catch their breaths. Each of them had had a huge fight on their hands and had barely come out the winners. It made them each dread trying to have to deal with the Jabberwock or the Red Queen. Still, they knew that was exactly what they had to do.

The eight warriors had started toward their friends when there was a large rumbling sound. Then the gates smashed into pieces as a large creature with mechanical wings landed on the ground between them all. From either side they could see the huge fire in its belly that each suspected was supposed to contain the heart. The large mechanical wings flapped for a moment.

Ally couldn't help but gasp in fright, she had heard of this thing occasionally from her mother and it had always given her nightmares. "The Jabberwock." She gasped. Sensing her fright Aziz stepped in front of her protectively, for what good it would do.

"That's the Jabberwock?" Carlos couldn't help but question. "What are we going to do against that thing?"

"Nothing." Said the Jabberwock's deep voice. "You can do nothing except bow to me and the Red Queen."

"That won't happen." Mal said. "We'll find a way to stop you and free Ally's mother."

Jabberwock cocked his head. "Ally's mother…ah, Alice Liddell." He laughed. "You wasted your time and your lives. She is dead." He stated.

"No, you're wrong." Ally retorted, though the thought brought tears to her eyes. "You think if my mother was dead that I wouldn't know it?" She placed her hand over her heart. "That I wouldn't feel it?"

"What you think you feel would feel is of no consequence to me, little girl." Jabberwock stated cruelly and then turns its head toward the three civilians. "But if it makes you feel better, than you can join her."

With one massive fireball delivered from its mouth the Jabberwock struck around the rocky terrain hard. The ground around them crumbled and the eight warriors saw them fall into the depths of the waterfalls terrain.

"No." Audrey called out. Together the eight of them started to try to go over there and do whatever they could to help their friends if possible.

Jabberwock turned toward them now and unleashed fiery rays of light, almost like the same fire that had struck their friends, and struck each of the rangers hard. "Not so fast, if you think you have what it takes to free Wonderland you will have to go through me."

The eight warriors looked up with some dread at the large winged creature which may have just killed Ally, Aziz and Jordan.


	32. The Wonderland Journey Part 7

_What's more disturbing here?_ Mal wondered as she and her team mates got up and looked up at the large creature with the mechanical wings and the belly of literal furnace fire that Ally had identified as the Jabberwock; the feared right hand of the tyrannical Red Queen. _That we have to figure out how to take this thing down or the fact that he might have just killed Ally, Aziz and Jordan?_

"Oh no." Lonnie whispered, the tears in her voice. "Jordan, Aziz, Ally…it can't be…they can't be…" She felt her knees shaking and wasn't sure what was keeping her on her feet.

"Keep it together Lonnie." Jay stated firmly. "They aren't dead. They're just fine. We're going to take out this overgrown fire bug and then we're going to find them." He raised his scimitar. "You're not going to break us."

Audrey fought back her own mounting fear and sorrow. "Jay's right." She declared with more confidence than she admittedly felt at that moment. "You're going down."

The Jabberwock laughed heartily. "You really think you can take me?" He questioned as he narrowed his large orangish eyes. "The eight of you combined are like an appetizer to me. I would need a gryphon or something to even have a chance of filling my hunger."

"Try and eat me." Carlos said as he made a taunting 'come get it' gesture with his right hand, equipped with the dagger claws. "You're going to get heartburn."

Jay couldn't help but look at the yellow ranger and smirk. "Dude, really? That's your best line?" He had to question.

"Let's see you do better." Carlos retorted.

"Guys." Mal interrupted. "Can we focus on the big fire bug thing over there?"

"You hope to defeat me when you quarrel among yourselves?" Jabberwock questioned. "It will take more focus than any of you, even together, possess to defeat me." With that his wings rose up and blasted a huge gust of wind at the eight warriors. Even that sent forced them back a little.

"Carlos, Jane, Evie." Mal said as a plan tried to form itself into her mind. "Stay back and be ready." She looked to Jay, Audrey, Ben and Lonnie. "Come on guys, let's move in." The Auradon Knight moved in along with the purple, red, black and pink rangers and they all tried to bring their weapons down on Jabberwock only to realize he was heavily armored.

He laughed again. "Nice try fools." He then lashed out his head, his enormous beak striking all of the rangers hard. Lonnie was the first to rise from that attack and aimed her tessens at the huge creature's eyes but a slight movement of its head knocked her weapons off course.

"My turn." Audrey said and fired an arrow straight at its eyes but a small beam from the socket took out the arrow. "Oh, come on." She moaned. "How are we supposed to scratch this guy?"

"When I figure it out I'll let you know." Mal promised her second in command as she jumped up to try to jab it into some part of its body that didn't seem so heavily armored. Jabberwock moved and caught Mal in its beak, putting pressure on her body and causing her to gasp out in pain.

"Let her go." Ben demanded as he took energy into his sword and launched it at the huge monster. A mechanical wing blocked the attack and sent it colliding with one of the nearby houses. He then obliged the knight by tossing his purple clad girlfriend right into him hard.

Jane powered up a magical blast and sent it at Jabberwock. It struck with very little impact and he turned to face the three rangers that Mal had ordered to stand in reserve. "That's enough out of you bird brain." The white ranger stated. "Leave them alone."

"Of courses." Jabberwock said compliantly, too much so for the blue haired girls taste. His eyes then glowed and he shot the eye beams at the three of them. The blue ranger raised her mirror shield and reflected the energy back at him. A huge plume of smoke followed.

"That had to have done it." Evie said hopefully. "If that was strong enough to hurt all of us then he shouldn't be able to dish out what he delivers." The three rangers started toward their recovering friends only for a large mechanical clawed paw to shoot out and gash the three of them hard.

"You really thought that would help?" Jabberwock questioned as the smoke cleared. "That's the kind of energy I heat for breakfast, the kind of fire that travels through my body." He laughed, a sinister sound now. "You can't possibly hope to burn me."

Ally moaned softly and started to sit up but had to stop as she felt she was spinning. Then Jordan was by her side. "Take it easy Ally." The genie girl said to her gently. "I think you've got a mild concussion." She made Ally lie down again. "I'm making something to take care of that, but it would still be better if you didn't try to get hit in the head again."

"I don't remember getting hit in the head a first time." Ally pointed out weakly.

She heard Jordan get up and move away a little bit, presumably to where she was making her potion. "I think it happened after we were swept away by the rushing water. We were washed up in this cave, there are some rocks poking out of the water." She heard some shuffling. "I've repaired both of the blasters, they were pretty water logged."

"Aziz?" Ally asked softly now.

"He's fine." Jordan said. "He already took his blaster and is looking around a little to make sure we're safe, at least as safe as we can be." She heard some slight banging, like something stirring in a pot. She surmised it was part of the potion mixing. "You got the worst of the fall."

Ally took a deep breath and was glad at least that didn't cause pain. "What about Ben and the rangers?" She asked now.

"Probably kicking Jabberwock up, down and all around that village." Jordan said a little smugly, unaware that the battle was not going well at all for their friends. "Then they'll find us." She heard the stirring stop. "And as soon as you're on your feet again and Aziz is back we'll be on our way and we'll probably run into them halfway."

A few moments of silence fell before Ally asked, "Do you…do you think that Jabberwock was telling the truth? Is my mother dead?"

Jordan bit her lip. She wanted to reassure her friend, the idea of her parents dying petrified her more than she would ever admit to anyone. Still, she hated to lie too. "I don't know Ally." She finally answered softly. " I wouldn't be surprised if Jabberwock lied about it to try to unbalance all of us. He and Red Queen might want her dead but I'm sure they would want you there to see it."

"How delightful." Ally drolled softly.

They both turned their heads, causing Ally a bit of dizziness, when they heard someone approaching the tunnel end they had temporarily hid in but relaxed when they saw Aziz coming around the bend. "It's okay, we're clear." He told them and then came over to sit next to Ally. "How are you?" He asked the blonde.

"Dizzy." Ally said. "Jordan is making something for the concussion now."

"So there's nothing between the grotto and here then?" Jordan asked him.

Aziz shook his head. "Nope, nothing. I don't know if these are natural formations or if it's just a tunnel that the wasps will never have to use again." He replied. "But I think that village used to be inhabited by someone other than those wasps."

"Why do say that?" Ally asked him.

"There's evidence that these tunnels were used by others a while ago." Aziz answered as he pulled out a small book. "A diary I think. I haven't look at it yet."

"Might as well now." Jordan told him. "We're going to be here another few minutes."

Aziz opened it up. "Looks like the village used to belong to…believe it or not grasshoppers." He revealed.

Jordan shrugged. "Why not?" She asked nonchalantly. "We got here on a boat captained by a walrus with a penguin staff, after having tea with a mouse, a turtle and a mad man in a hat."

"Looks like the writer was big on rebellion." Aziz announced as he flipped through the journal and skimmed the pages. He didn't spend a lot of time reading but he had been taught how to skim well enough to get vital information. He attributed that to the fact that his mother Jasmine was part of a book club with Ben's mother Belle, who was known to be an avid reader. "Not long after Jabberwock resurfaced he looked into what killed him the first time."

"What was that?" Ally asked, flinching a bit at the sound of her own voice. She hoped Jordan finished up with that soon.

"Not too clear on what this means." Aziz warned the two girls. "It just mentions it as a vorpal sword that was used by the original hero to kill the Jabberwock. I think it means sharp or deadly."

"It's more than that." Jordan told them both as she was pouring some potion in a glass for Ally. "Vorpal is also a mythical coating that can be placed on offensive weapons to increase their power and pierce most types of armor."

"Where can we find the vorpal sword, blade, whatever?" Aziz asked as he looked at the genie girl.

"I don't know." Jordan answered with a shrug. "Maybe in Wonderland. Maybe in space. Maybe that journal will tell you." She waited for him to answer that one.

Aziz skimmed the journal a moment and then shook his head. "Nope, doesn't say what happened to it." He answered. "So hopefully the rangers and Ben are able to take that thing out." He thought a moment. "Unless their weapons are already coated in that vorpal stuff."

"Nope." Jordan answered. "I studied the compositions of those weapons and that's not in there."

Aziz nodded, not entirely surprised. He then moved on. "Apparently the Red Queen rose to power after the discovery of some unknown source of power. On top of that some things, including the Jabberwock itself, were modified by various things." He looked at the next page. "Whoever this guy is thought of Jabberwock as a real threat; most of this is about him. According to his information Jabberwock was upgraded by an alien life form named Darkconda."

"Well he is the reason we're down here." Jordan noted lamely. She came over to Ally's side and helped her to sit up. Aziz set down the journal and the two helped lean the blonde against the wall. "Drink up." The genie girl said as she handed Ally the cup. "It should take effect after a few minutes."

Ally nodded and took a sip. It tasted like peaches and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Still it was better than some medicines she'd had in her life. "What else does it say?" She asked Aziz.

"Magic was also interspersed with Jabberwock. That accounts for that fire in his belly that he also used to try to kill us." Aziz said. "He notes the Red Queen as formed an army called the Card Guard." He laughed a little. "They look like man sized playing cards with arms and legs."

"Cute." Jordan noted dryly. "Does that mean there are only fifty two of those things?"

"We're not that lucky." Aziz answered simply. A moment of silence followed and then he muttered a choice curse word. When the two girls looked at him he elaborated, "That big thing that chopped out magic carpet ride? It was a larger card guard called a Guardian. He says it's nearly indestructible."

"And just our luck, we'll probably get to test that theory out in person." Jordan drawled with an eye roll. "We have to get this information to the rangers, they're going to need this so we can figure out how to deal with Jabberwock and be ready to deal with Red Queen and her little card army."

Ally had finished her potion and leaned her head against the wall a moment. She could already feel her nausea dwindling. "We can get going now." She said.

"We'll give it another minute." Aziz said to her. "We don't want to rush things." He looked to Jordan. "So how do we find vorpal coating?"

"I don't know." Jordan answered simply as she shrugged. She stood up to pace. "I've heard about it from my dad in the past but even he didn't know where to find it." She turned back to the two teens. "Odds are the only source is somewhere here in Wonderland, but the odds of us actually finding it are basically nonexistent." She frowned. "But there is one thing other thing I did pick up."

"What's that?" Ally asked.

"Darkconda. I recognize the name. It's from the stuff Fairy Godmother got during the Psycho Ranger incident. He was a ruthless bounty hunter who worked for Dark Specter, and he was involved in several schemes in his life time that would affect the Space Rangers." Jordan explained. "That technology probably came from Dark Specter himself before they were both destroyed."

"When did he have time to do this then?" Aziz wondered.

"Probably about the same time that Zordon was helping our parents to chase Paradias away the first time and then establishing the powers that Ben, Mal and the rest of the rangers use right now." Jordan speculated.

"Come on." Ally said as she stood up. She felt a little wobbly but she pushed it down. They had other concerns to worry about right now. "We need to get going, meet back up with the group."

Aziz picked up the journal. "I know where to start." He announced. "I found a passage we can follow, I just don't know what we're going to run into." He handed Ally the other blaster. "Let's be careful guys." They left the grotto and started down the path Aziz indicated.

"I think it's time to try to bring our weapons together Mal." Lonnie said to their leader. She had a horrible feeling that it wouldn't work. She also feared that the Triangle Spark wouldn't have worked either.

Mal nodded. "It's worth a try." She agreed.

"It's really not." Jabberwock said, very amused. He then shot another burst of fireballs at them and it sent each of them sprawling around the area, landing in very painful positions.

Jabberwock now started to charge full tilt at the rangers. They had to stand and try to dodge quickly. One of the wings smacked Audrey hard and she hit one of the rock walls hard. She was sure that if she hadn't been morphed it probably would have snapped her neck.

The Jabberwock turned and part of its body slammed into Carlos, who went flying through the walls of one of the houses. It looked very ready to collapse, possibly onto the yellow ranger.

Jane flew up into the air with her little white wings and tried to attack him with her own magic but his clawed appendage came up and smacked into Jane hard. The white ranger plummeted to the ground hard. She almost swore that her arm broke and she let out a gasp.

"I won't let you continue to hurt my friends." Mal warned him as she picked up her staff. "I'll find a way to stop you."

"There are some things even you cannot do, purple ranger." Jabberwock said. He looked forward to presenting Maleficent with her daughter's badly broken body, to be only matched by her broken spirits.

"We'll find a way." Ben agreed as he approached another side.

Jabberwock laughed. "You presume much, young king." He replied and that drew up all of the rangers short, except Carlos and Jane who were a bit preoccupied with their painful injuries. "The powers of Wonderland did not make the same mistakes as your own people in Auradon. We kept careful watch over you." He looked around to where Jay and Evie were helping up a still half stunned Audrey. "Your little isle escapades, the attempt at rehabilitation, the coronation. That knowledge will be used when my empress decides to take over your world."

"Then it's not just about saving Wonderland and rescuing Mrs. Liddell." Lonnie realized with a shudder. "We have to prevent the invasion of Auradon."

"I can't help but notice how much everything wants to invade and/or destroy Auradon." Audrey noted distastefully. She saw that Carlos had extracted himself from the half devastated house and was going to help Jane.

Ben charged up his sword and unleashed the energy charge at Jabberwock. His weird armor skin seemed to dissipate it almost instantly. He grit his teeth, knowing somehow he had to give the Mal and their friends the time they needed in order to assemble the Auradon Blaster. He just wasn't sure how to, not against this thing.

"I'm sure you pathetic beings still want to try to assemble your little blaster." Jabberwock said with amusement. "The question really is; am I generous enough to give you that chance?"

"Somehow I doubt it." Carlos noted as he helped Jane up. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

Jane frowned just a bit. "It really hurts." She said softly. "I've never had a broken limb before." She laughed a little. "It really makes me wish that Jordan were here. I don't know a spell to heal myself."

"Maybe Mal will have one." Carlos suggested. He let her lean on him. "We just have to get to her first."

Jane took a deep breath though the yellow ranger couldn't tell if the white ranger was struggling to find a solution or struggling to stay conscious. Finally with her unbroken arm she raised the magic wand. "When in doubt, make time slow." She chanted.

They all noticed that Jabberwock slowed. Jane called out, "Everyone come here." She instructed. "This spell is only going to last as long as I can keep my concentration." That was followed by a flinch of pain. Mal and Evie exchanged glances as Ben and the five rangers gathered together. Both girls were sure it wouldn't last long.

Carlos gently but reluctantly handed Jane to Ben. "We have to form the Auradon blaster before Jane's spell wears off." He said to his friends.

Mal nodded. "You're absolutely right." She agreed and looked to the team. "Let's bring them together. And let's throw in our neon power for extra effect."

Mal's staff was placed first, then Audrey placed her silver bow underneath it. Evie placed her shield behind it. Jay placed his scimitar in the middle, followed by Lonnie placing her tessens on either side of the scimitar, and last was Carlos placing his clawed daggers next to both of the pink ranger's tessens.

They took their positions just as Ben felt Jane slacken in his arms as the pain briefly overwhelmed her. It was enough to free the Jabberwock. The monster turned around to see the blaster turned at him. "Nice trick, white ranger." He laughed seeing that Jane was fighting to stay conscious. "Very well, rangers. Take your best shot."

The six rangers unleashed all of the energy they could from the Auradon blaster, combined with their own neon boosted energy. It struck Jabberwock and even managed to do a little bit of damage but ultimately to no avail. Once the blast ended he stood there in gloating triumph.

"I told you it was all for nothing, little ones." Jabberwock stated. Then he opened his mouth and unleashed a torrent of fireballs and fire beams from his eyes. It struck all around the rangers, not even Evie's shield could have protected them from that blasts.

Ben saw Jane land hard, finally losing consciousness as she hit the ground. One of the houses collapsed on Evie. One of his feet landed hard on Audrey's lower leg and she screamed in pain as she heard the bones snap, but she had passed out a moment after that.

Jay tried to go to her aid and the mechanical wing lashed out and slammed into him hard. He hit an outcropping that also resulted in an avalanche falling on him. Lonnie tried to get up as well to help Carlos and felt a hand slam into her hard, knocking her and Carlos unconscious.

Mal limped over to try to help Ben. "We have to stop this." She said weakly. "Somehow."

"There is no way." Jabberwock repeated as his tail slapped out and slammed into the two lovers hard. He then looked down at the eight beaten down warriors. "I win, and you will all pay with your lives."

It seemed as if the path kept on twisting and turning. "Are we sure we're going the right way?" Ally asked.

"No, no I am not." Aziz answered simply.

"It feels like we've gone in circles." Ally noted softly. "How are we going to get this information to Mal and the others? How are we going to rescue my mother?" _If she's even still alive._ She couldn't help but muse softly.

Jordan stopped. She felt something odd, powerful. She didn't see anything at first until she realized that just off the path was a collapsed pathway. She went over with the two of them following her. She touched the rocks. "This has been collapsed a long time." She mused.

"It looks like mud has been used to try to seal up any chance of exposing this path." Ally noted as she looked around too. "Look, this is an appendage from one of the samurai wasps." She pointed out.

"There's writing on this wall." Aziz said, pointing to the left side where this mystery passage was.

"I don't recognize it." Ally said.

"I do." Jordan told the two teens. "More tidbits from that information from Alpha." She leaned closer to examine it. "It's Edenoite. I took the liberty of learning a lot of that recently." She laughed. "Rather ironic considering the wasps and grasshoppers that were around here." She noted. That drew looks of confusion from the two teens but she didn't elaborate.

They watched as Jordan went back to the blocked pathway. "I hope this works." She mused. She unleashed a magic burst of energy that shattered the rocks. Aziz raised his hand to block Ally from any blasted rubble though he needn't have bothered as Jordan made sure to put up a small reflective shield around them. "Come on." She said and started down the passage way.

The two of them exchanged looks of uncertainty before following the genie girl. "We really have to get back to the others before something bad happens." Aziz called to her.

"It's too late for that." Jordan said, suddenly realizing she was right about this. "Their weapons aren't vorpal coated and Jabberwock is too well protected. If he hasn't already defeated them he unfortunately will very soon."

"Are you saying that we've lost?" Ally asked her quietly. It was so quiet that Aziz barely heard it and for a moment he suspected that the genie girl hadn't heard the blonde speak.

Then from seemingly nowhere Jordan responded, "Oh no. We haven't lost. In fact we're about ready to change the nature of this fight." They stopped at what seemed like a dead end and Aziz felt himself getting frustrated with it all. Before he could vent that Jordan reached out the middle and brought up a secret switch. "Alright then, what do you have for us?" She wondered out loud.

She pulled up the secret switch, only for a holographic shape to start materializing…


	33. The Wonderland Journey Part 8

The holographic form shaped into what Ally and Aziz could only assume was a robot. Jordan in fact recognized almost recognized it as Alpha, but something about this was off. Then sound emerged, "Oh, Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi." He got out worriedly. "If you're watching this then despite all of my hopes, Zordon's worse fears have been confirmed. Despite Wonderland's wish for neutrality it has become involved in the troubles between Auradon and what will become the Isle of the Lost."

"Who is that?" Ally asked softly.

"His name was Alpha Five." Jordan answered just as softly. "He was Zordon's friend. As far as I knew he had been destroyed on his home planet of Eltar when Dark Specter invaded and abducted Zordon, leading to the death that Andros spoke of." She also knew that explained the writing on the wall as he was built on Edinoi by the then King of the planet Lexian.

"Jabberwock must have been rebuilt or resurrected and has come to power." Alpha Five's image got out. Nothing was said about the Red Queen, which showed that possibility that she was not the threat people were worried about though that might have been a mistake. "We've reviewed as much history as we could of Wonderland and after careful consideration Zordon has authorized me for this…"

With that the wall lifted up to reveal its treasures to the three teens…

Audrey awoke and found her arms tied up above her and her waist tied as well. She tried to shift herself and gritted in pain as her broken leg came back to bite her, at least sort to speak. _How foolish of me to forget that Jabberwock was kind enough to do that._ She thought icily as she hissed a bit in pain. None the less her legs were bound as well, which was not a comfortable sensation.

"Audrey." She turned to the right to see Mal looking at her, bound as she was. To Mal's right was Ben and Lonnie, also bound. A slight glance to her left showed Jay, Evie, Carlos and Jane in the same situation. She was sure Jane would be in the similar pain when she regained consciousness since her arm had been broken too. All eight teens had been powered down.

She bit her lip a bit to fight the pain. "I'm here Mal…sort of." She answered. The pain in her leg was getting a little worse but she suspected it wouldn't matter too much since she was sure Jabberwock would be killing them soon. In fact it occurred to her to wonder why they were still alive at all. "Not that I'm complaining exactly, but why are we still alive?" She asked.

"I've wondered that too." Mal admitted. "We were thoroughly trounced in that fight."

"Bragging rights, or trophies maybe." Jay suggested from her other side. She hadn't even known the black ranger was awake right now.

"So far no one has shown up to brag about this." Mal noted. "I don't know what to make of that."

Audrey gritted her teeth, not sur how long she would be able to stay conscious before the pain of her awkwardly broken leg would force her into darkness again. She never would have given herself such credit for having a high pain threshold, but between this and Chad beating her not too long ago that was something else she had learned about herself. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. "Who else is awake?" She asked.

"I am." Ben replied as he tried to move and was of course not able to. Like Mal he didn't look to worse for the wear, all things considered. He noticed the expression on Audrey's face and frowned in sympathy. "How long are you going to be awake?"

"As long as I can." Audrey promised. She found if she didn't struggle she could ignore the pain a little better. "Glad to see you okay too Ben. Anyone else?"

"Lonnie was." Mal answered. "She's been fighting to stay conscious. No one else has stirred as far as I can tell." She glanced over at her chosen sister. "I haven't even seen Evie stir." She added softly. She could see the rise and fall of her chest so at least he knew the blue haired girl was still alive, but for all the purple haired girl knew she could be in a coma.

"They have your iPhones along with my sword and shield over there." Ben informed them all as he nodded his head toward a small table on the opposite side of the room. There was no mention of the magic wand Jane used to morph; Audrey didn't know what that meant. "I guess they didn't want us getting to our powers so easily even if we could somehow escape these bonds."

Jay laughed a little harshly. "This reminds me of being bound in front of Chad, Reviveslime and those Psycho Rangers. But I guess the Space Rangers won't be coming to bail us out this time." He remarked dryly.

"What about a spell miss half fairy?" Audrey asked Mal, smiling just a little to show the purple haired girl it was a joke to try to lighten the mood.

Mal returned the small smile, glad that the brunette princess was trying to make the effort, especially despite the pain she must be feeling, or maybe it was in spite of it. "Sorry sleeping princess but whatever these binds are made out of it blocks magic." She answered somberly.

A side of the chambers opened up and they saw Jabberwock come out of it, followed by several figures that looked like playing cards. In any other circumstance Mal and Jay probably would have had a good chuckle over that one. Then behind them was a figure they assumed to be the Red Queen and beside her was the one and only…

"Maleficent." Audrey gasped.

"Mom." Mal echoed.

"I always told you that if started to behave it would get you into trouble." Maleficent chided her daughter. "And now look where you are now. You and your miserable little friends." She looked around at her team, both Auradon and Isle teens. She rolled her eyes. "Aren't you all just a good show of diversity?" She drolled.

"I will be more than happy to end their existence Maleficent." Jabberwock said.

"In time." Red Queen told her lieutenant and enforcer. "Let Maleficent enjoy this moment." In truth the Red Queen herself got a sort of sadistic pleasure for this as well. Nothing like seeing the hero wannabes of the piece revel in their final loss.

"Oh this won't do at all." Maleficent mused as she noticed that she only had half an audience, not to mention she could tell that her nemesis daughter might not make stay conscious for that much longer. She went around to each of them, hitting them in the head with her wand.

"What the hell was that for?" Audrey demanded to know, right before she realized the pain her leg had numbed away to nothing. She looked down to see her leg was still broken and was close to panic. "What did you do to me?"

Maleficent waited until the other rangers started to stir and see their predicament as well. "You sure did a number on them Jabberwock." The evil fairy mused with amusement. "A broken leg on the princess over there, a broken arm on the little wannabe fairy there, and three concussions; one of which could have led to brain damage." She laughed as she looked at Evie with that one. "To say nothing about the three teens who died when you attacked."

"It's a pity about the human girl." Red Queen added. "It ruined my moment, but I suppose that is what happens when mortals play in a game meant for warriors." She shrugged. "No matter, since it is no longer relevant we can move on." She snapped her fingers and two more Card Guards entered with Alice Liddell, also bound.

Alice didn't understand what was going on here. She had spent over a week in one of the Queen's cages. "What is the meaning of this? What are you trying to accomplish?" She asked.

"I wanted your daughter to come after you only to watch you lose your head." Red Queen told her old nemesis rather simply. "A rather fitting punishment, being able to do nothing as your child watches you die. But our friend here had other plans, and now your daughter's burnt and possibly mangled corpse is rotting somewhere in the waters of Wonderland."

Alice shook her head in denial but fear for Ally was already in her heart. "No. You're lying." She whispered.

"She is not." Jabberwock told her. "I am that friend who made it happen. She fell to the roaring rapids with two others and were swept away." He waved one of his weird paw like appendages dismissively.

"Oh I wouldn't worry too much about that." Maleficent said dismissively as well. "You'll be joining your daughter soon enough." She looked again at the eight bound warriors. "Oh what a pretty picture this would make for Paradias, I will have to remember every detail." She looked to Audrey. "Chad might be disappointed to see you go this way, with no hand from him, but," She shrugged nonchalantly. "Ce le vie."

"Let us go mother." Mal demanded.

Maleficent laughed. "You have always been a self-important demanding little brat." She mused and then looked to Ben. "I can't imagine what you see in her."

"You seem to be blind to a lot of things." Ben replied with a glare.

"How did you even get here?" Jane asked wearily. Like Audrey she wondered if the sudden loss of feeling to her broken limb was really a good thing or not. "What part did you play in this?"

"Why I'm the one who orchestrated the power that changed Wonderland." Mal answered with a flourish. "I was given what the Red Queen needed to make this world her own, just as she will help me to with Auradon." She laughed. "With all of you little brats out of my way, Fairy Godmother can't stop me from doing as I please."

"You're wrong." Evie snapped at her. "Even without us there good will find a way."

"If only your mother could see you now, no longer some meek little worm, eager to please the woman who gave her life." Maleficent mused. She looked to Mal. "She would be as disappointed as I am."

Mal glared daggers at Maleficent. She may be the purple haired girl's mother but she was quickly realizing she was more than happy to disappoint her. She would rather worry about making someone noble like Belle proud to have her as a daughter than this woman who was all but ready to kill them off now.

"Evie is right Maleficent." Lonnie said, displaying the same bravery that the others imagined her mother Mulan had displayed. In fact Alice knew for a fact it was. She mused Mulan would be proud to see what her daughter was becoming. "Even though you will strike us down, we will still have more power than you could ever dream of." The Asian girl thought of Mal's conversation with Amber, about the legacy that they held and the mantle they carried. She only wished it wasn't coming to an end so soon, or like this.

"Enough with this." Maleficent said impatiently. "Say good bye to whatever deity, or loved one," She looked to Evie whose thoughts went to Doug. Jay and Audrey looked at each other though the girl also thought of her mother and father, as did Mal and Ben though the king also thought of his own parents. Carlos and Jane looked to each other though each also spared a thought for mother and pet respectively. "Or whatever else you care about, because this is your end."

Jabberwock laughed and started to power up a fire blast to deliver to the eight bound warriors and Alice when a rock smacked him in the face. It threw off his focus as they turned to the source.

Standing in a small crevice was Ally, Aziz and Jordan.

"Ally!" Alice called excitedly. Tears reflected in her eyes.

"Mom!" Ally gasped happily. The daughter's face mirrored the mother's.

"I guess my plan is a go after all." Red Queen said gleefully. "Bring her to me."

Two Card Guards leapt up to get Ally. One never made it as a jolt of magical energy from Jordan sent it straight down again. The other got both feet on the ledge just for Aziz to knock his elbow into its jaw hard and sent it plummeting straight down. Jordan than used her magical energy to bring the three of them down to the ground.

"Your mistake." Red Queen said maniacally. "Jabberwock, destroy them."

"No!" Alice exclaimed.

Jabberwock powered up another huge fire ball and shot it straight out at the three teens. Smoke filled the nearby area.

Maleficent turned away from the area and looked back at Alice, her daughter, and the rest of her team. "Now where were we?" She asked mockingly. "Oh yes, I was ordering your end, my daughter and friends." She started to laugh.

Audrey interrupted her. "No way." She said in shock, but she wasn't referring to Maleficent.

"Wow." Mal breathed. "Awesome."

Jay laughed. "This fight is still on guys."

"Totally wicked." Ben said and looked to Mal. "No pun intended."

Maleficent was already feeling something was wrong but the Jabberwock's growl of annoyance and the Red Queen's gasp of surprise finally sealed it. She turned only to see what the commotion was. Jordan, Ally and Aziz were still standing…and glowing.

Jordan glowed in gold. Aziz glowed in silver. Ally's glow was almost translucent. It seemed similar to the glow that came from the other rangers when their iPhones, more importantly the gems in their iPhones, bonded to them. Jane could just make out a gem in each of their hands.

"Go." Red Queen ordered her Card Guards. "Bring me their heads." They started toward the three teens.

"I don't think she gets it yet." Aziz said with a smile at the girls. "What is that Mal would say again?"

Jordan laughed. "Let's get to work." They didn't have the iPhones to channel their powers but it seemed as if the gems might have understood anyway because they transformed into rangers themselves, their suits looking exactly like their now team mates. Jordan was obviously in gold while Aziz was obviously in silver. Ally meanwhile again seemed almost a shiny and almost translucent opaque.

"Like a Crystal ranger." Evie breathed. "So cool."

The first Card Guard to approach received a nasty kick from Aziz, his natural strength being augmented by their powers. He was after all the third best tourney player after Ben and Jay. He had even been better than Chad but his former team mate hadn't cared since he wasn't from the island like Jay was.

"We can't do this on our own." Jordan declared. "We need the other rangers." She had to think for a only a moment before realizing the truth here. "We need the other members of the team."

"Give me a pathway and I'll free them." Ally promised.

"You two do that." Aziz said. "I'll keep them busy." He held out his hands and in them formed a long object with a very sharp point; a spear. Like Jay had learned to use a sword from his father, or more accurately his top minion Razoul, he had learned from his father how to use the weapon he now wielded. He started to go at the Card Guards.

Jordan originally had very little in common with Evie save a predilection to magic, though as a genie hers was much stronger than Evie's tentative connection to a magic her mother possessed that had none the less been blocked off from the Island of the Lost. Now she had two more things in common with the blue haired girl. The first was being a power ranger, the second was that she had come with her own weapon; in this case it was pretty much her living space as well. She summoned her lamp which grew into a two handed weapon. She channeled her magic through her body and into the lap where it was released in a huge stream of power that blasted several Card Guards. "You're clear Ally."

Ally started quickly over to her friends and her mother. From a small pouch on her waist she removed what looked like a pack of crystalline cards. She threw them all toward a few Card Guards and the binds that held her friends. The impacts took out the guards and freed their friends.

"Not today." Maleficent said and moved in to intercept the crystal ranger.

Then Mal was in front of her, eyes glowing green as they had when she faced her mother down at the coronation. "Not so fast mother." She replied.

Jay had gathered Audrey in his arms as Carlos gathered Jane in his arms. "We have to take care of them before we can morph." Jay said to Ally as she approached.

"We heard Maleficent bragging about that." Ally promised them. That was why they had let Maleficent go on as long as the evil fairy had; Jordan had concocted potions to mend their bones. She gave one to Lonnie and one to Evie. "Give that to them."

"I'm getting the iPhone and my weapons." Ben announced.

Ally nodded. "I'm coming with you, to back you up." She looked again to the girls. "Get them ready; things are going to get worse before they get better." Then the crystal ranger and the young king ran off, with one of their newest rangers drawing out her crystalline cards.

There was another explosion of magic as Jordan took out more Card Guards with her Lamp Cannon and Aziz fought them as well with his Spiral Spear.

Jane wasn't really in a shape to take hers on her own, her unbroken arm around Carlos's neck and her broken arm at her side. Audrey could have but she didn't argue the assistance. Lonnie helped her fellow princess while Evie helped her fellow intellect.

"You don't know what you're doing Mal." Maleficent said to her daughter dangerously.

Mal shook her head. "No, mother. I know exactly what I'm doing. I'm working to save this world…all worlds from the likes of you and those like you." She retorted. Both of their eyes glowed green in a magical stare down.

Audrey was the first to recover, she slid out of Jay's arms though took a moment to pat his arm affectionately as she felt her leg with no pain. "You've always had my back ever since this all started." She said to him almost lovingly. Whatever else that could have been said would have to wait.

Jane was not far behind and Carlos set her down. "Feel better?" Carlos asked her. As the girl nodded he added, "The magic wand didn't seem to be with our iPhones and stuff."

"I know." Jane answered, her voice sounding stronger than it had since her arm had broken. It still in fact felt a little sore but it was useable and the pain was gone without the lost feeling. "When I was forced to power down the wand returned to its place on my waist. If I could have reached it and fought the pain I might have been able to morph."

Ben reached his sword and shield and took them. He considered it ironic; not long after being liberated from Paradias's control by Mal and their friends he had almost considered giving up his powers, he could barely stand the weight of them after what had happened. Now he felt much better with them finally in his grasp again, there was no way now he could give up being the Auradon Knight if he could help it. Ally took the iPhones in her hands. "Get them to Mal and the others." He told the blonde. "I'm going to lend Jordan and Aziz a hand."

"You fight for evil and yourself. I fight for good, for my friends and the innocents of this world." Mal said to her mother. "And that makes me, makes us unbeatable." The green in her eyes glowed brighter, this time interlaced with purple. The combination of her own innate powers and the purple ranger powers sent her mother rolling backwards hard…and what Mal didn't know was it wasn't just her power as the purple ranger but from those that came before her as well, a power her mother Maleficent could never understand.

"Will do." Ally promised and started toward the others.

"Not so fast." Jabberwock unleashed a huge fireball straight at the crystal ranger but Jordan turned her Lamp Cannon to the fireball and unleashed a stream of her own magic that turned the fireball into steam. "Not so fast yourself you metal faced freak." The genie girl shot back.

The seven rangers turned as Ally approached them and handed each of them their iPhones. Audrey, Lonnie, and Evie exchanged a very quick hug with their new ranger as they got their iPhones and Jane smiled broadly at her. Mal took her iPhone and smiled. "I'm glad to have you on the team, Ally." She said happily.

"I am glad to be here." Ally said.

"Go see your mom a second." Mal advised, feeling a slight pang of…something as she considered the opposing relationships she had developed with her own mother. "We have a costume change to make."

"Don't jump the gun yet." Ally said. "Morph and we have to join Jordan for the second surprise." She then went over and both mother and daughter embraced.

Audrey looked to Mal, guessing what she was thinking. "Are you okay M...Mal?" She asked. She had almost called the purple haired girl M as Evie had done but felt that might have been crossing a line. They had gotten closer since becoming rangers but she didn't know just how much.

"Just fine." Mal said with a small smile. She would have been okay with that, it was becoming clear now that while Evie might be her first chosen sister, the blue haired girl wouldn't be the last. She made a note to address that later, and not just with Audrey. She looked to the team. "Let's get to work."

The six rangers took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed. Jane took out her wand and transformed. They met with Ally and the nine rangers ran over, kicking their way through the Card Guards. Jordan turned and used her magic to take Alice to the crevice where they had come from.

"This time I will crush you rangers." Jabberwock promised as he started toward them, heedless of the minions in his way.

Jane again focused her energies and froze time. "It should hold longer than the last one." She said, though of course Jordan, Ally and Aziz had no way of knowing what that meant. The white ranger looked to their brand new gold ranger. "Whatever surprise you have, you better hurry."

"Aziz found a journal saying that some original hero killed Jabberwock with a vorpal sword." Jordan told the rest of the team. "It's a special coating." She took out a velvet bag. "And thanks to Zordon and his assistant Alpha Five not only does Auradon have three more rangers but we have vorpal to add to our weapons, so we can destroy Jabberwock."

Lonnie laughed a little. "Oh, yes. Time for some payback." She declared as the team held out their weapons. She looked their new rangers. "You guys in too?"

"We don't need it." Aziz told her with a smile in his voice. "Since this Alpha guy saw this coming, our weapons are already coated."

"Then let's get ready team." Mal said with a smile at her team mates, and a big one for Ben. Jordan coated the weapons with the vorpal dust which was absorbed into their weapons. They could feel the power boost practically thrumming inside their weapons.

It was good timing as the spell broke and Jabberwock was coming toward them now. "I'm getting really tired of this thing." Audrey declared and launched an arrow straight into their large adversary's eye. It stuck in for a moment but he shook it free.

"He still has a size advantage." Evie noted. "What do we do about that?"

"Compensate with power." Jordan answered simply.

Jabberwock shot another fire ball at the team. Evie moved in with her mirror shield and this time reflected the blast right at him. The fire might have been worthless on its own but the addition of the vorpal boost caused the mirror's power to work just as it was intended. "I missed that." Evie said sincerely as she looked down at her weapon.

"Got something else you've probably missed." Ally noted as she gave Carlos and Audrey back their blasters. "Let's make sure these weapons get put to good use."

Jabberwock charged them again and they dodged; Mal, Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Lonnie to one side while Jordan, Ben, Aziz, Ally and Jordan to the other side.

"Mal, bring them together!" Jordan called out to their purple ranger. "We'll keep him occupied."

"Got it." Mal replied and looked to her team. "Our new vorpal coated blaster combined with the neon powers should do it." She said. "So let's bring them together."

Ally unfurled several of her crystal cards and tossed them t Jabberwock. They circled around and slashed him multiple times, it was kind of like lots of annoying flies buzzing around but it was enough of a distraction, combined with the cards own vorpal coating, to do some damage to the monster.

Jordan channeled her magic again into her lamp cannon, hoping that using this as a weapon didn't ruin her home, and channeled it into a blast. The outside of the lamp had been given a vorpal coating, further allowing it to damage Jabberwock.

"I want in on that magic tirade." Jane said to Jordan, and both magical girls exchanged a laugh. Then Jane used the magic wand and sent a burst at Jabberwock, sending him stumbling back again.

"Hey Ben." The silver ranger said to the silver encased knight, it was kind of neat actually. "How about a classic double team?"

The knight nodded. "Let's do it." He agreed. Ben powered up energy into his vorpal coated sword as Aziz gathered energy into his spear. Then the two charged forward and rammed their weapons straight into the large creature.

During all of that Audrey laid her bow on Mal's staff. That was followed by Evie's shield behind them. Jay placed his scimitar down, followed by Lonnie's tessens and Carlos's claw daggers on either side. They could feel the new energy in their blaster and that was before they started sending their neon energies into the weapon. They unleashed a blast at Jabberwock, who fell back hard and rolled, but did not die.

"What are we doing wrong here?" Jordan asked in frustration. "We have the vorpal energy to damage it, we have power…"

They heard Alice from above them where the genie girl had left her. "The fire, aim for the fire in its belly and put it out. That's what keeps Jabberwock alive and extinguishing it will kill him off." She shouted down to her power ranger daughter and her friends.

The groups merged together. "Alright, we've got to put out that fire then." Mal stated. "Any ideas?"

"Double team." Jane answered. "I think Jordan, mine and Ally's weapons can come together just as yours do." She looked to Ben. "You and Aziz will have to do that double team thing that you did so well before."

"We're on it." Ben said. "You can count on us." Aziz agreed, with both of them fist bumping and laughing in agreement. They then turned toward the Jabberwock, powering up their weapons.

"This I have to see." Evie noted as she looked to the white, gold and crystal rangers.

At a nod from the white ranger, the gold ranger held up her lamp cannon. "The cards Ally." Jane instructed and the crystal ranger placed her cards on the tip of the lamp and then placed her hands on the cannon. Jane placed the wand against the top of the cannon and placed her other hand on the bottom of it. "Whenever you're ready guys." Jordan said coyly to Mal and the others.

The six rangers again assembled their weapons. "Remember, aim for the fire." Audrey said and then shouted out, "Ben, Aziz, move."

The two boys scattered on opposite sides to throw off Jabberwock's aim. As he was trying to decide which silver coated warrior to go after the two rangers groups unleashed their own weapons, this time aiming not at the chest or the face but at the stomach of the creature, the energy and magic destroying the metal in front of the monster and then dissipating the fire.

With a roar of...perhaps it was protest or anger or defiance, they would never know, most of the flesh of the monster seemed to fade to nothing as the mechanical components fell to the ground in a massive dust sweeping landing. Some of the fire seemed to reside for just a moment before fading away as well.

"That's the end of Jabberwock." Mal said proudly. "And it serves him right."

"Where'd Maleficent go?" Aziz asked. They looked to see that the purple ranger's mother was nowhere to be seen. But the Red Queen stood at the end of the chamber.

"You're next." Ben said as they turned to the Red Queen.

"So it has indeed come to this." The Queen stated solemnly. She took a step forward. "But it won't be nearly as simple to defeat me as you'd like."

The ranger team took a few more steps toward the queen before the rock wall beside her exploded and their stood the Guardian, the very same large Card Guard that had first taken their magic carpet down when they were journeying down the proverbial rabbit hole.

"Oh, no." Carlos murmured as they looked up at the large creature.


	34. The Wonderland Journey Part 9

On one side stood the purple Auradon Ranger Mal, the Auradon Knight Ben, the Red Auradon Ranger Audrey, the Black Auradon Ranger Jay, the Pink Auradon Ranger Lonnie, the yellow Auradon Ranger Carlos, the white Auradon Ranger Jane, and their new allies; the gold Auradon Ranger Jordan, the silver Auradon Ranger Aziz and the crystal Auradon Ranger Ally.

On the other side stood their last adversary, at least as far as they knew, the Red Queen; dictator of Wonderland. She had come to power after Maleficent had delivered a seed of power to her from an unknown source. And standing in front of her was a large creature that resembled the Card Guards, known as the Guardian.

"First this thing, then you." Aziz promised the Red Queen as he pointed his spear at her. "For Ally and her mother, and for everything you've put Wonderland through in your reign of terror."

The Red Queen looked up at the Guardian. "Crush them." She commanded simply.

The Guardian headed right toward them and tried to bring its huge axe down on the team, and they all dodged to the side.

"More like an executioner than a guardian." Jay noted. "He was clearly misnamed."

"Alright, so how do we take this thing down?" Carlos asked the team in general.

Ally thought a moment. "This thing is a combination of Card Guards." She mused and then looked to Jane, Jordan and Mal. "Do you think that you could use a spell in order to separate that thing out into its basic pieces? Like breaking a deck of cards down to a hand?"

Jordan snickered a bit. "Nice analogy there Ally, I can't imagine where that comparison came from." She drolled. "Still, that's a good idea." The genie girl who was now the gold ranger looked to Mal and Jane. "Any basic spell wouldn't be worth much against that big goon normally, but if we enhance it through me, or more specifically my lamp cannon."

Mal caught on. "It'd give us the punch we needed to make the spell work and bring him down to size." She finished.

"Great, let's go with that." Audrey said as she looked to the three girls. "We'll keep this thing distracted as long as we can while you guys implement Ally's idea."

The three of them backed up a bit as the rest of the ranger's readied their weapons and moved in to attack the giant Card Guardian. It tried to bring the axe down again but Jay and Lonnie, the closest to its strike, dodged out of the way.

"Luckily this thing seems to be as slow as it is large." Carlos pointed out.

Audrey was further back now as she aimed her silver bow. "It seems that way but we can't underestimate this thing. One blow that hits and someone is in trouble." Despite Jordan's potion her broken leg was fresh in her mind. She let off an arrow and it struck across the things shoulder, though it seemed to little effect.

Jane's recently broken arm was also on her mind. And seeing as how this guardian thing was as big as Jabberwock, if not as fast and cruel, she knew something like that happening again could be a real possibility. She had to force herself to focus, though right now it was up to Mal.

Mal's focus was a bit off too as the large guardian tried to take a swing at both her boyfriend and her chosen sister. Luckily both of them were able to dodge out of the way of that too. She closed her eyes and tried to think. She looked to Jane and Jordan. "Alright, hands out, repeat after me. Let's do this." She said.

The two girls followed Mal's lead, each having a hand on Jordan's lamp, plus the genie girl holding her weapon too. "Deadly deck of cards, reshuffle and disperse, this guard shall be no more." Mal recited. The two girls followed her lead and then Jordan shot the magical burst from her lamp.

The Guardian prepared to bring its axe down again, this time against Ally and Aziz when the beam struck it. It seemed to shimmer for a moment before pulling apart, followed by a cloud of smoke. By the time the smoke cleared there were eight Card Guards. But they found themselves surrounded by Audrey, Lonnie, Carlos, Jay, Aziz, Ally, Ben and Evie. One strike from each of the rangers finished off the Card Guards.

"Awesome work guys." Mal said the three of them rejoined their team. She exchanged high fives with Evie and then threw her arms around Ben in a hug. "One big guy down and one to go." She rejoiced.

Jane had to stop herself from throwing her arms around Carlos. Jordan had to try to stop herself from laughing.

Jay looked to Red Queen. "Your enforcer is gone, your guardian is gone. Give it up, you've lost." He stated.

The Red Queen laughed. "Have I?" She questioned. And with that her body started to shift and twist. Her arms grew longer and her hands were replaced by axes. Her stomach distorted to become a miniature version of what Jabberwock had. Armor seemed to engulf most of her body as her two legs became more like four wasp appendages. Her head split into three; one was her own head. The next was very similar to the Jabberwock. The final head was of unknown origin to them all but seemed to vaguely resembled a porcelain dolls head. "It's time for you kids to lose your heads." She declared.

Audrey looked over at him. "I think you jumped the gun there Jay." She noted nervously.

"Yeah, way to go Jay." Carlos drawled in a way that probably would have resulted in the black ranger roughhousing with him had the circumstances been different.

"At least she stayed our size." Lonnie noted as she got into a battle stance.

"That might be the only advantage we have." Aziz noted grimly.

The heads rotated for a moment and then settled on the Jabberwock head. It unleashed a stream of fire that struck all of the warriors back, landing hard.

Ally moved to rise but before she could do so the Red Queen was now in front of her. She slammed her foot against the crystal ranger's chest and raised the axe. "So long ago I wanted to take your mother's head from her body." The Red Queen reminisced. "I'll just have to settle with her daughters instead." She descended her right axe down.

Aziz blocked with his spear while Ben hooked his sword over Red Queen's other arm. She struggled to break free when Lonnie and Audrey struck hard with their weapons and sent her flying back.

"Are you okay Ally?" Evie asked her. The blonde nodded.

The Red Queen channeled fire into her axe heads and then they shot from her body, going out at ramming speeds and slashing each of the rangers repeatedly, sending them fly back hard. Jay tried to block with his scimitar. "This witch is full of tricks." He muttered and then looked to Evie "No offense."

"None taken." The blue haired blue ranger responded easily. The truth was despite being the daughter of Grimholde the Evil Queen, she didn't feel all that connected to whatever magical heritage she should have.

Jane tried to take to the skies to avoid the fire axes and make a counter attack but one of the fiery blades followed her and slammed into her, forcing her back down to the ground.

"That's enough from these things." Lonnie stated as she used one of her tessen to knock it to the ground. Evie did the same with her mirror shield but was unable to reflect it. To their dismay the Red Queen regrew the axe heads.

"Somehow these eleven to one odds just don't seem too fair." Red Queen reflected amused. She raised one of her arms and several Card Guards appeared. She then motioned forward. "Attack."

"I guess that figures." Mused Audrey. "She would be able to summon those things."

"As long as she can't summon a Guardian I think we can handle it." Jordan replied.

Red Queen attacked Mal, Ben and Audrey as the rest of the rangers were roped into combat with the Card Guards. She tried to bring her axes down on Ben but the knight raised his shield to block it. The red and purple rangers leapt out and kicked her back, her face shifting from the Jabberwock to the Red Queen to let out a scream of rage, then shifted to the porcelain doll and shot out black gunk that struck the two girls down and also seemed to leave them sticking the ground. "Gross." Audrey murmured.

"Are you two okay?" Ben asked as he moved to help free his girlfriend and best friend but Red Queen moved forward and slashed the knight hard.

She got ready to again spray the black gunk, this time on Ben, when Evie got in the way with her mirror shield and reflected the shot back at her. It wasn't quick enough though as the Red Queen shifted to the face of the Jabberwock and used the fire to melt the gunk to cinders.

"Great, she just solved that mystery." Jane said as she came over to Mal and Audrey and used a minor fire incantation to burn off the black gunk. A Card Guard tried to attack the white ranger from behind but Mal shot her staff right into its face.

Jay was using his scimitar to battle the Card Guards. He looked to Lonnie who battled right beside him and mused, "I can't believe that these guys make me miss dealing with those soldiers of Paradias's."

Lonnie giggled. "No kidding. Not to mention Jabberwock making me long for a fight with Red Magi or one of those monsters of his. Except maybe that Invader of Nightmares." She added as she took out a Card Guard of her own. She had already decided a physical fight was one thing but a monster that drew out fears like he had with Mal, Evie and Audrey was another altogether.

"Something is seriously wrong with you two." Jordan intervened, only half kidding. "You're actually saying you miss dealing with Paradias in the middle of a fight with things that are actually worse than those." She blasted a few Card Guards with her lamp cannon.

"We've been on the job too long I guess." Carlos added as he took out a Card Guard.

It was as if Red Queen had overheard their conversation. "It won't matter." She said. "Your days on the job are just about done." Her head shifted to that of the Jabberwock and then slammed the axe hands into the ground, causing an earthquake. At the same times she unleashed a fiery beam that traveled along the same path and forced them all flying again.

"We've got to get our acts together." Mal said. "We have to take down the Red Queen."

"At least we took out the Card Guards." Carlos noted.

The Red Queen summoned more of them and Jay looked to the yellow ranger. "Dude, I swear if I had the chance I'd hurt you for saying that." He stated.

"You're going to have to hurt him later." Audrey said to him. "Right now…right now we need an idea."

"I think it's time for a little divide and conquer." Ben said to them. "I'll lead Aziz, Ally, Jordan and Jane against the Card Guards and we'll try to join up again if we can." He looked to Mal and Audrey. "The six of you have to take out the Red Queen."

"No problem at all." Audrey drolled with a roll of her eyes.

Mal didn't see any other choices. "Okay, we'll have to give it a shot." She said. "I think both teams should use the neon armor for a boost too."

All now eleven warriors activated the neon armor that was conceived by Lonnie and designed with help from Jane, Mal and Evie. Ben lead Aziz and the three female rangers into the fight first against the approaching Card Guards.

After a moment for the fights to start Mal, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos and Lonnie jumped over the action to land in front of the Red Queen. "We've about had enough of you." Audrey told the Red Queen. "From one red queen to another, it's time to put you down."

Carlos was about to point out that Audrey was not a queen but was shushed by Jay and Mal, the latter of who whispered, "Just let her go with it, it's a good line." Jay himself was starting to wonder if there was at least one thing the brunette princess was indeed a queen of.

Red Queen laughed manically. "All of you are just so confident in yourselves, and yet I've been the one with the upper hand this entire battle." She remarked. "Not counting the fact that my enforcer had beat you guys down to nothing before your friends back their lucked out."

"Jabberwock is gone." Mal reminded her firmly. "But don't worry about it, because soon you'll be joining him." She took her staff and moved in to engage Red Queen. A swing of the staff was blocked by an axe head and an appendage lashed out and slashed her hard.

Lonnie and Jay moved in and tried a double team attack. Her arms raised and blocked the attacks. Audrey tried to shoot an arrow at her but an appendage wrapped around the arrow and then tossed it hard.

Carlos tried to attack now and the Red Queen sidestepped it and brought the axe down hard on him. Evie moved in and tried to attack but was summarily blocked, then slashed hard.

"Okay time for a different tactic." Mal said as they gathered together.

"Reminding her that we're the good guys." Lonnie suggested humorously. That drew chuckles from the other rangers.

"I'm going to distract Red Queen." Mal told her team. "Now that we're all fully armed again, you guys give her the Auradon Triangle Blast." Her five team mates nodded in reluctant agreement.

Mal flipped her staff in her hands as she approached Red Queen. She laughed. "Haven't you learned your lesson yet purple ranger?" Red Queen asked. "You can't beat me."

"We'll see about that." Mal said and shot her staff at the Red Queen's face. She blocked it with one of her axes and Mal used that to carry her up and catch her in the face with her foot. She set her feet on the axe and flipped over and landed behind her. Red Queen turned around to continue her fight with Mal.

Audrey, Evie and Lonnie lined up together. Jay and Carlos jumped on top of their shoulders and then the five rangers took out their blasters and unleashed the Auradon Triangle Spark at the back of the Red Queen. It took out the appendages and she fell to the ground hard, but wasn't destroyed.

"What do we have to do to take her down?" Carlos wondered as he landed next to Evie. Jay had landed next to Audrey.

The Red Queen rose, but on human legs. She tried to attack Mal with her axe and the purple ranger blocked the attack, coming to a heartening realization; thanks to the forced change of legs she wasn't nearly as speedy as she had been before.

Lonnie noticed that too. "She's slower now." She told her other four team mates. "Let's get in there and help Mal. We might be able to take her now." They nodded in agreement.

All six rangers surrounded the Red Queen and moved in with their weapons. Despite the numbers advantage Red Queen again charged her axes up again and released them, striking the six rangers repeatedly.

Red Queen had been so distracted by dealing with the first team she had completely forgotten about the second team. With the latest Card Guard army down Ally took out her cards. "Let's play a game of fifty two card cut up." She declared.

She unleashed her crystalline cards and they slashed the two flying flaming axes down and still had plenty left over to strike the Red Queen multiple times.

Ben and Aziz moved in, gathering energy in their weapons and struck Red Queen at the same time, sending her flying again.

Mal looked to her team. "Let's finish this off, Auradon blaster style." She declared.

The five nodded. "Right." They agreed.

Jordan fired her Lamp Cannon at the Red Queen and she rose her axe hands to block the bulk of the attack but it still managed to damage her.

By that time the six rangers had assembled the Auradon blaster and unleashed a blast of energy at the Red Queen, which finally destroyed her in a literal blaze of glory. It sent the eleven warriors flying back as well, forcing them to power down.

"Did we at least get her?" Jordan asked.

Jane nodded. "I think so." She answered. When the smoke cleared Jane's assumption had been confirmed.

"Ally!" They heard Alice yell out as she slid down toward her daughter and again threw her arms around her. "Thank the heavens that your safe."

Ally felt herself start to cry again. "I'm so glad that you're okay. I thought I'd lost you." After a moment she pulled away and looked at her friends though she was still crying a little. "Thank you all for coming with me to Wonderland. I don't think I could have done this without you." She said.

Mal smiled at her. "We were glad to be of help." She felt a bit sad seeing Alice and Ally and knowing her mother would never show that affection for her.

"Oh, so glad to be of help." Maleficent said mockingly from the busted up part of the cave that the Guardian had come through. "You are such a disappointment to me Mal." She pointed her staff at the purple haired girl. "At this point I think it's safe to say that I have no daughter."

The one standing closest to her; Audrey, Evie and Ben saw their leader flinch. The blue haired girl was pretty sure that wasn't even a reaction that she would have expected. Angrily she stepped forward. "The only disappointment here is you, and she deserves better than you anyway." She stated.

Ben placed his hand on Mal's arm. "Turn your back on Mal and you do it to your own detriment, not hers." He agreed.

"Never mind guys." Mal said, though her chosen siblings knew her words weren't as flippant as she would have liked them to think it was. "We won mother. Unless you want to fight us, it's time for you to leave."

"Indeed it is Mal." Maleficent said. "This round has indeed gone to you but this isn't over." The evil fairy then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Mal?" Audrey asked as she looked to their leader.

Mal shook her head. "I'm fine Audrey." She said, more sharply than she had really intended. "We did what we came here for, and then some." She looked to Ally. "We helped you rescue your mother and we saved Wonderland. It's time go back to Auradon Prep." She turned her back and started to walk out of the cave. "We don't want to fall behind too much more in our classes." She tried to add as a joke.

Jordan, Jane and Carlos were right behind her. Aziz, Ally and Alice weren't far behind. Ben exchanged glances with Audrey and Evie before they started out with Jay also by them.

Very little was said as they descended the mountain and managed to find the dock again. By that time things were starting to change in Wonderland. The seas were starting to clear up, another influence of the corruption the Red Queen had brought upon her rise to power. Word was that several other minions that Red Queen commanded, along with a vast amount of Card Guards, had suddenly disappeared. As a result Walrus was more than happy to give them another free ride.

They managed to avoid any other encounters with Mad Hatter as they crossed the forest. "I must say, that was indeed well done." They heard and a moment later Cheshire cat reappeared. "Alice, it is truly good to see you again." That ingratiating smile still remained.

Ally had secretly hoped that with Wonderland's change the Cheshire cat would look as Alice had described him so long ago, a fat purple cat. But this one was still tall, gaunt, and not at all purple. "No thanks to you, you mangy cat." Alice said though it sounded like a joke. "You could have gotten me out sooner. Or at all."

"Sooner, perhaps." Cheshire cat conceded with a nod. "But as for at all…well, who do you think sent the message to your daughter in the other lands?"

"What?" Evie asked. She didn't understand that the other lands was what the Wonderland denizens called Auradon.

Mal didn't know that either but she made the obvious conclusion. "You were the one who told Ally that her mother was missing." Mal said softly. "When she called to talk to her."

"But of course." Cheshire cat responded. Lonnie suspected he would have taken a bow if he had been able to. "For me opposing the Red Queen and her allies would have been akin to suicide. But for the esteemed Power Rangers, the legacy of the once great wizard, anything is possible."

"And if we had failed?" Jay had to ask.

"Then you would not have been fit for the torch." Cheshire cat said as if it were obvious. "And Wonderland would have continued its descent into madness and cruelty. Auradon would have been no better, as without you and your powers Paradias would have likely taken over." He shrugged a bit "You can't possibly have expected that the other rangers are so devoid of their own problems that they could spare others indefinitely." No one really knew what to say to that one.

"We need to go home now." Alice said to Cheshire cat, breaking the silence. "Can you show us how?"

"You actually want to return to your dreary existence?" Cheshire cat teased as he walked toward the large tree stump they had originally come from. "If you must, the stump will be more than able to take you on your way." He then faded away again, the smile the last to go.

Soon they realized what Cheshire cat meant when they entered the hollowed out stump only to feel the bottom rise like an elevator, one that had not been active when the Red Queen had dominated the land.

Though it had seemed like weeks since they had left to go to Wonderland, in reality it had only been a couple of days. Upon arriving back in Auradon Jane texted her mother and asked to meet her while Evie texted Doug to get together. "I can't wait to tell my mother that we have three new rangers on our side."

"I'm going to walk my mother back home." Ally said to them. "I'll see you all tomorrow morning."

"Count on it." Audrey said. "We have a lot to show you. And you too." She looked to Aziz.

"Mal." Ben took her hand. "You want to get a bite to eat now?" He asked her.

The purple haired girl smiled but it seemed hollow. "Thanks, but no. I feel kind of worn out. I think I'm going to go take a nap." She leaned up and kissed Ben on the cheek gently and then looked to Evie. "See you at our room later." She said and as Evie nodded she walked away.

Audrey and Evie again exchanged worried looks. "Poor Mal." They heard Lonnie say now.

Jordan nodded solemnly too. As they walked back to Auradon Prep, minus Mal who had gone on ahead, and minus Ally and Alice, she said to them softly. "We saved Mrs. Liddell and maybe even Wonderland, but I think at least one of us paid a heavy price for it."

None of the others could disagree with it. Evie was the closest one of them who could even begin to understand what Mal must be feeing after what had happened.


	35. A Gift to the Fallen

As the eleven warriors descended the steps Jane said to their newest rangers Ally and Aziz. "Now I have to warn you this is going to be a lot to take in. It's more…technologically sophisticated than any place in Auradon." The two nodded in understanding and then they all came into the command center.

Fairy Godmother looked up and smiled. "Ah, welcome to the command center." She said happily. "I'm glad that you were able to find some sort of powers to help Jane and the others out. Both of you will certainly be a welcome addition to the team." She looked to Jordan. "And much like Jane you get to take your talents onto the field directly."

"Yeah, I can't wait to see what missions can possibly top what we just went through." The genie girl noted dryly.

Jane went over to the edge of the nearest console and picked up three iPhones. She handed them to Aziz, Ally and Jordan. Each of them again saw their chosen color going up their arms and through their bodies as the gems once again bonded with their holders. "Your iPhones aka morphers." Jane said to them. "You've now been fully added into our part of the morphing grid."

Evie looked over to her chosen sister. Mal had been quiet as of late, and had been the last one to descend the stairs. The blue haired girl could understand why. When they had first come to Auradon she had confessed her mother the Evil Queen scared her a little. Mal had said she wanted her mother to be proud of her, and while Evie doubted that she had expressed everything they now knew that as long as Mal stayed on the side of good that would never happen; in fact she had just all but disowned Mal for choosing good.

Jane walked over to stand next to Doug at a console. "We're scanning Auradon now to see if we can figure out what kind of zord, or zords, that you three have." He told the new rangers and then looked to Jane. "We've even factored in the chance that you could be part of that too." Of all the rangers to have gone to Wonderland starting out, only Jane lacked a zord.

"I hope your mother is alright." Fairy Godmother said to Ally.

The blonde nodded. "She seems to be." She answered. "She's already out again today, but at least she's sticking to Auradon this time. She's having tea."

"With my parents." Lonnie added. "At least their safe…at least as safe as one can get in a place plagued by Paradias."

"There were no attacks from Paradias or Sermaya while we were gone?" Mal asked Fairy Godmother from her place by the exit. While the two new rangers were exploring the command area, with Jane and Jordan helping Doug out, the other five rangers had taken a seat at the bench area. Ben stood by Mal, though it seemed to bring her little comfort recently. Everything seemed to be of little comfort to her recently.

"Nothing from Paradias." Fairy Godmother confirmed. "I was suspicious about that at first and Alpha even had a couple of the ranger teams standing by just in case, but now on reflection I suspect he was waiting for the outcome of Maleficent's trip to Wonderland." If things had worked out it seemed as if Mal's mother had planned to return with Red Queen, Jabberwock, and an army of Card Guard's and mutant wasps to add to Paradias's army of soldiers, monsters, Nerissa and Chad the dark knight.

"We have some evidence that Sermaya has been busy." Doug filled in. "Nothing offensive yet, but from people who work in our near the forested areas it's clear that he's looking for something, probably multiple things."

"Survivors of his own civilization no doubt, like that Chiron guy." Ben supplemented. At one point Sermaya had expressed interest in getting the young king to help rebuild his society but that offer seemed to have been revoked. Now he was the enemy, same as Mal and the rangers.

"They could be anywhere." Audrey agreed with a small frown. "How many of his people were really eliminated? Could we reach a point where we're going to wish that he and his people had never been revived?" She mused.

"It would help if we could get a firm idea of what happened to that civilization in the first place." Lonnie said softly. "Really all we know is that something happened that put him and Chiron and who knows how many others, into some kind of slumber and that it somehow allowed us to rise." It wasn't much to go on and history was understandably lax in that information.

"Hey guys, I'm not feeling well." Mal revealed. It was true; she felt sick inside herself again but not for any physical reasoning. "I'm going to go lie down for a while. If something comes up, give me a call." She started up the stairs with her friends and boyfriend watching. By now Doug and Fairy Godmother had heard about what had happened with Maleficent as well.

Jane's mother looked to Evie, Ben and Audrey; the three who seemed to be closest to her. "Go on." She encouraged. Without another word the two rangers and the knight got up and went to find Mal.

The purple haired girl had already gotten up the stairs and was halfway across camps when she heard Ben call out, "Mal, wait up." For the second time in her life she dreaded seeing Ben; the first time had been just before the coronation when she had been uncertain if she was going to take the magic wand back to her Maleficent or not.

"Mal." She heard Audrey call now and Evie a moment later, "Mal, hang on." She turned to face her three friends, not sure what to expect or how anything would work out.

"I think it's time we talked M." Evie said softly. The look of empathy in her blue haired friend's eyes almost set her flayed nerves ablaze.

"We need to talk about what happened at Wonderland." Ben agreed.

"With Maleficent." Audrey added softly. She took a quick breath. "I know how you must be feeling…" She started out.

Mal wasn't really thinking. Despite the difference between a former friend and a mother she wasn't processing the fact that of all of them only Audrey and Ben had felt rejection from someone they cared about too, making their situations very similar and more so since that person was now working to kill them. She just snapped out, "There's no way you could know what I'm feeling Audrey. Your life is too perfect for that." That seemed to shock her second in command.

Evie tried to reach out. "Mal." She said softly.

Mal held up her hand. "Just stop Evie." She said firmly, almost coldly. "There's really nothing to talk about. What's done is done." She stated simply. "I just need to go for a walk."

"I'll come with you." Ben tried to offer.

"No, Ben." Mal again said almost coldly. "I want go alone. Contrary to popular belief, I don't always need my boyfriend hovering around me." She looked to Audrey and Evie. "Or anyone else for that matter." With that she turned and walked away quickly, before something could crack.

Audrey wasn't even quite sure what happened. She and Mal weren't best friends starting out and really they had only learned to cooperate by necessity, but the familiarity had brought them the sort of closeness that she never would have expected that reaction from Mal. Ben thought it to Audrey's credit that that hadn't resulted in a full on war between the two, like it would have months ago.

"Do you think we should go after her anyway?" Evie asked the two of them.

"No." Audrey said simply. "If she wants to be alone, let her." She took a deep breath. "She needs time to work it all out in her head." She looked into the sky. "Rejection hurts no matter what." She spoke from experience with her friend and with Ben as her former boyfriend. "Sometimes it just has to be worked out alone. For a while any way." She then looked in Mal's direction. "I just hope she realizes when it's time to stop being alone and come to her friends." She turned around to go back to the command center and Evie just barely heard her say, "Even if I'm not one of them." It reminded the blue haired girl that of the three of them who had been affected by Invader of Nightmares, Audrey may have had dealt with it the least.

"It seems as if the little brat has had her feelings all hurt." Chad said with amusement as he watched Mal stalk away from Evie and his former friends. He really wanted to reach through the screen and give Audrey another good slap, maybe more.

"She has the right to be hurt when she's the little rat who betrayed her own mother?" Maleficent asked with amusement. "Such a self-centered little child, and not in a good way." She paced the bridge a little. "I mean if she had stabbed me in the back to take my powers and my throne I could certainly understand it, but to turn into one of those 'pretty pink princesses'." She waved her hand dismissively. "Oh please."

"None the less this sets us up for a very interesting opportunity." Paradias noted with amusement. "So the purple ranger wishes to be all alone. Well I think that we can make that arrangement for her." He said and laughed.

The next day passed, but aside from occasional glimpses of the purple haired girl throughout the school day no one seemed to be able to get near her. Evie had even had a hard time sleeping because Mal had never come back to the dorm room. Not wanting to worry the others even more so she had not told them that but had not had any luck searching for Mal on her own.

"I wish there was something we could do to help her." Lonnie noted softly.

"She's made it clear that she doesn't want our help." Audrey said simply. That proclamation had hurt them all, with the possible exceptions of Jordan and Aziz who hid it well if they were hurt, but Audrey suspected only she, her boyfriend, and her chosen siblings felt that hurt so clearly. Of course the brunette princess had thought that she and Lonnie might have fallen into the chosen sibling category too, but now maybe not so much.

Their iPhones went off, but this wasn't a text or a phone call. This was an automatic monster alert that was programmed to go off since there was almost no way for the command center to be staffed full time since everyone was a student at Auradon Prep, except of course for their headmistress. The screens pulled up an image of a monster that had eyes all over its body. Its mouth was toward the bottom of the body and it seemed to float as it had no legs.

"That is one weird looking monster." Carlos noted.

"More like disgusting." Jordan said. "We need to find Mal."

"We don't have the time for that." Jane reminded them. "We're going to have to go ahead. Mal got the same alert we did." _Assuming she has her iPhone with her._ Jane added glumly. She hated to think that Mal would forgo her ranger responsibilities but when in pain and despair anything was possible.

"Jane is right." Ben agreed. "Mal will catch up with us." The group stood up and left the school grounds. Ben formed his sword and shield and transformed, Jane took out the magic wand and transformed, and the rest of the team (bar Mal) pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

Finding the monster was easy enough. Not to mention finding his group of soldiers and Chad who was already in the guise of the dark knight. "Looks like you're one short Bennie-Boo." Chad mocked with a laugh.

"That sounds even worse coming from you than it does Audrey or Mal." Jay noted with annoyance.

"Attack." Chad ordered the soldiers and looked to the monster. "Restrict Eyes; prepare to strike as soon as you get your shot." He then followed behind the soldiers. He aimed for Audrey, slashing her across the chest hard. He moved in to continue the attack when Ben got in the way and started to fight him instead.

"Chad really seems to have developed a real dislike for Audrey." Ally noticed as she flung a few of her crystallized cards at a few soldiers. If someone had told her days ago that cards would be a lethal weapon she probably would have scoffed at that. Now she knew that anything could be used as a weapon.

"You don't know the half of it." Lonnie replied to her softly as she took out two soldiers.

Aziz and Jordan ended up fighting back to back, an ironic position considering the friendship between their two families, particularly their fathers. Another group of soldiers moved in and now Ally was helping them to fight as well.

While Ben was clashing with Chad, Jay had made his way to Audrey and helped her. The two of them then returned to helping Lonnie, Carlos and Jane fight. They were discomfited to see that so far Ma hadn't shown up.

Restrict Eyes launched himself up into the air and unleashed a flurry of energy that struck the gold, silver and crystal rangers. They fell back hard. "Have a nice landing rangers?" He asked, an odd sight since his mouth was right where most bipedal creatures had their stomachs. "Allow me to take some of the pressure off." Several of his eyes released a paralyzing flash that seemed to stun the three rangers before a huge inhalation of wind swallowed them up into his mouth.

"That's just nasty." Lonnie noted with disgust.

"Give us back our friends." Audrey demanded of the monster.

"I don't think so." Restrict Eyes responded with a laugh. "But don't worry, I intend for you to join them soon enough."

Chad blocked a strike from Ben, and then slammed his shield into the knight's chest. He fell hard and Chad prepared to bring his sword down on his former friend. "I just keep getting into this position with both you and Audrey, but at least in this position she would be more fun." He said cruelly. "You're just in the way. Good bye old friend."

From out of nowhere Mal, fully transformed, leapt out and kicked him in the chest hard before he could try to finish Ben off. "You know if that's how you view your friends than I am so glad we never got to that point." She said dryly as she struck him hard in the chest with her staff. She then swept the staff down against his legs to knock him off of his feet. She helped her boyfriend up. "Sorry I'm late, I had to fight my way out of the workout center."

Ben nodded. "Don't sweat it." He said and laughed a little at his own lame joke. He was slightly disappointed that Mal hadn't even bothered to tell him it was lame. She turned back to look at the others.

"Where are Jordan, Aziz and Ally?" Mal asked as the two of them approached their team.

"Nice of you to show." Jay couldn't help but get off a bit harshly. Evie sent him a bit of a glare as Audrey tried in vain to hush him.

"Paradias's newest monster absorbed them." Lonnie told the purple ranger simply. "And wants to do the same thing to us."

"Then let's get our friends back and make sure this eye sore is a thing of the past." Mal said.

Restrict Eyes raised its hands and sent out a huge wave of energy compromised of gold, silver and opaque like crystal that struck all of the eight fighters. Both Ben and Mal landed hard separate and apart from the others.

Chad was up now as well as he approached Ben. "Have I mentioned how tired I'm getting of your girlfriend?" He asked.

Ben was just starting to stand up as well. "I think I missed it the first five or six hundred times but I think I'm catching it now." The young king replied sarcastically.

Restrict Eyes released more beams of gold, silver and opaque like crystal at the other rangers followed by the same flash that paralyzed Aziz and the two girls. Then as the attacks sent the other rangers into the air Restrict Eyes turned around and swallowed them up too.

"No!" Mal yelled out as she tried to stand, but lost her balance and fell again.

Chad struck Ben hard and forced him to power down. He glanced over at the purple ranger. "Isn't this what you wanted all along Mal?" He asked with a laugh. "Or at least since you returned to Auradon? To be left alone, to wallow in your misery and despair?" He turned to Ben now who was starting to rise shakily. "Well now you can have your wish."

With a thunderous roar Mal's dragon zord appeared on the screen, releasing what she would almost describe as a dragon's rage, a stream of fire balls that sent Restrict Eyes and Chad flying backwards. Mal was already on her feet and at Ben's side. The two of them got on her zord's back and flew away.

"Fairy Godmother, can you read me?" Mal asked as into her iPhone as Ben leaned against her to catch his breath. "Can you read me?" She repeated.

A faint reply came back. "I can hear you child. We saw what happened to Jane the rangers." She said softly.

"Are they okay?" Mal asked her. "How can I get them back?"

"Their readings are stable for now, it seems to be like some kind of stasis." Fairy Godmother told the purple haired girl. "As for how we get them back…well, I'm sorry to say I don't know how to do that yet."

Mal let out a small sigh. "Keep me informed please." She requested and then hung up. She noticed that Ben seemed to be directing her dragon zord to his castle. "Why are we going to your castle?" She asked him.

"My mother has one of the biggest collections of books in the entire kingdom." Ben answered her. "Even bigger in some respects than Auradon Preps. I thought we could see if we can find anything useful in them."

"Alright." Mal agreed. They made their way to the castle in silence. The dragon zord dropped them off on a balcony to the library before taking off into the skies again to wait for their next move.

"Check the books over there." Ben advised to Mal. "I'll check some of them on the wall by the doors."

"Ben, are you okay?" Mal asked. "Chad looked like he did a number on you."

"I'll be fine." Ben assured her. "His 'number' on me is nothing compared to the number that your mother did to you." He added.

Mal stiffened just a little. "My mother did not beat me up." She reminded him formally.

"Not physically." Ben agreed with a nod as he went over to the books he had said he would look at. "Not in the same way he fights me, or attacks Audrey." The purple haired girl flinched just a bit at the reminder that Chad had taken to striking against the brunette princess every chance he had. "But in your heart, in your soul, Maleficent struck a blow to you rather you want to admit to me, or your best friend, or your chosen sister or not."

Mal frowned as part of her realized he was right. She tried to shove that away. "Let's just find a way to help everyone, okay?" She asked and moved to the area of books she was to look into.

A little bit of time passed. She could hear Ben flipping through pages but words had not been exchanged between the two teens. This was their first lovers quarrel, or as close as they had come to it. She knew that and part of her felt bad about it. The other part…still felt so numb.

Belle had just taken some water up to her son and now set one down for Mal as well. "I've tried to be a good mother to Ben, all of his life." She said conversationally.

Mal couldn't understand where this was leading too. None the less she responded with, "And you've done a great job. He's a good king, a good friend, and a good boyfriend."

Belle sat in front of Mal. "I never told Adam or Ben this, but when I found out I was pregnant with him I was scared." She confessed softly.

Despite herself Mal hesitated and set the book down to look at her. "I asked my mom if at any point she was scared to have me and she said no." She replied. "That she knew everything would be fine despite the fact I never heard her say word one about her parents."

"My mother died when I was young." Belle told her. "I was raised by my father." She smiled faintly. "That was where I got my love of literature from."

Mal frowned again. "I don't know who my father is. I don't have any siblings." She looked to Belle. "Do you have other children besides Ben?"

Belle shook her head. "I'm sorry to say he doesn't." She leaned back a bit. "When I was pregnant with Ben I was so afraid I'd mess up. I never really had my mother around to guide me on anything. I was afraid that I'd somehow mess things up with Ben." She said.

"You didn't." Mal said confidently. "You raised a good son. He's really special to who know him." Her voice softened a bit. "Especially to me."

"Ben told me that something happened in Wonderland. That it hurt you deeply, and as a result it hurt him too." Belle said as she leaned forward and took Mal's hands into her own. "He didn't say what it was though. I hate seeing him in such pain, and I hate seeing it in others."

Mal looked down at the other woman's hands in her own. She searched her memory for any signs of comfort, of affection, from her mother as she grew up. She didn't recall any. She had received more comfort from Evie since they had become friends than she ever had from her mother. She bit her lip and looked down again.

"I'd like to help you if I can." Belle said to her gently. "It might sound weird to say this, but I'd like to help you as your mother would."

"You can't." Mal said a bit too sharply. She expected to get lectured but Ben's mother said nothing and watched her. "It's not possible to help like another person would when that person never did that kind of help." Now Mal leaned back against the couch she sat in. "My mother was a great teacher, she knows history well…but being an actual mother…was another matter entirely."

Belle stayed silent as she let her son's girlfriend work through her thoughts and feelings. Finally Mal continued on. "Evie, Jay, Carlos and I were making cookies not long after coming to Auradon Prep." She wasn't going to mention the love spell she was casting on Ben as the reason for it. "Lonnie came in and after saying it needed chocolate chips, she proceeded to ask us about that. If after a hard day if our parents made us soft, warm cookies with a big glass of milk, and they made us laugh and put everything into perspective." She thought of Lonnie and her friends trapped in Restrict Eyes and had to swallow a lump in her throat.

"I take it that reaction was a mystery to you and your friends." Belle surmised.

Mal nodded. "I told Lonnie it's different where we come from, because it is." She tried to shrug it off but to Belle it was clear that failed. "Lonnie thought that even villains had to love their kids." She bit her lip again. "I…wanted to believe that. Somethings just have to be universal, you know?"

Belle nodded again as she moved from the chair to sit by Mal, feeling they were reaching the heart of the matter now. "I would think so. It's been commented on before that my love got through to make Ben's father the man he is today." She replied softly.

"It's not. Universal I mean." Mal said to her. She remembered joking to her chosen siblings their parents would be disappointed but ultimately proud if they failed to get the wand before having each of them, herself included, face the reality that if they failed they were probably goners. "I'm not sure our parents ever actually loved us. My mother didn't…she..." She stopped to look at Belle. "You know where she is now, right?"

"Adam and I know that Paradias set her free." Belle confirmed for Mal softly. Truth is all of the parents of the rangers knew.

"She was in Wonderland, she helped set up what happened there so long ago." Mal confessed. She was sure Ben had not told anyone about that one, it didn't have to be said technically. "Ever since she came back she kept telling me I was a disappointment to her for turning good, for being that." She nodded to her iPhone that held the essence of her powers. "And she told me it was safe to say she had no daughter." She tried not to cry now as she had then but this time her composure cracked.

"Oh, honey." Belle said soothingly and wrapped the young girl in a hug. She could tell by the purple haired girl's reaction that this sort of affection startled her. She might be used to it from her friends or her boyfriend, but from an adult, one who could arguably hate her, this was something new. "Your mother wasn't right to say that."

"But I disappointed her." Mal said through her tears as she unconsciously wrapped her arms around Belle now. "How can a mother live with that? How does…how does Cinderella live with that?"

Bell kissed the top of her head gently. "A lot of mothers, the good ones, learn to see beyond the current problem to see the core of their children. They make bad decisions sometimes, even our children. But they're good people at their core. As for Cinderella, well she has put a lot more energy into Callie, her young daughter." That surprised Mal, she didn't know that Chad had a younger sister; someone else he had abandoned in consumption by evil. Belle pulled back gently to look into Mal's eyes. "And you are a good example of that. Everything that any mother should be proud of, even one such as Maleficent. This isn't any fault of yours at all."

Mal felt her tears flowing even more now despite any attempt she made to keep them away. "You know, I never said anything to Aurora or to Ben until afterwards, but I always thought Audrey was a little self-absorbed." She said to Mal, making the purple haired girl remember how she snapped at Audrey the other day. "Aurora still always saw the best in her, as a mother always should. And furthermore, it was you and your friends that finally brought out the girl in Audrey that her mother always knew she could be. I would be proud, very proud, to call you my daughter Mal." She declared and kissed her on the forehead lightly.

Mal wiped tears from her eyes. "I…" She was speechless and gathered herself up again. "When I confronted my mother in Wonderland, I had this thought…that I would prefer to make someone like you proud of me over someone like her." She said and then threw her arms around Belle again. "Thank you so much, for making me feel something good, that my own mother never could."

Belle hugged her for a few moments and rubbed her back gently before Mal pulled away. "Thank you." She repeated softly. "But I have some make up to do with my friends, and that starts by getting them out of that bizarre eye creature thing."

The mention of the monster's looks made Belle cock her head. "Eye…I think I have your answer." She told Mal and stood up. "I'll be right back." She promised, placing her hand on Mal's shoulder affectionately before walking out quickly.

Mal felt eyes upon her and looked up to see Ben coming down the stairs. "Was that part of your ingenious plan?" The purple haired girl asked teasingly as she wiped some tears from her cheeks. Her smile was one that Ben was glad to see again.

"No." Ben answered gently as he came over and sat next to her now. "I wish I had thought that far ahead." He took her hands gently in his own and squeezed. "I'm glad my mother got that out of you. It hasn't been that long in reality but it seems that like that had eaten at you for a long time."

Mal leaned back and laid her head on Ben's chest, listening to his heartbeat a moment. "It has." She finally admitted. "That thought has certainly plagued me since we came to Auradon. I can only imagine that it has done the same to my friends, Evie most certainly." She began to play with a couple of his fingers. "That last fight in Wonderland only exacerbated that thought." She looked up at Ben now. "I was so mean to all of you, especially you and Audrey."

"All of our shoulders are here for you and your friends to weep on, or confide in, or whatever." Ben promised. "My mother would say the same thing to you too, something I think you realize now."

"She's a good mother." Mal said. "A good person. I'd be honored to be her daughter."

Ben kissed her forehead gently. "Someday you will be." The young king said softly, he could fully say right now he intended to marry her someday. "But for right now it'll just have to work another way instead."

Mal leaned up then and the two kissed each other softly. "Right now, I'll let it work however it has too." She said after pulling away. She sat up then but still kept a hold of his hand. "First things first; I want our friends back." She declared.

They turned to see Belle walk in. She smiled at her son and his girlfriend, whom she had learned so much about this day. She held up a small golden orb. "This is a jewel called the dragon's eye." She revealed. "If we place this on your staff, it should enhance your powers."

"It's beautiful." Mal said softly and then realized something else. "And priceless. I can't…"

"You can." Belle said to her gently but firmly. "And if you want to save your friends now you must. Now, summon your staff."

Mal nodded as she and her beloved stood. She summoned her staff and Belle placed the jewel above the staff's point. It formed a small oaken topping around the top, like a wind chime in some respects before connecting to the staff. Mal held it up and whispered, "The Dragon Staff."

"Go." Belle said to Mal and Ben. "Free your friends and bring them home." She wrapped both of them in a hug. Ben naturally returned the embrace, but to Belle's slight shock Mal did as well. She then led them to the balcony where somehow Mal's dragon zord had been waiting.

Mal looked to her boyfriend. "Let's get to work." She said confidently. She took out her iPhone and input her numbers, 6319, and transformed. Ben formed his sword and shield and then combined them to transform into Auradon Knight.

Finding them was easy enough as it seemed they had been waiting for Mal and Ben to come back. They both had heard Chad saying something about getting bored and asking Restrict Eye if he could let Audrey come out to play. That pissed both of them off further. "We'd hate to have you bored Chad." Mal said.

"About time you two came back." Restrict Eye said smugly. "Come to join your friends?"

"I've come to join them alright." Mal stated. "In this world." She looked to Ben. "You handle Chad, I got this clown." He nodded in agreement.

"You think you can stop me with the might of all of your friends behind me?" Restrict Eye questioned and unleashed a stream of energy that was in all of her friends colors; red, blue, yellow, black, pink, white, gold, silver and crystal.

The purple ranger dodged the attack. "You have their energies, not their hearts." Mal corrected the creature. "Their hearts are with me, no matter what I may be like on any given day." She lashed out and struck him hard with her new and improved dragon eye staff.

"Fat lot of good that will do you." Eye Restrict said and again tried to unleash the same energy stream at Mal. The purple ranger raised her staff and let it collect in the dragon's eye before turning around and reflecting it straight back at her adversary.

Eye Restrict when flying and as he did so several explosions followed it, ultimately resulting in the release of her friends. Mal was over by their side in a flash. "Are you guys okay?" She asked them.

"That was kind of nasty." Lonnie said to her. "I'd rather not do that again."

Evie didn't know why but something had changed in her friend since she last saw her. "M, are you okay?" She asked her.

Mal looked to her chosen sister. "Just fine, E. Finally me again." She replied, squeezing Audrey's shoulder gently before standing again. "Just sit back and relax. This one is on me."

"You can't take me solo purple ranger." Restrict Eye taunted.

Mal leapt at him, slamming her staff into one of the eyes hard. She then turned around and struck again and then kicked him back hard. She then did something she had never been able to do but had seen Ben do it before; she collected energy into her staff and then leapt at the monster, bringing it down on the him and causing him to fall. As she turned her back on the monster to start toward her friends the monster exploded.

Ben and Chad clashed pretty evenly but the explosion startled Chad as he saw Paradias's latest monster reduced to nothing in a blaze. "Looks like you girlfriend's feeling fine again." He said regretfully. "We'll have to continue this one later." With that he vanished.

Mal was already to her friends. Lonnie laughed a bit. "When did you staff grow an eye?" She asked.

Mal thought about trying to respond to the humor but instead decided on honesty. "Right after I faced the truth." She said. Ben had come back over to them now and they all powered down. She looked at all of her friends, saving her last glance for Audrey and Evie, though Ben was behind both of them. "I was lying to myself about the impact my mother's dismissal…disownment had over me." She said softly.

"It's only natural M." Evie said as she took her hand. "It's never an easy thing to go through something like that." In truth each of the isle kids had considered the strong possibility that they had been disowned by their parent, but until now none of them had had to face that.

"True." Mal allowed and looked to Audrey now. "But I let my emotions get in the way of the truth; that rejection hurts. Regardless of whether it comes from a parent or a friend." She reached out to clasp one of Audrey's hands with her own. "You and Ben were both rejected by Chad for his own stupidity and then I rejected you, Ben and Evie," She looked to the rest of her friends. "All of you really. Just because I was blinded by my feelings. That shouldn't have happened and I'm sorry."

Mal and Evie both reached out and hugged her as Audrey said, "It's okay Mal. I get it, I'd feel devastated if my parents were to reject me." She sometimes silently wondered if an argument could be made that she had done earned that rejection.

"I can't promise I'm over that." Mal said softly to them. "But I will do my best not to shut you guys out." She took a deep breath. "If anything I really need all of you guys, now more than ever."

"We're not going anywhere Mal." Jay promised as he rubbed her arm.

"Far from it." Carlos agreed.

Lonnie gave her a hug now. "We're here for you Mal."

Jane did the same. "Forever."

Jordan rubbed her arm gently now. "We'll all help you through this. Whatever it takes." She promised.

Ally embraced her now. "You helped me with my problems, and I promise I will do what I can to help you with yours." She vowed.

Aziz smiled a bit at her. "Don't worry Mal. We're here for you, just as Lonnie said." He commented.

Mal smiled at them all as she headed toward Ben and wrapped her arms around his. "Thank you." She said to Ben and then to her friends, old and new. "Thank you all."

Together they started back toward Auradon Prep. Lonnie looked to Ben. "I don't what you did, but it worked miracles for Mal. She's on a good start to dealing with the issue."

Ben laughed and kissed Mal on the head gently before saying to Lonnie, "Don't thank me Lonnie. I couldn't give her what she needed to start this recovery. What she needed most," And now he looked at the sky and thought of Belle. "Was a mother's touch."


	36. Reaching Out

"The best offense is sometimes a good defense." Nerissa declared as she stood in front of Maleficent and Paradias. On either side of her was Chad and Reviveslime. "To that end I present to you our newest creation Guardian Exxod." She stepped back and a large stony, muscular creature came onto the bridge, the metal echoing with his footsteps.

"Impressive." Paradais commented.

"What precisely can this guardian of yours do?" Maleficent questioned the sorceress.

Nerissa summoned a soldier in the middle of the bridge and then Exxod summoned two giant stone pillars appeared on either side of the soldier and then crushed him into nothingness. "I can make that happen slower, I can make them bigger." Exxod stated. "I can trap the rangers and draw out their agony all the while making sure they can't escape. Even the dragon's eye on the purple ranger's staff won't be able to break through it."

"Reviveslime, go with him." Paradias ordered. "Bring those rangers to their knees."

Mal and Evie sat at one of the lunch tables as they waited for everyone else to show up. "I can't side step that any longer." The purple haired girl said to her. "I am sometimes scared of my mother." She sighed a bit. "She's demanding, ruthless, and cruel."

"Almost like my mother." Evie noted. "But…" She started.

Mal understood what she was going to say. "But they're still our mothers." She concluded. She sighed a bit. "I talked to Belle a bit last night, or I let her talk while I asked. She told me a few things about her time with Ben and I…wished I could feel that way."

"What did she say?" Evie asked curiously.

"She talked about taking Ben horseback riding. He hated it really, ironic considering his zord now." Mal said softly. "But he kept at it; for her." She shrugged a bit. "My mother never taught me anything except what she could of magic and history. We never rode horses or…or made cookies or anything like that."

"I know what you mean." Evie said softly. "All I ever got from my mom was make up tips, and how I'd never be as pretty as she is." She sighed a bit. "I'm glad I have you and everyone else M."

"I am too E." Mal agreed happily. They saw Audrey and Lonnie coming first and as soon as they sat down Mal hugged Audrey and Evie hugged Lonnie. Both Auradon girls looked kind of confused. "Did we miss something?" Audrey asked.

"We were both just saying how happy we are to have each other." Evie said.

"In that case, bring it on." Lonnie replied with a laugh and hugged Evie back.

"You know, you're right Evie. That's why you're one of the smart kids." Audrey said with a laugh of her own and hugged Mal briefly. "I'm sorry about your mom Mal." She said.

"I know you are." Mal replied. "But…it'll be okay. I didn't lose a mother I lost a parent. What I got was a bunch of sisters, a couple of brothers, and even someone who is more a mother to me in one day than my parent was in my life."

Carlos with Dude in tow, Jane and Jay showed up. Mal stood up and gave both of them hugs, followed by Evie giving them hugs. Jane had no problems with it while Carlos and Jay seemed a bit shocked but also went with it. When Jay sat next to Audrey he couldn't help but tease, "Are you going to give me a hug too?"

"You wish." Audrey said with a flirtatious smile before leaning over anyway and hugging him against her. "Actually, considering all you've done for me lately, I'd say you earned it." That took him really off guard.

"Come on, break it up." Aziz said teasingly as he walked by them with Ben and Ally beside him. Evie and Mal gave Ally a hug each. Neither of them knew Aziz all that well but Evie still hugged him anyway. Mal made her way to Ben and gave him a hug and kiss on the lips.

"And they harass us." Audrey noted with amusement as she sat back down again.

Jordan showed up at that point but she held up her hands and said, "Saw the love fest and it's great to see it but I'm good right now." Evie, Lonnie and Audrey had to laugh at that but otherwise let it go.

"I'm glad my mom is making you feel better about what happened with Maleficent." Ben said with a smile after he and Mal pulled away from their kiss. "You deserve to have a real family." He looked to Evie, Jay and Carlos. "You all do really."

"Yeah well some of us won't have that luxury." Carlos said with a shrug. "It's cool, we have each other and that's what counts."

Evie understood his meaning. Carlos and Jay really didn't have anyone here aside from the group. Not that Mal did either before becoming involved with Ben. She didn't either. Well technically she did have a half-sister in the form of Snow White but she was pretty sure that her half-sister wanted nothing to do with her or else she would have sought her out. The closest they had been was at the coronation and even then they hadn't spoken.

"Doug and I still haven't had much luck tracking down any other zords." Jane revealed as she added dressing to her salad. "But we might be going up the wrong tree, sort to speak."

"What do you mean?" Lonnie asked as she cut up some chicken to add to her steamed rice.

"Mal's dragon zord and Ben's horse zord came to us." Jane answered as she mixed the salad and dressing together.

"But ours didn't." Jay pointed out as he took out one of his slices of cold pizza and then took a bite of it.

Jane nodded. "No that's true." She conceded "That's the catch. If it's a battle zord rather than an animal based zord we might have to uncover it. Doug also thinks that there could be a chance I might be part of that zord formation too but we haven't been able to prove that one way or another yet."

"Where is Doug anyway?" Carlos asked Jane. "I haven't seen him today."

"Outside studies today." Jane answered. He looked to Evie. "Doug wants to add geologist to his scientific credits." That seemed to please the blue haired girl immensely.

They continued to eat in silence for a moment before again their iPhones went off. It was eerily reminiscent of Revive Eyes appearance except for this time Mal was with them rather than off on her own. The app revealed the newest monster, the large granite creature that Nerissa had sent down. Along with him was Reviveslime.

"I'll text my mother and let her know what's going on." Jane sighed. "Get us excused from class." She did just that as they started again toward the doors of Auradon Prep.

As soon as they had passed into the forest Mal said, "We all know the drill; time to get to work." The nine teens pulled out their iPhones and transformed. Jane transformed with the magic wand and Ben combined his shield and sword to transform.

"So nice of you fools to show up." Reviveslime said with amusement. "Because your last near defeat wasn't humiliating enough."

"Changing things up in the lame minion squad?" Audrey asked the blue slime monster though she was actually privately glad that they weren't facing off against Chad again. He was really starting to bother her, truth be told she was starting to think he was getting obsessed with her.

"You won't have to worry about that 'squad' much longer." The granite guy stated. "I am known as the Guardian Exxod and soon enough you shall learn why." Then he summoned a bunch of blocks and sent them straight at the team. They struck the team hard and sent them recoiling backwards.

"Now that's going to leave a mark." Aziz said as he looked to Ben. "Did it dent the armor?"

"Very funny." Ben said dryly.

Reviveslime then powered up a huge burst of energy and released it onto the ground in front of them, shaking up the area. As they attempted to maintain their balance he rushed forward and slashed them all down again.

"We've got to get it together guys." Mal said. She took out her dragon's eye staff and moved in to strike at Reviveslime only to find the increased power in the weapon didn't negate the fact that he still reformed upon being struck.

Exxod fired more granite blocks at the team and forced them to scatter. It was then that some of the ground gave way; most of the team was able to dodge it except Evie. She lost her footing and almost fell but she grabbed a rough edge at the last moment.

"Evie!" Carlos called out.

Reviveslime laughed. "What an interesting little predicament." With that he summoned soldiers in between the distraught blue ranger and the rest of the team. "If you want to help her you're going to have to get through the all of us."

Mal motioned to Ben and Aziz. "Then we'll do just that." She looked to the two boys. "Let's give them a triple strike." By drawing energy into each of their weapons they increased their power and moved in to take out the soldiers.

Exxod moved in with far more speed than a monster of his seemingly enormous size should have and blocked all three weapons with both fists. Then he sent that energy back out at them, knocking not only the three of them back but the other rangers as well. It even shook up Evie's precarious hold.

"Evie, hold on." Audrey called out to their blue haired friend. She raised her bow and started to release arrows at the soldiers, though most of them were able to use their blades to block.

Reviveslime unleashed another stream of energy that struck the ground and it collapsed down around them. "Is everyone okay?" Jordan asked as they started to recover.

"If it weren't for my helmet I think I would have cracked open my head." Carlos moaned as he got up.

"We have another problem guys." Lonnie said. She didn't need to elaborate as they realized that they were several feet underground. "How do we get out of here?"

"All of our weapons and we don't have a grappling hook." Jay said. "That's kind of pathetic."

"No sweat." Mal said as she looked to Jordan and Jane. "Let's magic out way out of here."

Before they could come up with a spell they saw Exxod standing over them. "Looks like you're trapped between in a hard place." He noted and laughed. "Let me complete that analogy by throwing in the rock." He summoned a huge squared granite boulder and dropped it straight down into the small crevice.

"Oh shoot." Ben gasped as he raised his hands to try to stop the granite block. The rangers all followed suit after quickly activating their neon armor and it just barely gave them the strength to hold the block above their heads but could not move it any other way.

"I see that you've escaped for the moment." Exxod said. "Impressive, but I'm sure you can't hold it for that long. There is no one to save you." Through the block he felt the gold ranger trying to use magic to try to find a way past it. "And this block is magic proof as well so don't think to try that again."

"We still have Evie out there." Mal said. "She can save us."

"Oh that will change momentarily." They heard Reviveslime say.

Evie was just struggling to get another handhold and pull herself up there when she saw Reviveslime above her. "Nice try blue ranger. Your friends will be crushed within a matter of minutes. But don't worry about that as they have something you don't."

"The privilege of seeing your ugly face?" Evie questioned disdainfully. She was willing to bet that he was underestimating her friends.

"No my dear." Reviveslime answered. "Minutes." With that he unleashed a huge stream of energy at Evie and it caused her to fall back, the tunnels leading into a river as she powered down and was washed away from the fight.

The other warriors didn't know that. "How can we delay this crushing thing?" Aziz asked the team. "We can't hold on forever."

"If we could give ourselves more breathing room we might be able to stretch this out until Evie can get to us." Lonnie suggested. "With my tessens and my neon powers I can probably dig underneath us."

"It won't be the most efficient thing but we don't have much of a choice." Carlos agreed. "On top of that I could use my clawed daggers to help her out too."

"We can probably hold it without Lonnie and Carlos." Ben noted. "But they have to hurry if we want any leeway whatsoever."

"Do it." Mal said to Lonnie and Carlos. She looked to the rest of her team. "Hold on guys. This is going to get really rough until Evie shows up."

"She won't be showing up." They heard Reviveslime brag. "I just sent her to the bottom of that pit and into the stream that connects to the ocean." The thought terrified Mal as she remembered something else she had in common with Evie; neither of them (nor the guys for that matter) could swim.

It seemed like forever before Evie woke to find herself in a small cabin in the woods. For a moment she was really tempted to freak out over that revelation in itself. She realized she was lying on a small bed and she went to sit up, feeling relieved that nothing was keeping her tied down.

The door opened and she jumped, looking to it fearfully for a minute before the figure revealed itself. She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "Doug, what are you doing here?" She asked her perhaps not so secret crush, not that his feelings were any better hidden.

"My uncle and one his friends found you swept up at the small shore by the mines where my dad and my uncles work at." Doug explained as he came in and sat down next to Evie. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Oh, my gosh." Evie gasped. "How long have I been here?"

"About a half hour." Doug answered for her.

"I have to go." Evie said but as she tried to rise to her feet she felt dizzy. Doug's arms caught hers and had her sit down.

"You can't leave yet." He told her gently. "You've barely regained consciousness. You have to rest."

"I can't." Evie told him. "I was nearly killed by Reviveslime and my friends are trapped by this granite creature thing that last I knew was looking to crush the others."

Doug frowned in worry. "I get that but if you leave right now you'll be lucky to make it over to them, let alone be of any use to them." He told her softly. "Just wait another few minutes and my uncle's friend can help you feel better."

Lonnie and Carlos had made some headway digging further into the ground. It was then that they heard the sounds of the stream that Reviveslime had bragged carried Evie out into the ocean. "We can't go any further." Carlos said to them.

They had gotten very little room out of the dig attempt. For the moment they were not required anymore to hold the granite block up but it would only be a matter of time before gravity kicked in.

"What choice do we have?" Jay asked. "We get drowned or we get crushed."

"We could try going another angle." Audrey suggested. "Dig our way out that way."

"It might work." Jordan agreed. "We just have to be careful. I assume slime boy and granite head are up there and if they think we're trying to get out they'll try their best to stop us."

"Okay, let's go at this two ways then." Mal said as she looked around. "I'm going to help Carlos on the right. Ally, help Lonnie on the left side." She looked to the rest of the team. "Keep an eye on that granite piece. If it decides that it doesn't want to stay there, be ready to get a grip on it before we become pancakes."

"Not the kind of pancakes I want to try." Aziz noted as the four rangers started on their escape plan.

The door opened and in came literally the last person that Evie expected to see, though perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise considering Doug had said she had washed up near her father and uncle's mines. "Snow White." She said, half in awe and half in shock.

She had with her a tray that had a mug of something steaming in it. "Hello Evie." She said with a gentle smile. That was a shock to the blue haired girl right there. She took a seat across from the bed. "I contacted your friend Jordan's dad and he helped us mix up a potion to heal you up." She handed the mug to Evie and she reluctantly took it.

It felt warm in Evie's hands, and she swore it smelled like an apple flavored drink. Personally the irony wasn't lost on her; either the drink or who was giving it to her. But it smelled delicious and she had nothing to lose anyway. "Thank you." She said softly.

Doug watched the two step sisters, each of them looking kind of awkward in their own ways. It was a barely concealed secret that the two hadn't seen or spoken to each other since Evie's arrival in Auradon months ago. In fact this meeting wasn't even planned out. He had been surprised to find Snow White here today, but she had come to ask his father and Uncle Doc to help her with something, and now Evie washed up from a seemingly losing battle.

Evie reluctantly took a sip only to find it was as good as it smelled. She could taste some of the cinnamon still on her lips. "Leave it to genies to make healing potions that actually taste good." She remarked lightly and then looked again to Snow White. "You did a great job making it." She added a shyly.

"Thanks." She said as she set the tray aside. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry that we have to meet like this."

Evie frowned. "You mean, you're sorry we had to meet at all?" She asked, feeling a little upset to be saying that.

Snow White shook her head. "No, I mean like this. I heard what you said to Doug, that your friends are in danger from those two monsters." She replied. "A dangerous situation is not how I would have wanted to meet my step sister."

Evie set the mug down, perhaps harder than she needed too. "You've had a couple of months to look me up if you were that concerned about it." She said a bit icily. "And you never did, so why is it such a concern right now?"

"Evie." Doug said tenderly but with more conviction than she tended to hear from him. "You've had that same amount of time and never bothered either."

"That's because I…" Evie started, wanting to remind him something only to realize she had no good reason for it except for one. "Because I…didn't care too."

"I think we both know that's not true." Doug said to her gently. "Especially after what happened with Mal and Belle."

"Wait a second." Evie said as she looked between the two. "You said you overheard Doug and I about the monsters. You don't seemed surprised." She cocked her head a bit. "How many people know about us in Auradon anyway?"

"Well of course there's Fairy Godmother. The council. The parents, at least as far as Ben and the others go." Doug listed off. None of that made sense to Evie why her half-sister knew anything about it. "And the princesses of heart."

A/N: The princesses of heart are a concept from the Kingdom Hearts series that may become important later on in the saga, but as such that means I do not own it, just borrowing it like most everything else in the story.

Evie had never heard of it but right now decided it didn't matter. She did however know that Snow White was considered a princess here along with Audrey's mother Aurora and Ben's mother Belle. Evie wasn't sure what to say to her half-sister now. Snow White then looked at her. "Why didn't you seek me out after you and your friends decided to stay in Auradon?" She asked.

Evie was tempted to fire the question right back at her, but stopped to think about it. "I have a sister in Mal already…even getting that way with Audrey and Lonnie…I don't need…you know." She explained though it had gotten kind of lame as the explanation went on.

"I do understand that." Snow White said. "I think of Aurora and Mulan that way too." She cocked her head, almost exactly as Evie had. "But I think a big reason that you haven't is because you were afraid too." The younger girl was about to protest but stopped when she added, "Just as I was."

That stopped Evie short. "Wait, why would you be afraid to get into contact with me?" She asked curiously. "It was my mom that tried to ruin your life. You didn't do anything to warrant that."

"Perhaps not." Snow White conceded. "But as a result of that your life was drastically altered, and perhaps not in a good way, because of it." She took a deep breath and said, "I had the idea that because of what happened between me and our mother, that you would rather not have anything to do with me."

Evie had to think about that for a moment before laughing softly herself. "Funny, that's kind of my logic." She admitted as she reached for the now cooling mug to take a sip. "My mother tried to break you, and that that was somehow my fault too."

Snow White laughed too and smiled a little. "Not at all. I understood even then what Ben was trying to do with this idea of his." She reached out and took Evie's free hand gently, startling the blue haired girl. Now she knew how shocked Mal must have been when Belle had comforted her. "The child should not be blamed for the sins of the parent."

Evie bit her lip. "And the sins the child does make?" She asked softly. None of them had ever forgotten that they had been only steps away from taking the magic wand back to the Isle of the Lost for Maleficent. If they hadn't been wrestling between good and evil, as Mal had finally made them see, just beforehand, they would have gotten away with it.

"I see no sins here. What I see is my beautiful half-sister," The word caught Evie off guard, her mother had always seemed to go out of her way to say she wasn't pretty enough. "And all of her friends putting their lives on the line against an evil most of Auradon will never understand."

Evie looked down a moment. "My mom never talks about you unless it involves revenge." She told Snow White softly. "I think that might have clouded some of my judgements about you. I shouldn't have let that happen…I shouldn't have let her win again."

"We shouldn't have let her win again." Snow White emphasized softly and then embraced her young half-sister. After yet another moment of shock she was sure Mal felt with Belle, she hugged her back too. "And we won't let her win again." She added.

She and Evie pulled back after a moment. She quickly finished the potion and then said, "I'm okay with that, but not right now. I have to go help my friends and I've…I've let myself get too sidetracked as it is."

"Wait a second." Snow White said. "I came here to get help from my friends, not for me but for you." She stood up at the same time Evie did and as she did she took something that had been beside her since she had sat down. She handed Evie a small compact. "For you, for the magic mirror more accurately." As Evie slipped the compact over the mirror her older sister went on to explain how it worked.

They were about halfway up on either tunnel when Audrey gasped. "It's slipping." She announced. She, Aziz, Ben and Jay each reached up and barely managed to stop its descent toward them. It was more tenuous than ever.

"It's not staying put so well this time." Jay noted a bit nervously. By then Jordan and Jane had come to lend their support against the large granite block too.

"Keep digging." They heard Mal announce. "We're getting there."

Jane gasped. "Wait." She called. "That's the problem. We're weakening the areas that are keeping this granite block from crushing us." She shook her head. "We may have just helped them kill us."

There was a scream from Ally in the first tunnel and a shout of alarm from Carlos in the other. Then the four rangers came sliding out and landing hard. Ben had to resist the urge to go check on Mal but it seemed to be a moot point as they were all standing up now.

"Nice try Rangers." They heard Reviveslime from above them. "But not going to happen."

"Now you're truly sandwiched in." Exxod said amused. Jane realized what had just happened. He had summoned more blocks to close off all of hope escape unless they wanted to try digging into the rapidly moving stream. It seemed unadvisable seeing as how Evie had yet to return.

"This is taking too long." Reviveslime said to Exxod. "Enough with the games, crush them already."

"Alright then." Exxod said and started to descend the blocks again.

"Not so fast." They heard from behind them. "You have to deal with me first." They turned to see Evie approaching them. She and Doug had used a mine cart to get them as close to the area as possible.

"Well, well. If it isn't the Blue Ranger?" Reviveslime said tauntingly. "What are you going to do to stop us, reflect the sun in our eyes with your little mirror shield?" He laughed now.

"Just wait and see." Evie responded and took out her iPhone. She input her numbers 7531 and then transformed. She then took out her mirror shield, but this time it was different. She had to flip a button to lift a piece of protective armor off of the glass to reveal it.

"I'm going to pound this girl into the dust myself." Exxod said and started toward her. "You can't deflect me."

"I don't need to." Evie said with a smile. "Courtesy of Snow White."

"Did she just say Snow White?" Mal asked.

"Did we miss something?" Aziz asked as well.

As Exxod ran toward Evie she pressed a small button, one of four, on the back of the compact. It unleashed a burst of light energy at Exxod and sent him flying backwards into some of the foliage.

"What is this?" Reviveslime asked.

"That was my radiant setting. Here's number two." Evie answered with a smile. She pressed another button and then unleashed as stream of energy from the ground to send Reviveslime flying into the air now. "That was my quake setting." She ran toward where her friends were. She pressed the button a third time and then unleashed a stream of black energy at the granite block looking to crush her friends. "Get ready guys." She said as it shattered the granite block.

"We're still too high up." Lonnie noted. "We can't get out of here."

"Simple enough on that front." Jordan said. "Grab a hold of each other's arms." She instructed. They all did so, Jane notable getting Carlos's in one of hers. Audrey notably got Jay's in one of hers. Mal notably got Ben's in one of hers. Ally got one of hers around Aziz. Then Jordan angled her lamp cannon down to the ground and with the boost from the shot and her own magic they came sailing out of the hole, though it didn't result in their best landing.

"Mal." Evie gasped and ran over to hug her. Then she hugged Audrey and Lonnie. She just managed to give Carlos a hug too when they heard rumbling and saw Exxod get up.

"I'm still here Rangers." He said as he started toward the group. Reviveslime was next to him as well. "You haven't won yet."

"I think we have." Mal said. "Let's…" She was about to have them form the Auradon blaster but Evie stepped in front of her.

"No need today Mal. I've got this." She held up her mirror shield again, which now seemed to be more than that. "Time for you two to meet my favorite setting, the storm setting." She pressed the last button and unleashed a maelstrom of energy straight at their two opponents.

This time Exxod tried to block the attack but the current of energy was too strong and it shot right through both monsters and destroyed them on contact.

"Wow, never underestimate the power of reflection." Carlos noted with amusement. "Nice one Evie."

Then Reviveslime reformed in front of them all. He saw though that Exxod was gone. "This isn't over Rangers." With that he vanished.

"I suppose defense isn't quite as good as offense after all." Chad said as he watched Evie use her last setting to destroy Exxod. "Who would have guessed that she would be capable of that." He had a pretty low opinion of the blue haired girl, trumped only by his developing view of Audrey.

"Well that didn't go as planned at all." Maleficent lamented. "Where to these power ups keep coming from anyway?"

"This isn't over, rangers." Paradias promised. "Power up all you like, the end is already set in stone." It didn't occur to him the analogy was flawed as Evie had already used one of her settings to destroy material very similar to stone.

Back at Auradon Prep, they had all gathered in the command center where Evie had just finished explaining to them what happened; from the wash up that she could remember to talking to her half-sister and the present she was given by Snow White.

"So what happens now?" Mal asked her.

Evie shrugged. "Now we try it out and see what happens." She answered her chosen sister with a shrug. "There's still a lot of unknowns. We don't hold each other accountable for what happened in our lives because of my mother but that doesn't mean we're going to get along." She laughed just a little. "But I want to say we'll be okay."

"That upgrade was so awesome." Carlos said. He looked to Doug. "Man, how did your uncles and father do that?" Doug began to explain it but only he and Jane were able to follow his explanation.

"Are you okay with this M?" Evie asked her chosen sister softly. "I mean, me trying to have a relationship with Snow White?"

Mal laughed lightly and took her hand. "Of course I am E." She replied honestly. "Look, we all knew things would change here." She first motioned to Doug talking to Carlos and Jane. Ben was there with them trying to follow the conversation. "I have a boyfriend, and you…well you know nothing's stopping you from having one." She then motioned to Lonnie and Audrey who were talking as well. "We have new friends, who might as well be like sisters." She smiled again. "Ben and I are going to have dinner with Belle and his father tonight." She still wasn't entirely comfortable with calling him by his first name. "Nothing should stop you from pursuing a relationship with your sister if that's what you want. And it won't change that we're sisters either."

Evie nodded and smiled. "Nothing will ever change that." She agreed and the two hugged each other. "In fact, I think I'll see if Snow White wants to have dinner with me and Doug tonight." Mal smiled encouragingly and she took out her iPhone to text her sister.


	37. Worth Part 1

It was a lovely Saturday morning and the group decided to go on for a picnic on the beach. Mal and Evie were the first ones there. They set out the some blankets and umbrellas as each of them discussed how their dinners went. "It was pretty neat." Mal said to her blue haired best friend. She wore a purple tank top with black leggings. "Belle told me about her first dinner in the castle; back when all of the inhabitants were turned into the objects of the castle." She smoothed out one of the blankets. "Including the fact they all sang the same song then that Ben and the others sang at the start of Parent's day."

Evie in a pair of hip hugging jean shorts and a blue halter, couldn't help but laugh at the image of dancing silverware and such. "That must have been hilarious to see." She said.

"Yeah." Mal agreed as she moved some purple hair out of her eyes. "So after we had dessert, a delicious strawberry shortcake, Ben and I took a walk in the gardens for a while, just talking. He was telling me stories of how he grew up." She looked at the water a little. "It made me a little sad about how we grew up, but I guess we're making up for it now." She looked to Evie. "How was dinner with Snow White?" She asked.

"Awkward." Evie said with a shrug.

"I'm sorry that you're having a hard time getting to know her." Mal said sympathetically.

"What?" Evie asked and then laughed. "Oh, no. Not because of her and I. Since Doug was coming with me we decided that his family should join us too." She propped up an umbrella and then leaned it to block the sun. "I finally have firsthand experience on why one of his uncle's names is literally Grumpy." She laughed. "And then his other uncle Bashful and his father were trying to serve dinner and they ran right into each other, spilling the mashed potatoes...all over Grumpy too. He spent half of the remaining night ranting about the mess and the dry cleaning bills."

Now Mal laughed. "That would make anyone grumpy." She said between giggles.

Evie nodded. "Yeah. Next time we're just going to have dinner, the two of us. In Auradon." She concluded. "Maybe wait on the extended family stuff a little bit first."

They saw Ben, Lonnie and Carlos joining them. "What, no crown trunks?" Mal asked teasingly to her boyfriend as they came up and she kissed him on the cheek and took his hand.

"Nah, they're in the wash today." Ben answered with a slightly shy shrug as he stroked her hair and cheek gently. He was instead dressed in a blue tank and blue shorts, though it was interlaced with silver. "No purple dress?" He asked.

"Nope." Mal said. "If I have to run into the water to save you again I'd rather be wearing something a little more reasonable." They both exchanged smiles at the memory of their first date by the enchanted lake.

"You can't even swim." Carlos pointed out as he set down two bags. One had waters in it while the other held Dude, the school mascot and his unofficial pet. The small dog got out of the bag and began to look around excitedly.

Lonnie clearly had no plans to go near the ocean today, she wore a simple pink summer dress and had a book with her as well. "I didn't think you could swim either Carlos." She noted.

"I can't." He answered with a shrug. "But I wasn't the one who took a dip in the enchanted lake or who fell into a stream."

"That was not intentional." Evie reminded him with a mock glare.

"So where are Doug and Jane anyway?" Lonnie asked as she looked to their potential beaus.

"They said they wanted to spend some time working on a new weapon." Evie answered. "We offered to join them but they insisted it should be a surprise to some of us."

Carlos sat down and started to pet Dude. "Yeah. Doug said that Jane wouldn't have even been a part of it if he hadn't needed her expertise." He added.

"I'm sorry to say Jordan won't be joining us either." Ally said as she approached in a light blue sports bra and light blue shorts.

Aziz wore a black tank top and black shorts. "She said she wanted some time to herself." He added. "I think that there's only so much group activities she can take at a time." Ally sat down as he took one of the umbrellas and placed it in the sand.

"Genies are usually pretty solitary." Ben noted. "And Jordan is pretty high up in that regard."

Jay ran up to them in a get up almost similar to Aziz's. He stopped just in front of the group, barely avoiding kicking up a flurry of sand. "Hey guys." He said. He fist bumped with Ben and Aziz before sitting next to Carlos and Evie. Then he realized something. "Hey, where's Audrey?" He asked.

Lonnie and Mal exchanged glances of amusement. The two of them might be in active denial as far as anyone could tell, but they might as well be start dating; all the signs were there. "She'll be along in a minute or two." The Asian girl told her. "She was still messing with her hair."

"Audrey's always been big on her looks." Ben said with a shrug as he placed an arm over Mal's shoulder. "But lately it seems she's been working on that a bit more." He exchanged looks with his girlfriend, who had put him onto the fact that she seemed to like Jay.

Ally frowned just a bit. She too had noticed an attraction between Audrey and Jay but she thought there was something else going on there. All it had taken for her to grow worried was the one shot she had seen Chad take at her.

Audrey had a towel over her shoulder as she was getting closer to the beach. She wore a silky looking red skirt and a red sleeveless top. She had never been a big fan of red originally but being the red ranger, and Jay saying she looked good in that color, had changed her outlook on it quite a lot. She even had tied a red bow in her hair to keep it out of her eyes.

 _I wonder if Jay will like this look?_ She couldn't help but ask herself. She was no stranger on dressing to impress but somehow this seemed more important, even more so than it had when she was with Ben.

She was moving over what she thought was a branch when it rose up and slapped her ankle, forcing her to land on the ground hard. She saw her iPhone fly out of her bag and land a foot away. She started to stand up and felt some pain in her leg. She saw it had been skinned open, it reminded her of the first time she had fallen off of her bike.

"Having a little trouble Audrey?" She heard Chad asked. Panic shot through her body a moment. She looked up to see him standing there "And I see you're still dressing to impress." He added with a cruel edge to his voice.

"I don't have time for you today." Audrey said and then leapt toward her iPhone.

Chad anticipated it and shot his knee right into her chin hard. As the brunette princess landed hard he picked up her iPhone. "Trying to call your little friends?" He asked her. "Don't worry, Bennie-Boo and the others will be here soon enough."

"What sick little game are you playing this time?" Audrey asked as she got ready to try to fight him.

"You'll find out soon enough." Chad promised her. With a nod she suddenly felt her arms and legs entangled in the same logs that had tripped her, but this time she noticed a detail that she had not been able to notice before hand. They were metal and shiny, not branch like at all.

Chad approached her and smiled at her wickedly. "Fell right into my trap. We could have used any of your little friends honestly." He confessed and then reached out to stroke her cheek almost lovingly, though it made the brunette's skin crawl. "But I was hoping it would be you." Then he slapped her across the face again, hard.

"You can play with your new toy later." Reviveslime said from behind him now. "Right now, it's time to bring in the other power pests."

Jay, Aziz, Ben and Carlos were tossing around a Frisbee in the sand, Dude following the object as it passed around. Evie and Ally were throwing together some sandwiches. Mal was enjoying the slight breeze that was currently ruffling her hair. Then she looked to Lonnie. "Shouldn't Audrey be here by now?" She asked. "It would suck if she missed this."

Lonnie reached over for her iPhone. "She should be here by now." She agreed. "And I don't have any texts from her saying she would be late or anything."

"Maybe someone should go find her." Ally volunteered as she set down her knife. "I'll go."

"Not alone you won't." Mal said. "I'm coming with you." She waved the two boys over. "Ally and I are going to go make sure Audrey didn't get lost, or anything like that."

"You want anymore company?" Ben asked Mal. Jay looked ready to volunteer too.

Mal waved it away. "It's fine, probably just a fashion crisis." She replied. She couldn't help but say jokingly, "And unless she has some outfit with crowns on it, I doubt you're going to be able to provide much fashion sense."

"Yeah, okay." Ben said with a good natured roll of his eyes. "Just keep her out of the semi-goth side of fashion, alright?" The two laughed and then the girls were about to start off when they heard a beeping on their iPhones.

For an instant they thought it might have been another monster alert but quickly noticed it was a video message being sent to them instead. "Maybe it's Audrey." Aziz noted.

Carlos noticed something a bit odd. "Guys, this has been directed to all of our iPhones and the command center." He told them. "Audrey knew that Jane and Doug wouldn't be here."

"And she wouldn't call the command center, she knows that Jane has an iPhone too." Mal said as they all exchanged worried looks before opening up the video message.

On screen they saw Chad. It was clear he was holding Audrey's iPhone. "Hello old friend." Chad said with a small smirk that had obviously been directed to Ben. "I hope this finds you and your other friends well rested and energized." He shrugged. "Just can't catch a break." He started to walk. "Don't worry, none of you can."

Mal wanted to snap at him to get to the point and tell them were Audrey was but had to remind herself that it was a message and it wouldn't help to try to rush it.

"Reviveslime and I have a bit of a challenge for you." Chad continued on as he talked. "In the forest on the opposite side of the school. Come to us and fight." He laughed just a bit. "I'm sure you could ask why you should do so, not counting the fact it's your 'civic duty'." He then panned back to show Audrey being bound by her wrists, ankles and chest by silver tentacles. "If you want your little friend basically unharmed, that would be another good reason." They all couldn't help but notice that again she had a split lip.

"This guy is getting on my last nerves." Jay said dangerously.

"No argument there." Mal agreed.

"See you soon, rangers." Chad said. He walked closer to Audrey and brushed his lips against her cheek, making her flinch. His hand moved up to her shoulder and started to trail down her arm. "Or not. It's no skin off of my nose, but it might be something else off of Audrey." The video ended.

"I'm going to kill him." Jay said.

"Carlos, have Jordan get Dude back to the dorm with her magic and then tell her to meet us there. We have to get to Chad before he hurts Audrey…or hurts or more at any rate." Mal said to them. "Remember though this has to be a trap."

"Those tentacles holding Audrey are probably part of it." Evie said. "They're…they're too mechanical to be natural."

"Only one way to find out." Mal said. She saw Carlos had finished texting Jordan and as Dude vanished away, they saw their section of the beach was clear and she announced, "Time to get to work." Ben summoned his sword and shield as the rangers took out their iPhones and input their numbers. Then they all transformed and started toward the next battle sight.

"And they should be on their way right now." Chad said with a laugh. "Judging by your..." He looked at Audrey with a look mixed with disgust and another kind that she didn't want to think about. "Looks, I 'd say that you were trying to get someone's attention. Jay perhaps?"

"My personal life is none of your business." Audrey said bluntly. "It never has been."

"Well if you don't mind some advice from a friend," Chad said with a small snicker. "I feel you should realize that Jay will never feel for you what you think you feel for him."

Audrey shook her head. "You don't know what you're talking about." She replied.

"On the contrary, I understand Jay, Mal and their two little friends better now than I did before." He looked at her and smiled. "I understand the appeal of the dark, the appeal of evil and cruelty." He moved over to her and slammed his fist just to the side of Audrey's head, involuntarily making her flinch. "A weak girl like you could never hold his interests for anything more than the obvious." His eyes trailed down her body.

"Jay isn't you. None of them were ever in the same league as you." Audrey said with narrowed eyes.

"If that were true and he was so captivated by your charm, beauty and wit then why hasn't he asked you out yet?" Chad asked derisively. "Why hasn't he swept you into his arms and declared his love for you?" He hit the palm of his hand against the side of her head hard. "Face it Audrey, someone like Jay would never show any true interest in a weak and pathetic princess like you."

"You know we're going to beat you down for this right?" Audrey asked with a glare at Chad. She still couldn't help the feeling of revulsion she felt at his touch now, especially as he had kissed her cheek. She had never been that attracted to Chad in the first place but now he was creeping her out.

"They'll try won't they?" Chad agreed nonchalantly. "As will you if you ever get set free." He came over and gripped her by the chin hard. "Not that I intend for you to get free. You can watch your friends die, and then we'll go from there."

Audrey narrowed her eyes a bit, hoping her bravado covered up her fear. "We'll handle whatever you have in store for us Chad. And one day you'll pay for what you've been doing." She promised.

"I doubt it." He said with a shrug. "But if I do it won't be today." He pulled his hand back only to slap her again hard. When she looked at him again she now had blood leaking from her nose. "I never thought it'd be so much fun to see someone bleed, but with you…" He started.

"I can only imagine Audrey is tired being slapped around by you." Chad heard Mal say from behind him. He turned to find her, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Aziz, Ally and Ben behind him. "I know I'm getting tired of seeing you do that."

"I intend to make you pay for that." Jay promised Chad.

"So nice of you to show up Rangers." Reviveslime said. "Now let the game commence." He shot energy at the team and sent them scattering. Reviveslime leapt at them.

"Maybe Jay might find it better to focus if we were to get closer." Chad said as he brushed Audrey's cheek again, making her shudder yet again. He leaned in to kiss her again but this time got hit in the side hard, and it sent him rolling.

"That sounds absurdly disgusting." Jordan, in gold ranger mode, said to Chad venomously before turning to Audrey. She reached down to pick up Audrey's iPhone, which he had dropped upon the impact. "And this doesn't belong to you." She turned to Audrey. "What have you gotten yourself into?" She asked half-jokingly. "This is not the time to lay on the job." She moved to free her friend when the coils unfurled on their own. Audrey fell on top of Jordan and then rolled off of her as they both looked up to see a large mutli headed cybernetic hydra like creature looking up at them. "Oh, come on." The genie girl groaned as she let Audrey take her iPhone.

"Wow." Jane said as she had shown up. "What is that?"

"Meet our newest friend, the Cybertech Overhydra." Reviveslime said gleefully as he waved his free hand at the monster. "In this case the numbers are not as one sided as the might seem to be." The Overhydra went from three heads to nine.

"This is not cool." Carlos said. "What do we do about that thing?"

"We have to fight it." Mal said.

Ben nodded. "I'll deal with Ch…" He started.

Jay shook his head. "No way Ben. I'm going to deal with Chad." He said resolutely. "I've had it up to here with the way he's been abusing Audrey."

Ben wasn't entirely sure that the black ranger could stand up against the dark knight but he knew how he would feel if Chad was beating up on Mal. Or really if he had been doing that when and Audrey had been dating. "Go get him, I'll deal with Reviveslime."

"Be careful Ben." Mal said to him as she touched his arm gently. Then she looked to her ranger team, minus Jay. "We'll deal with Cybertech Overhydra…man what a complicated name." She added musingly. She looked to Audrey. "Time to get to work."

Audrey wiped the blood from her mouth. "Time to get to work." She agreed. She input her numbers, 3432, and transformed. Once she was morphed as the red ranger they turned to face the Overhydra.

Chad had transformed into the dark knight now. "So you want to battle me Jay?" He asked him. "You must be feeling really sorry for the prissy pink princess."

Jay had his scimitar out. "What I might feel for Audrey isn't the pity you think it is." He told him as he paced the dark knight. "Certainly not the disgust that you seem to be showing her, not to mention your other old friends."

Chad jumped up and brought his sword down toward Jay, but the black ranger used his scimitar to block the slash. The shield bash was another matter entirely and it sent him sprawling backwards. "There seems to be one sort of feeling we can agree that Audrey brings us." He said cruelly.

"Your is based on cruelty, on domination." Jay retorted with disgust at him as he stood up. "I think she's stronger and braver than anyone gave her credit for prior too, even myself or herself." He moved into attack but was blocked by the shield. "You can't understand her true depths Chad. You don't have the brains, the heart or the soul for it."

Mal used her dragon staff and channeled energy into it and then unleashed it on one of the heads. It destroyed the head but was almost immediately reassembled. "This thing regenerates on a massive rate." The purple ranger noted.

Evie took out her mirror shield, releasing the compact on top of it. "I'm glad I can finally be more offensive." She revealed as she turned toward one of the heads and activated the blazing effect on her shield. She quickly saw the monsters regenerative properties first hand.

Jordan's lamp cannon and Aziz's spiral spear when powered up also allowed them to destroy the Overhydra's heads though they saw the same massive regeneration. The others were having a more difficult time.

Chad and Jay clashed for another few moments before Jay kicked the shield arm away and then slashed the dark knight multiple times. "I told you that you don't have what it takes to get rid of us." Jay said. "And I told you you'd regret lying a hand on Audrey."

Chad laughed. "So you said." He replied and then gathered up energy in his blade and then moved in to stab Jay in the chest. Audrey turned in enough time to see it and let out a scream of horror and despair at what she was seeing.

Her scream got the others attention and each of them saw what looked to be Jay's final stand. "Dude, no." Carlos gasped. Ben knocked Reviveslime back to try to go help his friend even though he would never make it.

One moment Jay swore that he was about to be taken down. He thought he would never see Audrey, or Carlos, or Mal, or any of his friends again. He even spared a moment for his father Jafar despite the fact that he was sure his father had disowned him as Maleficent had disowned Mal.

The next thing he knew he was surrounded by white light. "Am I dead?" He asked and was startled that he could talk. Not exactly the afterlife he had imagine when he let himself dwell on it.

"You're not dead kid." Said a thick accent that he couldn't identify but sounded like a New York one. "And trust me when I say you're not like your father at all. You're much better than him." He could only make out a figure that was bipedal and seemed to have a rather broad back…was that a ribbon or something he saw around the head?

He could make out the sillouttes of four more figures like that as well as the those of other figures. He recognized some of them as Power Rangers, in this case he recognized TJ and Carlos of the Space Rangers. "What the…" He started.

"Welcome Jay." Said a strong ethereal voice that couldn't have belonged to any of them. "Like your leader and your blue ranger, you too have proven yourself to be of strength, integrity and honor. Unlike your two friends, I realize you have no one in Auradon to give you your gift."

Jay wasn't worried about that. He was worried about Audrey and his friends. "Will this help me stop Chad and save my friends?" He asked.

"It should help you stop Chad." The ethereal voice said. "As for saving your friends, it will assist with that as well but it will take more than just that for the win."

"Hey, kid." The voice said again. He held up a shining object, was that green skin Jay was seeing, no it looked more like scales. "Catch." As the shining object was thrown he heard, "You've got a soul, don't lose it. And don't lose sight of what you have, accept it. Don't lose sight of what's important." Then he caught it and white light enveloped him again.

"Mal!" Evie screamed, the terror in her voice almost matching the red ranger's. She wasn't even sure what her chosen sister could do about it.

Then there was a shining burst and Chad's energy slash that should have by all rights connected and killed the black ranger was deflected away. At first it seemed as if had been done by his body but it was clear a moment later that the scimitar had shifted in his hand and had blocked the attack.

"How did you do that?" Chad asked. "Your weapon wasn't even in the right position for that."

Truth be told Jay wondered the same thing. The black ranger had been sure that hit would end him. But he wouldn't let Chad see that uncertainty. "Never underestimate the Power Rangers." Jay declared as the glow finished on the scimitar. It now seemed slightly bigger and he could feel more power radiating from it. "Remember when I said you didn't have the soul, well now it's time to see how you fare against the Soul Scimitar."

Chad swiped at Jay with his sword and he dodged it and then brought his scimitar down on his opponent's weapon and shattered it into two. He leapt up and kicked him in the chest hard. Then he called out, "Guys, I'm fine. Worry about your opponents."

As if to remind them Cybertech Overhydra released a spread of energy to send the other rangers flying. Reviveslime was in front of Ben and tried to attack him but the knight blocked with his shield.

Jay jumped past Chad and slashed him hard, sending him flying backwards. "I told you I'd make you pay for what you've done to Audrey." He said.

"We don't have the strength to defeat this thing Mal." Aziz said. "What do we do?"

"Fight fire with fire." Mal stated. "It wants to go big, then I'll go bigger." She took out her crystalline dragon and released it. "Help us deal with this cybernetic freak." She requested.

The dragon zord roared and unleashed a stream of fire at the monster. It struck hard but it still started to regenerate the heads. The dragon zord flew up into the air and then released its meteor strike down onto the head and body of the monster. That caused the heads to again get destroyed and the remnants of the body to fall lifeless.

Jay moved into to try to bring the scimitar down on Chad but something made him hesitate. He hated this guy so much, not just because of the trouble he had been causing him and his three friends since arriving in Auradon but for tormenting Audrey the way he had. But something about killing him this way just didn't feel right.

The moral debate on how to handle Chad quickly became irrelevant as Reviveslime flew up past Ben and dove in front of Jay, slashing him to the side and knocking him to the ground hard. Then he looked to Chad. "It seems as if we've overstayed our welcome." He looked to the rangers. "We'll be back though." With that he vanished with Chad.

The group powered down. "What's going on?" Carlos asked. "Usually the monster goes kaboom and leaves us with cinders." He pointed out as they looked to the portion of Cybertech Overhydra that had not been destroyed.

Jane frowned. "That's a good question." She admitted. "I think we've got a bit of a mystery on our hands." She approached it and checked it out with her iPhone, sending the scans to the command center. A moment later she looked back at them. "According to Doug the thing is inactive."

"We'll deal with it later then." Mal said. "We better go collect our things from the beach." She thought a moment. "Or maybe we should try to enjoy what's left of our day."

"After that I think I'll join you after all." Jordan said. "That's the kind of thing that really ruins your original plans."

Audrey couldn't agree more but for different reasons. "I think I'm going to go back to Auradon Prep with Jane." She told the rest of the team. "I don't feel so well." Her hand touched her cheek where Chad had hit her. Again.

"You want someone to go back with you?" Lonnie asked her friend, her voice full of concern.

"No, it's fine." Audrey replied. "Go enjoy your day at the beach."

Jay waited a second and then took Audrey's arm gently. "Hey, hang on a sec." She turned to look at him. "Hey, you want to…I don't know…grab something to eat tonight or something?" He asked and then after a moment added, "You know, like a date?" He couldn't believe he was having trouble asking a girl out.

For a moment Audrey wanted to give him a very emphatic yes. Then she hesitated as she remembered what Chad had told her. Some part of her knew that she shouldn't entertain anything Chad had said. And yet, some part of her still felt bothered by it. "I…I don't think so Jay." She answered softly. "It would never work out." With that she pulled away and made a quick dash back to the school.

Jay took a step forward and then stopped, unable to figure out what to do. He looked to the ground a moment to see the red ribbon Audrey had worn in her hair. He leaned down to pick it up and then stared off after her.

Mal, Evie and Lonnie had seen the rejection and exchanged looks of concern. They knew Jay liked Audrey. They knew Audrey liked Jay. They couldn't exactly figure out what the problem was.


	38. Worth Part 2

Audrey was in bed that night trying to sleep. She tried to turn on her right side and felt a stinging in her cheek, forcing her to turn onto her back again. She closed her eyes a moment only to see in her mind's eye Jay's look of uncertainty when she declined his date request.

That simple request; one she had kind of been waiting to hear for a couple of weeks now, should have made her so happy. She had returned to her room to jump in the shower to rid herself of the dirt and blood of the day, and she thought perhaps to cleanse herself of something else too but hadn't been able to figure out what.

 _Why did I do that? Why didn't I say yes?_ She asked herself. Then she remembered Chad's words again, that he could never love someone like her. And she knew why. She sat up and looked out the window. It was actually a pretty night, the skies clear of clouds. She could see a half moon glowing bright in the sky and could even make out a few stars through her curtains. It was the kind of night she had dreamed about spending time with someone she loved with. At one point that had been Ben but she knew now that even if Mal had not come into their lives there was a good chance that they wouldn't be together anyway.

She sighed as she laid back down again. It was going to be a long night. She closed her eyes again to try to sleep, only to find Jay and Chad haunted her mind, each for different reasons.

Meanwhile in the commons four people snuck downstairs and sat a table. It was a rare meeting for Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos. They had only done it twice before. The first night was just before the coronation where they had felt the need to go over their plans for stealing the magic wand. That had been kind of a cover because they had been uncertain about that plan at that point anyway, each for their own reasons. The second time was just after becoming power rangers with Audrey. The discussion about how well they could work with her had been tantamount in their minds, along with the question of whether they really should have agreed to it in the first place. Those two questions of doubt had obviously been laid to rest since then

Tonight was about Audrey too, but for different reasons. As they sat down Evie asked Jay gently, "Are you okay?"

Jay frowned a bit. "I guess." He answered. "I mean not the first time a girl has rejected me."

"I don't get it." Mal admitted as she folded her hands together. "Ben and I were talking about this, we were sure she liked you." She looked toward Evie. "We had this discussion too. We were both so sure of this."

"Maybe the two of you were wrong." Carlos suggested though he wasn't sure he believed that either.

"It's not that at all." Evie said with a small shake of her head. "It's Chad, it's the abuse he's been inflicting on her since he started down this path of evil of his." She shuddered just a bit. "The kind of things he done to her, the looks he's given her, the things he's said to her." Evie shuddered again, Mal thought perhaps knowingly. "It takes a toll on a person."

"Not Audrey." Jay tried to insist. "She's too stubborn, too willful." He wasn't sure if that was exactly a compliment but thought he was making his point. "She's too strong to let Chad break her."

"He hasn't broken her." Evie agreed. "But he has hurt her. I don't just mean physically either, he's said enough about her that she's starting to let herself think that he's right." She frowned a bit. "You here things for any amount of time and you start to think they're right, especially if they were someone they thought cared about them."

"Does Ben have this problem?" Carlos asked Mal.

The purple haired girl had to think about it for a minute. "Not in the same way as Audrey." She finally answered. "But I see it in him, sometimes. The fleeting thought in his eyes that Chad was his friend and that he wants some way to deal with him other than death."

"Is that even possible?" Carlos asked. He heard Jay give an emphatic no.

Mal took a deep breath. "I don't know Carlos." She confessed. "I mean if we could ever capture him he could be imprisoned or banished like our parents were or something. But he'll never be the Chad that Ben and Audrey grew up with."

"I don't even think Audrey could ever trust him again even if he were to want to come back tomorrow." Evie added. "It'd be hard not to remember his words, his violence toward her. A violence he doesn't unleash toward Ben."

"Maybe I should have killed him when I had the chance." Jay mused darkly.

Mal thought about the idea of Ben killing him. She shook her head. "I don't think so." She said to him. "I think about it sometimes, if Ben was able to kill Chad." She bit her lip a bit. "Killing takes someone to a whole new level, and not necessarily a good one." She reached over to take Jay's hand. "I don't want to lose you to that any more than I'd want to lose Ben."

"Mal, it's not like I'd go completely evil." Jay replied. "Ben wouldn't either."

"It's not about going evil." Evie now said with a sigh. "It's about…about losing a part of yourself. About losing a part of who you, of who we are. A part that would never come back, even if everything else is normal after that." She wasn't sure she or Mal were able to properly explain it.

A moment of awkward silence followed before Mal said, "Jay, what's done is done." She said. "Let's focus on tomorrow. Jane wants to go look at that Cybertech body thing and see what makes that thing so different from the other monsters. Let's rest up for that." As they stood up she added, "And...I don't know what to do for Audrey right now. But something has to change before this consumes her."

The next morning the eleven warriors headed into the forest to go back to the cybernetic body that was left behind from the last fight. Audrey had to keep herself from looking at Jay. The one time she had his expression had been perfectly neutral. It didn't surprise her too much and she thought that was the least she could have expected. But somehow it still seemed wrong.

As expected they found the same body again. Carlos and Jane started again working on scanning it and sending it to the command center for Doug and Fairy Godmother to look over. The rest tried to help as best as they could but the truth was they were there in case the monster came back to life or Paradias had another trick up his sleeve.

"Hey Jane." Lonnie called out to her as she brushed some dirt off of her jeans after examining one of the necks. "Does your scans give you any idea why it was that Evie, Jordan, Aziz and Mal were able to take out his heads but none of could?"

"Doug and I were looking at that actually." Jane replied as she stood up to move to another section of the monster. It too had been bigger than a normal monster but not worth using a megazord for. Even Mal's zord had been almost wasteful but three rangers out of ten wasn't going to help defeat it. "Somehow Jordan and Aziz's weapons are actually stronger than our weapons. When Belle gave Mal the dragon's eye gem and Snow White gave Evie that compact to go with her mirror, it increased their weapons power."

"But Ally's cards kind of came at the same time as mine and Jordan's." Aziz pointed out.

"But there's a difference between your spear and Jordan's lamp cannon as opposed to cards, even if they're powerful like mine." Ally pointed out.

"Precisely." Jane confirmed. "The size of her cards, or the magic wand for that matter, affected the damage output of our weapons even though our power level is the same."

"So does Jay's new enhancement put him on that level?" Carlos asked. "And for that matter where are these things coming from?"

"To the former, yes." Jane answered. "That soul enhancement that he got was the same kind of upgrade." She looked to them all now. "I don't know where they're coming from though."

"Snow White made mine, with help from Doug's father and uncles." Evie reminded them.

"And where did they get the idea for it?" Jane countered. Evie had no answer to that one. "I asked Doug that too and they said it came from Snow White, she had it in one of the books in her castle. She thought it would be a great offer to start her relationship with Evie." That made the blue haired girl smile, feeling touched by her half-sister's thoughts again.

Mal laughed a little and patted her chosen sister's arm. "All fine and good." The purple haired girl agreed with a smile. "But where did these ideas come from?" She repeated.

Jay thought about his unique experience. While Mal had gotten hers from a woman who was almost a surrogate mother and Evie had gotten hers from her older half-sister, his hand come through a vision. Several rangers, other figures he didn't recognize, and the ethereal voice. He had a theory on the identity of the last one. "Zordon." He stated. They all looked at him. "Somehow Zordon, the same wizard that created our powers and helped Fairy Godmother to establish the command center, is helping us now, increasing our weapons power."

"That would certainly please mom to hear." Jane noted softly. "She still seems so upset over hearing about Zordon's death." She looked down at her iPhone to make sure of something. "Between her and from what I've seen from the Space Rangers, it seemed like Zordon was a great man."

"Must really have been if he's finding a way to help us from the great beyond." Aziz noted as he walked around the monster.

"Has any of this helped so far?" Audrey asked Jane. Only Evie had noticed the foundation on the brunette princesses cheek that was being used to cover up the mark Chad had left from last night, and only because applying foundation had been taught to her by her mother before she could count to ten.

"I don't know for sure." Jane answered. "But I think we've gotten about everything we can from here. There's no signs of life in this thing at all, assuming one can say that about a cybernetic creature." The group got together to start back toward Auradon Prep.

That was when the heads of the Cybertech Overhydra regenerated at once and let out a ferocious war. That made all of them jump slightly and turn to face it. "I knew it wasn't dead, I knew it." Jordan muttered. "Why didn't we see it sooner?"

"I'll have to get back to you on that." Jane told her and looked to Mal. "Let me guess." She started.

Mal nodded. "Time to get to work." She confirmed as the team pulled out their iPhones, inputting their numbers and transforming. Ben transformed with his sword and shield. Jane transformed with the magic wand into the white ranger.

The heads snapped the warriors and they all dodged out of the way. Jordan, Aziz, Ben, Mal, Evie and Jay had their new and improved weapons out and were already moving to engage the cybernetic creature.

Audrey looked to Jane. "What are we supposed to do now?" She asked. "We weren't able to scratch this thing."

"Maybe my mom and Doug found something." Jane said. "Someone should go and find out what."

"We should go." Carlos said as he looked to Audrey and Lonnie. "Find out if she found anything."

"Be quick about it guys." Jay called. Ally and Jane started over to help them fight.

The three rangers started back toward Auradon Prep but were summarily jumped by a group of soldiers and Reviveslime. "Going somewhere?" He asked. "Don't you want to stay and enjoy breaking the fast together?"

"What are you talking about?" Carlos demanded.

"Breaking…fast…he's talking about breakfast for some reason." Audrey said to Carlos. "It's kind of a long explanation but that's the point of it." She had to resist rolling her eyes as the meaning sunk into the yellow ranger. "We don't have time for games Reviveslime."

"Chad will be disappointed to hear that." The slime general said just to rub it in Audrey's face the problems she'd been having with the Auradon teen's former friend. "But I'm afraid you're going to have to make the time." With that he unleashed a blast of energy at the two girls and Carlos. Lonnie rolled to the right as Audrey rolled to the left. Carlos was struck straight on and went flying into the air.

Then something unexpected happened. As Ally was unleashing a stream of cards on the head she faced, which was causing some damage but not enough, the head launched out heedless of the assault and leapt at the yellow ranger, swallowing him whole.

"That's just not cool." Aziz noted. "Give us back our friend." In response the monster snapped at him, he now seemed stronger and faster.

"Stick around rangers. Feel free to join your little friend, at least a little bit sooner than you will be."

Lonnie looked to Audrey. "Make a run to Auradon Prep." She told her. "I've got Reviveslime and the soldiers covered." With that the pink ranger dived into action.

For a moment Audrey wasn't sure what tact to take. Then she realized that defeating the Overhydra was the most important thing and ran straight for the school. She was running so fast that she wasn't able to dodge as a shield came out from nowhere and rammed right into her face. She hit the ground hard to find Chad over her again.

"Going somewhere?" He asked her with false sweetness.

The red ranger shot her foot out and connected hard with his stomach. "Back off Chad." She said and got into a fighting stance. "I don't have time for you and you can't even morph since Jay broke your sword." She sounded rather proud of that moment though in truth she only assumed that to be the case based on how Ben transformed.

Chad on the other hand looked kind of pissed to be reminded about that recent event. "I can't morph because of your little crush, but I'm not powerless." He retorted and with that he threw the shield hard. Audrey prepared to block it but instead the shield caused a massive dark explosion that sent her flying off of her feet and hitting the ground hard.

Audrey was dismayed to feel her powers fade away again as she was forced to catch her breath. Then Chad was over her. He leaned down to slap her and Audrey tried to block it. He caught her wrist and twisted it hard, then leaned down toward her face. "You keep trying, you keep failing." He brought his knee down hard on her stomach. "I think it's time you see what happens to failures."

One of the Cybertech head's snapped forward hard and tried to take a bite out of Mal. "Watch it." She snapped at the monster for whatever that was worth.

Another let loose a stream of energy that shot Aziz in the air and forced Ally to the ground hard. Both heads that had been facing down the silver and crystal ranger lashed out before they could recover and seemed to swallow them whole as well.

"That's not helping us." Ben noted. "We're getting more heads to deal with and it's getting stronger each time it swallows one of us."

"Maybe we should try moving in closer together?" Jane suggested. "We'd be able to watch each other's backs."

"Seems to me like we'd be lining up its lunch." Jordan retorted as she rolled out of the way of another strike.

Mal understood both of the girl's points. It'd be easier to keep each other safe but it also made it easier to get cornered and munched on by the monster. Then she noticed what seemed to be a flaw with it. It had struck at all of them except Lonnie. It had only gotten Carlos because of the direction he had been flown in; toward the battle. "Everyone, start backing away from this thing now." She ordered. They all started to follow her command but Reviveslime lashed out another wave of energy that sent them all to the ground hard.

Lonnie turned to see the Cybertech Overhydra lean down and envelope everyone but Ben and Mal, swallowing them whole. She moved to go and help her two remaining team mates when three soldiers grabbed her from behind, one around each arm and another around the waist. "Let go of me you putrid freaks." She ordered as she struggled.

"Yes, do." Reviveslime agreed with her simply. They launched her in the air and, similar to Carlos, one of the heads snapped her up and swallowed her too.

Mal and Ben were now surrounded.

Audrey's free hand came up to get him in the nose. When she pulled back a bit of blood was on her hands, she had broken Chad's nose. "See how you like bleeding." She couldn't help but say triumphantly even though she knew between the two of them he had the upper hand.

He didn't show any real reaction, save for the blaze of anger in his eyes. "You know I'll break you Audrey, if it's the last thing I ever do." He warned her and then leaned down roughly to kiss her on her lips roughly, hard. She tried to move away and her hand shot out to get him in the face hard, making him back away

"Anything you do to me, you will have to fight for tooth and nail." Audrey replied to him. "And when Jay, Ben, and all of my friends find out, then you'll have to pay for that too." She found it hard to continue speaking though as she felt some of his blood on her upper lip.

"Then I should take what I can." Chad said with a nasty gleam. Then they heard footsteps and a guard swung out at him. He dodged out of the way and packed up as another came into focus. Without another word Chad made a run for it and the two guards were after him.

For a second Audrey was confused about where they came from until she heard a voice, "Audrey." She turned to see her mother Aurora leaning before her. She gently wiped the blood from her lip as her mother looked into her eyes.

Aurora was glad to see the blood was not her daughters. She reached out and gently smoothed the hair from her face. "What was that about? Why was Chad trying to hurt you?" She asked. She knew of course about what had happened with him, a lot of the top people knew of course, and she felt awful for her parents and little sister. She didn't know about the dangerous obsession he seemed to have developed for her.

Audrey bit her lip. "He…doesn't like what I've become since working with Jay and the others…in school and all." She said, trying to find a way to hide the obvious.

Aurora solved that for her. "Since you became a power ranger." She filled in. When Audrey looked at her surprised she said, "Yes, your father and I know about that." She stroked her arm gently. "We couldn't be more proud of you for it." She never would have thought her daughter would take on such a roll. As much as she loved Audrey she had known that for a long time now what she could be like. She was sure her sudden change in behaviors had to do with being a power ranger with Mal, Jay, and the rest of her daughter's friends.

Audrey hadn't realized that she had started to cry since her mother had shown up. Aurora had noticed and brushed away some tears only to have her hand come back with some of the concealer on her cheek. She took a cloth and wiped it away only to see the last bruise on her cheek. "Audrey, what's going on? Where did this come from?" She asked worriedly.

Audrey flinched a bit, not wanting her mother to see it. "It…it came from Chad…from yesterday." She said softly. She held up the wrist that Chad had twisted hard and started to massage it. "I…I don't have time for this, my friends are in trouble…" She started.

Aurora put her hands gently on Audrey's shoulders. "You won't be any good to them if you aren't focused Audrey." She said. "Now, tell me what happened. When did all of this," She touched just above her daughter's cheek gently, "this abuse start."

She wanted to argue with her mother. Not for the first time since it started she found she didn't want to face it. It meant acknowledging something in her she didn't want to face, the fear and self-doubt that Chad had instilled in her since he had started walking the dark path. But she had only spoken of it, at the start of it, to Ben and Mal. She had never spoken to them about since and her mother's kind and concerned eyes were far different from the worry and protective looks she saw from her friends…like what Mal had seen from Belle at the castle.

So she told her mother everything as quickly as she could. Chad's first strike when she had asked him for help in freeing Ben. His beating her in order to 'earn' the powers of the dark knight. The times he had hit her, from being bound after being captured by Psycho Red up until now, where to Aurora's horror she revealed the unwanted kiss on the cheek the day before and the forced kiss on the lips now. Her voice had grown softer as she talked and by the end she was crying again. Her mother enveloped her in a hug.

Then for some reason she found herself saying, "Jay asked me out yesterday."

"He's a good guy." Aurora said with a smile. Better than she would have thought from the son of Jafar. "And he cares for you a lot."

Audrey shook her head. Now was so not the time, and yet… "He doesn't. He can't. A guy like him could never like a girl like me." She said, echoing the doubt Chad had put into her heart.

"Nonsense." Aurora stated. "You're a very smart and beautiful young woman." She stroked her daughter's hair again. "And now you've become a confident warrior and a loyal friend." She did not add that that loyalty had not always been as strong then as it had now. "You've learned to open your heart and mind to see the good in others. You've become everything a true princess should be. And I know I'm not the only one who sees that. Your friends see that. Jay sees that too. That is truly what he finds himself attracted too."

Audrey hit the nail on the head without realizing it. "But Chad said he could never feel that way for some 'pretty pink princess', that he could only like someone more…" Aurora placed her finger on her daughter's lips to silence her.

"Chad isn't concerned about your best interest or your feelings." Aurora said to her. "And if he could treat you like this now despite everything than he never did. You have outgrown him, sweetie. Perhaps you and Ben had outgrown him a long time ago." She hugged her crying daughter tightly against her, wishing she could take the pain Audrey was feeling away from her and yet knew she could not. Her friends could not either. But with her support and her friend's support she could. With Jay's love she could as well, if only she had convinced her daughter to accept it.

Audrey pulled away a moment later. "Mom…not to be rude, but what are you doing here anyway?" She asked softly.

Aurora laughed at that. The truth was she was surprised Audrey hadn't voiced that sooner. "There are things that come in time, Audrey. And this is one of them." She reached down to pick up the small bag she had dropped earlier. Audrey hadn't noticed that in all of the rush of emotions. She took out a small curved object and placed it in Audrey's hands, followed by a silver choke that she affixed to her daughter's neck.

"You know I love jewelry mom." Audrey said. "But what is this?" She had to find out how she could help her friends.

"That choker is more than jewelry." Aurora said to her. "As long as you keep it on you, it's a link for your mind. To your weapon. Placed on your bow, it allows you to vary the type or amount of magical arrows you wish to use in combat." She kissed her daughter on the forehead. "This, I think is what will help you save your friends."

"Did Fairy Godmother ask you to come here?" Audrey asked as she took out her iPhone. "Or was it more than that?"

"More than that." Aurora said as she brushed Audrey's hair away from her face. "Now go. Your friends need you. I don't think Chad will come back after you today with our guards searching for him."

Audrey nodded. "I love you mom." She said with a small smile and then, knowing it didn't matter since she knew, she input her numbers and transformed. She started back quickly to her friends.

Audrey's conversation with her mother had happened while the battle was looking to be lost. It was a bit coincidental that the same thing had happened with Evie and Snow White as the team was trying to avoid being crushed.

Now Reviveslime moved in with the soldiers to corral Mal and Ben to the Overhydra. The two valiantly tried to fight the soldiers back but the numbers were a lot, and Reviveslime was not mere soldier and was not making that easier.

"Mal, Ben, I'm here." Audrey called out as she jumped over a fallen log.

"Isn't that comforting?" Reviveslime questioned mockingly. "Now she can be here to watch you two lose. She already missed the failure of her friends."

Mal wasn't quite sure what to have Audrey do. The odds seemed bad from where she was standing. Luckily Audrey had an idea of what to do first. "Mal, Ben, get away from the soldiers." She said.

"That would lead us straight to the Overhydra." Ben reminded Mal. "That'd be pretty dangerous." He had said all he needed too, now it was up to Mal to make the judgment call, and he trusted her judgement.

Mal hesitated only an instant. "Let's try to avoid those jaws." She said to her knight and then the two of them turned and, seemingly crazily enough, ran toward the monster.

"They must have lost their minds." Reviveslime said with glee. He turned to Audrey and noticed her pulling back the string on her silver bow. "And what is it you think one arrow will do?"

"One arrow, nothing." Audrey admitted as she then shot the arrow up high and thought about what she wanted to happen. One of the magic arrows split into seemingly a thousand, no different than the knife trick Red Magi had pulled out. They all fell and started to take out the soldiers and some even hit Reviveslime though with his regenerative abilities it didn't take him out. "Now a shower of arrows on the other hand, might do a lot."

As Mal and Ben dodged heads and looked behind them Ben remarked, "Wow, when could Audrey do that?"

"Not until now." Mal answered with a smile. "Something tells me that she's been visited by a gift giver." She looked to Ben. "Let's head back toward Audrey and see if her gift is as multi-functional as mine and Evie's are." He nodded at her and the two headed back, the Cybertech Overhydra roaring behind them.

"Where are the others?" Audrey yelled out to them.

"That cybernetic lizard swallowed them up." Mal answered as they ran closer to the red ranger. In truth Mal was aware that it was technically supposed to be dragon, but that was beside the point right now.

Audrey raised her bow again. "Alright, let's see if mom's gift really does read my intentions." She said to herself. Eleven heads and eight missing team mates meant a few heads were 'homeless' but she didn't see that she had a choice here. She shot the magic arrow and it multiplied into elven arrows that the heads seemed to have no problems ingesting.

"What did that do?" Ben asked his friend.

"If they did what I wanted, you'll know in a minute." Audrey answered. Sure enough a moment later each of the eight rangers seemed to come out of nowhere, though they landed on the ground hard. They ran over to check on their friends, though Audrey was glad that the teleportation arrows seemed to have worked.

"If we weren't morphed, those arrows would have hurt." Carlos said as he pulled it out of his arm.

"I had no problems on my end." Jane teased sweetly as she took the arrow out of her left wing. She controlled them but they had no nerves or anything to connect to her body.

"Mal, I know why we didn't defeat this thing the first time." Evie said as she stood up, the arrow falling off of her mirror shield. "It's the insides that are vulnerable, not the heads or the shell of the body."

Mal nodded and then looked to Audrey. "You hear that? Think you can capitalize on that weakness?"

Audrey nodded. "No problem, not if they decided to ingest the arrows again." She replied and then raised her silver bow. She thought of explosive arrows and aimed for one of their mouths. It was going to rely on luck for the others to decide to go after the arrows.

"How can she guarantee this will work?" Jay asked.

"There is one way I can think of." Carlos answered his friend. "If these things are going by heat signatures or movement, they should focus in on those arrows like a moth to a flame."

Audrey released her magic arrow and it split into the eleven she needed and they could each just make out what seemed to be incendiary tips on the arrows. The Overhydra's heads indeed lashed out to get ahold of the arrows, swallowing them easily. At first nothing happened and the team got ready to try to fight again, Audrey even prepared another shot of arrows but then the Cybertech Overhydra stopped as explosions resounded from inside the body. The end result sent them all flying backwards a bit but at the end when the smoke cleared there was no trace of its existence.

Evie looked to Audrey. "Where'd you get your toy?" She wondered.

"My mom." Audrey answered with a smile.

The group powered down and started back toward Auradon Prep. This time it was Audrey who reached out and grabbed Jay's hand. "Jay I…I'm really sorry for what happened yesterday." She said softly. "I let Chad get into my head, again. I guess it's something he's been really good at lately." She looked down, feeling kind of ashamed that she let him play her like that. Then she looked up at him again. "I…I would love to go on a date with you, if you're still interested."

Jay pursed his lips together. "I think I'm going to have to think about it, honestly." He said and then turned around. He could imagine the look on her pretty face as he turned around and took two steps away before turning around again and coming up to her. "Okay, I thought about it and I'm in." He said.

Both of them laughed a little. They didn't notice the amusement from Mal, Ben and Evie too. "I guess talking with her mother did more for Audrey than just give her a new weapon." Ben noted quietly.

"Looks like it." Mal agreed softly. "But all the emotional feelings Chad has evoked in her hasn't been resolved just yet. It's barely been scratched." The purple haired girl just hoped that Jay had what it took to deal with it if it really was as bad as she feared.

"So where do you want to go?" Jay asked her.

"I'll let you know." Audrey said as she took his hand in hers. "Ben isn't the only one with secret date spots in Auradon."


	39. Nature's Call

"I think it's time we incorporate a swimming class into your schedule." Fairy Godmother said to the four isle kids as they sat around at the command center the next day. She had not failed to notice that Audrey sat with her back against Jay's side and that his arm was around her shoulder. Likewise Mal chose to sit on Ben's lap. Evie and Doug were sitting next to each other, though they had not reached the point of coupleness, nor had Jane or Carlos who were still sitting side by side. Lonnie was sitting next to Evie and Aziz, while Ally was sitting next to Aziz. Jordan chose to levitate cross-legged above the floor a little in typical genie fashion.

"That's probably a good idea." Ben agreed as he rubbed Mal's back with one hand gently. "At some point that might become important with this job."

"It already could have." Evie reminded them. She had been swept away in an underground rapids recently as had only been rescued by sheer luck, in this case by Doug's family and her older half-sister Snow White. The only two positives of that encounter had been the chance to form a relationship with her and that she had gotten a sweet upgrade for her weapon.

"We're going to start implementing those on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons before lunch." Fairy Godmother said. Jane, Mal and Jordan took magic classes in the afternoon. So far despite having the option Evie had not wished to take the classes. She looked to Audrey, Ben, Lonnie and Ally. "Meanwhile I want you four to start a unique extracurricular activity in that time."

"What's that mom?" Jane asked. She was usually up on this kind of thing. She had known about the swimming classes, she and Ben had been the ones to address the issue with her. Whatever this one was she was in the dark on it.

"The four of you will begin combing through the archives for anything that might help us learn more about Sermaya and his civilization. We know so little about it, and knowledge is power. I don't want to be caught powerless the next time he chooses to strike." Fairy Godmother replied.

Ally had home economics that semester and was happy to drop it, she had learned most of that from her mother Alice Liddell anyway. Lonnie had an art class but understood the importance of this. She decided to pick it up again next semester when she had finished her own home economics class. Ben had his chemistry class then but he agreed to move that to the morning and lose his free period. Audrey meanwhile was not exactly happy about the idea of spending an hour looking through dusty material but understood the reasoning for it; she was more than happy to drop her Trigonometry class for it.

"Jane, Jordan, Doug." Fairy Godmother said now. "In that time, you will officially be taking a class called Cybernetics 101." She smiled just a bit. "Really it's just the cover for allowing you extra time in the command center for upgrades, repairs, or whatever else has to be done." One of those was the search to see if their new gold, silver and crystal rangers had a zord somewhere out there like Mal and Ben had.

"How convenient that you're the headmistress so these changes won't draw suspicion." Jordan noted coyly. Anyone else making this kind of schedule change would have had a hard time justifying some of this to their headmistress.

"So this will become the new schedule starting tomorrow." Fairy Godmother said. She handed each of those students actually doing something school sanctioned a small folder containing room number and some initial supply lists.

"Hey maybe you'll be a natural at swimming." Jay said to Carlos as he patted his shoulder affectionately. "They say dogs are really great swimmers, and you can't be any worse at that than you are tourney." He laughed at his own joke and Aziz laughed a little too.

Ben had a small chuckle at that but then said, "Hey, lay off Jay. He does just fine."

Audrey elbowed Jay a little in the side. "Yeah, behave yourself young man." She scolded half-mockingly. Carlos for his part shot Jay a look of semi-mock annoyance and let the subtle but kind of rude comment drop.

The command centers alarms went off and everyone rose to their feet, all thoughts of jokes and romances put onto the backburner to deal with the newest crisis. Jane and Doug were already moving to the consoles of the command center with Fairy Godmother right behind them. A few moments of checking and Doug announced, "I think I found our problem, or rather problems."

He brought up on the view screen an image of not one but two monsters that reminded Lonnie of a cross between a bull and a wildebeest. "That doesn't look like a typical monster of Paradias's." She noted dryly.

"But it does look like typical monster that would be used by Sermaya." Ben filled in grimly. Despite the beast gene being a part of him he had not figured out how that made Sermaya think of him as special, at least at one point. That seemed to change when he became the Auradon Knight.

"Where are they?" Evie asked. She didn't recognize the region though between the Badlands, several forests, the mountains where the Auradon Megazord lie, and even the torii near the water's edge that legend said would lead to the underworld, the blue haired girl wouldn't have been surprised to know that were more unknown regions in Auradon.

"They seem to have originated from the swamp lands." Doug said. It seemed obvious to them what that place was supposed to be until he added, "Judging from some of these readings I'm guessing that they had to emerge from near the volcano."

"Wait a minute, there's a volcano near the swamps?" Mal asked in a little bit of amazement. She was from a geology expert but somehow that didn't seem normal to her. She held up her hand and shook her head. "Wait, scratch that. We don't have time for that. We need to put these two monsters down."

The eleven warriors ran up the stairs and out of the command center and as soon as they had crossed the gates of Auradon Prep Mal called out, "Let's get to work." While Ben formed his sword and shield and Jane took out the magic wand, there rest of the team took out their iPhones. As Ben combined his weapons the other teens input their numbers and they all transformed.

Getting to the swamplands took a moment and Jordan was already trying to figure out some way to get them around faster, to be discussed with Jane and Doug at their first 'cybernetics' class tomorrow. They found the two beasts coming out from some of the foliage in the area, and right behind him was in fact Sermaya.

"Ah, I knew you kiddies would be showing up to try to stop us." Sermaya said with a sneer. "You're just in time. I'd like you all to meet Lava Guard," He inclined toward the crimson looking beast "And Swamp Guard." That was to the sickly green looking beast.

"It's time to crush us some rangers." Lava Guard said.

"Make their bones into our bread." Swamp Guard added.

"That is one kind of bread I don't want to try." Aziz noted with revulsion.

"Wait a minute." Evie interrupted. "We're missing someone here? Where's that one guy, the mage?"

Ben knew Evie was right and that Chiron was not present. But right now they had two new beings in front of them to deal with.

Mal knew it too. "Worry about him later." She said. "Right now we have more immediate problems."

Sermaya charged at Ben and the young king had to bring up his shield to absorb the brunt of his attack. He then slashed the primal creature hard in order to back him up off of him. "Still having issues with me huh?" Ben asked him.

Sermaya let out a laugh. "Not at all boy." He responded. "You have made your choice and you shall pay for it with your life." He tried to bring his meaty fists down on Ben and he barely dodged it.

The rangers meanwhile found themselves divided between the two monsters. Mal, Evie, Jane, Carlos and Jordan found themselves fighting Lava Guard. Audrey, Jay, Lonnie, Ally, and Aziz found themselves fighting Swamp Guard.

Each monster wielded enormous clubs that were heavy and backed up with enormous amounts of strength, as Evie and Ally learned when they received the first strikes. Jay attacked Swamp Guard with his scimitar (so far a regular one) only to be blocked while Mal swiped at her (so far normal) staff that Lava Guard took to the chest with almost no problem whatsoever.

The two Guard beasts let out a earsplitting roar that forced each of the rangers, and even Ben who was fighting Sermaya, to clap their hands over their ears. They were each bull dozed over by their respective opponents, making them land hard.

"I hope that doesn't cause permanent damage." Jane said as she started to get up.

"What was that?" Jordan asked her, though with the lack of persistence to the question it was hard to tell if the genie girl was displaying dry sarcasm or was being serious.

"I think it's time to bring out our upgrades." Evie thought she said to Mal, though in truth it was shouted because her ears were ringing.

So were Mal's the point that she almost didn't hear her chosen sister's words. She did catch the word upgrades and thought she understood what was being suggested to her. "Good idea." She replied but when she wasn't sure she got her point across the purple ranger nodded in agreement.

"Don't know what these power ups are but I don't think I want to know." Lava Guard said as he looked to his counterpart.

"I agree with you." Swamp Guard said. Together the two beasts slammed their fists into the ground. The dual impact traveled underneath the ground and struck all around the ten rangers, causing an odd explosion of steam and lava to send them flying backwards.

They started to rise again, the ranger team swearing they heard Mal say something about trying to pull it together but their hearing still seemed shot. Jane even said something to Doug and her mother about it over their intercom helmets but if they responded to her she couldn't hear it.

Ben still had his sight, and luckily Sermaya was not a small opponent because right now there was no way he could have heard the beast king coming. Even one on one fighting a battle without being able to hear was a challenge.

The rangers were quickly learning that two Guard beasts seemed to be work very well together, and that was posing a problem for them. The two combined their club like weapons and unleashed a stream of energy at the rangers. They landed roughly again and then Swamp Guard grabbed Lonnie roughly by her neck while Lava Guard grabbed Carlos roughly by his neck.

Both teens struggled against the monsters holding them but seemed to be having little effect. They noticed Sermaya grab ahold of Ben and toss him hard into a boulder. Mal let out a cry of alarm that she wasn't sure anyone heard anyway, deafening as the screeching had been. The beast king turned and let out a slamming of mighty fists to the ground that sent them flying backwards. And then Lonnie and Carlos were blanketed in white.

"Not exactly the kind of thing we see between yellow and pink rangers." Said a voice. Lonnie and Carlos looked up and swore they saw a figure like the one Jay had described, sans the accent. "Aren't they like supposed to be best friends or something?"

"That hasn't always been the case, moron." Said another that had the accent Jay described. "You know how things have changed since this all started."

"We weren't exactly friends when we first met." Said a feminine voice. This one belonged to a long curly haired blonde in a black uniform though it had streaks of pink in the fabric.

"You can say that again." Another voice agreed, also feminine. She had shorter brunette hair but wore the same black uniform with a streak of yellow in the fabric. "None of us were exactly, but we made it work."

"Just as they have." Said another ethereal voice. They vaguely recognized the voice that Jay had tried to describe and had even suggested that it had been Zordon, though he had been gone for many years now. "Just as all have, for the sake of each other and the worlds you protect."

Lonnie tried to ask if this was Zordon but found no words escaped her lips. She wasn't entirely sure if she this was real, or if she was hallucinating from lack of oxygen, or if she were dead. An exchange of looks with Carlos confirmed the same things she was wondering, along with wondering why if they were dying they would see the other.

"Do not fret, you two are not dying." The ethereal voice said. "In fact you have been brought here, as your friend was, so that you may receive aid to help you in your fights." At that the two women who had spoken about not getting along at first, in some ways paralleling their positions as isle teen and Auradon teen despite Lonnie being much more accepting than most of the others aside from Ben had been, took a step forward.

The curly haired blonde seemed to throw something toward Lonnie but it went through the air almost slowly, as if literally being carried by the wind. By contrast the something was released by the short haired brunette that literally seemed to travel through the white ground.

Still somehow at the same time it seemed to envelope both teens at the same time. "You have what you need to stop end this fight." The ethereal voice said. "Let the power protect you all."

"Go get them guys." They heard the first voice say as they found the white light enveloping them again.

Jane looked in fear as her friend and her crush were getting choked out by the two brutes. She raised her wand to try to find a way to help them. Then she realized that, like Jay had when he was about to be stabbed by Chad not long ago, the two of them started to glow.

"What is this?" Sermaya wondered with amusement. Unlike Paradias and his minions he had never seen this before.

Lonnie's tessens formed in her hands. Somehow they felt lighter in her hands but she felt more power radiating from them. Even better she realized she heard Sermaya's question. Whatever had happened to her restored her hearing. She brought the tessens up and then up, twisting them around and driving them into Swamp Guard's arms hard, forcing him to release her.

Carlos too could hear, as judged by the roar of annoyance the monster gave out. He realized his clawed daggers, which seemed much more powerful than before, had been summoned too. He slammed them hard into Lava Guard's arms and the monster howled in rage and pain. Carlos realized that the fact his opponent was a monster was probably the only reason the arms holding him had not broken.

The two rangers fell to the earth, landing on their feet. "I think it's time I give these two a shakeup of my own." Carlos said to Lonnie.

Lonnie nodded and smiled. "Good plan, meanwhile it's time for me to give our friends some aromatherapy." She replied.

Carlos brought his clawed daggers down on the ground hard, causing an earthquake to disrupt their balance and even causing them damage. Meanwhile Lonnie stood in front of her friends and raised her tessens, bringing them together and releasing a wave of energy at them, but this one was subtle and despite everything they heard what sounded like gentle chime ringing.

"That sounds so nice." Ally noted, and then realized she heard her own voice.

The others looked to Ally too. They had heard her as well. Audrey hugged Lonnie softly. "You did it, you reversed whatever it was those two brutes did to us." She said.

Lonnie laughed. "Thanks, but it's not over yet." She smiled now. "Carlos and I have some beasts to put down. Enjoy the show." She looked to Jordan. "Feel free to conjure up some popcorn." Then she ran up to join the yellow ranger.

Now two on two, Lava Guard charged at Carlos who dodged it expertly. Lonnie blocked Swamp Guard and then shot her leg out to force him backwards. She used her tessens to carry her up into the air and then unleashed a maelstrom at Swamp Guard, striking him hard.

Lava Guard released a stream of what seemed like molten lava at Carlos but he sank his clawed daggers into the ground and forced the attack right back at him. Then he gathered energy up into the clawed daggers as he leapt into the sky and then brought down the powered up claws right on the crimson beast.

Lonnie was still up in the air as energy was drawn into the her tessens and then she tossed them as if they were dual boomerangs straight toward Swamp Guard, both of them struck the beast twice. Releasing the weapons had set the pink ranger down on her feet gently.

Both rangers turned toward their friends again and started toward them as both Guard monster exploded and were destroyed.

"That was awesome." Jane had to grant with laughter.

"Really cool." Aziz agreed.

Mal thought so too but had another thought as she turned to check on Ben. She needn't have worried so much as Ben was on his feet and clashing with Sermaya well enough. He quickly noticed though that his beast guards were gone and the ten rangers came to stand with Ben.

To their surprise Sermaya laughed. "So you two have been getting stronger. I presume your little friends have as well. In fact, imagine my surprise to see three new rangers." He had looked toward Jordan, Ally and Aziz. That made Mal curious as he had not confronted them since before Jane had become a ranger. "But all of this has gone according to my plan. We'll be meeting again very soon rangers, I guarantee it." With that the beast king vanished.

"What did he mean by that?" Evie wondered. The team powered down.

"Are you okay?" Ben asked Mal as he came and took her hand.

"I'm fine Bennie-Boo. Are you?" Mal asked with a small little wicked smile at the use of the nickname. He laughed and kissed her gently on the lips.

"You know if you give me a nickname like that we're going to have problems." Jay remarked jokingly as he took Audrey's hand.

Audrey giggled a little. "Don't wear anything ridiculous," She eyed the clothes he wore now, which really were fine anyway but wasn't exactly what Audrey would have dressed him in. "Well, more ridiculous and you won't have to worry about it." She said teasingly.

"Hey, that was Halloween and we were like eight." Ben protested humorously to Audrey.

"And you were still the first and only child of the rules of Auradon." Audrey said with a laugh. "And the best ghost costume you could come up with was a white sheet with eye holes and the word boo! On the chest." She commented.

"Yeah, really man. That is kind of lame." Carlos agreed with a laugh.

"Yeah okay, okay." Ben said with a laugh. He placed his arm over Mal's shoulder and pulled her to his side. "So do you wand Lonnie want to tell us how you got your upgrades?"

"Looks like you got them the same way I did." Jay noted as he placed an arm around Audrey as they all started to walk back to Auradon. "Didn't see anyone around you after all."

So Lonnie and Carlos told them their story. Jay agreed that the ethereal voice and one of the other voices sounded like the ones in his…vision, hallucination, meeting, whatever. He hadn't recognized the other figure or the two feminine ones.

Jane pursed her lips in thought. "I wonder if that's a coincidence." She mused softly.

"If what is a coincidence?" Jordan asked her.

"Mal, Evie, and Audrey's weapons were upgraded by means of receiving an item, two in Audrey's case. They were also the ones affected by Invader of Nightmares so long ago." She started to explain. "Whereas Jay, Lonnie and Carlos had their weapons upgraded by some mysterious force that may or not be associated with Zordon and were the ones who helped to free those affected by Invader of Nightmares."

"No offense, but it sounds like nothing more than a coincidence to me." Mal replied with a shrug.

"I have to agree with Mal." Audrey added.

"I don't know what's scarier, the fact that these two agree on something or that I have to agree with that." Jay added as well.

Ally thought a moment. "It could be just a coincidence." She conceded. "On the other hand I suppose that could be possible. This was before any of us were actually rangers as well, and we don't exactly need the upgrades." Jane's weapon was basically magic in itself while she, Aziz and Jordan had just become rangers and didn't seem to need them right now.

"We'll have to ask your mom her opinion when we get back to the command center." Evie said.

They entered the command center ready to tell Fairy Godmother and Doug what happened, about Lonnie and Carlos getting their weapons upgraded. But that faded as they saw Doug working furiously and the grim look on the face of Jane's mother.

"Um, we just beat Sermaya's goons squad, shouldn't we grape cider abounds?" Jordan questioned as she and Jane made their way up to see what Carlos was doing.

"I'm afraid we've been had." Fairy Godmother said to them softly.

"Had?" Jay questioned. "What is it that we had?"

"I think that means we've been tricked." Evie corrected her friend. "But how were we tricked?"

"I'm not sure how we missed this yet, but this is what we missed." Doug told them and pulled a switch on one of the consoles. That switch actually tapped into the local news feeds, which came up with a report that was being given by Rapunzel; the mother of another acquaintance of theirs at the school named Ruby.

"Tragedy has just struck the village of Sevii, with hundreds reported missing, presumed kidnapped." Rapunzel reported. "It was invaded by two large creatures resembling baboons and numerous bipedal oxen. While many of the residents have been captured, presumably trapped in their homes, there are others who have escaped."

The view switched to one of those who must have escaped, who described the battle oxen bursting through the forests and breaking down the gates. These were followed by the two large baboons that had been described.

"Another viewer managed to obtain footage of this initial assault." Rapunzel revealed. "This has not been edited for content, so younger viewers should beware." They saw firsthand the way the monsters had smashed through the gates and immediately started to grab some of the people even as others fled into what they assumed was safe havens but were probably not. This was followed moments later by the two large baboons; one with a large axe and one with a large bow.

"Hold on, pause that a minute." Ben said. Doug did so and he pointed to the far right corner of the screen. "Can we enhance that corner?" He asked.

Jane made a few adjustments on another console and it magnified that section to show them the missing piece of the puzzle that had not been in the swampy area. "Chiron." Lonnie whispered.

"Where did those oxen and the baboons come from?" Aziz asked.

"I don't know, but clearly Sermaya planned on all of us going to oppose him and those two guard beasts." Mal said slowly and took a shuddering breath. "That was all a distraction for Chiron to bring about minions of his own and those two brutish looking baboons."

"Ah, no." Audrey whispered softly. She didn't want to point out that they seemed to have screwed up despite having eleven fighters, three of which Sermaya hadn't even known existed until now.

Rapunzel continued to report that over three quarters of the population was unaccounted for, presumably held hostage in the village of Sevii. Worried people were abounds as they worked to determine who had been trapped in the incursion.

Mal held Ben's hand tightly and looked at her friends. Audrey had leaned against Jay as he had an arm around her. Jane had drifted down to the others were Carlos had placed a hand on her shoulder. Aziz had both is hands around Ally's shoulders. "We have to stop them, drive them away from the village and rescue those people." The purple haired girl declared. She hoped that the eleven of them would be enough.


	40. Nature's Fury

They sat around the command center debating what the next move should be. "Can we even handle this ourselves?" Audrey asked, reflecting what Mal had wondered moments before. "I mean there are eleven of us and all but we saw all those oxen things we don't even know what they're capable of."

"Not to mention the fact that we have those other two large baboon creatures." Ally pointed out.

"I can try to send a message out to Alpha and see if we can get any help from them." Fairy Godmother suggested. "But I don't know when we can expect to hear from them if they have something going on themselves."

"We can't afford to wait." Mal said. "We have to over and kick those freaks out of the Sevii village and rescue those people." She looked at her team mates. "Why would they even worry about people anyway?"

"Sacrifices?" Carlos suggested.

"Bait?" Jay suggested.

"Insurance against us?" Lonnie suggested then.

Audrey had to admit each of those were likely reasons and was sure there had to be other reasons they had not thought of if those weren't it. "So we need to get going before they settle in too much in that village." She stated.

"We have to remember that by this point Sermaya will probably have gotten there too." Ben reminded the rangers. "So we'll have to fight him too."

"Are you guys even ready for this?" Doug asked them worriedly. "You just got off a fight with Sermaya and two of his monsters."

Evie was touched by his concern and she reached out to place her hand on his. "Thanks for the concern Doug, but we don't have a choice. We're the only ones who have a chance of freeing all of those people in Sevii village and letting them all return to their homes." She said softly.

"You are quiet correct." Fairy Godmother had to admit. "But you all must be careful not to over exhaust yourselves." She placed her hand on Jane's shoulder. "I don't want any of you guys to become sick."

Jane laid her head on her mother's hand, reveling in the gesture. "We'll be okay, mom. We have to be." She said.

"Wait until tomorrow." Fairy Godmother said to them. "Rest up before you go out."

Each of the teens exchanged glances. They knew it was the best idea, they just suspected it wouldn't be a restful night. Then they all finally agreed.

It was as they suspected, the night was not all that restful and they set out as soon as the sun had risen. Each of them felt guilty for what had happened; convinced that they should not all have gone to confront Sermaya when they had a whole world to worry about.

"We should have stayed behind." Ally said as she looked to Aziz and Jordan. "Played back up if needed but other than that been ready for another crisis like this."

"We had no way of knowing." Jane tried to reason.

"And why not?" Jordan wondered. "Why didn't we have a way of knowing? The sensors should have told us something. I should develop something like that." She mused.

"Maybe if Lonnie and I hadn't gotten side tracked in that vision or whatever." Carlos said.

"I think we're more at fault." Evie replied. "Mal, Audrey and I, I mean. We were the ones who got side tracked with our families." She thought of her bonding with Snow White, Mal bonding with Belle and Audrey confessing to her mother. It was all needed but at the same time it could have been timed better.

"Yeah, you're right." Audrey said softly. "We got truly side tracked, not delusioanlly side tracked."

"I feel as we've been dissed somehow." Jay said to his two friends with a grim humor.

"We can't start second guessing ourselves." Mal said somewhat dubiously. She hoped she was inspiring more confidence than she herself felt. "If we do that all the time we'll end up having a very short career, not to mention lifespan."

It seemed all too quiet as they got closer to the village that Sermaya's minions had commandeered. Still they were sure that the oxen creatures had to be around somewhere. "Stay close." Ben said to his friends, even taking a hold of Mal's hand.

They continued on to find no signs of life within, either human or beast. Jane rationalized that the oxen creatures had probably rounded the people up and put them someplace they could be more easily guarded, but it didn't explain where Sermaya, Chiron, and his goons had ended up at.

"I wish they'd just show up already." Audrey murmured softly. "It would be better to get them off the village already instead of going with all of this subterfuge."

The group made their way to the center of the village, where beyond that was the city hall for the local village. It was halfway to the building that lights flashed, blinding the team momentarily. When the could get their bearings again they were surrounded by the oxen creatures. And in front of them was Sermaya, Chiron, the baboon creatures and yet another beast creature in some armor and wielding a sword.

"Welcome to the first of my new villages, Power Rangers." Sermaya said with a chuckle.

"Funny, I could have sworn this place wasn't yours." Mal retorted. "In fact we've come to serve you evictions papers."

"You are more than welcome to try, daughter of Maleficent." Sermaya replied grandly. "If you can." He gestured to his the three new monsters. "I'd like you to meet my Forest Defender and Archer Defender." He indicated the two baboon monsters. The first had green in its fur while the second had yellow in its fur. "And this is Gottams, my sword master."

"Another freak." Jay muttered.

"Goody for you." Audrey said to the beast king. "We're going to take you and yours down right now."

Mal agreed wholeheartedly with her second in commands assessment. "Let's get to work." She stated. As Ben summoned his sword and shield and combined them to transform, as Jane took out the magic wand to morph, the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and then morphed themselves.

Mal noticed Gottams get ready to strike and she looked at her team. "Time to weapon up guys." She said. The team followed their leader's orders and summoned their weapons. The purple ranger herself had her dragon's eye staff, Audrey her elemental bow, Evie her mirror force shield, Jay his soul scimitar, Lonnie her hurricane tessens and Carlos his earthquake claw daggers and Jane the magic wand. Jordan had her lamp cannon ready as Aziz summoned his spiral spear and Ally unsheathed her crystalline cards.

"Excellent." Sermaya said with a laugh. "It's time to show you just how much we have learned in our time. One of them was the ability to take away the powers of an army. Now I can do nothing about these powers you so casually wield." He had been in hibernation after all when Zordon helped establish the Auradon Ranger powers. "But as for your weapons, my sword master will deal with those."

"What are you talking about?" Jay asked. "What can he do to stop these?"

Gottams laughed and leapt into the air. As he passed over the team it seemed as if something from the armor that encompassed his upper section and stole the weapons away from each of the rangers, as well as the shield and sword from Ben. The young king considered it a small miracle that losing his weapons didn't' force him to lose his powers. The sword master landed on a roof across from them and grinned down maliciously at them.

"Now that you have no weapons to protect you, let's see how you deal with my army now." Sermaya said with glee and then pointed to the rangers. "Get them my battle oxen." He commanded. All of the minions surged forward.

"M?" Evie asked a bit worried. "What are we supposed to do now?"

Mal understood her friend's weariness. "We do what we can to take them down E." She said.

"What was it that voice said to us?" Carlos asked Lonnie as he got ready to fight without his claw daggers. "The ethereal one?"

Lonnie had to think a moment. "Let the power protect us." She answered. "We're going to need that now."

The oxen attacked. Mal, Ben, Jay, Aziz and Lonnie were able to go blow for blow with one of them but more than one was a bit of a problem. Sadly they still fared better than Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jordan, Ally and Jane were without their weapons.

"What are we doing wrong here?" Audrey wondered as she dodged one of the their ram attacks only to get punched hard by another. "We deal with the soldiers without a problem now."

"These things are stronger." Jay answered for her. He was unable to get by the three in front of him to help the girl he was falling in love with despite himself. "Faster too."

"I told you that you should have joined with me Ben." Sermaya said. "Now you will die and I will rule the world that you call Auradon. Perhaps you could have protected the people of this world in some fashion, but now when the time comes their lives will most assuredly be forfeit."

The oxen were starting to get at the edge over the eleven warriors. They even made sure to make sure that Jordan did not have the time to cast any spells that might save them, and without the wand Jane's magic wasn't strong enough to help. Mal likewise was covered well enough that if she ever stopped fighting to try to cast a spell they would take her down.

One lifted Audrey and tossed her hard into Jay. He tried to catch her but the impact forced them both to the ground. The others gathered around them. "This is not looking good." Ally said.

Aziz looked up at Gottams on the roof. "Why don't we just take our weapons back from that creep?" he demanded to know.

"How do you suggest we do that?" Lonnie asked. "We can't even beat these things without our weapons. How are we supposed to deal with that?"

"It's over rangers." Sermaya gloated. "You've lost."

The Defender baboon landed in front of them and raised his axe, ready to bring it down on one of them, whichever he could. Each of them were trying to protect the others and there was no way to know who would take the blow.

The point became moot however, when there was a loud yelling noise and the baboon was kicked back hard. The eleven warriors looked up to see five people in front of them. They had no way of knowing who they were at that moment. If the Space Rangers had been there however they would have been able to tell them that they were also a group of Rangers.

"This battle isn't over yet." Lily Chilman promised as she stepped forward.

Her fiancée stepped forward too. "Count on it." Theo Martin agreed.

"We'll help take you down and restore this village." Dominic Hargan added.

"That's a promise." RJ assured.

Sermaya let out a small primal growl. "Who are you?" he asked.

"We," Casey Rhodes told him with confidence. "Are the Jungle Fury Power Rangers."

"More Power Rangers?" Sermaya roared in fury. Mal couldn't have agreed more, except it wasn't fury she felt but elation. She hoped that meant they could stand a chance.

"It's morphin' time." Casey said three of them placed sunglasses over their eyes while Dominic and RJ used their morphers. "Jungle Beasts, Spirits Unleashed." Then between the beast arm and the Auradon Rangers stood the red, blue, yellow, white and violet rangers.

"Very well then." Sermaya said with a faux amused smile. "Bring out your weapons and let the battle commence."

"No." Evie called out. "No weapons or else that beast on the roof will take them from you."

"No problem then." Casey said. "We've got a backup plan."

Lily nodded. "Time to use our spirit animals." She said.

"Spirit animals?" Evie questioned, kind of intrigued.

"Casey, Lily, Theo." RJ said. "Summon the Spirit Rangers so that they can help Dominic and I. You three give them a crash course on spirit animals."

Lily and Theo looked a bit uncertain about that but Casey felt a bit more confident since he had helped Emma and Jake, two of the Megaforce Rangers, to find their animals. But their teaching conditions were a bit more accommodating. Never the less the three rangers complied; Casey summoned the blue shark ranger, Theo summoned the black bat ranger and Lily summoned the green elephant ranger.

"How are we supposed to receive a 'crash course' on spirit animals?" Jane asked. There were two thing she didn't have much faith in. The first was that anything truly worth understanding and/or learning could be done as a crash course. The second was that people were truly capable to utilizing something like that; a bit ironic perhaps considering the world they lived in.

"The same way we get to suddenly accept that fairy tales are real." Theo replied, making an interesting point about the realities between the world of Auradon and their world.

"None of that matters right now." Lily said, who secretly would have loved to be a fairy tale princess when she had been much younger. "Right now we have to figure out how to do this before RJ and Dominic get tired out."

"Which goes back to Jane said, how do we crash course this?" Carlo asked.

Casey thought a moment. He had been the first to help others outside of their school find their spirit animals. "Maybe there's some kind of spell that you could use on me that would help me identify your spirit animals quicker?" He suggested.

Mal bit her lip in thought as an idea came to her. "A second sight kind of spell." She supplied. "I think I can handle that one." She took a deep breath. "In our hour of need, give this man the view, to help us get our groove."

Carlos raised his eyebrow at the spell but by now knew better than to comment on his view of the spell. As long as it worked it was all that mattered, he had to reluctantly concede.

Casey opened his eyes and was kind of shocked at what he saw in front of him. He had read in the past that some people who had close spiritual connections might find that spirit hanging around them and this seemed to be similar to what he would have expected.

He looked to Mal. "You have the spirit of the dragon, full of fire and nobility." That didn't surprise her too much, given her zord and the bond she had formed with it. It didn't surprise Ben that much either given what drew her to him in the first place.

Next he looked to Audrey. "The cheetah spirit guides you just as it guides my friend Lily, quick and adaptable." He told the brunette princess. She almost wondered how to perceive that until she was one of the most resistant to Mal and her friends but almost like magic had learned to live with and even come to care for them, especially most recently Jay.

He looked to Evie. "The intelligent and all seeing spirit of the owl watches over and protects you." He said. That didn't surprise Mal given how much her intellectual nature had shined ever since they had become students at Auradon Prep, from chemistry to urban sustainability.

He looked to Jay now. "The strong and protective spirit of the ape guides you in your actions." Audrey wasn't surprised at all to hear that one based on how he fought and how much he had worked to keep her safe since Chad's sadistic intentions had started to become clear.

"You have the frog spirit in your corner." Casey said to Carlos, and when the yellow ranger seemed to balk a little and echo that in disbelief he explained, "It means that you should not be underestimated or taken lightly as there is more to you than meets the eye."

Casey looked at Lonnie. "The spirit of the horse guides you in your life." He told the Asian princess. "Strong willed and wise." That surprised her since she assumed that would be Ben's spirit animal as that was his zord. Meanwhile Jane certainly remembered some of the knowledge she had brought into their circle, particularly where the seemingly unassuming Torii fell.

Now Casey looked to the young king, and the only one of the warriors not to really be a power ranger in the strictest sense. "You're spirit animal is the lion, brave and loyal." Mal certainly couldn't argue those, especially when she recalled Ben wanting to help them out even before becoming the Auradon Knight regardless of the dangers to himself.

Now he looked at Jane. "You're ranger color is very apropos to your spirit animal, the spirit of the dove, who represents peace and knowledge." He said. Every one of the rangers, particularly the first six, could remember a time in their careers that Jane's knowledge had helped them to in the day, and by her very nature even now was traditionally a peaceful one.

Casey looked at Jordan. "The ever changing, sometimes mysterious chameleon spirit serves as your guide and advisor." In some ways that spirit animal baffled the red ranger but made perfect sense to Jordan. She was after all a genie, one of the most mysterious life forms in the world.

Now he looked to Aziz. "The might and dexterous falcon is your spirit animal." Casey revealed to the silver ranger.

Finally he looked to Ally. "The deer spirit seems to represent you, delicate and yet very resilient." He told the blonde. It was something that everyone would have agreed she had proven in spades during their adventure in Wonderland.

Casey's gaze now encompassed all of Auradon Rangers. "Call upon your spirit animals and channel them in this fight. The best way to put an end to beast warriors like these is to fight them on their own turf." He said.

Beneath her helmet Mal's eye glowed green as she felt the power of her dragon, and perhaps some of her own power from being the daughter of Maleficent as well. She remembered her mother telling her stories of transforming into a black dragon to face Audrey's father prince Phillip. Of course it was years before she realized that he would come out on top of that confrontation. "Let's see how well this works everyone." She said.

For Jay it was definitely a natural fit. He felt as if his own strength were combining with that of the ape, one of the strongest primates in history. Taking out the oxen was pretty simple.

Jane found that her spirit animal gave her a unique advantage. Because of her small white wings she was able to use that in order to glide around a bit, almost simulating flight. She used that to turn one of her opponents greatest advantages into a disadvantage, as their massive strength and bulky build made it more likely for them to strike each other rather than her while evading.

That was a tactic that Carlos soon adapted to his own needs as well. What he lacked in glide ability he made up for with his own speed and short stature, dodging and weaving to avoid the oxen and making them strike each other.

The approach was working well, and the oxen minions were finding themselves on the losing end of the fight against both the eleven Auradon Rangers and the eight Jungle Fury Rangers, though Jordan could feel the blue, black and green rangers weren't really people in the same sense as the rest of them were. It made her think it would be an interesting experiment to try on her own someday.

Mal however knew there was a difference between the minions and the big boys. Sermaya, Chiron, and the twin baboon defenders would need a bit more than spirit power fists and feet to be taken down. She used the power she perceived as a dragon to leap up onto the roof top and land in front of Gottamas. "You have something that belongs to us." She said, her voice sounding just a bit gravely, an echo of the dragon spirit she supposed. "I want those back."

Gottamas didn't hesitate to use his own weapon, a long sword, in combat despite the disadvantage he had thought he had brought to his master's opposition. "If you think you can take your weapons back then bring it on." With that he slashed at Mal, who dodged to the side and came up with a good kick to his jaw.

Mal was not alone in her assertion as Ben followed suit and slammed into Gottamas hard, his heavier metal armor in itself making a decent weapon over the more skintight suits that his friend wore while morphed. "You're not alone in this Mal." Ben said. "We'll take him together."

"It will take more than just two of you to free your weapons from my grasp." Gottamas sneered at them.

Jordan realized that he was of course probably right. Thankfully so did Lily. "Those of you who started with her need to go up there and combine your spirit animals with hers. You might be able to defeat him that way and get your weapons back." Lily suggested.

"Go ahead guys." Jordan said. "We'll cover the Jungle Fury Rangers." She indicated herself, Jane, Aziz and Ally. Audrey, Evie, Carlos and Jay leaped up to the roof and after a moment Lonnie realized she was supposed to go with despite the fact that she had not technically started with them but might as well have and followed them.

Audrey however had one idea that Lily had not been aware of. "Let's activate the neon armor." She suggested.

"Good idea Audrey." Mal said. "That's another thing he can't take away from us." The six of them activated their neon armor, something that drew a breath of amazement from Lily.

"Okay, that's kind of cool." Theo had to admit.

"Spirit animals of Auradon, unleash the fury!" The six teens called out, and through it they could see the images of their spirit animals in their colors as it struck Gottamas down hard. The weapons flew out of him, the sword and shield automatically being directed back to Ben. Jordan used her magic to make sure the rest of her friends got their weapons back to them.

"Resilient, huh?" Ally asked with a small smile on her lips. "Well this deer also has some teeth." With that she unleashed all of her crystallized cards to mow down through the oxen. Her cards recollected in her right hand as the rest of the rangers, Auradon and Jungle, came to stand by the crystal ranger.

That still left Seramaya, Chiron and his two baboon guardians to contend with. Sermaya knew that he could summon more oxen creatures but he also knew that it wouldn't really make a difference here. "You still have to deal with us rangers, and it won't be so easy." The beast king vowed.

"Let's bring our weapons together." Mal said. "Channel both our spirits and our neon armor into the blast and see what happens." Each of her team mates nodded.

"Us too." Jordan said to Ally and Aziz.

"We'll help too." Casey said. "With the Claw Cannon."

Mal, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos and Lonnie formed the Auradon blaster. They could already feel the power of the blaster had been enhanced, not just by their spirit animals or by their armor but also from the power of their weapon upgrades.

Jordan, Aziz and Ally formed their own Lamp blaster and stood to the right of the other rangers.

Casey, Lily and Theo formed their Claw Cannon and stood on the left of the rangers.

Together the three of them unleashed their attacks on the four beast warriors. Chiron brought his staff up as the green baboon, the defender one, moved up to protect the other three. There was an explosion but when the smoke cleared the four of them were still standing there though it seemed as if the defender was weakened.

"That didn't go quiet as planned." RJ noted. "Good thing we have other ranger teams on their way." It was actually a bit of a bluff as they had only figured they would need one team but they had no way of knowing that and in truth it wasn't that much of a stretch. All it took was a text from here to Fairy Godmother and then to Alpha for other rangers after all.

Jay caught onto what he was trying to do here. "We also have squads of guards on their way too." He said. "We just have to hold out a little bit longer." In truth ideally they probably should have but they hadn't wanted to take that chance. He just hoped that Sermaya and his freaks didn't know that.

Rather he knew or not, the odds were not necessarily in their favor. Sermaya gave them a glare. "You may have won this one rangers, with some outside help." He added pointedly. "But I promise that we will have our revenge." Chiron waved the staff and the four vanished. They also saw that Gottomas had disappeared as well.

A quick search revealed the population that had not escaped were being held in the governor's building. They were set free and Jane told her mother that they had cleared Sermaya and his goons out, and learned that she had indeed contacted Alpha just in case. It had been Alpha's idea to send the Jungle Fury rangers and see if they could help unlock the animal spirits for the team.

"Does this make you guys feel any better?" Lily asked the eleven warriors. "About Sermaya tricking you guys for this invasion?"

Each of them looked uncertain. "We never should have fallen for it in the first place." Mal finally said. "We screwed up and it was just a lucky break that it didn't cost the citizens of the land more than it already did."

"Being a ranger isn't all fun and games, and even without the loss of people, just the destruction of property alone isn't always pretty or harmless." RJ told them, trying to be consoling but perhaps missing the mark just a little. "Look the point is that mistakes happen in this line of work just as it does every other line of work. What matters is being able to correct those mistakes and hopefully learn a little something along the way."

"He's right." Casey agreed. "Making mistakes is just part of the job, it's part of life. It's how one deals with those mistakes that makes all the difference."

"And don't forget about your friends, who are always willing to help you if you need it." Lily said with a small smile. "Just as we did."

"Thank you." Mal said to them. "Not just for helping us now but for helping us unlock something that I think will help us in the future as well."

"Anytime guys." Casey said.

"I think at the next meeting I'll have to bring up ways to help defend smaller villages and other locations that may not necessarily fall under the normal patrol routes." Ben remarked. "That way we can try to prevent anything like this happening again."

The Auradon teens escorted the Jungle Fury rangers to their entry point into their world which they learned hadn't been that far away thanks to the same technology that the Space Rangers had used to show up to help them against the Psycho Rangers. Then they made their way back to Auradon, ready to face the challenges ahead, which for the isle kids meant swimming classes.

"That Sermaya is starting to become a rather big pain in our necks." Nerissa noted with some annoyance. "At this rate he may very well become as much of a challenge to us as the Power Rangers."

"We are almost prepared to unleash out strongest monsters." Paradias said. "All we need is a little bit more time."

"And it shall be had." Reviveslime promised.

"Indeed it shall." Maleficent agreed. "And with some help from an old friend or two I already have a plan set in motion. With luck it will give us the key we need to put Mal and her little friends down once and for all."


	41. A Brand New Day

At lunchtime the eleven warriors and Doug sat around the table, just after the isle kid's first swim class. "I think I have hydrophobia." Evie revealed to the group, though it was mostly just sarcasm. It was true that the idea of getting in the water kind of scared her but she had faced it bravely.

"I think I'm allergic to chlorine." Carlos said as he wrinkled his nose. He still couldn't get the smell out of his nose. "It smells horrid."

"That's just a natural effect for chlorine." Jane tried to assure him with a small smile. "I always preferred swimming at the beach over swimming in a pool."

"Although technically it's more hygienic to swim in a pool than in the ocean. That's part of the job of the chlorine, not to mention the pool filters." Audrey reminded them. Jay however got distracted with the idea of the brunette princess in a bikini.

"How did you fare in swim class Mal?" Ben asked his purple haired girlfriend as he looked over at her eating a strawberry, something she usually had with her for lunch.

She finished her current strawberry before answering her boyfriend. "Alright I guess. We're really starting at the basics, so we're at the shallow end right now, where we could just basically stand around." She replied.

"You know most bodies of water aren't going to be something that can just be stood in right?" Aziz asked her innocently and then laughed when Mal shot him a sarcastic glare that seemed to say 'no kidding, really?'.

"I hear that we're getting some new students transferred into Auradon Prep." Lonnie said conversationally as she picked up a puffy cheeto from the small bag she had. At some of their questioning looks she added, "Not from the island, things haven't moved that quick." Now that Lonnie had said that it was clear there were some people who they did not recognize around the campus.

"Maybe one of the new students can take the place on the Tourney team that Chad's departure created." Audrey tried to say nonchalantly but her voice caught a little at the mention of former friend that had not only turned into a bitter enemy but her own personal stalker. Jay hugged her against him softly as Ally reached over to gently take her hand.

"I'll have to find out if we're doing a mid-semester tryout." Ben said. "It rarely happens here in Auradon Prep. We had to make the exception for Jay and Carlos recently since the last normal tryouts happened before you guys were brought here." Though Jay often found himself as the MVP of the games Ben was the overall captain.

They ate in peace for a couple of minutes when they saw a guy they didn't know rush on by in roller blades, reaching out and stealing a sack lunch from a couple of guys that had been friends of Chad. Both of them yelped out in protest as he said, "Thanks for the return guys." He was off before they could get him.

"What was that about?" Lonnie wondered. "Who was that?"

"Never seen him in my life." Doug said.

"You have to like his style." Mal said with a snicker. She had never seen anyone use roller blades on campus as they were basically against school policy. And stealing was universally known to be against school policy, though sometimes proving it was hard to do. Being who she was Mal could appreciate that kind of rule breaking though. Jay seemed to as well.

It wasn't long though before they saw him being taken to the head mistress by a couple of hall monitors but there was no sign of the lunch he had taken. Each of them exchanged more looks of confusion.

"What do you suppose happened to the lunch?" Ally asked them.

"Maybe he ate it already." Jordan suggested. "I mean some people can eat pretty quickly when they want too."

"If he's one of the new students then mom will not be happy with his first day at all." Jane remarked.

"I promise you that your mother will not be happy with his first day, or any other of his days for that matter." They heard a strong voice say behind Jane. They turned to see another guy standing behind them will his own finished lunch in hand. "Always been a troublemaker, that one."

"I don't think we've been properly introduced." Ben, always the diplomat due to him being the King of Auradon despite being in school and being the Auradon Knight. He stood automatically and gave a bit of a courtly bow before offering his hand. The guy took it. "I am Ben, king of Auradon. This is my girlfriend Mal and our friends Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Jane, Lonnie, Jordan, Ally and Aziz." He introduced.

"It's nice to meet you all." The guy said. Audrey would not have been surprised if he had some kind of royal blood in him, he sure seemed mannered enough for it. "My name is Gregory." He nodded a bit toward where the other boy had been taken. "I apologize for the Will, my long time classmate. He's always been a bit of a, shall we say motley sort."

Mal exchanged looks with Evie and both girls had to resist the urge to giggle at him. Even Audrey at her worst never described anyone as motley. Still, they had to grant that he had made a better first impression than his classmate had, all things considered.

"It was nice to meet you all." Gregory said. "I have to go meet with the science teacher before class so that I can get the books for the semester." He waved as he walked off.

"Well he seems nice enough." Ally noted.

Surprisingly it was Audrey who replied, "You're right he does seem nice, but come on 'motley'". She rolled her eyes. "Who ever heard anyone use that word to describe someone?"

"Oh gosh, you must have been reading the same page as Evie and I." Mal said gleefully as she reached over and hugged Audrey gently. "You're totally becoming one of us."

"My biggest ambition." Audrey drawled but the slight smile and slight delight in her eyes showed that the comment meant more to her than she would ever admit to.

There was a scream from one of the girls and they all turned to just in time to see her fall to the ground as an inky black mist was seen seeping out of from a corner of the school. A moment later their iPhones went off, the noise belonging to the monster app.

"Who wants to bet that the black mist is coming from whatever monster is on campus." Carlos said.

Then in the middle of the common area a large clawed, orange winged creature appeared. "Don't even bother 'getting to work' there kids." He said with a wave of one of his claws at the rangers. "We wouldn't want to spoil the game." He then unleashed a stream of energy at the rangers and Doug that sent them all flying against the lockers.

"Doug, get to the command center." Jane said to their civilian friend as she noticed more students passing out. "We have to find out what's in that fog and reverse its effects."

"On it." Doug promised and ran off.

"I guess we know what's causing all of this mist." Audrey noted. "It's got to be that monster."

"Very perceptive." The monster said mockingly. "You're just as smart as the boy said you were." That made her flinch just a bit and Jay glare angrily at their adversary.

The inky mist was making its way around the commons rather quickly. The eleven warriors were starting to get up but the mist overtook Ally and Aziz and the two of them collapsed just as a few of the students prior to had.

"I guess we know we're not immune to whatever it's doing." Jordan noted. "Not exactly a good thing."

"We have to get somewhere and transform." Lonnie stated. She started to move to a door but felt a breeze behind her and there was the monster.

"If you feel the need to leave so badly, allow me to assist you." The monster said and then slammed her across the commons hard and through the door she had indicated. Then he turned to the rest of team.

"Out of our way." Jay demanded. He swung at the monster to try to distract him while Audrey and Evie tried to move past him but he used his arm to block the swing and brought his wings out and down on the two girls. At that point the mist enveloped the three of them and knocked them out.

"We're running out of people here." Carlos said as he looked to Mal. The two of them, along with Ben, Jane and Jordan were the only ones standing. "If we don't transform now no one might be standing to fight this thing."

"If we transform here our identities will be exposed." Ben reminded him.

"It'd be better than people dropping like flies." Jordan replied.

Mal was about to give the order to morph when the monster flew right at them at ramming speed.

Lonnie was almost sure she blacked out for a moment before opening her eyes and felt pain in her left arm. She looked down to see a nice sized gash in it that she was sure would require stitches if Jordan's healing potion wasn't a part of the equation. First she had to get to Jordan though.

Then she heard someone come up to her quickly. She looked up to see Will landing on his knees beside her and pulling off his jacket. "That's a nasty looking gash, what's going on out there?" He asked her.

"There's a monster out there, attacking the students." Lonnie answered and tried to get up but flinched in pain. "I'm Lonnie by the way, nice to meet you." She added with a small but kind of pained smile.

He smiled a little back at her. "Will." He answered, unaware that he had already been talked about. Will then placed his hand on her uninjured arm. "Settle down and let me take care of your arm as best as I can." He chided her as he tore apart his jacket so that he could use it to form a tourniquet for her arm.

Lonnie wanted to protest. "My friends need me." She said, but she knew that right now she would be of very little use to her if the wound wasn't at least staunched. She had to resist the urge to pass out though as he started to apply it.

As the monster was getting ready to attack they heard a sound from above and saw Gregory jumping off the second floor area of the commons and landing right on top of him. As he fell the guy rolled to the side and stood up. "Who is this guy?" He asked.

"We have no clue." Mal informed him. She had to admit the moves were impressive.

"You can call me Dark Mist." The monster introduced with a slight bow. "Feeling a bit outnumbered are we?" He laughed. "That will change very shortly. You will be joining them."

Typically at that point they received a text. Jane was able to glance at it long enough to see it was from Doug who had written that he was working on a way to reverse the mist's effects. The best way to reverse it though was find the source and destroy it, and that transforming would protect them from the effects. "If we could do that we gladly would." She commented to herself.

"Any magical ideas?" Ben asked the three magic users of the team.

"I could generate a wind storm to try to blow the mist away but it wouldn't wake anyone else up." Jordan suggested.

"Like I would give you that chance." Dark Mist pointed out and released another stream of energy. Jane, Carlos and Jordan were thrown to one side closer to Gregory while Ben and Mal were landed on the opposite side of them.

The pain subsided as Will got the tourniquet applied to Lonnie's arm. "You should have that looked at by the nurse soon." He told Lonnie as he finished it up. "The longer you delay that the more chance that you could have lasting damage."

Lonnie felt a bit confused. He sure didn't seem to be the troublemaker that Gregory had made him out to be. "Thanks, but it's going to have to wait." She told him. "My friends need me." She thought quickly. "Go find the headmistress and tell her what's going on. We're going to need some kind of reinforcements here in the school to get rid of this thing."

Will nodded. "You're right, but be careful." He said to her and then ran back up the stairs.

The Asian princess gave it a minute to make sure she couldn't hear his footsteps and then took out her iPhone, flinching a bit at the pain. She hoped transforming and the adrenaline of the fight would minimize the pain until she could get Jordan to take care of her. She input her numbers 4363 and transformed.

Mal was getting frustrated at their inability to transform and fight this monster and now they were kind of separated as well. "We don't have a choice." Mal started. "We have to…"

"Incoming." They heard from behind them. The pink ranger leapt out with her tessens and struck him hard. She only flinched a bit at the small amount of pain that she felt despite being transformed. She looked to Mal and the others. "Clear out guys."

"Yes, Ms. Pink ranger." Mal drawled with a smirk. "I hope some of your team mates get here quickly." She added and then looked to Ben. "Help get Gregory out." She instructed.

The young king reluctantly nodded and started over to lead him out the same place that Lonnie had come out of as Mal pretended to go one way. Jane, Carlos and Jordan pretended to go another way but as soon as the four teens were clear they transformed.

Dark Mist lashed out and struck Lonnie hard in the arm that he knew he had hurt and she let out a gasp of pain and dropped the weapon she held in that hand. He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up. "You shouldn't be fighting injured pink ranger, it might lead you to other problems." He gloated and released her to be tossed into a wall.

Or that is what would have happened at Jane not sped by, using a combination of her wings and her dove spirit, to catch Lonnie before the impact. Then he was met on three sides by Mal, Jordan and Carlos, all morphed.

"So there are five rangers to contend with." Dark Mist mused with a shrug. "I still have reduced your numbers."

"Even if we only had one of us we'd still work to take you out." Mal promised as she summoned her dragon's eye staff.

Jane landed by Jordan. "Take Lonnie and our friends to the command center." She told her. "See if you and Doug can take care of them. We'll have to deal with this thing ourselves."

The gold ranger nodded, took hold of Lonnie's uninjured arm and then vanished in a sparkle, along with their unconscious team mates.

"Reducing your numbers even more, now that seemed foolish." Dark Mist chimed. He then lashed out, his wings growing and striking Mal, Carlos and Jane hard. "Who would have thought defeating the power rangers would be so easy?"

"At least you did a good job with the tourniquet, it cut the blood flow way off." Jordan noted with approval as she worked as fast as she could to make a healing potion for Lonnie before the blood loss or the injury did long term damage to her. "Though leaping into a fight afterwards was kind of stupid.

"Not that I had a choice." The Asian girl commented pointedly. "As far as the tourniquet actually it wasn't me." Lonnie admitted to her with a shrug as she glanced over at Audrey, Evie, Jay, Ally, and Aziz as they lay unconscious on makeshift cots. "This was done by Will, the student that stole that sacked lunch."

"I guess he has one redeeming quality." Jordan said wryly. She looked to Doug. "How's it coming over there Dougie boy? We really need out full team going."

"I think I've almost got a gaseous solution that we can give to them." Doug answered as he worked on a chemical mix. "It'll be easier for you all to destroy the monster than it will be to do it for the entire school though."

"We'll get right on it as soon as we can." Jordan said. She set the potion in the mixer as the final step. "You hanging in there Lonnie?" She asked.

Lonnie took a deep breath but nodded. "I'm still here." She replied. She didn't want to tell her that it was just barely though.

Jordan finished mixing up the potion and gave it to Lonnie, who nodded rather gratefully in thanks. The genie girl suspected that she might have passed out if it had taken much longer. "I wish we could keep you out of this fight, you don't look so well." She said, reflecting on the irony of her wanting to make a wish.

"I owe this thing for that." Lonnie reminded after her first sip, grateful she could already feel the effects. "Being unconscious would be the only thing to keep me out of this."

"Speaking of unconscious…" Jordan started as she turned to Doug only to have an oxygen mask and a canister tossed at her. She caught it as Doug came down with another one.

"Help me revive the others." Doug said to Jordan as he knelt down in front of Evie to revive her. Jordan nodded and knelt down in front of Aziz. Lonnie worked to finish the healing potion so she would be ready to go with her friends. She also reflected Mal would have loved this one since it tasted like strawberry milk.

"We aren't done yet Dark Mist." Mal promised him as she got up and aimed her staff at his chest. He took a step back only to get slashed by Carlos's claw daggers.

He rolled up easily. "I have to give you credit for your persistence but you can't keep this up with only three of you."

"How about four?" He turned to see Ben as the Auradon Knight coming in and bringing his sword down on the monster. He rolled from the attack and then got up again. Ben tried to move in to try to continue the assault but now Dark Mist let the claws of his right hand get twisted in Ben's sword so that he could slash him hard with the left.

Mal came up to Ben. "Are you okay?" She asked, voice full of concern. When he nodded she said, "We have to keep it together; Jordan took Lonnie to the command center and hopefully Doug has worked out a way to revive the others."

Ben nodded. "Alright then, let's keep this guy busy until then." He said.

"It's too bad that when morphed your powers protect you from my mist." Dark Mist drawled. "Otherwise this fight would have been over before it began, not that your resistance has been all that worthwhile in the first place."

Mal gathered energy into her staff and unleashed it on Dark Mist, and he fell back but it didn't seem to be enough to do more than scratch him. She had never found herself missing her full team before.

Jane tried to use a magic burst from her wand to strike at Dark Mist but he evaded the magical strike and then lashed out at the four of them. They all rolled across hard and Jane even hit the edge of the stairs hard.

"This has still been easier than I thought." Dark Mist laughed. "Defeating you fools."

Then laser blasts struck at the monster and when the smoke cleared he found himself looking across at the remaining rangers. Audrey was helping Ben up, Evie was helping Mal up, Jay was helping Carlos up, and Ally was helping Jane up.

"Great to see all of you guys up and around again." Mal said to her friends and then looked at Lonnie. "Feeling better?" She asked and when the pink ranger nodded she said, "Now let's show Dark Mist what we're all about."

"No problem." Evie said. "We all owe this thing anyway."

The rangers summoned their weapons as Dark Mist moved in on them. Audrey and Jay moved in with their weapons and slashed him on either side with soul scimitar and elemental bow. When he went to rise from that attack he was accosted by several crystal cards. That was followed up by a spear strike and a sword slash from Aziz and Ben. He stumbled back and then was slashed by both of Lonnie's tessens.

"I think it's time we finish this creep off." Evie said.

Mal nodded in agreement. "Let's bring our weapons together." She declared. First came Mal's dragons staff, placed under it was Audrey's elemental bow, behind it was Evie's mirror force shield and the compact opened up to and attached to the back of the weapon, on the top Jay's soul scimitar, Lonnie's hurricane tessens and Carlos's earthquake claw daggers were placed.

"Uh, what is that?" Dark Mist asked. Neither Paradias nor his minions had seen the new and improved fully assembled Auradon blaster.

Jordan set her lamp cannon, Ally placed her crystal cards in the lamp's spout, Aziz placed his spear around the lamp and Jane had the magic wand in the top of the lamp to assemble their blaster.

Together the rangers unleashed their weapons energy against Dark Mist, which when struck there was a violent implosion of inky black mist before the area came out clear. The mist receded as well. They could see some of the students starting to stir.

"Did we actually defeat the monster this time?" Audrey asked a little dubiously. The last monster they had fought from Paradias, the Cybertech Overhydra, had not been defeated the first time but had instead only been lying dormant.

"I think so." Jane answered, wishing she could be confident about it as well. There was one reason to believe it had though. "I mean, that inky mist receded and the students are waking up." She pointed out. "Still I think once classes are done for the day I'll work on a search pattern for verification."

As it turned out it didn't take long as the afternoon classes were cancelled in light of an attack that had struck so close to the school for only the second time in their ranger careers. General checkups were ordered for all students that had been exposed to the mist which included the eleven warriors.

Gregory found them as they were waiting. "Thanks again for what you did back there." He said to Ben.

"Thank you for coming to our aid." Ben answered with a smile. "How are you, according the doctor?" He asked.

"Healthy thankfully. No lasting effects from the mist." He answered.

"That seems to be a recurring theme around here thankfully." Audrey informed him. "No one has shown any adverse signs since recovering." Right now both Lonnie and Jay were being looked at by the staff.

Lonnie was coming out just as Will was waiting for his checkup. "How's the arm?" He asked her with concern. He almost reached out to touch the part in question but stopped himself.

"It's better." Lonnie replied with a small smile. "Thanks to a combination of genie magic and your excellent first aid skills." She started to walk by him to go back to her friends, and he started to go into the exam room, when Lonnie stopped. "Will," She called and when he turned toward her she had to satisfy her curiosity. "Why did you take that bagged lunch earlier this afternoon?"

He gave her a small smile. "That wasn't his to start with." He told her bluntly. "He's been taking lunches from the middle school portion for weeks. That was my sister's lunch, and he took it from here. She told me about it the insistence of her friend Callie Charming and so I took it back from him." He explained.

For just a moment Lonnie was touched. The fact he did that was rather sweet in her mind and she found she wanted to make sure that both her friends and Fairy Godmother knew what had happened if they didn't already. And the fact that she heard something good from the Charming family was nice as well. "You…didn't get in trouble did you?" She asked softly.

"I'm sure the headmistress will have words for me over that, once things settle down." Will answered with a shrug. "But it doesn't matter, I know I did the right thing." With that he was taken by one of the nurses into the exam room. But Lonnie wanted to make sure that he didn't get in trouble for helping his little sister and countless others.

From the forest dark mist started to seep out of some of the stones…


	42. A Brand New Mode

Just a reminder that both Will and Gregory are original characters and not owned by Disney like the rest of Descendants.

"He was helping his sister and some of the younger students here." Lonnie said as they sat around the command center. "He was doing good, kind of like Robin Hood or something."

"That may well be in this case, but not in several others." Fairy Godmother said as she looked to the young Asian princess. "There were basically two reasons that we accepted transfers right now, one was the matter of more challenging classes, as was the case with Gregory." She frowned a little. "The other were those who needed to be brought here for behavioral reasons. I'm sorry to say Will is one of those."

"What do you mean?" Evie asked.

"He's gotten into trouble at his last school for multiple fights and even some arguments with teachers." Fairy Godmother explained.

"Hate to say it but it could be possible he was playing you." Jay said to Lonnie. "Conning you with the bad boy routine."

Audrey looked over to Jay now. "Are you sure about that one?" She asked sincerely. "Conned with the bad boy routine, like Chad said I was conned by your bad boy routine?" He knew it was a good point as Audrey said it, he had charmed her with honesty and loyalty.

"And it wasn't Mal's bad girl routine that I fell for." Ben added. "At least not entirely." He would have taken Mal's hand if she had been there, but she had asked to go see Belle. "It's what I saw inside of her, even that first time, which attracted me to her."

Jane thought about what Audrey and Ben were saying. "Mom, maybe it's time to take another look at those school records." She suggested softly. "And maybe not just his."

Fairy Godmother looked at her daughter, Audrey and Jay and then nodded. "Alright, I'll do another check and see if we're missing something." She conceded.

Belle sat in a chair in the library as she watched Mal pace. "I don't know how to deal with this." The purple haired girl confessed. "How do I reconcile my feelings about my mother now with everything I've known since I was a child?"

"In some ways you already have." Belle reminded her softly. "By rejecting the evil she tried to teach you."

"I know." Mal confirmed as she sat down on the couch across from the chair though Belle was sure the young leader of the power rangers would not stay still for long. "And I'd be lying if I said that she was the most loving parent in the world." She crossed her arms over her chest. "But there were still times that it felt like she did love me."

"She shrunk to the size of the love in her heart when she attacked my son's coronation. It resulted in a small lizard but she was still there." Belle allowed as she leaned forward a bit. Truth be told a conversation that more or less supported one of their biggest enemies was a bit weird to her. "It would nice to think that meant all of that was for you."

"It would be." Mal agreed. "But then I come back to the idea that she still basically declared me dead." She flumped back on the couch. "How do I reconcile between the idea that she loves me but she disowns me?" She asked, sounding kind of desperate.

Belle came over and sat down next to Mal, taking her hand gently into her own. "I don't exactly know how." She admitted softly. "I don't even know if there is any way to reconcile between the two." She reached up and stroked Mal's hair gently. "What does your heart tell you?"

Mal sighed a bit. "It tells me that I have no idea what to do. That the likelihood of mom not fighting me to the death is pretty unlikely, and even if we both survive she'll never forgive me for what she sees as my betrayal." She replied softly. "But just like Ben, Audrey and Jay couldn't kill Chad in the end I don't think I can kill her, no matter how much I…that I hate what she's become….what she could make me become."

"There are other ways of stopping both your mother and Chad without killing them." Belle assured her. "If we can capture them we can place them on the island of course."

"Will that really held Cinderella? Or the rest of his family?" Mal questioned.

"Honey, nothing will truly help them now when it comes to what happened to Chad." Belle revealed gently. "All they can do is move on with their lives."

"I guess not everyone can have a happy ending." Mal relented reluctantly. "It just makes it so much harder when personal feelings are involved." She wondered if they should be considering talking to Cinderella too as she was the one who lost a son just as much as she lost her mother, and then there was his younger sister Callie who presumably lost a brother if he was any kind of sibling at all.

Belle frowned a bit. "Is it that late already?" She wondered and Mal turned to realize that the sky was getting darker. She squinted her eyes a bit and realized it wasn't pure darkness. It was a foggy darkness. "Oh, come on." She whispered exasperatedly.

That was exactly what Jay had said when the alarm went off and they saw the view screen. "Didn't we kill this thing already?" Carlos asked. "I mean the fog even went away."

"Here's the problem." Doug reported. They saw a green light in the forested area and then Dark Mist returned in giant form. "We have an unwelcome return visitor."

"Jane, text Mal and let her know what's going on." Fairy Godmother instructed her daughter. She looked to Audrey, Jay, Lonnie, Carlos, Evie and Ben. "Go to the forest and hope that Mal meets you soon." She looked to Doug. "Let's see if we can find other zords, we might need them."

Doug nodded as the five rangers and the young king headed up the stairs and out of the school into the forest. They had no way to know that Jane's text had gone unread because Mal had already pieced it together and was out the door herself into the forest. "Let's get to work." Audrey said to her friends and the six teens input their numbers and transformed as Ben combined his sword and shield to transform.

"We need Auradon Megazord power!" Audrey called out to draw out their battle zord. Ben didn't possess any magic save one, the ability to draw his horse zord out without Mal around. He did so by tossing the crystallized horse up and calling, "I need you to help us out."

Doug did his best to seal off the command center before trying to find any sign of new zords. Ally, Aziz and Jordan paced restlessly as Jane tried to help in the search. She feared it would get them nowhere but the alternative was to stand around anyway. All around they could see people falling unconscious from the same mist that had struck only hours before.

"Everyone's powers seem to be active." Doug noted. "Including Mal so she must have gotten Jane's text or otherwise found out about it. But so far the only zord not activated is Mal's dragon…never mind, there it goes." He reported.

"I'm trying to scan for any other power signatures similar to our other zords." Jane reported. "But so far nothing."

"This might be a really good time for our zords to appear." Ally commented softly.

"It's so nice to see all of you again." Dark Mist said, seemingly happily, as the Auradon Megazord and the horse zord appeared. "There's some unfinished business going around here." He laughed. "Although that goes beyond us."

"What does he mean by that?" Lonnie wondered as she placed her iPhone into the appropriate port, her four team mate's right behind her.

"He's probably talking about Chad again." Audrey said. "I'm getting so sick of him." Jay noticed her voice didn't seem as angry as fearful, proving how much he was getting to her even without having shown up.

"Shall we see what our upgraded weapons do for the Auradon Megazord?" Carlos suggested. Evie, Jay and Lonnie nodded in agreement. Evie placed her mirror force shield in its appropriate slot while Jay laid his soul scimitar on either side of Lonnie's hurricane tessens. The result was a shield that folded out for more protection while the sword didn't seem any different, but until it was used in combat it was hard to tell.

Ben's horse zord came up beside the Auradon Megazord. "I'm right with you guys." He said.

"Let's see how much that means for you then." Dark Mist stated and unleashed a stream of dark energy at the two zords, sending them backwards. The horse zord crashed to the ground as the Auradon Megazord was blown back despite the enhanced shield.

With a roar Dark Mist leapt up and slammed into the Auradon Megazord, using the now massive claws to disarm the battle zord of sword and shield. He then slashed it hard and forced it to land beside the horse zord. "I think it's time to bring them together." Ben suggested.

"You won't have the time too." Dark Mist threatened as he started toward the recovering zords, but then he was blasted back and as he glanced up in front of him was Mal's dragon zord.

"Sorry I'm late to the party guys." Mal said.

"Glad you made it all." Ben replied.

"Time to form the Auradon Defender Megazord." Audrey declared. As the horse zord recovered the Auradon Megazord got on the back and the sword reshaped to be more like a spear. The Auradon Defender Megazord now came to stand beside the dragon zord.

"Mind if I cut in?" They heard from around them and then the dragon zord was slashed to the ground hard, where a fully grown Reviveslime had just shown up. "These odds hardly seem fair after all."

"Like these guys know fair." Aziz commented from the command center. Then he turned to Doug and Jane. "Come on you guys, we have to do something to help. How do we find these zord or zords we're supposed to have?" Ally placed her hand on his arm to try to calm him down.

"We're working on it." Jane promised firmly. "Just be patient."

"I don't know how patient we can really afford to be." Jordan pointed out as she indicated the view screen. "The odds aren't looking good out there." They watched as Reviveslime and Dark Mist combined their energies to shoot out at the dragon zord and the Auradon Defender.

Doug didn't want to point out that even the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord could defeat them both. He glanced around, saw Jordan's anxious look as she watched helpless. He saw Jane doing everything she could to focus on finding something because to do anything else would devastate her. He saw Aziz brimming with energy to help his friends that he had no way to release and he saw Ally, eyes brimming with tears as she considered the possibility that their friends would be killed and there was nothing she could about it.

One of the radars on the console beeped and Doug moved to check out the alert only to discover something amazing. "I'm reading more power signatures." Doug reported. "Of the zord kind. From the Badlands."

Deep in the Badlands, had anyone been around to see it, one of the many sandy areas that dominated the region started to glow as the sand underneath seemed to turn to something very similar to glass. Then it shattered as a large silver mechanical falcon emerged from the hole in the sand followed immediately by a zord that looked very similar to the red battle zord except that it sparkled in in shades of gold and iridescent color and lacked the gauntlet guns on the wrists.

"Head outside." Doug said to them. "I'd bet anything that your zords on their way."

Fairy Godmother let the seal on the door go for the four teens and they headed to the gate, but before they got out the gate they were jumped by a dozen soldiers. "We don't have time for this." Aziz stated.

They pretty much tried to bypass Aziz, Jordan and Jane to try to go at Ally. "Hey, get away from her." Aziz growled as he tossed one of them away. Two of them easily subdued Jane since she had not transformed and several of them cornered Jordan in a fight.

Two others got their hands on Ally and started to drag her away. "Ally!" Aziz yelled as he tried to break free of another hold.

"Hey." One of the soldiers turned and got clocked in the face hard. Ally was grateful to see her rescuer was Will, who smiled at them grimly. "Try picking on someone your own size."

One of them holding Jane received an elbow to the back of the head and that allowed Jane to slam her arm hard into the stomach of the other. She found Gregory over her as she got up.

The soldiers seemed ready to fight as even as they realized the odds were a little worse in their favor but then chose to vanish.

"What was that about?" Will wondered.

"I wish we could tell you." Aziz answered truthfully as he came over to Ally. "Are you okay?" He asked the blonde.

Ally nodded. "Yes." She said softly and then looked to Will. "Thanks to you."

"Hey guys, we have to go." Jordan reminded Aziz and the two girls. "We got a bird to catch."

"You guys can't go out there." Gregory reminded them. "It's dangerous out there. There's a monster attack going on out there and that inky mist is back."

"We have to go out there." Jane said. "Our friends are out there."

For some reason that statement made Will think of Lonnie. The idea that she might be in danger worried him more than he thought it should have. "At least be careful." Will said to them. The four teens ran out the entrance and Will had to stop Gregory from trying to go after them.

As soon as they were clear Jane used the magic wand to transform while Ally, Aziz and Jordan pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed. They weren't exactly sure what to do but soon found out what was going to happen.

"Where'd this guy come from?" Carlos asked. "And who invited him anyway?"

"I'm sure his invitation just got lost in the mail." Evie answered sarcastically.

Reviveslime moved in and attacked the Defender Megazord. The shield was moved to block the attack but then Dark Mist came in from behind and latched onto the back of the Auradon Megazord, flooding it with dark energy and forcing the two zords to separate.

Mal didn't' know what Doug's readings had shown and she wouldn't have believed them anyway. "Time to form the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord." She proclaimed.

"Oh, no." Dark Mist said. "We can't have that happen." He then forced his claws deeper into the battle zord, causing massive internal damage and then sending another spray of dark energy into the zord, leaving the five rangers with no choice but to allow it to return to the its mountain spot to regenerate. It didn't stop the long fall the five rangers took on the way down.

"Last time I took a fall like that I broke my arm." Lonnie mused as she stood up and helped Evie to her feet. Jay was helping Audrey as Carlos got up.

"What we going to do now?" Evie asked them. She hated to admit, they all did, but the focal point of their zord offenses was the Auradon Megazord and it was now out of commission.

Reviveslime had the same impression. "With the Auradon Megazord down taking down the two of you will be piece of cake." He stated.

"Don't count on slime breath." Mal retorted though in truth she had a horrid feeling about it because she and Ben knew as strong as their zords were the ability to take out monsters singlehandedly was not part of that.

The two monsters unleashed another stream of dark energy and the two zords were unable to escape the blast on time. They fell to the ground hard and both of them highly suspected that the zords would lose what remained of their power on the next hit.

Then several energy like missiles impacted around them and sent the two monsters falling back. From the sky they could just make out one large silver falcon. "Hang on guys, the cavalry has arrived." Aziz announced from the cockpit of the falcon, his iPhone in a slot on the console.

"Another zord?" Reviveslime growled. Dark Mist unleashed an attack at the falcon zord but Aziz was able to dodge the attacks, making them explode behind him.

Then from behind them came the sounds of something else. Both monsters turned in enough time to get punched by another new zord. "Hey guys," Jordan said though rather she was talking to friend or foe was hard to guess. "Meet the Auradon Battlezord." On either side of her were Jane and Ally, all three girls had their iPhones in slots on a large console.

Then the Auradon Falconzord cruised right on by and hit both of the monsters with the wings, striking them and sending them rolling backwards. The Falconzord hovered by the Auradon Battlezord.

"Just what do you think you can accomplish with those toys?" Dark Mist asked tauntingly.

"You know what every good toy seems to have, especially these days?" Jordan asked rhetorically. "Accessories." She set her lamp cannon on a slot on her part of the console just as Evie, Jay or Lonnie would and the Battlezord was now holding a large version of her weapon.

"Is that supposed to scare us?" Reviveslime taunted.

"I guess we'll just have to find out." Jordan said and then they unleashed a stream of energy from the enlarged lamp cannon that struck both monsters head on. Dark Mist rose moments later though and Reviveslime was starting to recover as well.

Now Jane said, "I think I have a way to finish this off guys. We can combine our zords." She sent a transmission to Aziz on the Falconzord and then said to Jordan, "Time to bring them together."

"Right." Jordan agreed. "Coming in." Aziz said. He angled the falcon to move in and then to descend onto the back of the battlezord. The talons hooked into the either side and the body laid on the back, the underside of the head giving him a place into the main cockpit, right between Jordan and Ally. The lamp weapon dissipated and Jane placed the magic wand into her slot, but on the megazord it didn't stay long as the tail of the falconzord combined with that to make a spear. "Auradon Megawing Megazord online." Jane announced happily.

"You're still vastly outnumbered." Reviveslime pointed out.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that one." Mal interrupted as the dragon zord rose up and slammed hard into the blue slime monster, then wrapped its tail around the general, doing its best to squeeze hard.

Dark Slime jumped up to bring his claws down on the newest megazord and much like Jane's wings, the falcon wings were brought down to block the attack and then they lashed the spear out at the monster.

He fell back hard only to receive a second strike from the spear. "Let's finish this." Jordan declared. This time they charged energy into the weapon as the zord kneeled down and then took off in glide. Dark Mist recovered just in enough time to see the impact coming, and then the dove right through the monster. He fell and was gone in a huge explosion.

Reviveslime slipped out of Mal's dragon zord and then immediately vanished.

"The falcon zord can be released into the wild." Jane said to Aziz. "Just as Mal and Ben sometimes do with their zords." She looked to Jordan and Ally. "As for our zord, right now I'm going to direct it to the mountains, we'll have to figure out a more permanent solution later." The three rangers whose powers came from Wonderland nodded in agreement.

Mal and Ben released their zords for the time being, to let them get exercise and then they met their friends on the ground. "Nice work guys." The purple haired girl said with a smile as they all powered down.

"I am so glad we don't have to stay on the sidelines for that kind of stuff anymore." Aziz said happily as he unintentionally wrapped an arm around Ally, though the blonde didn't seem to have any objections to it.

"Hey, when we get back you might want to seek Will out." Jordan said to Lonnie. "He seemed rather concerned when we hinted that you were out here with the monster attack going on."

Lonnie seemed a bit surprised but nodded. "Okay, I'll do that." She promised.

"Where did those zords come from anyway?" Carlos asked as they started back to the school.

"As far as Doug could tell they came from the Badlands." Jane answered. "Pretty deep inside underground, probably in some caves."

"I'll have to redouble my appeals for getting explorers into those underground caves." Ben noted. "We might find other stuff that might be helpful to us." He didn't want to point out something could also be harmful down there, that went without saying.

They got back to Auradon Prep but Lonnie didn't have to look far as Will had been hanging out waiting for her. "Lonnie, are you okay?" He asked her, sounding worried.

"I am." She promised, feeling oddly comforted by his presence. She had had a few dates in recent years but she had never felt the kind of connection she felt now. "The, the fog…I mean mist…whatever it was didn't make it to the school this time?" She asked.

"No." Will answered her steadily. "It came from the forests this time and never quite made it to the school, though I've heard some reports that the marketplace and some of the other places that were effected had their people recovering."

"Where'd your friend go?" Jordan asked.

"Who?" Will asked and then realized what he meant. "Oh, Gregory. We're not friends." He said simply. "He wanted to find the headmistress and find out more of what was going on but by now he probably heard about the results."

Mal noticed that Will had basically just said to them what Gregory had said to them the day before, that they weren't friends. She knew of course that not everyone had friendships around here, she suspected that she and Audrey wouldn't really be as close as they were without the ranger business. Still, she wondered if she should be reading anything more into the statement the two men had basically said about the other.

Then Will did something none of them expected. He extended his arm to Lonnie and asked, "Care to join me for a milkshake?" That brought some smiles on the faces of the other girls and a look of slight astonishment from Jay, Carlos and Aziz.

Lonnie looked shocked for just a moment but then smiled back at him. "It would be my pleasure." She said and placed her hands around his arm and then let him escort her to one of the lunch rooms. Then she thought about her recent wound and the potion. "Oh, Ben." She called out. "Maybe you should take his lead here, take Mal for a strawberry milkshake."

Ben smiled. "Sounds great to me." He took Mal's hand. "Shall we?"

Mal gave a curtsy though on her it seemed wrong somehow. "We shall." She replied. Together the two of them took off.

The rest of the group looked at each other a bit surprised. Jane, Carlos and Evie quickly decided to head to the command center. Jordan went off to do her own thing.

"How about a milkshake ourselves?" Aziz asked Ally.

"Sounds like a great idea." The blonde said and the two of them went off, leaving Jay and Audrey.

"They really should just start dating." Jay noted with some amusement. Then he looked to the brunette princess. "So…you want…" He started to ask.

Audrey interrupted him. "I don't think so." She answered and took his hand. "How about we just take a stroll around campus instead?" She suggested. Jay squeezed her hand lightly and the two took off themselves, Audrey laying her head on his shoulder comfortably as they walked.


	43. A Walk in the Woods

Mal, Audrey, Ally, Lonnie and Evie sat around at one of the tables before classes. "So how was your date Lonnie?" Mal asked the Asian princess teasingly.

Lonnie rolled her eyes. "It wasn't a date Mal, we just had a milkshake. Each." She emphasized the last word before her friends could suggest that she and Will had shared a milkshake. Not that the idea of going on a real date or sharing a milkshake with Will was unappealing in the slightest. "What about you Mal?" She asked. "How was your date with Ben?"

"At least I can admit I was on a date." Mal commented with a laugh. Then she sighed a bit. "It went well, we each had a milkshake. Ben changed his mind and wanted a vanilla shake but that was okay with me." She shrugged. "More strawberries for me after all." She looked to Ally. "I heard Lonnie and I aren't the only ones who had milkshakes."

"Aziz and I each had one of our own too." Ally replied. "I had a mint chocolate chip one, while Aziz had a cherry one." She didn't really address rather or not they had been on a date themselves. Technically they hadn't been of course.

"How about you?" Mal asked her chosen sister. "What did you do?"

"Doug and I went to one of the chemistry labs to get some of lab work done." Evie answered. "I know, I know. Not necessarily a situation that evokes romance, but we had fun." Evie laughed a little bit. "And the chocolate fondue break a couple hours in sure didn't hurt either." Mal laughed too, reflecting how interesting it was that they all had their particular ideas of fun.

"How about you Audrey?" Lonnie asked. "Did you and Jay eat anything appetizing?"

"No we didn't." Audrey answered. "But we spent a couple of hours walking around the campus, just hanging out." She looked now specifically to Mal and Evie. "Jay really is a very great guy. I feel so safe around him, which might be a bit ironic considering." She ran her hands through her hair. "Truth be told, I feel safer with him than I ever have with a guy, even Ben."

Mal patted the brunette princesses' arm gently. "I'm glad that you're so happy with Jay." She replied earnestly. "And if it helps any, I can tell without a problem that you're making him very happy too." Her second in command seemed to perk up at that information.

"So how is your research on Sermaya and that history coming?" Evie asked Lonnie and Ally.

"Slowly." Lonnie answered. "We can't rely on most of the well-known recorded history of Auradon. We're working on trying to track down some of the more obscures books and other items." She looked to Mal. "Ben asked his parents to see if they could find something that could be in his mother's library that she might have come across."

"I hope she has some kind of system." Mal noted with a laugh. "Belle has more books than Dragon Hall, our school on the Isle of the Lost, ever had."

"There's a lot of things we've had more of here than we ever had there." Evie pointed out as she smiled at Ally, Lonnie and Audrey. Friendship was a bit of an anomaly on the Isle of the Lost, though as Mal and her chosen siblings proved it wasn't impossible. But they could never have formed the huge support they'd had since they'd chosen to be good.

They saw Ben coming toward them with another of the new students, a boy named Gregory. Lonnie again remembered how both he and Will had said they weren't really friends despite them both coming from the same school. She also remembered Fairy Godmother saying only the most gifted or most troubled had been transferred mid-year. She was only aware of a few students but Gregory didn't seem troubled, but then again aside from some apparent 'robin hood' tendencies Will hadn't shown any signs of being troubled either.

"Hey." Ben said, setting his hands on Mal's shoulder and kissing the top of her head before sitting down next to her. He kept his arm around her and Mal giggled a little. "Hey yourself." She whispered invitingly into his ear.

Gregory squeezed in between Audrey and Lonnie. Evie noticed that Audrey tried as subtly as possible to get some distance between her and the boy she didn't really know that well, and the blue haired girl was willing to bet that Chad's recent assaults on her had a big part of that.

"What are you guys up to?" Ally asked them.

"My first day for government class on this campus." Gregory said. "I hope it's not as dull as it was at my old school." He looked to Ben. "You mentioned extracurricular research, what is that for?" He asked.

Ben hesitated. "Just some archaeological records, that kind of thing." He said half vaguely.

Jay, Aziz, Will and Carlos showed up next. Jay already saw the tension radiating off of the brunette princess and he squeezed in between her and Gregory. Evie was glad that seemed to make Audrey feel better. She meanwhile felt Carlos squeeze in next to her as Aziz stood behind Ally.

Mal noticed that Will and Gregory almost seemed to hesitate before he finally sat on Lonnie's other side.

"If Jordan, Jane and Doug were to show up we would need to get a bigger table." Carlos joked.

"Do we need a bigger table?" Gregory asked him seriously.

Carlos shook his head. "Nah, Jane and Doug like to get an early start on school work most of the time. I texted with Jane when I got up and found out this is one of those days." He answered.

Evie nodded a little. "Yeah, Doug texted me the same thing." She revealed. "I would have joined him if I could have but it's in the cybernetics class, which I take during our swimming class." She indicated Mal and the two isle boys. In reality it was a way for the two of them to get some extra ranger work done during school; right now it was extending the holding area in the mountains for the new Auradon Battlezord.

"I've never heard of swimming classes at this late stage." Gregory noted. Most Auradon students took swimming classes in their first year of what would normally be middle school.

"That's what we get for showing up late." Mal said with a shrug. It was kind of an inside comment about the fact that swimming wasn't a big priority on the Isle of the Lost since despite it being surrounded by water it was also encompassed in a barrier.

"Hey Lonnie, I don't suppose I can convince you to skip your research class?" Will asked her.

"I doubt that one." Gregory said.

Will ignored him. "I need some help gathering some samples in the woods for my biology class." He said.

"I'd be okay with that, but I should check with Fairy Godmother first." Lonnie replied.

Ben gave it a dismissive wave. "Go ahead and help Will Lonnie." He told her. "I'll tell Fairy Godmother what you're doing, I'm sure she'll the exception since you're helping a student with their work." And the reality was that right now not having Lonnie around wasn't going to slow their lack of progress down.

Lonnie smiled at Will. "Alright, I'll meet you at up front at eleven." She said.

"I look forward to that." Will replied to her sincerely.

The five minute bell rang and everyone got up to get to their classes. Mal caught Ben's arm. "Is Fairy Godmother really going to be okay with that?" She asked.

Ben nodded. "Yeah, probably." He answered. "We're not going to find a reservoir of information today that would make it horrible that we were short a person." He took Mal's hand in his own. "Besides, it will give Lonnie and Will some time to get to know each other. I think they like each other."

Mal laughed. "You are so intuitive." She said with a smile. "Not that some of us haven't figured it out days ago." She added teasingly with an exaggerated eye roll. "Really though, that's a very nice thing you did for them." He walked her to class and they exchanged a brief kiss on the lips before parting ways.

The only thing that Chad disliked more than one of his former friends starting a new relationship was Audrey dating Jay. There didn't seem to be much he could do about that but he wanted to mess up Lonnie's chances with Will. He said as much to Nerissa.

"You know I'm in the process of trying to restore your powers." She reminded him. So far the sorceress hadn't figured out the best way to do so. She didn't want to repair the original sword but rather find a way to upgrade it. "I don't really have much time to cause them trouble."

"We can't just leave them alone either." Chad replied. "That's why Dark Mist was sent down after all. In case Maleficent's plan fails." His tone of voice made it clear that despite the fact he had to work with one of the most well-known villains in Auradon history it didn't mean he had to like it.

Nerissa sighed but knew Chad was right. Anything they could do to combat the rangers could only help in the long run. "You have the soldiers at your disposal and I will leave Chakra at your disposal as well."

"I think I can work with that." Chad said with a malicious grin.

Lonnie met Will at the gates, where he was leaning against the wall holding a small plastic case. When she saw him he held it up. "Got to bring in a few insects." He informed her. "Hope you're not squeamish about them."

"I've seen worse." Lonnie promised as she thought about some of the monsters the rangers had encountered.

The two teens made their way into the woods and started to explore the area for what he needed. It was a nice day, slightly breezy and it made Lonnie's hair move around her shoulders as they walked. "So you and Gregory aren't really don't like each other it seems." She said.

Will shrugged. "Not really." He replied. "We've never really seen eye to eye. He's clearly a royal or at least thinks he is."

"He isn't?" Lonnie asked surprised.

Will chuckled dryly. "He probably is, but he's never really said who his parents are. The records are there somewhere in all of the school's records but I've never been able to see them." He answered.

"Sounds a bit weird to me." Lonnie confessed. "But then again most student records are sealed to the other students." She cocked her head. "So who are your parents anyway?" She asked him. "Some royal I would think." She realized she blushed a little after saying that one.

"Not so much so." Will replied. "Actually my father died while my mother was pregnant. To be honest I never even really bothered to learn his name. As for my mother, her name is Wendy."

Lonnie had to think a moment before she realized. "Wendy, as in Wendy Darling, the girl who had a few adventures in Neverland with her two younger brothers." She said.

Will nodded. "That's her. Not exactly royal but still pretty famous in her own right." He said.

Will got over a fallen log and turned to help Lonnie but saw it was needed as she got over it on her own just fine. It evoked a smile on his face.

They stopped near a tree stump and Will took out a water bottle and handed it to Lonnie before taking one for himself. Each of them drank a little and then recapped it. Then Will pointed to a small bush where on top of it they could see what looked like a ladybug half the size of a pop can. "That's one of them." He announced.

"We're going to have to sneak up on it then." Lonnie said as she lowered her voice. "If it hears us it's going to bolt." The two of them started to stealthily move up on it but then a large monster that seemed to be crustacean in appearance appeared in between them and their target. It had thee long claws on either of its arms instead of pincers and almost seemed to float, though Lonnie could see it actually had one long blade like protrusion for feet. The mega ladybug flew away.

"That's not on my list." Will said as he stood up.

"No surprise there." Lonnie said as she stood up.

"Lost your way?" The monster asked with a chuckle. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Chakra and I am going to take you all out."

"I don't think so." Lonnie stated. She hesitated, not sure what to do. She could transform but then she would be exposing her identity to Will. She looked toward him. "You go right, I'll go left. We need to get to the school for safety." She said.

Will nodded and they both took off. As Lonnie expected Chakra came after her, but without Will around she could now transform. She pulled out her iPhone and got ready to input her numbers but a soldier came from out of nowhere and kicked it out of her hands, where she saw it sail into the grass behind the approaching monster.

"Looks like you have a problem pink ranger." Chakra noted with amusement.

All of the rangers (except Lonnie) met at the entrance to the school as soon as they got the monster alert on their iPhones. Mal found herself adjusting her long purple shirt a bit awkwardly when she saw Ben, as under the shirt all she had on was her bikini and for some reason the idea of him seeing her like that made her embarrassed. Evie was likewise in the same situation except for her shirt was blue and she didn't have to worry about embarrassment since Doug would not be there. That didn't extend to Jay or Carlos, who had no problem walking out in their swim trunks. The four isle teens made sure to grab their iPhones before leaving the swimming pool area.

"It looks like some weird monster is in the forest where Lonnie went with Will." Jane said to them. "Lonnie might be hesitating to transform since she's with him."

"Then we better go and change that situation." Mal said as she remembered Lonnie being the first ranger to be able to freely oppose Dark Mist when he attacked the school commons. They started out but quickly found themselves running into a dilemma; they were ambushed by more soldiers.

"There sure are a lot of them." Jordan noted. "I think they're trying to keep us away from Lonnie."

"Which means that we have to make sure that they don't succeed." Mal said. She looked to her friends. "Let's get to work." Ben summoned his sword and shield to transform, Jane used the magic want to transform and the rest of the rangers input their numbers into their iPhones and transformed.

"Everyone get ready." Mal said as she raised her dragon's eye staff. "We have to cut through these guys as quickly as possible so that we can get to Lonnie." She saw her friends draw their weapons and then they started to engage the soldiers.

Lonnie lashed out and kicked the soldier in the gut and then grabbed a hold of his wrist and twisted him around to the ground. Then she turned to the monster, which she knew would be much harder to deal with.

"Try out your impressive moves with me pink ranger." Chakra taunted her as he raised his clawed appendages and got ready to fight.

Lonnie didn't want to but she had to get by Chakra in order to get a hold of her iPhone. She charged the monster, jumping up and kicking it in the chest with both of her feet but it did little more than faze him. She tried to move past him and his left arm lashed out and slammed into her hard, forcing her back again.

"Without your friends and your powers you're defenseless." Chakra said with amusement.

"Don't rule me out just yet Chakra." Lonnie said and channeled her horse spirit. She then moved rapidly and almost made it to her iPhone before Chakra shot around her and tripped her up. She hit the ground hard, feeling the breath rush out of her lungs.

"You've been ruled out girl." Chakra said as he approached her. He raised one of his arms and prepared to stab her.

"Lonnie!" They heard from behind them. They turned to see Will running toward them, a thick tree branch in hand. He jumped up and slammed the tree branch right into the things chest, forcing him away from her. Then he kicked the thing, for what good that did them. He still turned away to look at her. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

Lonnie had to fight several urges; the urge to snap at him for coming back to a dangerous situation, the urge to thank and hug him for the rescue, and even the urge to cry at the shock that someone that wasn't one of her powered up friends would face the good possibility of death for her. "I'm fine." She told him. "Keep him busy just a moment longer."

He heard a sound and ducked just as Chakra tried to take off his head with one of the razor sharp claws. He lashed out and with his leg hooked around what passed for the monster's leg and tripped it up.

That was all the time Lonnie needed to recover her iPhone. Now despite Will looking right at her, there was still a monster bearing down on them and no help in sight, she didn't see a choice but to transform despite the fact that it would expose her identity to him. Besides, after saving her life she figured he had earned it. She input her numbers 4363 and transformed into the pink ranger.

To say that Will was stunned might have been a bit of an understatement. Lonnie formed her hurricane tessens and jumped over him to attack Chakra as he stood up again. She slashed the monster with both of her weapons, but as she tried to draw energy into the tessens Chakra leapt out and slashed her hard.

"Are you okay?" Will asked the pink ranger as he came up beside her. "What can I do to help?"

"I'm fine." Lonnie assured him as she got up and watched the monster. "What I really need now are my friends, I can't defeat this thing alone."

Will was able to read in between the lines. He figured that except for probably Gregory the people he had seen her interact with were power rangers themselves, or at least knew how to contact them. "I'll get the school and find Mal and the others." He promised and very reluctantly dashed off.

"So your boyfriend was smart enough to quit the scene huh?" Chakra asked and laughed. "He shouldn't run, he already provoked me and I'll get rid of him later on. But you're first pink ranger." With that the monster moved in again to clash with Lonnie.

"These things may be horrible fighters but they more than make up for it in numbers." Aziz noted as he took out two only to be accosted by another.

Mal wanted to agree with his assessment but she could still remember the first time she, her surrogate siblings and Audrey, who at that point had been little more than a reluctant friend, first fought these soldiers and had very nearly been defeated.

"I wish we knew how Lonnie was doing. "Audrey said worriedly as she released a few arrows at some incoming soldiers. "She could be in a lot of trouble."

"Hey, hang on a sec." Evie said. "Watch my back." Carlos and Jane already moved in to do so as Mal realized what her chosen sister was doing; she was going to consult her magic mirror. "Mirror, mirror in my palm, show me Lonnie." The purple ranger assumed her weapon/magic item did as she was asked because a moment later she revealed, "Lonnie is fighting this crustacean thing with claws instead of pincers and a really unsturdy looking leg thing. She could be doing worse but I still think she really needs our help."

Mal remembered not too long ago that they had focused all of their efforts on stopping Sermaya and his Guard beasts that he had been able to temporarily take control over a village before they and the Jungle Fury Rangers had sent them packing. In fact it made her wonder how the village was recovering and if some of their transfers had come from there. But right now it wasn't important, right now she realized if this was another situation like that a failure would be more costly at least on a personal level. "Ben, Jordan, Aziz, Ally, Jane." She called out. "You guys stay here and deal with the soldiers." She looked to those who started out as rangers with her. "We're going to help Lonnie."

The teens nodded in agreement and then Mal's chosen siblings cut a swath through the soldiers to get into the forest as the Ben and the other rangers stayed behind to deal with the soldiers.

In a matter of minutes they ran into Will. "I'm glad I ran into you." Will said. "Your friend's in trouble."

"We know." The purple ranger promised him. "We're going to help her now. Get back to Auradon Prep." The five rangers then ran past him, but Will couldn't just hope it all worked out and started to follow them.

Chakra blocked Lonnie's attacks again and then slashed her hard, this time disarming her. "You're starting to bore me pink ranger." He said. "Now I'm going to end this game." He got ready to leap at her, intending to bring his claws down on her when a shower of arrows struck him from all sides. He looked up to see the other rangers now at her side, with Audrey lowering her silver bow.

"Are you okay?" Evie asked her.

"Yeah." Lonnie answered as she stood up. "Watch it, this guy is more trouble than he looks to be."

Jay formed his soul scimitar. "Let's show this guy a thing or two." He said and together with Carlos they attacked Chakra. The monster ended up blocking claw to claw with the yellow ranger only to get struck by the black ranger.

"Let's end this guy." Mal said. "With the Auradon Triangle Spark." Audrey, Lonnie, and Evie stood together, and then Jay and Carlos jumped onto their shoulders. Mal jumped up to land on the boys shoulders. Then they drew their blasters and shot in the middle, forming a triangle of energy and unleashing it on Chakra, who exploded upon impact.

"Another one bites the dust, for real this time." Carlos gloated happily. This time there was no trace of a body and the explosion usually meant the monster was killed.

They turned to see Will coming out of the forest. "You got rid of him." He stated as if it were to be expected. He started toward them and Lonnie noticed the other ranger's seemed ready to try to leave.

She turned to her friends. "Forget it guys, he already knows. He saw me transform to fight Chakra." She replied and then powered down. "He saved my life." That sounded almost like a plea of understanding to Mal.

"Alright then." The purple haired girl decided. It wasn't a hard leap of logic to figure out all their identities when you knew who one of them was. And putting one's life on the line to save one of her friends meant a lot to her too. "Power down." The other four rangers followed suit.

"You saved Lonnie from that monster?" Jay asked. When Will nodded the black ranger offered his hand out. "That's cool man, thanks a lot." The two boys smiled and exchanged hand shakes and then fist bumped.

Carlos received a text that told them they had defeated the soldiers and were on their way back to help them and he texted Jane not to worry, they had defeated Chakra and Lonnie was fine. He also cautioned her that Will knew who they were now.

The seven teens returned to the school. Ben and the other Auradon rangers were waiting for them. "So do we need to erase his mind?" Jordan asked them.

"No." Mal replied. "He's fine." She wasn't entirely sure about that but wanted to trust Lonnie's instincts.

"Did you get what you needed for your project?" Ally asked Will.

"Afraid not. The first sample we found flew away when that monster showed up." He answered and shrugged a bit. "Not much to be done about it now I'm afraid."

"We better get back to class then." Mal said. "Before Fairy Godmother thinks something really bad happened to us." She went to kiss Ben and then got a bit embarrassed again as she realized what she was wearing, in this case not much, and she failed to fight the urge to blush.

Ben laughed softly. "Don't worry about it Mal, you look good in everything." He said sincerely and then kissed her on the cheek. "Go learn to swim." He said to her and looked at Evie, Jay and Carlos.

"As long as you know now everything, we could use some help with our special project." Lonnie said to Will. "I can explain everything to you on the way to the library."

"Sounds good." Will said with a smile. "I'll meet you there, I have to go disappoint someone first." He headed off to the science labs.

Jane said her goodbyes as well so she could finally meet up with Doug at the command center and so she could let him know that Will knew about them now as well.

Maleficent waited in her chambers aboard Paradias's ship. A holographic form appeared in the corner of the room. She gave a wicked smile. "Ah, I assume since you contacted me you have some good news."

The holographic figure bowed slightly. "Yes, Maleficent." The voice was clearly that of a young man. "I have just discovered the ranger's identities and will soon find myself in their crowd."

Maleficent laughed wickedly. "Excellent. Find out there secrets and then we shall figure out how to use that against them. When the time is right I will have you betray them and then we will take down Mal and her little group of power rangers once and for all." She said and then let out another evil and wicked laugh.


	44. Starting a New Adventure

Fairy Godmother had called a meeting for the next day and Lonnie was the first one to arrive at the command center. The only other person there at the moment was Fairy Godmother. "Good morning Lonnie." She said with a small smile.

"Good morning ma'am." Lonnie said with a smile of her own as she sat down.

Fairy Godmother hesitated a moment and then said, "Jane told me that Will was there when you transformed to fight Chaka and as a result he knows all of your identities."

Lonnie nodded. "I didn't have a choice. If I hadn't he would have killed us. In fact if not for Will the monster would have killed me." She replied evenly.

Fairy Godmother took a deep breath. "I do understand that. I'm not finding anything in the records we acquired from the schools on the new transfers to say he isn't trustworthy." Fairy Godmother noted. "And of course you're right that it was unavoidable. Let's just hope we don't have too many of these incidents in the future."

Next Mal and Ben showed up. They had been laughing about something but Lonnie didn't know what. At the bottom of the stairs Ben wrapped his arms around Mal's waist as she wrapped her arms around his neck and they exchanged a quick kiss on the lips before they went to sit together, Mal practically on Ben's lap.

Then Evie and Doug came into the command center. The two were talking animatedly about their chemistry experiment and Evie laughed as she placed her hand on his arm to steady herself. Then she sat down and Doug went up to the consoles, blushing slightly.

Next were Jane and Carlos who were talking softly about some of the construction needed to make room for the Auradon Battlezord in the mountain area with the Auradon Megazord. The two of them joined Doug at a console to continue with their conversation as they waited for everyone else.

"No way." They heard Audrey say with amusement as she descended the stairs. "You really did that?"

"I really did." Jay said and then laughed. "Man, I missed off Mrs. Gothel big time. Didn't speak to me for a week." The two of them appeared at the bottom of the steps and then pretended innocence in front of Mal and Evie. "Oh, hey guys."

"You did not just tell her about that." Mal said with a mock glare.

"Not at all." Jay said nonchalantly as Audrey sat next to Ben and Jay sat next to her. Once seated he wrapped an arm around the brunette's shoulders.

"Tell her about what?" Lonnie asked but another look from Mal silenced Jay and she decided she'd have to see if Audrey would talk later.

The last to show up was Jordan, Ally and Aziz. It was hard not to notice that Ally and Aziz were standing pretty close to each other. However at the moment both Aziz and Jordan were telling Ally about some of the adventures their father's had shared.

"Funny you should be talking about that." Fairy Godmother noted. "Because Agrabah is exactly where I'm sending all of you."

"Wait, what?" Jane was startled to hear about that. "Why?"

"I've recently been in contact with your father Aziz." She said as she looked to the silver ranger. "Apparently your mother has found a couple of scrolls, far older than anything we have here that might shed some light on Sermaya and his origins."

"Really, they did?" Aziz seemed a bit shocked.

"Why don't they just bring them here?" Carlos asked.

"In truth Jordan's father offered to do just that, but I thought it might be better to head over there ourselves, just in case Sermaya gets wind of this information." Fairy Godmother answered. "Granted he might be able to handle himself but its best if we don't have to test that theory out."

"When are we supposed to leave?" Mal asked. Part of her hoped to avoid another swimming class. She was getting the hang of it but she was starting to think she just didn't like swimming.

"This afternoon after school." She answered, privately dashing the purple haired girl's hopes. "This is being officially classified as a school errand and you've been appropriately excused as such."

Audrey laughed a bit. "It's a good thing you're the head mistress. If a teacher tried to do this I bet it would draw your attention." She noted.

"It probably would at that." She agreed. "That's one of the reasons it was decided that I would work with Zordon to head this up so long ago, because this kind of coverage might have become necessary."

"You've been headmistress that long?" Carlos asked and when Audrey, Lonnie and Jane shot him looks that he didn't understand the meaning of he simply shrugged and added, "What?"

"I'll explain it later." Evie said with a shake of her head. Most of them knew better than to ask an adult, especially a lady, their age unless they really had to. It was just the polite thing to do, one of the lessons that it seemed her mother had fully agreed with given her vanity.

"I'll see you off at the gates this afternoon." Fairy Godmother said. "I'm sure Aziz and Jordan know how to get there, since they were born in Agrabah, but I'll give you some instructions just in case."

"Well this might work out." Evie said. "Next semester in sustainable living we'll be covering desert lifestyles. I can get a head start sort to speak."

"Just what you need E, another chance to get ahead of the curve." Mal teased her chosen sister as they stood up and she lightly pushed her shoulder. "Alright, I guess we should head to class. See you at swim practice." She said to her chosen siblings and Fairy Godmother.

Lonnie saw Will at his locker on her way to second period. They had wanted to spend a bit of time over the weekend on a performance, an idea inspired by Lonnie after she had realized Will liked to play several instruments including the saxophone and the guitar but apparently that was going to have to wait. She walked up and leaned against the locker next to it. "Hey." She said softly.

He turned and smiled at her. "Hey." He replied. "Have a nice first period?"

"Yeah, the stuff of dreams." She answered sarcastically and they both shared a small laugh. "Look, Fairy Godmother has an errand for us to run after school today and it seems like it will take a few days. We're going to have to postpone our project for a while." Fairy Godmother hadn't mentioned whether or not she was aware that Will was helping them with the research project now that he knew about their identities but she didn't want to be the one to mention it if she didn't know already.

"Ah, the call of responsibility." Will said with a small wink, indicating he was reading in between the lines enough to get her meaning. "No problem, we'll work on it another time then."

"I kind of wish you could come along." Lonnie said somewhat absentmindedly as she wasn't sure she would admit so easily to this if she were paying full attention. "I mean we wouldn't be in a position to work on our stuff, but at least we'd still be able to spend time together."

"I enjoy spending time together with you too." Will told her sincerely as he reached up to move a piece of hair that had fallen into her eyes. "We'll do that when you come back though, don't worry ab out it."

The day went fast and lunch came. For once it was Ally, Aziz and Jordan who had reached their table first. "Are you two excited to be going back home?" The blonde asked them in her slight British accent.

"I haven't been home since just after I found out about Mal and the others." Jordan answered. "It will be something new now that I know so much more about things my father had to have known for a long time."

"Me neither." Aziz said. "I wonder how my parents even feel about me being a power ranger."

"I'm sure they're okay with it." Ally said to him. She had asked her mother not long ago about it and Alice had told her that while she wouldn't have necessarily wished it upon her daughter she never the less understood all the good she could do with it and that she could accept that. "They might not like it exactly but I think they'll be okay with it."

Jordan frowned a bit. " I guess we Auradon kids are lucky in that regard." She mused. "Our parents know and accept it. But Jay, Carlos and Evie's parents probably wouldn't be happy about it even if they knew about it." They actually had no proof one way or another rather Jafar, Grimolde the Evil Queen and Cruella DeVil knew about their kids or not. " And we all know how Mal's mother feels about this latest path of hers." They could all feel for their leader there, even if none of them cared for Maleficent personally.

"What do you think they'll think of Jay?" Ally asked the two of them. Jafar had been the prime enemy for Aziz's parents Aladdin and Jasmine and Jordan's father. She remembered seeing Audrey's grandmother react to Mal's presence, though at that time the brunette princess had not helped that. In time of course Audrey had gotten past her differences with Mal but to her knowledge grandmother had not. Aurora's thought on that hadn't been voiced to her that she knew of.

"They haven't expressed any problems to me." Aziz said.

"I haven't heard anything either." Jordan added with a shrug.

They saw Ben approaching, and for once it was without Mal. Ally suspected that was the effect of not having the same class as the purple haired girl and her chosen siblings were getting out of swim class now. He had Lonnie with him.

"I feel kind of bad about it though." Lonnie said regretfully. "I was looking forward to what Will and I were going to try to do. I mean arranging a life musical hip hop performance for the talent show at the end of next month, it's just so cool."

"You just wanted to spend time with Will." Jordan teased as they sat down.

"Yeah, I did want that too." Lonnie agreed. "Something about him…no guy has ever gotten my curiosity sparked the way he does."

"You'll still have time." Ben assured her. He set down his tray and then took out his iPhone to see if Mal had texted him yet. Sure enough he had. "Looks like we're down two for lunch, Audrey wants to spend the break packing and she convinced Evie to join her. Mal and the guys will be here in a few minutes." He informed.

"I can't imagine doing something like that without magic." Jordan poked fun at everyone.

"That's something most of us have learned to have to cope with." They heard Jane say as she sat down with Doug. She technically had magic at her disposal but was untrained and her mother had lectured constantly about using it in emergencies only. It went without saying that packing wasn't an emergency. Doug seemed mildly disappointed when Ben told him Evie wouldn't be coming to lunch.

"Dude, if you want to spend time with her you've got to ask her." Aziz said. That caused Jordan to smirk a bit since his interest in Ally wasn't exactly something that he put on public display. That was one thing she gave Lonnie and Will, they weren't exactly holding back about their interest.

"Yeah, I know. You're right." Doug agreed. "It's just kind of hard. I mean, I personally don't even know what she even sees in me."

"Don't sell yourself so short." Lonnie advised him as she opened up her bottled orange juice. "You're very intelligent, which is something she is clearly into. You're sweet, and that's something that Evie just hasn't had enough of in her life. You're braver than you give yourself credit for when you consider what you know about life recently and you face it without the extra protection that we use."

"She's right about those last two big time." Ben said to him as he started to mix the sauce with the noodles for his spaghetti. "This isn't small time stuff man, but you handle it well. And being a good person, it's something that Mal still hasn't entirely adjusted too either. They all need to see that."

Jane understood Doug's concerns. She knew she was smart enough as she had spent years helping her mother establish the command center; at this point no one knew it better than her. She also had a hard time questioning her bravery as she continued her journey as the white ranger. But she still feared she wasn't pretty enough for Carlos, or anyone else if it came to it. She also knew that as much as Carlos seemed to like her that confidence problem also affected him too. _We're definitely no Mal and Ben or Audrey and Jay._ She reflected quietly but kept her peace.

"Hey Bennie-boo." Mal said with a teasing lilt to her voice as she sat came up behind him. Then she sat next to him and kissed him on the lips before she opened up her strawberry milk.

"Hi." Jane said with a smile at Carlos.

"Hey." He replied with a smile of his own. He offered her an extra apple he had gotten and she took it happily.

"How was class?" Jane asked him.

Carlos laughed. "Your mom is trying to teach us the dog paddle." He revealed. "Jay is getting a huge laugh out of that."

Jay laughed as he picked up one of his fries. "Yeah, the son of dog hater Cruella DeVil learning to swim likes a dog." He teased his friend. "It's classic."

"You're just enjoying the fact that Audrey isn't her to scold you for that." Lonnie noted with a giggle.

"That wouldn't stop him completely anyway." Mal replied. Carlos agreed with that assessment. Then she leaned forward a bit. "I think we should ask Fairy Godmother to let Will come with us." She revealed.

No one seemed to object to that declaration and Lonnie even perked up a bit at that. "Any reason why?" Ben asked her curiously as he took her hand.

Mal squeezed softly. "Look, we're going for something very important here. If Sermaya realizes this and if Paradias realizes this then they could try to divide and conquer us, all in effort to get these scrolls or whatever they are." She looked to each of her team mates seriously. "We need to have someone who can stick by those things full time if we that happens."

"He shouldn't be the only one to guard them if it comes down to that Mal." Aziz reminded Mal as seriously. "I agree with you one hundred percent but this can't be something he has to do alone."

"What choice do we have?" Jordan asked. "Will knows who we are because Lonnie wasn't left a choice. Doug knows of course, and we could bring him along. No offense though but he's not really a fighter or anything." She did have the grace to look at Doug apologetically.

He shrugged it off though. "You're right; I'm not exactly the most reliable in a fight. I can shoot a blaster as well as anyone but that's about it." He agreed. "Still, maybe any port in a storm…"

"We'll have to mention it after school then, before we leave." Mal said. She looked to Doug. "We can ask her about you too, I doubt Evie will mind if you're along after all." She added with amusement, and that caused him to blush.

After lunch the team met at the gates. "I think we should take Doug and Will with us." Mal said to their headmistress. This surprised Audrey and Evie since no one had had a chance to tell them about their conversation at that point.

"If you feel you need Doug with you that's perfectly fine." Fairy Godmother agreed with her simply enough. "But why do you need Will with you guys?"

"Insurance, mom." Jane answered. "If Paradias or Sermaya find out what we're doing they might attack. If they do it together we're going to have to all split up and all be on the battlefield. Doug can't keep the scripts safe on his own."

"I think he could." Evie tried to say encouragingly to the boy she was developing strong feelings for.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Evie." Doug said to her as he brushed her arm with his hand. "But I admit it, truthfully. If it came down to that I can't keep these scrolls safe on my own." He looked to Fairy Godmother. "Will already knows who they are so this mission doesn't have to be a big secret to him, and he already proved he can take care of himself and other people."

Fairy Godmother could see the logic behind what Jane and Doug had said and she nodded. "Alright, someone go and get him then." She conceded.

Audrey held out her hand. "Give me your satchel Lonnie." She said. "And go get Will."

Lonnie smiled broadly at her friend. "Thanks." She said and ran off, seemingly pretty happy. Audrey and Jay exchanged knowing smiles, as did Mal and Ben.

"I kind of wish I could let Snow know I was leaving for a while." Evie said. "I mean in person. We're trying to build our relationship and here I am going around the world like this."

"She knows you have responsibilities as a power ranger." Ben reminded the blue haired girl reassuringly. "Just as mom knows Mal and I have to do this regardless of what we might want to do."

Lonnie found Will heading toward his room and she all but bounced up to him. "How would you like a trip to Agrabah?" She asked with a broad smile.

Will laughed a little at her enthusiasm. "Plan on smuggling me along in one of your bags?" He asked her teasingly. "I'm sure that Jordan could probably create a magical duplicate in order to take my classes for me."

Lonnie giggled at his jokes. It was kind of hard for her to realize how just being around him made her feel so happy, it was certainly an amazing feeling. "No smuggling required, not that you'd fit in any of bags anyway, even Audrey's." she shook her head. "Mal, Doug and Jane managed to convince Fairy Godmother that you should come with us, in case we need someone to help keep the scrolls safe if we get drawn into fights. So Fairy Godmother would excuse you from classes just as she's doing for us."

Will nodded a bit. "My sister will be spending the weekend with Callie at the Charming castle, and my other plans already got cancelled earlier." He said with a small wink at Lonnie. "So why not? Let me get a few things."

"I'll walk with you." Lonnie said. "But we have to hurry." The two continued on to Will's dorm. He tossed his books on one of the tables and pulled out a duffle bag. Lonnie looked at one of the dressers as he grabbed some clothes. "What is this?" She indicated a trophy.

"A trophy." Will said neutrally but had to laugh at the look she gave him.

"I figured that one out just fine." She promised with a mocking glare. "I meant what is this for? It's first place for something called anbo-jitsu, but I've never heard of it."

"A form of martial arts." Will answered her as he came and stood beside her. "It's unique among the forms because you have to fight blind. Your weapons and your hearing are your guides to find your opponent."

She was pretty sure her mother and father had never heard of this one either. Lonnie turned to look at him. "How does that work?" She asked softly.

"The weapons have a device or a spell on them, depending on preferences, which resonate a sonic whine when you're close to your target. You have to listen for the noise and guess where to strike." Will explained to her.

"Would you be willing to teach me?" She asked him curiously.

Will nodded as he stroked her hair softly. "Absolutely." He replied. "As soon as we get our hip hop act together I'll start teaching you."

"Something else to look forward too." Lonnie replied with a small smile and the feeling of a blush rising to her cheeks. "You should get things together so we can meet the others." She added to distract herself.

Will nodded. "You're right." He agreed and then went back to packing.

Lonnie turned back to the trophies. "Mountain climbing. Kayaking. You have a lot of trophies." She noted fondly.

"You'd find those two trophies in my sister's room too." Will said a bit more easily now that the romantic connection had been buried for the moment. "She and I won the kayaking trophy together and my sister entered a mountain climbing tournament after I did."

Lonnie turned to look at him. "I don't have any siblings." She revealed. "In fact, none of us do as far as we know. Except Evie, she being Snow White's half-sister but they didn't grow up together or even meet each other until recently." She leaned back against the dresser, careful not to bump the trophies. "What is that like?" She asked.

"Depends on the day." Will answered with a shrug. "There are days she pretty much drives me crazy. But I love her all the same." He zipped up his bag. "When it comes down to it, I'd do anything for her, as you probably remember from the first day of school."

"I remember." Lonnie confirmed as the two of them left his room to go meet with the others. They walked in companionable silence until they reached the rest of her team. Evie, Jane and Audrey gave him smiles as they approached, as did Ally and Mal though the two girls were a little more reserved. Jay and Ben both exchanged fist bumps with him. Doug and Carlos both said hi. Jordan was a kind of unreadable but that was normal, but her body posture didn't show any signs of hostility.

"So we're ready to go then?" Fairy Godmother asked.

They heard someone else approaching and turned to see Gregory coming toward them. He already had a duffel in hand as he came up to them. "I heard you guys were going to Agrabah, and this just came from my father that was supposed to go to Agrabah." He explained as he held up a manila envelope and gave a sheepish grin, as if he were kind of embarrassed about this. "Is it okay if I go with you?"

"We could deliver it for you." Jay pointed out.

Audrey pointed to the top, where there was a royal seal. "It needs to be delivered by someone in his family or an authorized person. We're not authorized." She explained to him gently. The royal protocol seemed to annoy him slightly but didn't press it.

Fairy Godmother hesitated only a moment before nodding in agreement. Unlike Will, Gregory did not know who they were and hoped to keep it that way. She only hoped Ben, the rangers, Doug and Will would be able to work together to keep that secret. "Alright. I'll get you two excused when I return to the office." She said.

"Thank you ma'am." Gregory said with a slight bow.

"Yes, thank you." Will agreed.

Fairy Godmother took out her iPhone and sent them information over a map app that Jane and Doug had designed a long time ago, before they really knew what it was for or that Jane would be a power ranger herself.

Carlos opened and smiled. "Cool, it's giving us the direct route we need to go in order to get to Agrabah." He said, sounding impressed. The compliment made Jane blush a little though he was to engrossed in the new app to notice it.

"Looks like we're going to have to skirt the Badlands." Ally noted. "Good thing we don't have to go too deep into it."

"It's not too far in and only to reach the river that will take us to Agrabah." Aziz assured her gently. He had taken the path hundreds of times growing up although of course this was the first time he had taken it as a power ranger. "Hey, if nothing else I'll be there to protect you."

Mal and Audrey exchanged glances and tried to contain their smirks. The line was kind of cheesy and not one that either of the strong willed girls would have tolerated easily, even from their boyfriends. But Ally seemed to be assured by that and she responded with, "I know you will." To the two of them it showed how attracted to him she really was.

"One of us will text you when we get to the boat mom." Jane promised her. "And again when we get to Agrabah."

"And I'll text you when we have the scrolls or whatever they happen to be." Mal promised. She thought some of Jane's assurances came from the fact she was her mother.

"Please be careful." Fairy Godmother said to them. "We don't know what kind of problems that you'll find while running this errand." She hugged Jane before the now thirteen teens headed out of the school and toward the Badlands.


	45. A Simple Walk to the Docks

The teens made their way to the Badlands and started to cut around the area. The sandstorm activity was thankfully nonexistent right now, far better than it was the last time they had been there, when Paradias had released Maleficent.

Carlos drained his water bottle. "This was definitely a great idea Jordan." He said as it refilled itself a moment later. "The endless water bottle, very epic."

"Glad you approve." Jordan said with a laugh.

Aziz glanced into the desert. "I am so glad this is the wrong area." He said to himself.

"Wrong area for what?" Jane asked him.

"My dad told me in the desert in Agrabah there was this shark that swam around in the sand like they normally do in the ocean." Aziz explained to them. "It was a tough little thing to capture apparently, and in fact the first time it got away from our dads. It apparently had treasure on its underbelly."

"Ooh, how nice." Jay said with a laugh.

"Shiny." Evie joked as well.

"I take it you guys have never actually seen a shark before." Ben said to the four isle kids with a laugh. "They're one of the most vicious sea predators out there, it's best not to underestimate them."

"We read about them at Dragon Hall." Mal answered with a shrug. "Hook talked about them all the time. But we never really saw any."

"I think some people were afraid that somehow despite the lack of magic someone on the island would figure out a way to make like some vicious shark things and attack Auradon." Jane volunteered. She shrugged. "Sounded kind of unlikely to me then but now I'd say anything could have been possible."

"I wonder why that thing didn't wind up on the Isle of the Lost?" Carlos reflected.

"It's not evil." Jordan answered simply. "I mean, it's not good either but it wasn't intentionally evil. It was just following its nature."

"It's not exactly common knowledge but despite everything a few villains managed to escape being taken to the island." Jane said. "No one knows how."

"Paradias may have had something to do with it." Carlos reasoned. He figured that it was reasonable since he was enough of a threat for Zordon to have to help them out after all. He didn't say it though because Gregory was not aware of their status as power rangers.

"How far do we have to go again?" Audrey asked.

"A few more miles." Ben answered.

Audrey sighed. "Too bad we're not going through the forest." She mused softly. "At least it's prettier there."

"Because aesthetic is all we're worried ab out." Mal teased her second in command with an eye roll. Then she smiled a little. "Actually I agree with you for what it's worth. Something about the Badlands just gives me the creeps."

"Which is implied in the name." Jordan pointed out. "But really, it's been this way for almost ever. Even my dad doesn't know how it got the name or what brought it to this condition."

Mal frowned a bit as she recalled the underground tunnel they had followed Paradias, Nerissa, and Chad to that had led to the area he had brought Maleficent back to her original form at. It had also contained a dragon monster that they had to defeat. Of course some part of the Badlands also had contained the Auradon Falconzord and the Auradon Battlezord. _We really need to get a team in to look at these caves._ She mused silently. She also reflected that in hindsight they should have found another way for Gregory to get his message out, either that or told him the truth. Half of the things they needed or wanted to discuss was kind of limited because of it.

They continued on for a little bit. Without the flow of conversation it seemed a little creepy out in the Badlands. Jane remembered seeing in her mother's texts from Zordon's world about a place called the Desert of Despair, and it included horrendous wailing sounds that could be heard as the desert was traversed. It didn't make her feel any more comfortable about the situation.

"I wonder if someone in the isle is responsible for this." Evie mused as she glanced around. "Maybe some last minute corrupting of the land before being exiled."

"It'd have to be some kind magic." Mal replied as she glanced around. "I'm not in your urban class after all E, but most of the time the kind of damage we see here is something that would take a long time to come to pass."

"Not necessarily." Ally said now. "There is one other way non magical way, but equally as frightening." She took a deep breath. "Someone, or rather some group of people, brought this area to this state of existence naturally."

Jordan nodded in thought. "Dad told me that almost all of the areas of worlds like ours were once full of lush vegetation, but over time various factors can erode those climates to ones like where we are now." She looked around a little. "But he said not all of those were natural. Sometimes it's done by the people of the lands through ignorance or greed. But other times it's done intentionally by far darker forces that are looking to cause suffering and even end life."

"I don't think that would Paradias's aim." Audrey pointed out. "He seems to want to conquer our lands for himself. Even Chad couldn't be behind world destruction, right?" She seemed a bit dubious about that last part.

Some of the other ranger weren't quite sure they could agree with Audrey on that one but they had no proof of that she wasn't right either. Domination was still a far cry from extermination. Still there was one thing that Mal pointed out, "Let's not forget about Sermaya too. I doubt he's looking to destroy the world but that doesn't rule out the idea that there could be plenty of other evils in here." Again the fact Gregory was there made things difficult, but like Paradias in general, or even Chad in general, Sermaya was no secret.

"Not just here." Jay added. "Remember the Psycho Rangers that we de…heard the rangers dealt with." He had to do an abrupt swerve there that got a snicker from Carlos. "Those didn't come from our world…er, that we know of."

Will glanced at Lonnie and she simply shrugged. She couldn't exactly explain to him right now all the details they knew that couldn't be said in front of Gregory.

Jane jumped just a bit as she thought she heard some kind of grunting sound. "Did anyone else here that sound?" She asked.

"I didn't hear anything." Jordan said.

"Maybe it was the desert wind." Jay suggested.

Jane frowned uncertainly. Ally glanced into the desert and said, "I don't think so." She pointed toward a nearby sand dune. "I thought I saw something duck behind that sand dune."

The others stopped and looked toward it. The sand was starting up over there and Gregory frowned, "Sorry Ally, but I think you're seeing things in the brewing sandstorm." He said.

"I swore I saw something." All insisted.

Aziz nodded. "I'll go check it out." He said.

Ally stopped him, placing her hand on his arm. "Wait, the sandstorm is starting up. I don't want you to get hurt because of the fact I might be seeing something." She replied.

"Can you take this a second Audrey?" Jay asked the brunette princess. She nodded and took his duffel and then he came to Aziz. "Come on, let's check it out and make sure that Ally's not seeing anything." Ambushes were all too real in their lives.

"The sand's no big deal Ally." Aziz promised her, handing her his duffel and squeezing her hand gently. "Be right back." Then the two boys started toward the sand dune.

"Who would have thought that Jay and Aziz, whose fathers are basically mortal enemies, should be not only team mates but good friends?" Mal said to Audrey and Evie with amusement in her voice as she put an arm around each of their shoulders.

"No kidding." Audrey agreed with laughter.

Ben and Lonnie shook their heads in amusement. Despite Maleficent basically trying to get rid of Aurora, which if successful would have guaranteed Audrey had never been born, their two daughters had eventually managed to form a bond similar to what they were now noting about Jay and Aziz. The young king wandered over and wrapped his arms around Mal's waist, kissing the back of her neck gently.

The two boys had to shield their eyes as they got closer to the sand dune. Aziz even turned back to make sure they could still see Ally and their friends, as if they couldn't then he would suggest they turn back. But he could still see them. As they got closer though from the top of the sand dune they saw a dozen of Sermaya's oxen warriors. "Ah shoot." Aziz mumbled.

"Time to turn around." Jay said and the two boys turned to return to their team mates but found some more coming around them.

By that time so had the others. "The oxen creatures." Lonnie said. "What are they doing here?"

Will was sure that the others would have to transform. He looked to Gregory. "We should make a rush to the docks and see if we can get some help from the guards there." He suggested.

"We can't leave them all out here." Gregory snapped, misinterpreting the fact that staying was actually making things harder for the others rather than doing them a favor.

Doug wished he knew exactly what to say. "Look, we should just all retreat." He said. "If we can."

By that time the rest of the team had dropped their duffels and were heading into the desert to help Jay and Aziz as they started to fight some of the oxen warriors. That was drawing the attention of those over the sand dune.

Then to make things worse, the two boys had a blast of energy hurled at them and they landed hard. When they looked up they saw what looked to be a sand colored sphinx heading toward them. His face looked more human than anything else but the hands were in fact sharp edged claws and hind legs. He had no tail though.

"Looks like Sermaya knows we were going to do this." Audrey stated. "Unless he's out here looking for something else instead."

"He always seems to have a new monster, something that strikes me as odd since he claims to have no civilization around." Lonnie said. She wondered if the information they were going after would have those answers, which in turn would explain why he might not want them to get it.

"Mal, we have to morph." Carlos said to the purple haired girl. "Last time we fought these oxen they all but beat us. And we have that monster to worry about as well."

"But then Gregory will know we're rangers, and after what Fairy Godmother said..." Ally started.

"We might not have a choice if the alternative is dying." Jordan reminded her.

"We'll see how this plays out." Mal said. "And worry from there."

The team started to fight against the oxen warriors. They still found them tough but they didn't seem as insurmountable as they had the first time when they had fought them at the village. Ben surmised it might be because they didn't have the feeling of guilt weighting on them the way they did when Sermaya had distracted them for that invasion.

One tried to bring its axe down on Lonnie's head and she dodged it. She flinched though as she realized it managed to skim her arm. It didn't look that bad, something that Jordan's healing potions would deal with easily enough, but it still stung.

"You're right, we have to help." Will said to Gregory as he saw that. He dropped his duffel and then ran over, jumping up and kicking the oxen in the head before he landed next to Lonnie. "You okay?" He asked her.

"I'll be fine." Lonnie promised.

Gregory followed suit and he helped Mal take one out that tried to attack her from behind. That got him a grateful look for Ben.

That left Doug to keep their stuff safe, and try to contact Fairy Godmother to get advice or help in case this went bad.

"Letting civilians fight your battles for you now?" The monster asked them and laughed. "You're going to find passing your fights on rather hard against me, the Sphinx Guard." He then shot a wave of energy at them all, forcing them to land hard again.

It was weird for a moment as it Will wanted to protect Lonnie because he liked her and Lonnie wanted to protect Will because she was the power ranger and because she liked him. The end result was she had her arm in front of him while his hands were on her shoulders in case he needed to pull her in front of him.

Mal thought it might have been cute under other circumstances. She herself was slightly in front of Ben and she saw both Jay and Aziz were slightly in front of the girl's they cared about. Carlos was in front of Jane while Jordan and Evie were standing together near Mal.

"We have to do it M." Evie said to her chosen sister. "We can't beat that thing otherwise."

Mal looked to her friends and saw that they agreed with Evie. Just as important, she agreed with Evie. Gregory learning who they were was just something they would all have to live with, regardless of the consequences. "Let's get to work." Mal announced, her typical morphing call, which she also knew Audrey had adopted too.

Her friends nodded. Now Lonnie stood up closer to her team. Ben looked to Gregory a moment and then formed his sword and shield, which seemed to startle him a little. Then he combined them to become the Auradon Knight. Jane used the magic wand to transform. The nine other rangers took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed into power rangers.

"I did not know they could do that." Gregory said with some astonishment. He looked to Will. "Did you know they could do that?"

"Just learned it myself." Will replied.

The oxen warriors and Sphinx Guard stood ready to go against the Auradon Knight, the gold ranger, the blue ranger, the purple ranger, the red ranger, the black ranger, the yellow ranger, the white ranger, the crystal ranger and the silver ranger.

The oxen warriors charged the ranger team with their axes raised. The ranger's met them with their own weapons. Ben took them out with his sword. Audrey used her elemental bow to cut through them as she couldn't use her arrows in close range. Jay cut through them with his soul scimitar. Carlos used his earthquake claw daggers to deal with them. Lonnie cut through them with her aptly named hurricane tessen's. Jordan found her lamp cannon was a great blunt instrument to use in combat since she had the same problem that Audrey had. Aziz used his spiral spear to take out the warriors. Ally used her crystal cards, alternating between using a couple as close range weapons and tossing others. Evie was glad that her mirror force shield was now an offensive weapon, sticking primarily with her blazing option.

Mal skipped all of that to make sure the Sphinx Guard didn't get a drop on them, engaging him with her dragon's eye staff. He seemed to have some kind of staff of his own as he was clashing with the purple ranger in a similar fashion.

"These things seem so endless." Gregory noted.

Will glared a bit at the oxen. "Just like when they invaded my village and kidnapped my mother and sister." He said coldly. He hadn't told anyone that he and his family lived there when Sermaya had taken over the village, that his mother Wendy and sister Whitney had been held in the government building as he had tried to protect some of the elders of their village. He had heard about the ranger's rescue and had been grateful to hear about it, even more so when he learned who they were. He didn't want to tell Lonnie though for worry that it would impact their budding relationship. He reached down and picked up one of the fallen axes. "I'm going in." He said.

Gregory reluctantly took up an axe as well and followed him in.

Lonnie noticed it and couldn't help but smile to see two people who didn't have too coming in to help, just as she had agreed to a long while ago, just as Jordan had even before she, Ally and Aziz had found powers in Wonderland. The fact one was a boy she liked a lot helped matters too.

Audrey noticed too. She saw Mal doing a decent job clashing against the monster but she was pretty sure that Mal couldn't handle the monster on her own. "We need to go help her." Audrey said to Lonnie and their leader's chosen siblings.

"Go ahead." Will said. "We've got your friend's backs."

"I'll keep your boyfriend safe." Jordan teased Lonnie and was sure the pink ranger blushed underneath her helmet.

The five rangers went to join Mal as Ben, the three newest rangers, and the two boys continued to fight it out with the oxen. Audrey was sure if they got rid of the Sphinx Guard than any oxen would leave them alone.

The Sphinx Guard caught Mal's staff in his own and released one of his paws from the staff to slash Mal hard. She landed hard but found Lonnie and Evie on either side of her ready to help her up even as Audrey shot arrows at the monster though he blocked the attacks with ease.

"Now let's see how you deal with all of us." Jay said.

Sphinx Guard slammed his staff into the ground and directed an earthquake at the six rangers, knocking them all off balance. He then charged right at them but Carlos brought up his claw daggers to block the staff coming down at them.

Jay and Lonnie moved in and slashed the monster together and as he stumbled back Evie unleashed another of her attacks, this one the storming one, at him to launch him back even further.

"Let's bring our weapons together." Mal said to her team, and the other five rangers nodded. Mal set her dragon's eye staff, with Audrey's elemental bow underneath it. Evie's mirror shield went behind it, again the compacts extended around it. Then Jay's soul scimitar was placed, with Lonnie's hurricane tessen's and Carlos's earthquake claw daggers were placed to form the Auradon blaster. They unleashed their attack on the Sphinx Guard but he raised his staff and worked to try to deflect the blast back at them.

"I'm going to see if I can distract that thing with my own weapon." Jordan said to Jane, Ally and the boys. "Hopefully we defeat that thing and we get these freaks to run away." The seven of them nodded and Jordan moved past the oxen warriors to draw her own lamp cannon and fire at the Sphinx Guard.

It struck him hard and he looked uncertain of what to do. Jordan could do damage to him over time but if he turned his attention away from the six rangers and their blaster then that would finish him for sure. The ranger's moved around to get past his attempts at blocking and were able to destroy the monster.

As they figured the oxen took off into the desert. The sandstorm was starting to pick up and none of them really wanted to pursue the beasts into the Badlands desert anyway. They instead powered down and turned to face Will and Gregory.

"I guess you know our secret now." Jay said to Gregory. "I hope we can count on you to keep it that way." Audrey swore she heard a bit of a warning tone to his voice. It wasn't exactly the most diplomatic way of doing things but she agreed with the sentiment.

Gregory nodded. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone what I just saw." He promised as he dropped the axe into the sand. Will did the same thing.

"Jordan, Lonnie needs a bit of healing." Will said as he came to her side. She didn't seem in danger of passing out or anything but she was still bleeding and he already had his hand on her back in case she needed the support.

Jordan went over and took a spray bottle out of her duffel and a cloth. Where their belongings and Doug were the sandstorm had not touched them. "I made some spray stuff for smaller things." She told them and tossed the cloth to Will. "Want to take staunch the blood again doctor?" She asked jokingly.

Will was able to clean the wound up and then used another cloth with some of the spray potion applied to the wound to heal it up. They took a few minutes to rest up as well from the fight, each of them finishing the water bottle they had and again were grateful that the genie girl had made it so that it refilled automatically.

They made their way to the docks afterwards in relative silence. They had to wait another hour for the boat and so they moved out a little bit. Mal and Ben sat on a bench watching the waves, the young king had his arm around his girlfriend running his hands through her hair, while she had her legs underneath her and her head on his shoulder. Gregory had gone inside the building.

Audrey and Jay drifted closer to the shore and both of them sat in the sand together. Jay let Audrey talk about the times she had gone to the beach with her parents as he just enjoyed her closeness and the slight ocean breeze. He especially was trying not to think too much about their destination, a home his father had been exiled from no matter how just it was. And that he had been exiled from.

Evie, Doug, Jane and Carlos sat down at a small table and began to talk amongst themselves, a cross between technical talk and chemistry talk. Sometimes they weren't sure there was always a difference.

Jordan had given her lamp to Aziz to hold onto so she could rest a little, then she promptly went inside of it. Ally and Aziz sat under an umbrella. "It's actually kind of ironic, considering the history of your fathers, that she would give her lamp to you." Ally noted.

"Jordan and I were never that close despite the fact that we grew up together." Aziz revealed to her as he took her hands in his. "We'd see each other a lot and we were able to get along but I wouldn't have called us friends."

The blonde couldn't say she was entirely surprised to hear that. Jordan hadn't always been the most social person at Auradon Prep, and that only improved a little bit since she had started to help the rangers. "Has that changed?" Ally asked him with a slight cocking of her head.

Aziz had to think about it a moment. "Maybe a little." He replied. "I mean going through life changing events and helping save the world tends to bond people." He squeezed her hand a little. "No matter how close they were or were not beforehand."

"I have often wondered that if some of the people my mother knew from Wonderland, like the Hatter, if they had children would I get along with them just because my mother was friendly with their parents." Ally admitted. "I guess two sets of parents knowing each other doesn't mean their children will get along."

On another part of the beach Lonnie and Will sat together watching the ocean waves themselves. Then Will took in a deep breath. "Lonnie, I think there's something you should know before…before anything else happens." He said.

The Asian princess wanted to tease him about assuming anything was happening between them at all but is seemed both dishonest somehow and the wrong time to be teasing him when he sounded so serious. "What's that?" She asked him.

"The village that you guys liberated from Sermaya a few days ago." He started.

Lonnie could guess some of it. "You lived there."

Will nodded. "With my mother and my sister Whitney." He confirmed. "The attack separated us, I was protecting some of the elders of our government from being captured, and we were in some of the surrounding woods running and fighting the oxen things. My mother and Whitney were captured when they attacked and destroyed the school."

"Which necessitated you and your sister to transfer to Auradon Prep." Lonnie said. "Where is your mother now?"

"The king…Ben's parents were nice enough to provide lodgings for those whose kids transferred as a result of the school's temporary destruction." Will answered with a grateful smile. "I just…didn't want you to think that anything going on between us was as a result of simply being grateful for what you guys did for my village and my family."

In truth part of Lonnie realized if she had known it sooner she might have made that conclusion. And part of her worried that maybe that could still be the case. But another part of her realized that was just doubt that she didn't need to worry about. "I believe you." Lonnie said to him. "And I don't think what we…what we're…nothing about the time we're hanging out together has any influence over that liberation."

"I just thought it was important that you know that." Will said to her. "I didn't want that affecting any aspect of whatever happens next."

The time seemed to pass quickly for the couples and friends and the boat arrived to take them down the river and into Agrabah.


	46. Trouble in Agrabah Part 1

Quick note here: Some of the concepts in these chapters are from the Aladdin animated series that was on some time ago, which took a lot of research on my part. That includes the sand shark that has been mentioned as well as one of the villains that will show up and Eden, the female genie that I have made Jordan's mother due to lack of any other proof. Another villain is also the son of a villain from the same Aladdin animated series.

Unlike the boat ride they took in Wonderland, which had been interrupted by an attack from a Skeleshark this boat ride went off without a problem. They spent their time talking together, Aziz telling them tales of Agrabah and even Jordan joined in the conversation. Mal and Ben had been cuddled up together for the majority of that journey, while Audrey had sat behind Jay with his hands rubbing her shoulders on and off.

Unsurprisingly they found a retinue of palace guards waiting for their arrival as at least in Agrabah Aziz was a prince rather he wanted to admit it or not. Also waiting for them was his mother Queen Jasmine. She embraced her son when they got out. "It's so good to see you again." She said.

"Nice to see you to mom." Aziz said with a slightly embarrassed smile. "Oh, these are my friends. Mal, Ben, Evie, Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Jane, Lonnie and Ally." He indicated the two new boys who he wasn't quite sure he was ready to call friends yet. "This is Will and Gregory." He looked to Jasmine. "And of course you know Jordan."

"So good to see you again." Jasmine said to Jordan, who did give an impression of a respectful vow. She looked to the others. "It's nice to meet you all, and it's nice to see you again King Ben." She said with a smile. If she recognized signs the former vizier in Jay, she didn't acknowledge it. "Welcome to Agrabah."

"Thank you Queen Jasmine." Ben and Audrey said diplomatically.

"We're happy to be here." Mal said. All four of the isle kids felt a bit nervous. Of course most everyone knew who they were and it was hard for them not to wonder how they would be judged upon being met.

"The daughter of Maleficent." Jasmine said as she looked at her more closely. "Your facial features do look so much like hers." She smiled. "But your eyes don't reflect that." She patted her arm gently.

Jay tensed a little as Jasmine looked at him. "Hmm, it's kind of funny actually. I don't see too much of Jafar in your features. You must take after your mother." She noted softly. "That might be a good thing in some ways." She gave him a warm smile though, it was obvious from getting off the boat that Jay and Aziz had become good friends. It actually reminded her about the one time rivalry she had had with one of their former enemies named Sedira.

They started toward a vehicle that had been waiting for them. Jasmine smiled when he saw Aziz's hand brush against Ally's lightly. She was sure that they were not dating yet but was willing to bet it would only be a matter of time.

"Are mom and dad at the palace?" Jordan asked Jasmine. Unofficially Jasmine was her aunt and Aladdin her uncle, by virtue if not blood. Likewise Aziz was Genie's nephew as well as Eden's.

"Your dad is, he's with Aladdin right now." Jasmine answered the genie girl. "Your mother is off with on an errand with Dhandi."

"Who is that?" Evie asked.

"Dhandi is Eden's, well I guess the term would technically be master." Jasmine answered. "She was an orphan who lived in Agrabah and she had wished to be with Eden forever as that was all she had. It stopped them from being together for a while until she came of age and I employed her at the palace."

"I hope we haven't come at a bad time." Jane said to her.

Jasmine thought a moment. "Actually, your arrivals here may be very fortuitous." She revealed. "We haven't had so much unique help in ages. But I'll let Aladdin make that decision."

They rode back to the palace, including through the streets of Agrabah. The variety of foods had of course caught up with modern times and some of the outdoor stands and stores had changed with the times as well but the basic city had stayed the same, up to and including the palace.

Jasmine had the guards take the teen's duffels up to their rooms, Aziz promising that he could guide them all up there once they were ready to call it a night. With that Jasmine lead the team to the throne room.

They saw in the center of the large palace a table set up with several of the advisors talking, at the head of the table was Aziz's father and the sultan of Agrabah, Aladdin. He had risen to become Sultan after the unfortunate but thankfully natural death of Jasmine's father. To his side was Jordan's father Genie. The team intended to wait for the meeting to end but were noticed.

"Aziz!" Aladdin said and got up, coming over and hugging his son. "So glad to see you again. Sorry we couldn't make it to parent night at the school." He patted his back softly.

"No problem dad, you avoided a bullet. You guys probably heard what happened." Aziz said as he separated from his father.

"Jordan." Genie said as he popped up beside his daughter. He formed two light blue arms and hands in addition to his own and hugged her with all four of them. "From your mother and me, she wished she could be here, and probably would have too if we'd known."

Jordan laughed a little. "It's okay dad. Glad you at least were here." She said.

Aziz introduced the rest of his friends and the two guys. Like Jasmine Aladdin didn't display any signs of resentment or anything toward Jay or the other isle kids. He shook hands with all of the, even his nemesis' son. He then sent a guard to retrieve the items that had been uncovered.

"Jasmine was telling us that something else was going on that maybe we could help with." Mal said to him.

"We wouldn't want to drag you into another problem." Aladdin said. "Word is you have enough problems to worry about."

"It'd be our pleasure to help, Sultan." Audrey said with a small bow.

"She's right, your majesty." Ben agreed.

"We're not sure it's a problem per se." Genie told them as he started to usher Jordan, Ally, Aziz and Jane to the table. Some of the guards seemed resentful to have teenagers involved in it, either not realizing they were power rangers or not caring. "But there have been sightings of Mamluks in the areas near Agrabah."

"I assume you know what those are." One of the guards said as he looked at the four isle kids. He clearly was not as understanding and forgiving as his Sultan and Queen.

"That's enough." Aziz snapped at him.

"And for the record," Mal said with an icy voice, instinctively wrapping an arm around Ben's and wishing Belle were with them. "We don't know what they are; contrary to some beliefs in this world not all evil things are linked to the other."

"The minions of the Jafar wannabe are seen around the city's edges and then Jafar Junior shows up and we're expected to believe that this is a coincidence." The guard demanded. Jay was caught somewhere between anger and even a bit of hurt, while Audrey placed a hand comfortingly on his arm and Aziz stood up to try to defend his friend.

But it was Jasmine who snapped at the guard, "That is enough!" and as his attention diverted to them Aladdin now said with deadly calm, "You are excused." The guard got up and left, seeming somewhere between contrite and pissed off.

"Thanks dude." Jay said to Aziz, more grateful than he could have imagined as he stroked Audrey's arm. He looked to his parents. "And thank you guys as well." He was starting to get an idea of why Mal felt so drawn to Adam and especially Belle as well as why Evie seemed to be so drawn to Snow White. It was the kind of confidence from the presence of familial figures that was hard to get from his own father.

"Anytime man." Aziz promised as the two fist bumped.

"You're an honored guest here." Jasmine said to him. "You all are."

"And we expect them to be treated as such." Aladdin made sure to emphasize.

A moment of strangely comfortable silence followed before Mal decided to bring things back into more important territory. "So these Mamluk things?" She asked. "What do they have to do with this? Who do they work for?"

"They used to work for an old adversary of mine named Mozenwrath, who took over a kingdom in the Black Sands." Aladdin explained. "But when we defeated him and got rid of his magic glove we thought that was the end of them."

"Yep, took that evil magic glove and sent it right to the sun." Genie added with pride as he turned himself into a baseball player, took a guard's hat and tossed it out the balcony and to who knew where. "It was glorious."

Will frowned a bit. "Maybe it never made it to the sun." He suggested.

"Paradias." Ben surmised.

"The Mamluk's used to be mindless creatures that were pretty easy to fight or outwit." Jasmine said to them. "But since their return rumor has it that they've become vicious and cunning creatures. Many of the guards who have gone out looking for them have come back hurt badly."

"If they come back at all." Another guard added simply.

"Any chance someone else got control of these things?" Carlos asked.

"We're not sure." Aladdin admitted. "Anything is possible I suppose."

"Do we need to travel to this Black Sands place?" Jane asked.

"The best place to start might be to see what these Mamluk's have become and if these things intelligence have gone up with their fighting abilities." Mal said. "We'll have to wait until nightfall, which should be…" She started and looked at Aladdin.

"About five hours from now." He answered.

"Does anyone know any spells that speed up time?" Carlos asked.

"Do you know how dangerous and unpredictable that is?" Genie asked him back.

"Nope." Carlos answered. "But someone else might want to be told that." He pointed to the balcony and they all looked to see that it was getting very dark outside right now.

"That can't be good." Evie noted.

At that point another guard came in, looking utterly terrified. "There's this horrid monster just outside the gates of Agrabah, and he has an army of Mamluk's with him." He reported.

Genie floated over to Evie. "Mind if I borrow this?" He asked as he took Evie's magic mirror and attached it to a high end entertainment system. He played with a remote control a moment before it the mirror projected its image on the screen. The blue faced zombie like creatures that were identified as Mamluk's were indeed there and in the center was a large mummified creature. If it had hands it was abundantly wrapped in bandages and only had the left eye exposed.

"That thing is creepy." Jasmine said.

"And ugly." Aladdin added.

"I take it your impressed then." Said a silky feminine voice. They turned to see a humanoid female feline standing there, covered in red fabrics. "That would be a Decay, and it's looking forward to meeting you."

"M-Mirage." Genie stuttered just a bit. Given her power and cruelty it was one of the few things that even he feared. He tried to step in front of Jordan to protect her.

Jane realized that this feline fatale was one of those villains that must have slipped by the attempt to wrangle up those who needed to be banished to the Island of the Lost.

Mirage laughed. "I see you went out and got yourself a daughter." She noted with laughter. "Will it hurt more for her to see you die or for you to see her die?"

"No one is dying today Mirage." Aladdin vowed.

"Except maybe you." Jay stated.

They saw Decay take a step into the city of Agrabah and the area around it grew darker as if the place around it was starting to become lifeless as well. Genie would have made a Silent Hill reference if he thought anyone else would have even comprehended it.

"What do you supposed that does to people?" Doug wondered.

"We don't want to know." Mal was certain of it. "We have to stop that thing before we find out."

"And what do you think you kids are going to do about that?" Mirage asked mockingly.

Mal didn't know this feline menace but she was already getting fed up with her attitude. She looked to Audrey, Jay, Lonnie, Carlos and Evie. "Come on, we have to go intercept that Decay thing and stop it." She looked to Jordan, Ally, Aziz and Jane. "Test these Mamluk's out and see what they're capable of it." Then she looked to Will and Gregory in addition to Ben, which surprised the two boys. "Stay here and get ready to help the guards and the sultan repel anything that gets by us. Or deal with this catty freak if she gets out of line."

Aladdin and Jasmine exchanged impressed looks. "She's very good." Aladdin said to her and Jasmine nodded in agreement.

"Be careful Mal." Ben said. Will said the same thing to Lonnie.

Mal gave Mirage a smirk and then looked to her friends. "Let's get to work." She declared. Jane took out the magic wand while the rest of them took out their iPhones. As Jane invoked her magic to transform into the white ranger the rest of them input their numbers and transformed.

"Power Rangers." Mirage hissed. She had been told of them of course, but these were not the heroes she had expected to show up in Agrabah to help out.

Ben formed his sword and shield and turned to face Mirage, fully ready to fight Mirage if need be. He noticed Will and even Aladdin take up a scimitar and get ready to fight, regardless of what the situation was. Doug and Jasmine were surrounded by guards and Gregory was with them. Genie looked ready to lend a hand to whoever needed it.

The rangers made their way out with their blasters drawn. The people were smart enough to avoid getting in their way as they made their way to the center of the chaos. When arriving they blasted at the nearest Mamluk's, most of who dodged, and Decay who didn't seem to care about the attack.

Gold, Silver, Crystal and White rangers veered off to meet the Mamluk's in the town while the rest of the rangers tried to surround Decay.

Aziz moved in quickly with his spiral spear to try to take down one of the zombie like minions but he raised his own scimitar and deflected the attack as another moved in and slashed the silver ranger hard.

Jordan used her lamp cannon to try to shoot at them but most of them dodged it rather accurately for the more or less walking dead.

Ally took out her crystal cards and unleashed them on the approaching Mamluk's. While most of them were able to scratch the monsters they didn't really do enough collective damage to stop them.

Jane tried to cast a spell on one of the Mamluk's only to discover one small problem. "They're immune to my magic." She revealed. "Which means they're not going to be all that worried about Mal's magic either."

"Less I would wager." Ally said as she tried to attack a Mamluk with a couple of her held cards only to realize that the creature was able to block it. "Mal might not be evil but her magic is rooted in darkness while yours is rooted in light."

"Looks like your friends are off to a horrible start." Mirage noted with amusement. "Your heroes may very well be zeroes after all. But then again what does one expect when their powers are rooted with a wizard like Zordon?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about Mirage." Ben said. "They'll beat those monsters of yours."

"How did you get control of Mamluk's anyway?" Aladdin asked their old nemesis.

"I don't think she did Al." Genie said to his old friend. "I think she's only playing the front man, woman, freaky cat dame, for the one who's controlling them."

"Clever deduction." Mirage allowed. "But it gets you and yours nowhere."

"You really are a very annoying creature." Will noted. "Can't we just shut her up now?"

"Are you that bored boy?" Mirage asked amused. "Let me give you a hand." She snapped her fingers and three large fiery cats appeared in front of her. "Teach them a lesson in manners."

One leapt at Aladdin and he moved to dodge under it. As he did so he took off the hat the sultan wears and made sure to catch it's face inside the hat's interior. It struggled to remove the hat and the sultan gave a mock sigh. "I lose so many good hats that way." He mused sarcastically.

One leapt at Will and he dodged out of the way. The fire cat tried to slash at him and he riposted with his sword, causing the feline creature to hiss in protest. It still didn't look good for him though.

Ben quickly combined his sword and shield to transform into the Auradon Knight. Just as the fire feline tried to strike at him the young king deflected the attack with his shield and then unleashed a stream of energy from his sword at the creature, who managed to dodge the attack.

"Now these things are a fire hazard." Genie noted. He looked to Jasmine. "Hold that thought your majesty." He said even though she hadn't been about to say anything. Then in a puff of smoke he was no longer at the Queen's side. Instead another poof resulted in several genie's clad in a fireman's garb and a siren going on as one of them brought out a hose and sprayed foam at the fire cats, also getting the Aladdin, Ben and Will in the process.

The three cats started to get up but then the fire fighter genie's disappeared to be scooped up in a net and then they all disappeared in another puff of smoke. "And that takes care of the stray kitties." He said with pride as he brushed his hands together.

Mirage growled in annoyance but now she had Ben, Will and Aladdin ready to strike against her if she made a move.

"Do you think that effect is dangerous to us?" Audrey asked a bit worriedly.

"That's a good question." Carlos agreed.

"I don't know." Mal said. "So let's try to keep this thing at a distance." She unleashed a stream of energy from the dragon's eye portion of her staff, causing it to take a step backwards. The problem was the effect did not dissipate.

"I have a horrible feeling that the only way to get rid of this thing is to kill it." Carlos said.

Audrey drew her elemental bow and summoned a hail of fire arrows to try to strike down the mummified monster. It forced the thing back again but despite the red ranger's hopes it did not set the thing on fire or cause it extensive damage.

Decay seemed to look around at the ranger's before it raised its massive bandaged covered hands up. The bandages streamed out and in crisscross patterns, striking all of the ranger's hard, and forcing them backwards.

"We can't let that thing make its way back into Agrabah." Lonnie said. "We can't let it decay the city."

Decay started forward again and this time more bandages lashed out and struck, thick as a whip, against and around the rangers. Carlos, Lonnie and Jay started to use their edged weapons to cut through the approaching bandages.

"Alright then." Aziz said with determination. "Let' see what these ugly freaks think about this." With that he combined his hands together and imagined shooting out a silver falcon straight at them. Sure enough it happened, he released his animal spirit and it cut right through several of the Mamluk's.

"That's a great idea." Jane said as she did the same thing, only taking out a few less because of the fact that her spirit was the dove, not exactly known for its violence.

"I wonder how it will work for me." Ally mused and then mimicked Aziz's actions. It was like a stampede as it seemed the deer spirit ran several of them down as it tried to 'escape'.

The six rangers saw what their friends were doing and they looked at each other, hoping that their animal spirits would do the same to Decay. They all combined their animal spirits and unleashed them upon Decay. It took a few steps back but otherwise seemed unaffected.

"Well that figures." Audrey said. "He couldn't go down as easily as the others do."

"Do we have a plan B?" Carlos asked.

"Maybe." Mal answered and looked to Evie. "Notice that he only damages Agrabah and all around it. He clearly wasn't doing anything to the desert beforehand."

"We have to get him away from Agrabah then." Evie replied. She was still not sure for a moment why her chosen sister and leader had looked at her but then it donned on her. "I get it. Let's get this thing to attack again."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Lonnie noted. It was already getting ready to unleash one of its bandage whip like attacks. This time the blue ranger made sure to be at the forefront of the attack. When it struck she reflected it back with her original attack, something that she missed in a nostalgic way.

It was strong enough to not only blow Decay past Agrabah's gates but also knock out a few Mamluk's along the way. The ranger team followed him out into the desert.

"Alright, they got that Decay monster out of Agrabah." Genie stated and then several of them started to applause.

"Strange that it's effect isn't so pronounced in the desert." Jasmine commented softly. "I wonder why that is?"

"Maybe there isn't enough life in the desert to make it worthwhile." Doug speculated though he thought that was a stretch in itself since there was plenty of life buried in the sand as well. "Or despite all appearances it's a control kind of thing, though I don't know why the monster would be so worried about losing ability in the desert."

"Not only that, but the Mamluk's weren't affected by it, but the sands, the stands and even the buildings are." Jasmine added with a frown. "It's true that wood decays and stone turns to dust over time, but so do people after being gone a while. What are we missing?"

In a move that was shocking coming from the slow moving Decay to suddenly have it move with lightning speed and slam its bandaged engulfed hands hard into each of the rangers, making them fall back hard.

"Is everyone okay?" Evie asked her team mates. It wasn't just the direct attack she was concerned about. It was the possible effect that he might have had on them as he did to the places he was around in Agrabah.

"I feel okay." Lonnie answered. "Maybe our powers do protect us."

"Glad to hear that one." Jay said and moved in on Decay and slashed the mummified creature hard. It fell back and the black ranger moved in again. This time Decay blocked him and tried to beat him down. He jumped past it but he fell to the ground hand and gasped in pain.

"Jay!" Audrey gasped and started toward him.

"Audrey, hang on." Ally said to the brunette princess. "We have to get him out without getting trapped ourselves."

Jane and Carlos dashed in quickly, rolled under Decay and pulled him out. The pain seemed to subside. "How long did that take?" Jay asked the two smartest rangers of their team.

"About two minutes." Jane answered. "Our powers don't make us immune to its effect, it just delays the reaction."

"So how do we fight this thing if we can't get close to it?" Jay asked. "None of us have enough impact alone to defeat this thing, and it was strong enough to resist our animal spirits."

"All I know is we have to find away." Carlos replied.

Mal moved in with her dragon's eye staff and smashed it into Decay's chest, receiving pretty solid thump in the blow despite the fact it looked like a mummified creature. Then it returned the favor, using both of its overwrapped bandaged hands to hit Mal hard into the air. Then it did something they hadn't seen yet; the single eye glowed an eerie yellow and blasted her in midair, sending her flying at a very fast pace toward one of the walls around Agrabah.

It made Evie wish she wasn't so good with science at that moment because she knew the instant her chosen sister's body hit the wall, even her powers wouldn't stop the impact from breaking most every bone in her body and likely killing her…


	47. Trouble in Agrabah Part 2

"Oh no." Ben gasped as he saw the dual attacks that sent his girlfriend flying. Though not as scientifically gifted as the blue haired blue ranger was he too could see which way the wind looked to be blowing after that attack and he felt sick at the knowledge he could do nothing for his girlfriend.

"Looks like you're about to have a purple pancake." Mirage noted with cruel amusement. "Even if you win this fight today, it will have cost you one of your own to take it. A worthy sacrifice in my eyes."

Even Genie grimaced, unsure he could get there before it was too late.

Jordan was right there as well and felt her father's uncertainty. "Maybe I…" She started.

Mal tried to brace herself for the bone crunching impact, but she hit something much softer and then felt herself getting just the slightest bit motion sick as the angle changed rapidly. "What just happened?" She asked herself.

It was a bit more obvious from down below. "Alright, way to go Carpet." Aziz exclaimed as he saw the same magic carpet that his father had found in the Cave of Wonders fly in from who knew where to save Mal from a very painful and possibly final ending.

"I wondered where that sucker went." Jordan commented with relief evident in her voice.

"M, are you okay?" Evie called out even as Carpet was bringing her closer to her chosen sister and her second in command.

"I'm fine E." Mal answered as both Evie and Audrey hugged her in relief. She returned their hugs and looked to Carpet. "Thanks to you." Carpet seemed a bit embarrassed at the praise.

"Thank heaven you're okay." Ally said as she hugged her now. She could see the relief in Jane and the guy's body posture as well.

Ben breathed a sigh of relief, wishing he could be there right now. He heard Genie say, "Way to go Rugman."

"End this Mirage, now." Aladdin demanded of the feline enemy.

She only laughed at him. "Sorry, but that isn't going to happen. Your precious Agrabah will fall and there's nothing you or those rangers out there can do about it." She replied.

"Don't underestimate them." Will said to Mirage. "Lonnie and my friends will stop you."

Jasmine caught the fact the young man named Lonnie specifically. She wondered if Mulan knew the about the affection that seemed to be brewing between her daughter and this brave young man.

"If we activate the neon armor we might be able to get another couple of minutes of protection." Jane said to her team mates. "We'd basically have to get in, strike this thing and get out before its effect get to us. Once we weaken it enough we might be able to destroy it."

Mal nodded. "Great idea Jane." She said. She noticed several of the Mamluk's had made their way out toward them. "We're not alone anymore." She noted.

"Don't worry about it." Aziz said. "Jordan, Jane and I will deal with them." He looked to Ally and spoke with unintended but genuine affection. "Stay with Mal and the others and help them deal with this thing."

"Alright." Ally agreed. "Be careful please."

Jay placed his hand on her arm gently. "You too." He said.

If possible Decay seemed less than pleased that Carpet had saved Mal. He seemed to step forward more menacingly than he had before. "He doesn't look happy." Audrey noted.

"Then let's give him another reason to be unhappy." Mal said to her team. "Time to activate the neon armor." It was brilliant idea Lonnie had had that had taken weeks for Jane, Doug and Evie to get implemented but it proved to be worth the wait. In a flash the team stood in neon colored versions of their suits though with Ally's it was hard to tell the difference.

In an attempt to distract Decay for the prelude to close quarters combat Ally released her crystal cards to zoom around and gash at the mummified monster. Mal found her weapon pretty fascinating since they were so small and numerous, but more importantly it seemed to require a certain degree of psychic ability to use, something that no one had ever really directly displayed; yet the blonde did so effortlessly.

Jay and Carlos moved in and attacked Decay. It didn't seem to do too much and the black ranger was forced to wonder how much of this monster was anything more than bandages. It made sense that some part of the head was judging by the eye that had shot Mal almost to the wall with such force. Beyond that was anyone's guess.

Mal and Lonnie were next two to move in and attack Decay with their weapons. Again it stumbled backwards. "It's like an ugly lumbering beast." Mal mumbled annoyed.

"You haven't seen any classic monster movies have you?" Lonnie questioned as they stepped back out of range.

"Not at all." Mal replied. "Maybe I should."

Audrey and Evie decided they didn't want to get to close to Decay anyway. At least they had the option as Audrey used her elemental bow to unleash a flurry of electric arrows at the monster while Evie released the storming mirror on him.

Mal looked to Jay. "I have to impressed that Evie does that and doesn't destroy a single crystal card." She noted sincerely.

"How do you suppose she does that?" Carlos wondered amiably.

"This thing is still standing." Audrey said to them. "We have to figure out how to do something to this monster that will last."

Mal had to decide what they should do quickly and decided they needed to go one step at a time here. "Let's try the Triangle Spark." The purple ranger said to them. "If we have to we'll move onto the blaster." They've never had to do that before but this Decay monster seemed to be the toughest creature they'd had to beat without the zords.

"I'm afraid to ask what happens if both of those fail." Carlos noted grimly.

Mal hesitated before she admitted, "Yeah, I'm not looking forward to having to deal with that either because I have nothing."

"Let's worry about that if we have too." Ally suggested, still directing her crystal cards rather well. "Try to take that thing out guys."

Audrey, Evie and Lonnie stood together. Jay and Carlos hopped onto their shoulders. Mal then hopped onto the shoulders of the two boys. The six of them drew their blasters and aimed the energy blasts in the middle to direct it at Decay, unleashing the Auradon Triangle Spark.

The attack hit Decay and he flew back, only to get up again. "Plan B?" Evie guessed as Mal and the two boys landed behind the three girls.

"Plan B." Mal confirmed as she struggled to come up with a plan C in case somehow this one failed. So far she had nothing.

The six rangers summoned their weapons. Mal laid her dragon's eye staff down, and then Audrey placed her elemental bow underneath it. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind it as the compact around it unfurled. Jay placed his soul scimitar, followed on either side by Lonnie's hurricane tessen's and Carlos's earthquake claw daggers. With the Auradon blaster they unleashed its energy attack on Decay.

It was with a mixture of annoyance and helplessness that they saw Decay start to get up from the attack.

"Okay, what's Plan C?" Carlos asked Mal as they separated their weapons and faced the rising mummified menace.

"I don't have one." Mal answered simply. "I am officially open to suggestions."

"We could try again, this time channeling our neon armor energy and our animal spirits into the blast." Carlos suggested.

"It already shrugged off our animal spirits." Audrey reminded him with a shake of her head. "We have no reason to assume it won't do the exact same thing again."

"We could still try channeling the neon armor." Lonnie said.

Evie frowned a bit though no one could see it. "Channeling the armor's energy isn't nearly as powerful as us just using it ourselves." She replied. "We wouldn't gain much out of it, certainly not enough to take out something that has already shrugged off the Auradon Blaster."

"What about if Jordan, Aziz, Jane and I were to blast that thing with the Lamp Cannon while you guys used your Auradon Blaster?" Ally asked. She thought it might be a good thing that the Decay monster seemed to be a slow, lumbering thing. Of course the problem came when it got close enough to strike, and that was minutes away at most.

By that point some of the palace guard's had come out to fight the Mamluk's so that way the three other rangers could come over and confer with them, Decay was still the priority target and it was still being assumed that taking out the mummified menace would send the zombie like creatures scurrying away.

"Where do we stand?" Aziz asked as he came up next to Ally.

"In the middle of ground zero and out of options." Jay told him with a shake of his head. "Nothing we have right now channels enough concentrated raw power to take that thing out."

"Then we have to come up with something fast." Jane commented. From anyone else that might have drawn a sarcastic comment but from the white ranger, who had bailed them out with her ideas time and again even before becoming a ranger herself, they let it slide assuming she was already working on an alternate idea for them.

"Not to rush you or anything but we're running out of time." Jordan said.

"Okay, the Auradon Blaster and the Lamp Cannon provide their own unique energies, cumulatively they aren't strong enough here." Jane said to herself. She looked at the blasters on their hips. "Their energies aren't unique though, regardless of who got powers when or from what source."

"We already tried the blasters and those weren't strong enough." Carlos reminded Jane as he came up stand next to her with his own blaster. Jay was about to tell his friend that wasn't helping him but was stopped by both Mal and Audrey, who realized that he was the second smartest among them and that it might help Jane to work it out.

"Right." Jane agreed. "The six of you did try that. But now we could try using the combined blaster power again, but this time with all of us."

"I don't think ten of us can make a good triangle here." Carlos replied and then after a second added, "Okay, we actually could but I don't know how safe or smart that would be, especially if this idea doesn't work."

"We're not going to make a triangle Carlos." Jane said. She looked to Mal. "We have to position ourselves around Decay in a decagon formation." When she got uncomprehending looks from the others, except for Evie who seemed to glance at the monster as if trying to work positioning out, she elaborated; "It's a ten sided polygon, we need to surround the monster on ten sides."

"Oh, of course." Audrey tried to make up for that lack of knowledge.

"So obvious." Lonnie tired as well.

Jay didn't bother to try to hide the fact he didn't know what she was talking about in that regard. "Okay so we surround him on ten sides, then what?"

"We use our blasters, all of us." Jane answered as she took hers out of her holster. "And we have to combine our blasts right at Decay."

"How will that help us?" Ally asked. "Won't we be just shooting regular beams of energy at him?"

Mal nodded now a little confused. "Yeah, Ally is right. Our powers aren't actually combining the way they do with the Triangle blast." She replied.

"That's the easy thing to change though." Jane said with a smile. "Everyone hold out your blasters please." The other rangers did as she asked and the white ranger raised the magic wand and cast an enhancement spell on the blasters that added a small silencer like piece at the tip of their blasters.

"Neat." Carlos said. "Refractors."

"What?" Aziz asked now.

"Refractors." Jane told him. "We can vary the shapes of our lasers." She looked to Mal. "We can channel all of our blaster powers around us before launching the combined energies on all side right at our target, in this case Decay." She moved her refractor two clicks to the left.

"Sounds like a great idea." Mal said. She hoped this worked or else they would need a plan D and they were running out of arsenal here. "Everyone get in position." The other rangers followed the movements Jane had done with her refractor and then spread out to cover around Decay as much as they could.

For its part the monster seemed unsure which direction and which ranger to face. When they were in its face it was easy enough to decide who needed be attacked but it didn't seem to have the intelligence to make a decision based on its current situation.

With the refractors activated the rangers fired their blasters, the beams crisscrossing together into a tightly spaced together seemingly endless array of energy that seemed to encircle Decay before moments later impacting against the mummified monster and causing it to explode, but this explosion was not the typical one they associated with the end of Paradias's or Sermaya's monsters. This one was coated in black that seemed to envelope them all.

Will saw the attack going off and he couldn't help gloating to Mirage, "It looks like your monster is finished."

Ben nodded happily. "With that your plans done." He agreed.

Mirage didn't seem to be all that upset and if anything seemed to be downright pleased with how this had worked out. "Oh, so you think it's done, do you?" She asked and then with a sound that seemed very much like a very angry cat she leapt.

Aladdin and Jasmine couldn't believe what had happened but first they had to find out what had happened to their son and the rest of his team. "I'm going to go help the guards check on them." Aladdin said to Jasmine. "Check on our people and…we'll have to deal with everything else a little later after they're okay."

The Queen nodded and Genie called out, "Right behind you Al." Before following his longtime friend…and of course he had his daughter to worry about too.

Mal opened her eyes and had to blink to adjust to the sunlight. She felt kind of stiff all over. The last thing she remembered was Decay blowing up. "Talk about an explosion." She mumbled to herself. She looked around to find herself in what she had to assume was her room in the palace. It was bigger than any place she had ever had to herself and she reflected how opulent some of the well to doers in the world were.

Slowly she got out of bed, stretching her muscles. She actually thought her back cracked a bit and winced. She rubbed her left arm, which still felt sore and she assumed she must have landed on it. She took a deep breath and left the room. "Wish I'd gotten a better idea of who was staying where." She said to herself. She actually thought it weird to be even talking to herself but one thing growing up on the isle and being in Auradon had in common was that it usually wasn't this quiet.

The first room she found was empty, but she saw on the bed was Audrey's bag. She had had a bigger one than anyone else but at least it had been enchanted to float along beside whoever was with the bag so it didn't weigh anyone down. It looked to her though that Audrey had not been in here at all, even the bed seemed undisturbed. "What is going on here?" She wondered.

Next was Evie's room, and it was the same situation. Following that was Carlos's room which also seemed to be empty. "Okay, where is everyone?" She wondered, somewhere between nervous and even a little bit irritated, like it was a joke that was being pulled on her. "And I must be going crazy if I'm talking to myself."

"I'd be more worried about if you started to answer yourself." Mal heard from behind her and turned to see Jane coming out of what Mal assumed was her room. She rubbed her lower back a little as she stepped out. "Are you okay Mal?"

"I don't know." Mal confessed. "You're the first one I've seen since I woke up and the last thing I remember was defeating Decay." She gestured to the room she was just in. "No Evie, no Audrey, no Carlos, and no signs they had ever been there." She added.

Jane's face showed her worry a little. "Maybe they just…made their beds and are in the throne room or something?" She suggested.

Mal laughed a little. "I don't know about Audrey but like me Evie was never big on making her bed." She revealed and then a bit more embarrassed she added, "And Carlos…never really had a bed."

They continued on to check some of the other rooms. "Why didn't he have a bed?" Jane asked.

Mal wasn't entirely sure it should even be brought up, let alone by her but the purple haired girl answered, "I had it pretty easy on the island, all things considered, as mom…well I don't necessarily want to say she couldn't care less but it sure felt that way at times." She opened up the door to Ally's room and found it in the same condition. "Evie was almost treated as a princess by her mother, probably because of her own upbringing prior to her trying to eliminate Snow White."

Jane opened the door to Jay's room and at least saw evidence he had been there recently though it was empty now. "Jay is somewhere around here at least." She mused.

"Good to know. We have to find the others." Mal said and then continued on. "Jay was kind of like me, his dad barely noticed him outside of what he could do for his 'business'." She air quoted that word. "Jay always thought he was never good enough for the former vizier. But Carlos…well he was treated almost like a slave."

That brought a look of astonishment to Jane's face and Mal smiled a little at the look in her eyes as she thought of him that way. Mal reached out and placed her hand on Jane's shoulder. "He never even had a pillow until Evie gave him one, she was friends with him before me or even Jay." She laughed a bit. "I think if we hadn't been pulled into Auradon, if you and Doug weren't in their lives, they would have ended up together."

"Funny how things work out." Jane said with a small smile. "I can't imagine life without Carlos, without any of you for that matter."

Mal hesitated a moment but realized that was true for her as well. "I can't either. Even Audrey has become important to me." She replied.

They heard footsteps and turned to see Aziz, Will and Jay coming up the steps. They looked relieved to see the two girls awake. "About time." Jay said a bit harshly but they could see that it was worry and fear in his voice, not anger.

Mal stepped up to him. "Yeah, I'm sure." She bit off and the two exchanged a brief but genuine smile. Sometimes they just had to poke fun at each other because they couldn't with Evie and Carlos. "Are the others okay? Are they downstairs with Ben, Doug and Gregory?"

"Jordan's downstairs with her family." Will answered her. Mal swore he seemed upset…had he been crying at some point? "We should go down there."

"What about the others?" Jane asked. "Where is Ben anyway, why didn't he come up with you guys?"

The three boys started downstairs and the two girls followed. "They're gone Mal." Jay told his oldest friend. "It seems like when Decay exploded, the Mamluk's grabbed them." He revealed to her. "Audrey…" He shook his head to calm himself. "Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Ally, Lonnie. They were gone."

"Oh no." Jane whispered in horror and almost tripped over the carpet. Will caught her, and it was only then why the two girls realized why he had seemed so somber. It was a feeling she, Jay and Aziz could all share.

"What does Ben have to say about this?" Mal asked, getting a little impatient about why they weren't telling her about her boyfriend.

"He's gone too." Will revealed softly. "Grabbed by Mirage before she left Agrabah."

"What?" Mal asked, horrified. "Why?"

By that time they had entered the throne room and saw guards standing around. In the center at the same table were Aladdin, Jasmine, Genie, Jordan, Carpet, Doug, and several guards. They had a map of Agrabah in front of them.

"You just told them I gather." Jordan said softly to Jay and he nodded.

"We think they're being held in the Black Sands, where Mozenwrath used to live." Aladdin told them all grimly. "We can only assume right now that Mirage has taken over the area for herself."

"Is there any chance that Mirage is allied with this Mozenwrath guy?" Mal asked after taking a deep breath to regain her composure.

"We wouldn't think so." Jasmine answered honestly. "Everything we've heard is that Mozenwrath ended up losing his life a few years after Aladdin last defeated him."

"A consequence of using that glove of his." Genie added simply. "It was basically eating away at him. Nothing short of Maleficent herself could have prevented that."

"Short of my mother, around here." Mal corrected. "There are forces beyond our world we don't understand." She took a deep breath. "I'm leading a team into the Black Sands to bring my friends back."

Aladdin shook his head. "No, I'm leading a team in." The sultan stated firmly. "They attacked my city and I intend to see to it that it doesn't happen again." The purple haired girl was about to protest and he held his hands up. "All of you are welcome to come with me." He smiled a little. "In fact I encourage it, but this is my expedition."

Mal thought about for just a second, seeing the sincerity in his eyes and imagining the same thing from Ben if it ever had come down to it. None of that stopped her from doing what she wanted; bringing her boyfriend, her two chosen siblings and her friends, really all of them family, home. "Fair enough." She answered.

"I'm ready to go whenever you are too Al." Genie said.

Aladdin shook his head. "I need you to stay here with Jasmine. You have to help protect Agrabah." He said to him seriously. "We'll have Jordan with us."

"I'll make it all work dad. I promise." Jordan said to him.

Genie nodded and hugged her tightly . "I know you will, sweetie. I know you will." He said and then looked to Aladdin. "You got it Al, good luck."

Mal looked to Will and Gregory. "I can't ask you guys to come and I can't make you stay here. What you do is all on you." She said to the two boys.

"There is no question." Will said determinedly. "I'm going with you to rescue Lonnie and our friends." The steely look in his eyes would have killed all arguments, but in that moment Mal loved him as fiercely as she did all of her friends, and fully understood what Lonnie saw in him. It was what she saw in Ben after all.

"Count me in too." Gregory said with a nod. "We'll bring them home."

The surprise now came from Doug. "I'm going with you guys." He announced. When the remaining rangers and the two warriors looked at him he continued on, "I want Evie and the everyone brought home safe and I can fire a blaster as well as anyone of you can." That was a bit of a lie but still something that would allow him to help.

"You sure about that man?" Jay asked. He also knew Doug was not a fighter.

"Positive." Doug said. The determination in his eyes more than covered up his lack of experience.

Mal held out her hand and Doug shook it. "We're glad to have you here." She told him, realizing that it was true. She hadn't thought much of him at first but he proved that you could be helpful even without using powers, and she had to admire his courage and the emotion he showed to her chosen sister.

"It settled then." Aladdin said as Carpet flew up to them as well, indicating the desire to go with them. The Sultan reached out and patted Carpet gently. He looked to a retinue of guards. "Let's move out. And bring our friends home."

Mal thought of Ben. Jay thought of Audrey. Aziz thought of Ally. Jane thought of Carlos. Doug thought of Evie. Will thought of Lonnie. After that, it was easy…


	48. A Desert Surprise

Just want to give a big THANK YOU! to pinksakura271 for faithfully reviewing each and every chapter to date . It's very encouraging to see even one review and I have yet to be disappointed.

Audrey opened her eyes and didn't recognize where they were. Then she panicked as she realized she was tied up against a pole, again. It might seem weird that she would panic but she had been bound four times in her ranger career so far, and two of those instances were with Chad around. The first time he had slapped her, but the second time he had not only hit her but he had acted more intimate to her than she would have liked. This brought up those less than stellar memories for her.

"Calm down Audrey." She heard Lonnie say from near her. "You're not alone."

She looked to see Lonnie in the same situation as well as Carlos, Evie, Ally and Ben. Not being alone made her feel better, but not by much. "Where are Jay and the others?" She asked her friend.

"I don't know, they're not here." Lonnie answered her. When she saw Audrey shudder again she asked the brunette princess, "Are you okay?"

The truth was she was not okay. She had found herself bound four times in her ranger career, the most of any of them to date. Granted Lonnie, Carlos and Ben shared the next highest record at three because of the Psycho Rangers, the Red Queen and, now this situation but none of them had been harassed the way that she had been. It did make a difference. But with Mal not here she was the leader and knew she had to play the part. "I'm fine Lonnie." She said.

The Asian princess had a feeling Audrey was lying but didn't want to press the issue if her friend didn't want to. "So far we haven't seen anyone come in." Ben told his best friend, startling her a little. "No one to brag or anything."

"I think we're in the Black Sands place that the sultan was talking about." Evie revealed. "I can feel the dark magic that permeates the place, probably from Mozenwrath's rule, or whoever is ruling this place."

"My money is on Mirage." Ben said. "She's the one who struck at me before retreating from the palace and bringing me here. She hits pretty hard, or her spell did at any rate." He would have been rather embarrassed by that revelation if he hadn't been bound.

"They'll come for us." Carlos promised. "It's only a matter of time."

Audrey glanced around but could not see their iPhones or Ben's equipment in the room. She hoped they were outside or something because otherwise their powers were gone who knew where.

"I've decided that I hate crossing deserts." Will announced. It was partial truth but it was also a way to try to minimize the tension that was also coursing through his body and he was sure the others were feeling it too.

Aziz shook his head. "Sorry to disappoint you then man, but that's basically all we're going to find out here." He replied and shrugged. "Maybe an oasis or two if we're lucky."

"So much for a vacation spot." Gregory said dismissively.

The remaining rangers, the three boys, Aladdin and Carpet were surrounded by over two dozen guards from the palace as they made their way to the Black Sands to rescue the rest of their ranger team and teach whoever attacked them not to mess with Agrabah.

"Oh Ben, I hope you're okay." Mal whispered softly. "I hope all of you are."

They were all kind of looking around the desert for any signs that something would be trying to ambush them. Mirage or whoever she might be working for undoubtfully knew they were coming and were trying to be prepared. There was also the chance of something else showing up that could cause problems.

Carpet seemed to perk up and fly further up ahead. It landed and its tassels dug into the sand. As the others rushed to catch up Carpet found what had sparked interest and flew back over to Aladdin, dropping two small gold objects in his hands.

"What is it dad?" Aziz asked him.

Aladdin chuckled softly. "The thing that turned my life into what it is." He answered simply and showed him the two pieces of the golden scarab that Jafar had used to summon the Cave of Wonders; where he had found the lamp that contained his friend the Genie.

Aziz took them from his father and looked down on them. He had to admit to feeling a tiny bit of gratitude, after all if not for these two pieces his mother and father may never have gotten together and he would have never been born. "They've been out here all these years?" He wondered.

"Seems like it." Aladdin said with a small laugh. "I want to hold onto these and take them to Jasmine." He patted his son's shoulder softly. "I think she'll appreciate them in the same way that we do."

They continued along for a little while when Aziz felt something vibrating. He looked down to see it was the two pieces of the scarab. "What's going on?" He asked.

"It looks like it's active." Jordan noted. "Is the cave around here somewhere?"

"I don't really know." Aladdin said. "It's been so long, and honestly it's all desert without it."

"Do we reassemble it?" Doug wondered.

"We don't have time, our friends need us." Mal reminded them all as gently as she could but firmly as well. "Who knows what's going on?"

"Mal, I'm just as worried about them as you are." Jane said to her softly. She suspected she was especially as worried for her boyfriend Ben as she was for her crush Carlos, in addition to the rest of their friends. "But we're down half our team, more realistically. If somehow this leads to something we could use, we should pursue it."

The purple haired girl bit her lip uncertain.

"She's right Mal." Jordan agreed. "Remember the last time we were in another place? Remember what happened?" She questioned. Mal remembered all too well, they had gone to Wonderland to help Ally find and rescue her mother and that had been a huge but dangerous adventure. One of the benefits from that, aside from rescuing her mother Alice Liddell, was that Jordan, Aziz and Ally had become the gold, silver, and crystal rangers.

Mal hated to delay rescue of her friends but knew that if there was any chance something could happen to help them now this might be it. "Unless Sultan Aladdin has any objections, I say we do it." She decided softly.

Aladdin thought about it a moment before looking to his son. "Make it so." He confirmed.

Aziz put the two pieces of the scarab together and it hummed to life as it dashed out of its hand and flew off. "We'll go after it." Mal said to Aladdin. "Get the guards to the Black Sands and we'll meet you there. If we don't show up in two hours after you get there go in without us."

He only nodded, realizing what Mal had realized; the mission was more important and they needed to attend to the hostages first. If they could solve it without the rangers so much the better. "Carpet, go with them." He instructed his friend though, remembering his own trip through the Cave of Wonders, if that was indeed where they had gone. Without Carpet he never would have lived long enough to find Genie.

The six teens ran as fast as they could to keep up with the scarab. They were just about ready to ask Carpet if they could hitch a ride when the two scarab pieces separated and dug into the sands. It began to tremble and they came to a stop as they saw a large sandy tiger head emerge, the glowing scarab pieces serving as its eyes. "WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMBER?" He demanded to know.

"Okay, how do we answer this guy?" Gregory questioned.

"I have absolutely no idea." Mal answered truthfully.

Will took a deep breath, not sure what else to do and took a deep breath. "We have nothing to lose." He decided and after a nod of approval from Mal he started, "My name is Will Darling and we…"

"YOU MAY ENTER." The booming voice interrupted him and then went still with the wide mouth open.

"Do we go in?" Jane asked worriedly. It still seemed like it could be a trap.

"I'd advise you not too." They heard from behind them. They turned, Mal and Jay letting out a groan of annoyance as they saw Reviveslime and a seeming army of soldiers behind them. "It could be rather hazardous to your health."

"We so don't have the time for this." Jane sighed.

"Will, find out what exactly made this thing return after such a long time ago." Mal said. "We'll keep these guys out of your way." He started in and Gregory, not really wanting to fight and equally curious about the answer to Mal's question, went with him. She looked to her remaining team; Jordan, Jane, Jay, and Aziz. "Let's get to work." Jane used the magic wand to transform while the remaining rangers took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed. Mal handed Doug her blaster. "Keep us covered." She said to him.

"You really think you can fight us with such low strength?" Reviveslime asked with amusement. "Then bring it on." He pointed his sword at the soldiers. "Get by them and into the cave." He ordered. They charged toward them as did Reviveslime.

Meanwhile Will lead the way down the stairs into the treasure room. He wondered why Gregory had come with him for a moment until he decided odds are it was better than fighting the monsters that had shown up. He might be willing to fight when the situation called for it but Will was sure jumping into a fight was not that man's idea of a good time.

"What do you think is down here?" Gregory asked him.

"Another genie in a lamp." Will replied deadpan. "I don't know, maybe a weapon to help Mal and the others fight." It was all he could think of. The two boys wouldn't know it but as they moved into the treasure room it looked exactly the same as it had when Aladdin had come down there so long ago, piled high with gold coins and other assorted treasures.

"Think we can take some?" Gregory asked, only half joking with him.

"Somehow I doubt that." Will answered. "Ever read the history behind Aladdin's rise to sultan?" When he had entered he was instructed to touch nothing but the lamp. There hadn't been any such instruction here but it was better not to test fate if they could avoid it.

The rangers fought bravely against the soldiers but they could feel the dwindling numbers. Even Doug taking out the soldiers he could with the blaster was of very little compensation against six missing team members. Mal also had moved on from the soldiers to deal with Reviveslime.

"You don't seem like such an effective leader with half of your team missing." The slime general taunted with amusement. "I'm not quite sure how you lost them but seeing this, trying to get into the mythical Cave of Wonders, I just had to show up and see what I could do to help." He slashed his sword at the purple ranger.

Mal blocked it with her dragon's eye staff. "You're not helping at all, just so we're clear." She stated icily. It didn't surprise her too much to realize that whatever Mirage and anyone else behind her was doing had no bearing on what Paradias or Sermaya were doing.

"I figure I'm doing a lot to help." Reviveslime said and gave an eerie grin. "Just not for you."

Jane kept as many of the soldiers back as she could with a combination of magic and physical prowess but numbers were still a huge problem for them all. Jay, Aziz and Jordan just did the best they could with physical force and relied on Doug to try to help keep the soldiers back.

"Will the Cave of Wonders even let them enter?" Jay asked. "I mean it didn't let my father enter since he wasn't considered worthy and all." He slashed down a couple of the soldiers with his soul scimitar.

"I don't know." Aziz answered simply as he took out a soldier with his spear strike.

"I don't know either." Jordan answered as well. "But I think it would be best if we didn't find out the answer to that." She couldn't use her lamp cannon at close range but was glad it could be used as a blunt instrument. She was equally glad all of this movement didn't actually disturb anything inside since it was still her home.

"Hey, look." Jane said and pointed to the skies where they saw Carpet coming toward them. Carpet seemed to take one look and realize something could go wrong and flew past the fight and into the Cave of Wonders.

Will and Gregory entered the next chamber, which again though the two boys had no way of knowing it, was exactly the same as when Aladdin had entered it long ago, a path of rocks leading up to a place in the center and all of it surrounded by lava.

"That looks fun to cross." Gregory noted blandly. "You want to go first or should I?"

"I'll go." Will told him. "You stay here and make sure if anything gets down here that they don't get whatever it is we were sent here to get." He knew that fighting was probably not what Gregory wanted but was sure it would be more welcome than crossing narrow stones surrounded by lava.

Gregory nodded and turned his back to keep an eye out for anything coming up on them.

Will started to cross the stones. If he had ever had any doubt that it was fake he quickly had that illusion shattered as he could feel the intense heat coming off of the lava. He remembered when he was younger he and his little sister Whitney had crossed stones in a creek near their village and she had lost her balance and fallen in. He was glad she wasn't here for him to worry about that now. It took a minute but he managed to cross the stones and then got to the other side. He turned to see Gregory waiting for any signs of pursuit.

With that taken care of he started up the steps toward the light. He thought of Lonnie and hoped she was okay. "You better be okay, sweetie." He said to himself though it was technically directed at the Asian princess. "We have a hip hop routine to work out and I have skills to teach you."

As he got to the top he saw in the center on the pedestal a small sized golden looking box. It definitely confused him as he approached it.

He moved to pick up the box when hands reached out and grabbed for it as well. In surprise he looked up to see a soldier. _How did he get down here?_ Will wondered. He turned briefly to see that Gregory was fighting three of them now.

Just as Will slammed his hands into the soldier's chest and grabbed the box they heard the roaring of a lion. "YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE SANCTUM AND NOW YOU SHALL PAY!" The Cave of Wonders exclaimed. Will reflected that was great in theory but the soldiers wouldn't care. The only ones to suffer would be him and Gregory.

As if reading his mind the small rocks in the lava started to pop like bubbles. Some of the objects around Gregory started to burst as well. Then the pedestal area and ground around it burst and it all fell became lava. For a moment Will panicked as he fell but then landed suddenly as Carpet swooped in and rescued him, miraculously dodging the falling lava.

"Great job Carpet." Will said appreciatively. "Let's get Gregory and get out of here before we get swallowed up or burnt to a crisp." Carpet had to dodge a few falling stalagmites as he headed toward Gregory and the three soldiers.

"What is he talking about?" Jay asked. "Who violated the sanctum?" He took out another soldier.

"Did any soldiers get by us?" Jane asked urgently as she glanced around. She couldn't tell the difference in honesty, there were just too many of them.

"I don't think so." Doug answered her. He was in a bit of a better position to see the fight even as he blasted the soldiers that got too close to getting past the team.

"Do you honestly think our soldiers can't get under the sands and into the caves?" Reviveslime questioned rhetorically as he slashed at Mal. She blocked with her dragon's eye staff but the force of the impact forced her back a few steps. "Our soldiers are pretty much expendable, but are your little friends so valueless?"

"Oh no." Mal whispered. "You freaky little…freak." It was clear she was too afraid for her friends to really think of a better come back.

"Doug, can you go get them?" Aziz asked as he used his spear to knock back several soldiers.

Doug turned to take a look and saw the stairs that the two boys had descended only minutes earlier into the tiger mouth were gone. He could just make out the sight of them turning back into sand. "There are no more stairs to follow down." He said. "We have to hope Carpet will get them."

"If you don't then I guess it sucks for all of you, but especially your little pink ranger." Reviveslime said with a laugh. "Assuming she's even still alive."

Gregory was doing his best to keep the three soldiers at bay and even try to figure out how to defeat them, but then he felt the ground underneath him give way and he started to plummet into the lava. His outstretched hand was suddenly grabbed and Will pulled him on top of Carpet.

"You okay?" Will asked him.

"Just fine." Gregory answered and gave him a small nod. "Nice save." Then he saw the box. "That's what we're risking our lives for? What's inside of it?"

Will nodded. "This would be it and I don't know." He answered. "But I think we should find out."

Carpet made it into the treasure room but the gold was gone, in its place were streaming bursts of lava. Carpet angled them up toward the exit even as it dwindled. Will opened the box and said, "Wow, surprise surprise."

"Luckily for us, because we're going to need these." Gregory said. "Ready?"

"Ready." Will agreed. Together they reached into the box.

With a roar the tiger head made of sand crashed down back into the desert, sealing off the entrance. Mal could only imagine how crushed she would be if Ben had been in there and applied that to Lonnie. It was enough for her to let out a loud, "No!"

Reviveslime took that chance to slash her in the back hard and she fell to the ground, losing her grip on her weapon and her focus enough to force her to power down.

On the other side the soldiers were getting closer to overwhelming the remaining team. They were so close now that Doug could no longer use his blaster to fight them. He was relying on Jay and Aziz to keep him safe.

The slime general placed the tip of his sword against Mal's throat. "This is over, you have lost and we have won. Your friends are doomed, but they have more time than you do." He gloated and then was about ready to drive it into her throat.

A small part of the sands burst open and Carpet emerged. Both the good and the bad could see two figures riding Carpet, but it was not Will and Gregory they were looking at but rather power rangers like themselves; one in green and one in gray.

The green ranger formed a sword in his hands, but it was not like any short, long, or broad sword they had ever seen. Instead it was curve shaped and had four blades on the ends of the weapon. He held the handle of the weapon in both hands. The gray ranger formed a one handed short axe, almost similar to what the oxen warriors that Sermaya commanded used.

Green ranger jumped off of Carpet and hooked the two blades on the left side of his curved sword around Reviveslime's blade and flipped it away from Mal before turning and slashing the general hard across his chest. Then he held a hand out to Mal, "This is no time to lying down on the job." He said.

A small smile lit up her features. "Will?" She asked in only a little shock. "Wow, that's what the Cave of Wonders had in it. Somehow Zordon must have gotten those powers in there the way Alpha got Jordan, Ally, and Aziz's powers in Wonderland." She surmised as she took out her iPhone.

As Gregory jumped off of Carpet himself and brought his axe down on one of the soldiers before engaging another one Jordan had an idea; she floated up onto Carpet. "Come on Rugman, I have an idea but I need a bit more air for it." Carpet moved a tassel in acknowledgment and then started to float up. After a moment she called down to Jane and the guys, "Head's up." She then unleashed as massive of an energy cannon from her weapon as she could and it brought a downpour of energy onto the soldiers, causing those that weren't destroyed to flee.

Mal looked to Reviveslime. "Looks like you've lost this one too." She stated.

For reasons Mal couldn't figure out and wasn't sure she wanted to know he didn't seem all that disturbed about this loss. "Yes, it would seem that way daughter of Maleficent." He relented. "But I promise you we're not through yet." With that he vanished as well.

"That almost sounded ominous." Jane noted.

"Because it was probably meant to." Mal answered before taking in a breath and then looking back at her team, which now included two new rangers. That was good as far as the purple haired girl was concerned because with the team still down about half, the odds were still against them. "We have friends to rescue, and boy are they now in for a surprise."

They all powered down and moved to catch up with the Aladdin and the guards on their way to the Black Sands.

The doors opened and Audrey had to resist the impulse to scream or anything, for fear that it would somehow be Chad, intent on hurting her again. It was only a mild relief to see that instead it was Mirage being accompanied by a few Mamluk guards.

"Look who finally showed up." Evie remarked. "Finally let out of the kennel?"

Audrey thought that was kind of good but Mirage clearly disagreed. "Smart mouthed little brat." She snarled. "If I could tear your throat out right now I would. But we have other uses for you all at the moment."

"Aziz and the others will be coming for us." Ally reminded their feline captor simply.

Mirage laughed. "Indeed they will be. In fact they're already on their way here. We'll be ready for them when they do show up, and we'll take them down. Then we will take all of your powers and see just what it takes to make them ours." She revealed.

"Like that will happen." Carlos commented. "These powers fight for good."

"How little any of you understand." Mirage noted dryly. "Everyone has their price or their limit." She looked to him and Evie. "Just look at you two. A taste of the 'good life' in Auradon and you've all but turned your back on your own parents and on that little island you called home for so many years."

"They turned their backs on evil, on causing pain and misery and suffering on others to do what's right. To help and care for others. To learn all about true friendship, true family, and how to love." Audrey retorted simply. "Something their parents sadly may never understand."

"Too each their own." Mirage replied waving a dismissive hand at the brunette princess. "But your powers…they may have been created by good but they are simply things. And any object can be made to bend to a stronger being's will. When the Mamluk rangers kill you with your own powers you'll understand. But first we need the rest of them."

There was one thing Ben didn't understand. "If that were true, why did you leave Mal and the others in the desert when you kidnapped Audrey and the ones here?" He asked her.

Mirage laughed. "I told you boy, we needed all of them here. Doing that wouldn't have accomplished our goals." She answered, though it sounded kind of cryptic to them. "Don't worry, your questions will be answered soon enough. It should make your ends that much easier to accept."


	49. Kindred Spirits

They found Aladdin waiting for them easily enough with the palace guards in combat with the Mamluk's. "Everything go okay?" Aladdin asked.

"I don't know." Aziz answered his dad truthfully. "Will and Gregory did go into the Cave of Wonders and found a box with two more gems in them, like what we use." Aladdin seemed encouraged by that news and his son added, "The problem is that Reviveslime showed up too. I don't know if we just exploiting the fact that we're missing half of our team or if he knew about the gems, but either way we were attacked."

"Everyone alright?" Aladdin asked.

"Bruised egos maybe." Mal joked weakly. She had been a bit disturbed to realize that without half her team they had been half as effective. One or two had been missing with little to no problems but that had been a huge blow to realize what happened when so many were unable to be there.

"It could be worse." Aziz said. "A lot worse."

"It is worse." Aladdin said. "It's not just Mamluk's we have to worry about."

"What do you mean?" Jay asked.

"Mirage?" Will asked.

"Or Mozenwrath?" Aziz suggested.

"They could be related." Aladdin said. "But follow me and I'll show you." It didn't take long as they saw what had to have been the major problem. It was a monster that was again bigger than a normal sized monster but not quite big enough to use a zord again, whether they had access to them or not. It was something they hadn't thought about.

At first it seemed as if the thing had no head though there seemed to be a brain where it should be. But then Mal realized that it seemed to have something it its back that resembled a very small human or an average sized dwarf that almost seemed to be controlling. The thing itself had massive red claws that also were present on the bottom of its ankles, serving as its feet.

"That thing is kind of disgusting looking." Jane remarked and looked to Aladdin. "How do we defeat that?"

The sultan shook his head. "I don't know." He answered. "This is something that I've never seen here in the Black Sands. At least with the Mamluk's I knew enough about them but this…this is a bit beyond what I've seen."

"That's exactly what I was expecting, something that none of you have either seen before." They saw on one of the rooftops emerge a guy about the same age as the rangers. He had black hair all but pasted to his skull and wore a blue suit that almost looked like a wizard. Aladdin did however recognize something on his right hand all too easily.

"That's the glove that Mozenrwrath used to wear." Aladdin said and looked up at him. "Who are you and where did you get that?"

"My father gave it to me on his deathbed." The boy revealed. "And you may call me Marcellus." He looked at them all. "The power rangers, just as Mirage had said." He laughed. "Including the son of my father's rival. How fitting."

Jay gave him a glare. "Looking to continue that pattern?" He asked. His father rivaled Aladdin and yet chose not to continue that with his Aziz.

"And you are…ah, yes. The son of Jafar." Marcellus noted. "We really should be friends, you and I." He noted.

"That won't happen." Jay said to him. He wondered if he and Aziz should be worried for Audrey and Ally, if this guy was anything like Chad had turned out to be. "Release our friends, now."

"Sorry, but that won't happen." Marcellus said. "If you want any chance of getting your friends back, you're going to have to get past my guardian the Kindred Spirit."

Mal frowned; having to grant that was an appropriate name for creature like what was looking down at them now. "We'll do what we have to." The purple haired girl announced. "To rescue those we love." She looked to her friends. "Let's get to work." Jane used the magic wand to transform into the white ranger. Will and Gregory just had to channel their powers since they didn't have an iPhone made for them yet, while the remaining team members took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

More Mamluk's appeared and Aladdin moved out to help the guards deal with them, leaving the rangers to deal with the much bigger monster and Marcellus. Mal looked to Jordan and Gregory. "You two try and deal with gloved one junior over there." She instructed. "The rest of us will somehow figure out how to topple Kindred Spirit over there."

"They're here." Evie whispered instinctually. "Mal, Doug and the others. They're here."

"I wish I knew how to help them." Ally said. "They're facing an army at half strength."

"At least they have all the magic users. That might be beneficial to them." Carlos replied.

"Not all of the magic users." Audrey realized and looked at Evie. "You're here. Is there some way we can capitalize on that?"

Evie shook her head. "I'm not sure how. I know it's in my veins, my mother has some magical capability after all, but it's never been in the same category as Mal's or Jane's mothers. And I've never felt much need to even hone what I do have in me." She answered. It was one of the times in her life where she wished she had tried after all.

"Maybe there is something we can do." Lonnie said. The others tried to look at her. "It's called the kindred enchantment; we can channel our energies into those we lo…care for." She thought it would work as each of those captive in here had a love interest rather they openly acknowledged it or not, out there, unknowingly all going against the Kindred Spirit monster. She tried to glance at Evie. "Our words are just words, it's going to be whatever innate magical abilities you have that will allow us to channel that to our friends and make it reality."

"No pressure." Evie tried to joke but it came out strained and she couldn't keep herself from rolling her eyes.

"So what do we need to do?" Ben asked Lonnie.

"If I remember right, we all need to look at Evie and direct our thoughts toward her as we direct our words to those we care for." Lonnie answered. "Hopefully Evie's latent magic will do the rest."

They all looked at Evie, making the blue haired girl feel somewhat self-conscious even though it was part of the enchantment.

"You can do it Mal, I believe in you." Ben whispered.

"I trust you Jay, I'm sure you're strong enough to handle anything." Audrey said softly.

"Come on Jane, I know you're stronger than you think you are. Now's the time to prove it once again." Carlos urged.

"I know you're strong Will." Lonnie said softly. "You can do so much even though you don't have powers. This is no different."

"I know you wouldn't stay behind now Doug." Evie whispered. "Make us…make me proud." Then she closed her own eyes as she tried to direct whatever internal magical power she had to their friends.

Aziz moved in first with his spear and tried to a spiral strike on Kindred Spirit. It wasn't that it didn't hurt the monster; it was more like it just didn't care. It moved rather quickly and slashed the silver ranger hard.

"Maybe we should try to double team it?" Jay suggested to Will. The new green ranger nodded and then they moved in with the soul scimitar and recursive sword respectively and tried to attack, with the same lack of results. It then slashed the two rangers down.

"What are we doing wrong here Jane?" Mal asked as she readied her dragon's eye staff.

"I don't know yet." The white ranger answered their leader as she watched the monster as it started to move closer to them.

"Mal, unleash a stream of energy on him." The two girls heard Doug say from behind them. They hadn't even realized that he had come up behind them. The purple ranger nodded and the she released a stream of energy from her dragon's eye staff as Doug blasted at it with her. It stumbled back a little bit but shrugged it off and again started toward them.

"So we know it's not just physical attacks it shrugs off." Mal noted and shook her head. "Great, where does that leave us?"

The three male rangers recovered and moved in from behind to attack. All three of them struck but again got the same result. It brought its clawed hand back and slashed them again before turning around and trying to pound Doug and the two girls into the ground. Mal tackled Doug out of the way as Jane barely soared above it with her wings.

"How about magic?" Mal called up to Jane.

Jane had her doubts since the Mamluk's didn't seem to be effected by what they had. "We could try it but honestly I wouldn't put much faith in the idea." She called down to the purple ranger.

"We better come up with something." Jay called up. "If we can't get by this thing we'll never get our friends out of that castle."

Mal cocked her head a bit, swearing she just heard Ben say she believed in her. But her boyfriend wasn't even here, that was impossible. Or at least so she thought. "Ben?" She whispered.

Doug looked to Mal. "What's wrong?" He asked the purple ranger.

"I don't know." She answered reluctantly. "I thought…I thought I heard Ben."

"I have to be strong enough to save you Audrey." Jay said next and then shook his head. "What the…where did that thought come from?"

"Are you okay?" Will asked him.

"I think so." He answered. "I just swore I heard Audrey saying something about being strong."

Will was about to question it but then looked around him. "Something is different, I do have powers." He said and then realized he wasn't sure where it came from but something felt familiar. "Lonnie?" he seemed confused.

Jane cocked her head as she looked around. "You think I'm stronger than I…wait, Carlos?" She wondered and then she realized what had happened. "A kindred enchantment." She smiled. "Good thinking. I just hope it works the way it's rumored too."

Kindred Spirits almost stepped on Mal and Doug but again the purple ranger got them out of the way. "We need some ideas here before we become roadkill." Mal said. She then noticed Jane getting ready to pull something off. "What are you thinking Jane?" She wondered.

Jane rushed toward the ground as quickly as she could and allowed her fists to strike into the sand as hard as she could. It hurt a little as it was still pretty hard but was none the less able to achieve her desired effect; causing a small tremor to disrupt Kindred Spirit's balance.

"Wow, when could she do that?" Will asked.

"As far as I know she couldn't." Jay said. "The possibility of a spell notwithstanding."

Jane was by the boys now. "That's pretty much what it is; I mean it's an enchantment that goes mostly off of words." She explained to them. "And unless I miss my guess, we're all under the same thing courtesy of Evie."

"Evie doesn't know magic." Jay pointed out to her. "She didn't want to take the class with you, Jordan and Mal."

"She still has it inside of her system." Jane countered. "Enough to channel something like this kindred enchantment."

"How does it work?" Aziz asked her. He wanted to assume that she knew what the white ranger was talking about. Besides, they were running out of time.

"We can channel their powers." Jane answered. "We might even be able to combine them with our own. I don't know how long it works so we have to move quickly."

"That'll be interesting since some of us don't even know how that really works." Jay pointed out.

"Think about it, visualize it." Will suggested. He then followed his own suggestion as he imagined seeing Lonnie using the power of her own weapons to achieve brief levitation and then jumped in the air, higher than he would have been able to on his own, and then bring his curved blade down on Kindred Spirit as he descended down, leaving two gashes in his wake. The monster growled and stumbled back but still didn't seem so unfazed.

"Alright, for Audrey." Jay said and visualized the first trick he had ever seen her do with her enhanced elemental bow; it had been fire arrows. He felt his hands grow a bit hotter as he realized his soul scimitar was on fire. He jumped around and swung, both slashing and scorching the creature. He was slightly dismayed to realize that though somewhat burnt it didn't seem to notice.

Mal thought a moment about Ben, not sure how they could really have much in common power wise. Then she remembered she could do one thing that the boys could not; magic. She used the energies of her own staff to replicate the shield that her boyfriend would use to fight and then ran over, slamming the shield into the back of its right leg. The monster rocked a little bit, after all just because the pain may not be seen the body still reacts to it. She then unleashed a stream of energy from her dragon's eye staff into its lower back. It didn't seem to notice too much as its claws found Mal and slashed her back hard.

Aziz took a deep breath as he thought about Ally's eyes, seeming as clear as the crystal cards she used in combat, and then launched another spiral strike. This one seemed to carry the essence of the blonde's cards and he slammed into the chest of Kindred Spirit. The semi-transparent cards flew in all direction, and two of them even angled around to slam into the little figure in back.

To everyone's surprise that elicited a bit more of a reaction as it tried to smash its huge hand onto Aziz, though the silver ranger dodged to the side of the attack. Mal looked to Jane and Doug. "What was different about that attack?" She asked though she felt a little dumb that she couldn't figure it out herself.

Jordan and Gregory had taken the battle against Marcellus onto some of the roofs of the city of the Black Sands. Gregory was finding himself a bit outmatched because both the gold ranger and their opponent were tapping into magic to boost themselves in the fight. Jordan found it somewhat ironic since she knew that half of the adventures her father and uncle had had required some magical intervention on her father's part, and so many of those had involved her opponents father. Of course he had bounced back every time, apparently even from what was supposed to be the end to that magic glove his son now used.

It was as if he had read her mind. "Ironic, isn't genie girl, that we would be the ones to be fighting each other?" Marcellus asked.

"Yeah, and ironic that it'll work out the same way." Jordan replied.

Marcellus unleashed a burst of energy from the glove and Jordan angled in a way to catch that energy around her lamp cannon and reflect it back at him with her own power thrown in. He only barely dodged that one. It did seem like a standoff.

Doug ran the attacks through in his mind and quickly came found the answer to Mal's question. "We've been attacking the bigger body and it's been taking the attacks. It's just a shell, a cover for the real mastermind of the duo. The little one riding in back." He replied.

"I get it." Will said. "They have a sort of symbiotic relationship."

"Hence the name." Jay agreed with a nod. "So we destroy the small fry and the big guy goes down too. It won't be easy but I think the six of us can do it."

"Twelve of us." Jane corrected him. "The power of our otherwise bound friends is still with us." She looked to Mal. "We need to channel all of that power to take out this thing."

Mal nodded as she looked around. She thought of herself and Ben. She looked at Jay and though of Audrey. Looking at Jane made her think of Carlos. Looking at Aziz made her think of Ally. Seeing even Doug ready to help reminded her of her chosen sister Evie, and finally looking at Will, one the two newest rangers, made her think of Lonnie. "Let's show this thing the true meaning of kindred spirits." She declared confidently.

Kindred Spirit was charging toward them again. Jane brought her fists down again into the sands and caused an earthquake to cause the creature to stumble around. Jay and Mal moved in with Doug providing distraction with his blaster as Mal channeled the dragon's eye energy into the makeshift shield and slammed into the monster hard as Jay again slashed it with his fiery soul scimitar.

All of that distraction was meant for just that, as Aziz let out a whistle and moments later Carpet appeared beside him, and then he and Will were on Carpet and in the air as they angled away from the frontal fight to attack the creature that really needed to be ended to win this fight. Aziz again powered up his spiral strike and drew upon the essence of Ally's crystal cards and unleashed them on the back.

The monster let out a piercing cry as this attack was directed on the upper back where the 'head' of the monster truly resided. The ethereal looking cards slashed all around as the smaller monster let out a shriek. Then Will came down, channeling the powers of the wind into his curved blade and slashed the little monster off the top of the big one.

With a resounding crash the big body fell over as the little monster rolled hard only to see the five rangers had gotten back together again. "Now for some old territory." Mal said. Doug had returned the blaster for this one.

This time it was Will, Jay and Aziz that stepped forward to stand side by side. Mal and Jane jumped onto their shoulders and the five of them drew their blasters and converged the energies into the middle as they unleashed the Auradon Triangle Spark at the small monster, causing its destruction. Still they felt as if it had been more than the five of them who had helped finish that off.

More Mamluk's started to draw closer to the ranger's but then Aladdin and the guards were there to deal with them. Aladdin looked to his son. "Aziz, take your friends in and rescue the others." He said. "We've got you covered."

The door opened and a Mamluk shoved the stake Evie was attached to hard, she let out a small scream as it hit the floor hard and it shattered the team's concentration. There was another Mamluk and Mirage was standing there too. "What are you doing?" She demanded to know.

"Whatever it takes to stop your plans." Ben told her simply.

"You're chained up, you can do nothing." Mirage said but then looked at Evie. "I should have recognized there was some kind of magic in your blood though girl." She approached her and extended the claws on her right hand.

There was a scream of protest and Doug ran right into her. They both crashed to the floor hard and the feline being swung at Doug, slashing him across his right arm. Then she had to take a step back to avoid the staff that was aimed at her face. She quickly vanished upon realizing that the rangers had found them.

"Ben." Mal gasped as she powered down and ran over to where Ben was. She untied him and the instant that was done she threw her arms around him and held him tightly. "I was so worried about you." She said softly as he hugged her back gently.

"Yeah, so much for being safe at the palace." Ben tried to joke lightly and then he kissed the top of her head softly. "It's alright Mal. I'm fine and you guys found us. No harm done." He stroked her hair softly.

Doug leaned down and untied Evie, completely oblivious at the moment to the scratches across his arm. When it was loose enough Evie helped struggle out of them and then when her arms were free she threw them around Doug in a tight embrace. "This was so brave of you." She said in a near whisper. "You don't even have anything to protect yourself."

Doug was shocked for a minute before he hugged the blue haired girl back gently. "I borrowed a blaster for a little while. But I couldn't just stand by while you were being held here." He answered her.

Jay got to Audrey and took off the ropes binding her. She threw her arms around the black ranger almost immediately and he could feel her trembling just a little. He could only imagine the memories she had been trying hard not to relive as she had woken up this way. "Hey, it's okay." Jay said to her gently. "We're here."

"I knew you, all of you I mean, would be." She said to him, trying to appear calmer than she really felt. She leaned up and kissed his cheek warmly. "You might not be a knight in shining armor and you might not be a real price, but you're really turning into my prince." That made him blush a little.

Jane went over and helped untie Carlos before hugging him. "I'm glad you're okay. I was worried about you…all of you really but somehow…" She wasn't sure how to finish that sentence.

Carlos hugged her back. "It's okay. I get it." He laughed a little. "Us techno's understand each other pretty well."

Aziz untied Ally and as she landed softly he placed his arms around her waist. "I can't tell you how much you're being kidnapped scared me." He said to her softly.

"I'm sorry." Ally replied as softly.

"Don't apologize; it's not your fault." Aziz chided her gently and then leaned down to press his lips gently against hers. She let her body relax against his as she returned his kiss. For a moment none of it mattered; the fight that was starting to dwindle down outside, the conflicts going on in Auradon, even their friends only inches away. All that mattered was each other. Then the moment of course receded but they both smiled at each other. "Not the worse way to get a first kiss." He said.

"Not at all." Ally agreed with a small laugh.

Lonnie was working to free herself when she saw Will come in and help her. "You have to stop putting your life on the line like this." She said to him half-jokingly though she was glad to see him and was glad he was here to help rescue her. "Coming out her without powers is really dangerous."

Will chucked softly. "Hello to you too." He said jokingly. He then held up the green gem in his hand. "I don't think that lack of powers thing is really going to be a problem anymore."

Lonnie gently placed a hand on his arm. "Have you been holding out on us?" She asked teasingly.

Will shook his head. "I wouldn't dream of it." He promised her with an easy laugh. "No really. I'll tell you about it on our way out of this place." He promised her.

"Where is Jordan?" Ally now asked Mal, now that that fears had been assuaged and personal thanks had been exchanged.

"Outside fighting Marcellus, the son of Mozenwrath and the real reasons all of this has gone down." Mal explained to them. "She's out there along with Gregory." She shot a small smile at Lonnie. "Will's not the only one who came across powers today."

"Time to go then." Ben said as he gave Mal a quick squeeze of hands. Then the team started out.

Audrey gasped. "Wait a minute. We don't have our iPhones, or your weapons." She added as she looked to Ben.

"Shoot." Aziz muttered.

"No problem." Jane took out her iPhone and activated the app she had to track down the gems. It was easy to find as it was only locked up a few rooms away and guarded by a few Mamluk's that were easily taken out by Will, Aziz and Jay. They quickly collected their powers.

They came outside to find that the Mamluk's were few in number and guarding Marcellus. Jordan and Aladdin were at the head of the guards. "It's over Marcellus." The genie girl said to him. "We've beaten your monster and we've rescued our friends."

"And now you intend to kill me?" Marcellus asked with a snicker. "Have you gotten some guts since the last time you fought my father 'Sultan'? He asked mockingly.

"We should strip him of that glove and have him confined to the Isle of the Lost." Jane suggested.

"It's been a while since they've had blood." Jay agreed.

Aladdin nodded in agreement. Jordan used her magic to remove the glove and created a containment box for it. That made the remaining Mamluk's fade away into the ether. "Your hand is still flesh." He noted.

"So what?" Jordan asked.

"Mozenwrath's hand was down to a skeleton when we took the glove." Aladdin explained to her. "All those years of dark magic he used."

"Gross." Audrey stated.

The guards surrounded Marcellus. Jordan made a call to her father to have more guards meet them as soon as possible for the prisoner transfer. Then she looked toward her team. "Let's head back to Agrabah." She said.

Aladdin couldn't help but notice that as they started out; Aziz reached out to take Ally's hand and kept a tight hold of it. "About time." He said to himself.


	50. One Fine Day

Halfway through the desert more guards arrived to help escort Marcellus. It was quickly decided that they would take a boat back to the Badlands. Jane contacted her mother so that she could have Auradon guards ready to help transfer him to the Isle of the Lost. Sadly Mirage continued to elude them as no one had seen her after she disappeared.

Ben and Mal sat at the fountain near the palace gardens, his arm around her and she playing with his free hand. "I thought you were safe here." Mal said softly. "I guess I was wrong."

"You were trying to keep me safe?" Ben asked a little hurt. "I can take care of myself Mal."

"I know that." Mal assured him. "Leaving you here was for Aladdin and Jasmine's protection, along with the rest of our friends who couldn't transform." She elaborated. "You're the most expendable…no, I mean the most..." She sighed in frustration. "I'm messing up here."

"I think what you mean is I'm the most independent warrior." Ben filled in for her with a soft laugh.

Mal laughed and kissed his hand softly. "Yeah that." She agreed. "You're an independent warrior; your powers have no reliance on ours. That's why I wanted you here for Aladdin and Jasmine. Then I saw Decay and I was glad you were safe from that thing. I didn't realize that Mirage was as bad."

"I understand Mal…at least now." He assured his girlfriend. "You weren't counting on Mirage abducting me."

"I love Evie, I love all my friends." Mal stated and laughed a little. "And if you had told me two months ago that feeling would extend to Audrey I would have laughed in your face, but it…it's different." Mal turned to look at Ben. The two held hands gently and Mal whispered, "But it's all different you know. The way I love them is different from the way that I love you." She leaned up and the two exchanged a soft but passionate kiss.

After a minute or two Ben pulled away gently. "That's the first time you've said that you know." He pointed out.

"Said what?" Mal asked.

"That you love me." Ben answered with a smile.

Mal thought about it a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She agreed and tried to shrug nonchalantly. Ben smiled and stroked her cheek gently. "How many times do Belle and Adam tell you they love you?" She asked him.

Ben shrugged. "No idea." He answered simply. "I've lost count."

"I have a count on how many times my mom has said she loved me." Mal told him. "She told me that once in my life, when I was twelve and basically reached the age where my powers fully came in at." She let out a long breath. "Most of the time I received indifference from her and if not that then it was like scorn or disappointment."

"Sorry." Ben said softly.

"It's life on the isle." Mal tried to brush it off. "I told Jane before we realized you were all taken a bit about our lives. How Jay was a lot like me in not being able to make his parent happy, not being able to feel that kind of self-worth. That Carlos was practically a slave to his own mother." She laughed a little. "Evie got treated well enough by her mother, especially in comparison. Like a princess…but, it wasn't ever quite the same thing as a mother's love."

"You know that's one thing Evie and Snow White have in common." Ben pointed out to her. "Neither really knows what a mother's love is like. Snow's birth mother died pretty young and we all know how things worked out with Snow and the Evil Queen." He stroked her hair softly. "And it seems like Evie's mother didn't love her in the true sense that my mom loves me…or you for that matter."

"You think so?" Mal asked him.

Ben nodded. "Absolutely. My mom told me that she had wanted a daughter too, but they were never able to make it happen. It's one of the reasons Audrey took up archery; to make her dad happy. Aurora and Phillip were never able to have a boy."

Mal frowned a little. "You know, I know it probably means nothing but I have noticed that aside from Cinderella and her prince, no one in the royal family seems to have had more than one child." Cinderella of course was the mother of the traitor Chad and a younger daughter named Callie, whom none of the team had met before. Granted, Will's mother had also had a daughter named Whitney but Wendy Darling was not royal.

"Maybe we all have older siblings that were abducted by Rumpelstiltskin." Ben said jokingly.

Mal laughed at that one. "Yeah, somehow I doubt that one." She replied.

Ben stood up and extended his hand to Mal. "Join me for a walk in the garden?" He requested.

Mal took his hand and stood, offering a small curtsy. It disturbed her in a way that she was getting pretty good at that but she let it go. "It would be pleasure." She answered. The two shared a small laugh as they made their way to the garden.

Jasmine shared a warm embrace with her husband and then her son, and then to Ally's slight surprise the Queen also gave the blonde a hug. "I'm so glad all of you are okay." She said to them.

Genie himself had given his daughter a hug and then exchanged some tassel with Carpet. The two genies had gone off to spend some time together.

Ally looked to Aziz. "I should let you spend some time with your parents before we head back to Auradon." She said to him.

"No, stay." Aziz insisted. He looked to Aladdin and Jasmine. "It's only fair that my parents and I should spend time with my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Jasmine asked but in truth she wasn't surprised to hear that one. She just wondered what had changed in such a short time. She had been relatively sure that they had not crossed the romantic line when the rangers had come in from Auradon.

"Yep." Aladdin confirmed. "Seemed to have happened after we stormed the Marcellus's walls and they went into the castle to retrieve their captured friends."

"That's wonderful news." Jasmine said with a smile. She could only guess that the journey through the desert and into the Black Sands had made her son consider what Ally really meant to him. She took Aladdin's hand and smiled at her son and his girlfriend. "We were about to enjoy a midafternoon snack, please join us." The two teens agreed and followed the sultan and queen out of the throne room to the kitchen.

Audrey and Jay sat on the balcony outside of the brunette princess's room. Despite it being a bit humid for her taste it was still a lovely day outside. She also reasoned it couldn't really do much more damage to her hair than being kidnapped had. They had two glasses of lemonade on a table between them. "So what do you think of Agrabah?" Audrey asked him.

Jay shrugged. "It seems like a nice enough place." He answered with a small shrug. "But I don't feel the same sense of…well, the same sense of home that Jordan or Aziz did. Even if my father grew up here, I didn't. The isle has pretty much been my home."

Some part of Audrey couldn't imagine being permanently taken from the kingdom she had grown up at; the same place her mother Aurora and father Phillip ruled as Queen and King. It was of course a completely different place from the Isle of the Lost but she understood his meaning. "Do you miss that place?" She asked. It was hard for her to keep all of the disgust out of her voice.

Jay chose to ignore that. He understood how she felt; time was he had felt that way about Auradon. "I guess…I guess not really." Jay confessed. "I mean I grew up there but it didn't always feel like the kind of home that one would want it to."

"Not long after starting classes at Auradon I had told Fairy Godmother I missed home. In my selfish spoiled way I didn't want to be away from my parents or the…the pampering I knew I would receive there." Audrey confessed, though in some ways the girl she had been then seemed like another life. "Fairy Godmother told me that homes were transitory. I didn't believe that then."

"Do you believe that now?" Jay asked her.

"I'm not sure, but I think I understand it better." Audrey replied as she reached for her lemonade. "I mean, it's almost hard not to picture being in Auradon. It's hard to imagine being away from all of our friends…to be away from you." The last part came out a bit quieter and she felt a blush on her cheeks that was not from the hot sun.

"I think I get it." Jay promised as he reached for his own lemonade. He couldn't get himself to say it yet but the thought of _Wherever you are, that's home,_ crossed his mind. He contended himself with saying aloud, "It's the people that make a place a home." He took a sip of lemonade and then set his glass down.

Audrey did the same and she looked out in the desert. Without really realizing it she started to talk. "I woke up bound in that castle and I almost freaked out." She revealed and then stood up. Jay had to sit up a bit to hear her. "I know we've all been tied down at least once in our ranger careers, but it was…I don't want to say different because that's not really truth. It was more personal for me."

Jay had a pretty good idea of what she meant but thought it would be best to let Audrey say it if she wished to. "In what way?"

"Because except for this time and Wonderland, the other times I've been bound has been in Chad's presence." Audrey answered him. "Even that first time with the Psycho Rangers he still managed to slap me. I think he was tempted to keep me for himself instead of letting Psycho Red destroy me." She started to pace a little. "And the last time, when we faced Cybertech Overhydra and he…" She couldn't get herself to finish that thought or what she had almost expected to happen to her.

"If I have a say in anything, he'll never get a chance to do something like that." Jay told her as he came up to her and laid his hands on her shoulders.

"I know." Audrey said as she turned to face him. She leaned up and kissed his cheek softly. "And I thank you for everything that you do for me." She laid her head on his chest now. Sometimes she just had the fear that it wouldn't be enough, but she didn't want to tell anyone about that.

Jane and Carlos had gone into the palaces library to see what they could find out. He looked up at her and said, "You know if we want to read we really should be looking at the information that the sultan and the queen found about Sermaya."

"Probably." Jane agreed mildly. "We can if you want, but it might be better if the group as a whole looked at it. We may have to cross reference a lot of stuff that isn't here with us."

"That might be true." Carlos agreed. He cocked his head as he looked at a row of books. "Hey, we don't have these two at the library in Auradon."

"A lot of material is the same in each of the kingdoms that compose Auradon." Jane replied as if she were reciting from some invisible text or perhaps committed it to memory. "But there a bits and pieces that for whatever reason stays primarily in a single kingdom. A lot of that includes royal or familial lineages, agricultural, sociological and economical records that are more than a decade or so old are classic examples."

"So much for free society." Carlos said jokingly.

Jane lightly shoved his arm. "It's not that this information can't be shared." She said with a laugh. "But honestly do you think anyone in Arendelle really cares about kind of profits that Agrabah was making when Jasmine was ten years old?"

Carlos had to laugh too. "No, I suppose not." He conceded. "But what if Jay or Aziz needed it for a project at Auradon Prep?"

"Then it would get sent out to them." Jane answered with a small shrug of indifference. "It's actually easier for them considering the fact that Jordan could just pop back here and get it for them." She started to climb a ladder to look at a higher shelf. "The truth is Jordan didn't need to take a boat with us to get here, she did it because it was the courteous thing to do."

Carlos saw a few titles he recognized and then one he didn't. It detailed the inventions of man named Mechanicles….he'd heard that name from somewhere, he was sure of it. Maybe something that had been taught in Dragon Hall. He reached for the book when he heard a gasp, looking up he saw Jane lose her hold on the ladder and she tipped backwards. Without thinking he rushed over to catch her.

He didn't do that however, it was more like he broke her fall as he didn't exactly have the strength to catch a girl in his arms the way that he was sure Jay would have. But the end result was pretty much the same as he had managed to prevent Jane from being really hurt, while he himself had only gotten a couple bruises. He thought it was a nice trade off to be close to her.

Jane sat up a little to look down at Carlos. "Thank you." She said to him softly as she moved a stray lock of hair out of her eyes and behind her ears. That was one thing she had never had to worry about doing before Mal's spell.

"Anytime." Carlos promised her as he looked up at her.

Jane noticed that his shirt sleeve had torn and his elbow was a bruised a little. "Carlos, are you sure you're okay?" She asked as her hand reached out to touch just under his elbow.

Carlos nodded as Jane helped him into a sitting position. "I'm sure, I've had worse." He said nonchalantly. It made her recall what Mal had told her before the whole rescue scenario had begun. About Carlos being little more than a slave to his mother Cruella, that at least out of the four of them he had been treated the worst.

"Maybe we should get that looked at." Jane suggested.

Carlos shrugged it off. "I'm good." He promised as he flexed his arm for her to show that if the bruise hurt he wasn't feeling it. Jane had to wonder if that was necessarily a good thing but decided pressing anymore might just make him angry.

"Alright." She relented and the two of them got up off the floor. "Maybe I should avoid ladders for a while."

The two stood rather close to each other for a moment and Jane thought Carlos just might kiss her; they were looking into each other's eyes. Then whatever reverie was there was broken and he took her hand. "Hey, let me show you a book I was looking at just before that little trip." He said and lead her to it. She was content with that for now.

"How's your arm?" Evie asked Doug as she made some chocolate chip cookies for them in the kitchen. She was referring to the scratch he had taken to protect her when it seemed Mirage was ready to slit her throat in the castle.

"Rather painless actually." Doug said with a smile. He wore a bandage over the wound. Jordan had pointed out she could easily make a potion that would take care of that without a problem but he had decided this was his first war wound and that he would wear it proudly for as long as it lasted. Evie was pretty sure that it wouldn't scar over. She also hoped that would be his last war wound.

"I still can't believe that you went with Mal and everyone to rescue me even without powers." The blue haired girl mused. Granted, Will and Gregory had too but there were two differences. The first was that they had ended up with powers on their way thanks to an unexpected trip into the Cave of Wonders. The second was that they weren't the ones that Evie was nursing a crush on, which no doubt made Lonnie feel better when it came to her crush on Will.

"I had too." Doug said simply. "They had you…I mean all of you and the team was down by half. They needed all the backup they could get."

Despite his attempt to change his words Evie had caught what he was originally going to say. He had done it in large part for her. She felt her pulse quicken a little at the thought. _It's funny, before Auradon I never would have given someone like Doug a second look, or a first for that matter._ Evie mused as she looked over at him. He had a book in front of him though was only half reading it right now. _And now I wonder if I'm falling in love with him._

She cocked her head as she leaned down across from him. He looked back up at her and their eyes locked. For a moment the connection was very strong and Evie had to force herself to ask what she was originally going to. "So Will and Gregory got powers just recently, if you had the chance, would you do the same thing?"

Doug seemed to think about it for a moment. "I don't think so." He answered honestly. "I just feel as if that would make it harder for you guys, not easier."

"What do you mean?" Evie asked him.

"Look, it's all fine and good for Jane to be out there with you guys. No offense to anyone but it never hurts to have a quick thinker on the field of battle." Doug elaborated. It was true as her quick thinking had helped several times, ranger or not. The most recent example was her suggestion to try to expand their Auradon Spark attack to encompass more than just a five or six person triangle formation. "But a good team still needs someone behind the scenes to work at what can't be seen right in front of them. That's where I need to be."

Evie seemed to be thinking about and she absently placed her hand on Doug's hand. He didn't mind one bit even a she started to play with his fingers a little. "And how often do you plan on doing the kinds of things you just did for the rescue mission?" She asked him pointedly.

Doug laughed as he responded with, "How often do you…all of you guys plan on getting half of your team or more captured?" The two of them laughed at the comment. "Hopefully not often." Doug answered her seriously. "But times may come about where I have to do that, even without powers."

The thought worried Evie more than she could possibly find voice to express. And the blue haired girl knew she had no right to tell him not to do that anyway. So she said the next best thing. "Talk to Ben, Jay and Aziz about taking up some kind of combat training." She requested him. "If you have to do something like that I'd feel better about it if you were at least better prepared for it."

Doug could tell how much that idea meant to her and he nodded. "Sure." He agreed. "I'm sure we can fit that into the schedule somewhere."

She patted his hand gently. "I know we can." She agreed before she went back to the cookie pan. "Now let's get some of these going." She started to scoop some batter and then looked up. "So, want to quiz me about some of that stuff in there?" She asked.

"Sure." Doug said as he flipped to another page and started to ask her a question.

Lonnie and Will had already entered the palace gardens long before Mal and Ben had decided to take their own walk. They were now walking side by side, her left hand barely brushing against his right hand. "I guess you're one of us now." Lonnie remarked. "How do you feel about that, is it good or bad?"

"I think it's pretty much a good thing." Will answered. "Will my family know about this?"

Lonnie frowned as she thought about it. "I think your mother would have to know." Lonnie said. "I mean technically she's not royalty, but then again neither is Ally's mother and she knows. As for your sister," That brought Lonnie up short. By circumstance or by design, she wasn't sure which one it was, none of the rangers had siblings except for Evie's half-sister Snow White who was born from another set of parents, making them family more by law than blood and was also just over twelve years older than the blue haired girl. At any rate as one of the oft mentioned Princesses of Heart she already knew anyway. "I don't know." She confessed. "There is actually no precedent on how to handle our identities with siblings."

"I think it'd be easier for my family if Whitney did know." Will observed. "Keeping my identity from her would be hard enough but expecting my mother to do the same thing might be pushing it."

Lonnie nodded. "We'll have to ask Fairy Godmother but I think she might agree with you on that one." She replied. After a moment the Asian princess admitted, "I'm actually glad that you're one of us. I saw what Ben and Mal went through before we found he was the Auradon Knight. I'd hate to be out there and having you worry about me as much as I'd hate to worry about someone using you against me."

"Well we don't have to worry about that anymore." Will assured her with a small smile.

"No we don't." She agreed. She didn't point out that they instead had to worry about what kind of relationship they might have on top of the whole saving the world business. The two walked side by side, enjoying each other's company and wondering about the future.

As dusk began to fall the team all got back together dressed in semi-formal attire as they went the banquet hall for the celebratory banquet that Aladdin and Jasmine insisted on throwing for their efforts in saving the city and stopping Marcellus. It wasn't exactly a lot of effort when once considered the services of not one but two genies, but as the old saying goes it's the thought that counts.

"So I guess you guys will be returning to Auradon tomorrow." Jasmine guessed.

Mal nodded a bit. "Yes. We have to resume our classes and make sure things haven't fallen into disarray without us around to stop Paradias's plans." Mal answered as she took a strawberry from a plate. She wondered how they had known to set that out, it hadn't been because of Ben. He'd been with her all day. She also found she was looking forward to seeing Belle and Adam again.

"We also need to get that information you supplied us with back to Auradon and see what we can learn about Sermaya." Doug added.

"It's too bad that you have to leave, but I understand what you're saying." Aladdin replied. He understood the obligation to duty very easily, especially after becoming sultan of Agrabah. The notion of education was a bit of reach since he had grown up on the streets, that was a bit more of a novelty to him. But Jasmine had assured him multiple times that it was important.

"Besides someone has to tell my mother about this." Ally said as she leaned over and kissed Aziz on the cheek. "I think this is going to come as a bit of a shock to her."

"Somehow I doubt that." Mal commented and Ben shot her an amused glare which caused her to just shake her head in surrender.

"Well I do hope whatever is in there can help you to stop Sermaya." Jasmine noted as she picked up her glass of water. "I understand from Belle that whatever is ultimate plan is will be as much of a detriment to us as whatever Paradias has planned."

"We're pretty much looking at nothing now." Audrey said to them. "So anything is a vast improvement." She cut off a piece of the steak they had. "All of what we have comes from what he said and honestly I'm not sure it's reliable."

"You should plan a trip to Auradon sometime." Ben suggested to Aladdin and Jasmine. "Mom and dad would love to see you guys again."

"We might have too." Jasmine said with a laugh. "We can make up for missing parent night at the school a few weeks ago, even though it sounds like we might have dodged the bullet on that one."

"Will you be staying for breakfast at least?" Aladdin asked them

They all exchanged glances before Aziz replied with, "Yeah, I think we can do that. We'll just leave right afterwards. We can be back in Auradon by mid-afternoon."

"I'll have to ask mom when we want to tell Mrs. Darling about Will having powers." Jane said.

"Do you think we'll be able to tell his sister?" Lonnie asked her.

Jane thought a moment as she took a bite of the au gratin potatoes. After swallowing she answered, "I don't know. I would think that would be a good idea but in the end that's her decision."

"If it helps any, I'll support the idea." Aladdin told them. He remembered lying to Jasmine about being a prince, his first official wish to Genie. It had worked as she had fallen for him, but she had fallen for the qualities she had seen him as Aladdin not as the made up prince he had tried to be. "Trying to lie to those you care about if you don't have to is a really bad idea."

As Mal reached for another strawberry, she paused as she swore she saw Will glance at Lonnie and flinch at the remark. She wondered why that would be and then mentally shrugged it off, assuming he was just thinking about how hard it would be lie to Lonnie if their situation had been reversed.

After dinner everyone settled in and spent some time talking, Aladdin and Genie regaling everyone with some of their adventures (except for Aziz and Jordan who had heard it many times before) and then the rangers shared some of their own adventures. They tried to minimize the kind of obsession Chad was displaying toward Audrey but tried to do their best to describe their encounters with the Space Rangers and Jungle Fury rangers. Jay, Lonnie and Carlos shared the dreams that lead toward their new weapons.

Evie and Mal exchanged quick glances when Aladdin seemed to perk up when they mentioned the accented figure that they had brought up. If they didn't have any reason to know better they swore he knew who that was. They also caught a slightly subtler but similar reaction from Jasmine and Genie's draw dropped down with a hard clanking sound that most interpreted as humor but made the two isle girls wonder just a little. Ultimately nothing was said and they reasoned it might not even matter.

They called it early so they could have breakfast before they returned to Auradon the next day.

While the teens had a their nice day the guards of Agrabah had spent most of the day trekking through the Arabian desert to take Marcellus to Auradon and have him transferred to the Isle of the Lost. Some of them were honorable enough and the prospect of an injured woman alone in the desert drew their concern.

"I was attacked by several creatures." She told the head guard. "They're still around and…oh, no. There they are."

The guards were attacked by a huge group of soldiers and Reviveslime himself. The battle ended very quickly with most of the guards being knocked out. "Sadly they'll live." Reviveslime said as he looked around. "But death was not our objective tonight."

"Whatever your objective is slime creature, finish it up." Marcellus said with a shrug. It wasn't his concern after all. He just wanted to grab the box with the glove in it and return to the Black Sands. When he turned though the woman was holding it. "What are you doing?"

She opened it up and laughed. "Looking at a very powerful object." When he started to protest she held up her free hand and laughed. "Oh, don't fret about it. I have no intention of taking it from you. I intend to return it to you."

"And why would you want to do that?" Marcellus demanded.

With a wave of the hand the woman dropped the disguise to reveal herself as Maleficent. "Because I think we might be able to establish an mutually beneficial alliance." She told him. With another wave she shattered the shackles on his wrists and offered him the glove. "You see, my associate Paradias and I are always looking for new allies, and I do believe you would fit the bill nicely. Another descendent on our side as it were."

Marcellus reached out to take the glove and slide it back on. "Revenge on the power rangers would be a nice start." He said.

"Ah, the power rangers." Maleficent said with contempt. "Including no doubt that disgrace of a daughter of mine. We indeed have much to talk about." With that the evil fairy, the sorcerer, the slime general and the soldiers disappeared into the night.


	51. The Warzord Part 1

The team returned to Auradon at about two thirty in the afternoon and received a pleasant surprise as they saw Belle, Adam, Aurora, Fairy Godmother, Snow White, Mulan and Alice waiting for them at the docks with a coach.

"Mom." Jane said and ran over to hug her. Carlos was right behind her, not really having anyone really important waiting at the docks.

"Hey mom, dad." Ben said as he came over to them with Mal right beside him. The two elders embraced the young couple, who returned the gesture.

"I didn't expect you to be here." Evie said to Snow White as she approached her older half-sister.

"I wanted to properly welcome you back to Auradon." Snow White said to Evie as she reached out to take the younger girl's hands. "Something I feel as if I should have done the first time you came here."

Evie shook her head. "It wouldn't have been welcome back then." She told her with a squeeze of her hands before releasing them and wrapping Snow White in a tight hug. "But this is now, and I am glad to see you here."

Audrey shared a hug with her mother. Aurora reached out and gently took Jay's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Ally went over and hugged her mother for a moment before pulling back and saying, "Mom you remember Aziz, my new boyfriend."

Alice seemed to take a moment to process that but then laughed. "It's nice to meet you again Aziz." She said. "Though this time as something more."

Aziz laughed a little at that. "Yeah, I guess you're right there." He agreed.

Lonnie came over with Will and hugged Mulan for a moment and then looked up at her. "Mom, this is Will, the guy I was telling you about."

Will offered his hand and said, "It's nice to meet you."

Mulan shook it and gave a smile. "It's nice to meet you to Will." She used her other hand to gently stroke Lonnie's hair. "You must be quite a guy to get my daughter's affections; it's not something she gives out easily."

Lonnie rolled her eyes slightly embarrassed. "A trait I no doubt inherited from my parents." She commented and that drew a laugh from Mulan.

Jordan rolled her eyes and pretended to look disgusted as she commented, "This is so sweet I feel like I'm getting a cavity." Though in fairness it just made her miss her father and mother more. She hadn't even been able to see her mother because she had been out of the town.

"I can second that one." Gregory said as he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "Shall we move on then?"

"Very well." Fairy Godmother relented as each parent released their child. Belle also released Mal, who had become surrogate family to each other. "I hear that you and Will received powers as well."

"We did." Will replied. "We're going to have to tell my mother I assume." He hesitated a moment. "And what of my sister?"

"She should be told mom." Jane said to her.

Fairy Godmother nodded. "I agree. The more she knows the easier it will be to understand if something happens, good or bad." She replied.

The party walked to the carriage as they talked. "Is there anyone that needs to know about this Gregory?" Belle asked him.

"Not just yet." He answered.

Everyone talked about their trip to Agrabah as they journeyed back to Auradon. Since they were riding a royal coach it took a bit longer than going through the Badlands but was more pleasant. Conversation went pleasantly enough and it even made Jay miss being around Aladdin and Jasmine a bit himself as they had shown him the kindness that Belle and Adam had shown Mal despite their parents past, in this case it meant a bit more since his father had tried to destroy them.

Then Ben asked his father, "So did you guys get Marcellus onto the Isle of the Lost okay? Did we end up putting that magic glove of his in the museum?"

"With someone's mother's spinning wheel?" Carlos added with a chuckle. That drew a bit of a venomous glare from Audrey at the mention of the object that cursed her mother, though in truth she was more offended by the mention of it than Aurora herself was. He then gasped, "Ow." As Jay smacked him upside the head.

"You are such a nerd Carlos." Mal said to him with a mock shake of her head which got a second or two of laughter from the teens before they saw the looks of confusion on the adult's faces. "Um, did I say something wrong?"

"Mal, Ben." Adam said as he looked toward them and then looked at the other rangers. "We had received a note saying that the guards had chosen to escort him to the isle in person to avoid any problems during the transfer."

They each exchanged looks of confusion. "That isn't what was supposed to happen." Audrey noted.

"No it wasn't." Fairy Godmother agreed. "But in the note you seemed so insistent that we thought it was well in hand." She looked to Mal.

Mal sighed softly as the most likely scenario kicked into place. "Oh, mother." She stated with a roll of her eyes. "She must have sent that note so you wouldn't get suspicious when she freed Marcellus from the guards." She shook her head. "I'm thinking some very unlady like things right now."

Aziz checked in with his parents only to receive confirmation on what Mal had suspected. The guards had been ambushed by Reviveslime and the soldiers after running across an old woman in the desert who they thought might've needed help. Mal was willing to bet anything that it was Maleficent magically disguised, and Evie herself pointed out that her mother had tricked Snow White into taking a bite of that poison apple as an old woman, though it was anyone's guess if that was a coincidence or not.

"One more lunatic fringe in Paradias's grasp." Jordan said with a sigh. "It's about the last thing we needed."

"I wonder if he'll know how to restore Chad's powers to him." Audrey said a little fearfully.

"It won't make a difference." Jay promised as he squeezed the brunette princesses' hand.

They arrived back at Auradon Prep, many of the teens planning to meet with their families that evening. They only had enough time to drop their duffels off at their rooms before getting an incoming call. They found Fairy Godmother on screen. "Let me guess, Paradias couldn't wait to throw us a welcome home party. Or is it Sermaya?" Mal asked sarcastically.

"None of them this time." Fairy Godmother responded "Actually your welcome home entourage comes in the form of an energy reading."

From the speakers they heard Ally questioned, "Energy reading?"

"Yes." She answered. "From a new zord." She hesitated for a moment before adding, "The readings are far stronger than anything we've seen before. This zord is stronger than even the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord."

Again from the speakers they heard Lonnie gasp, "Will, Gregory, that could be your zord."

"That'd be great." Gregory said.

"It would indeed." Will said.

"Meet me in the command center, all of you." Fairy Godmother said to the team. "We must locate it and acquire it before Paradias tries anything."

"What could he try?" Will asked confused. "Won't they run on our iPhones and gems?"

"Yes." Jane answered from the speaker of her own iPhone. "These, by the way, will be waiting for you when we reach the command center. The problem is when we first discovered the Auradon Megazord we learned that some of Paradias's soldiers had these objects that matched up with the group color scheme, except for Mal's. They planned on taking control of the megazord with that."

"Is that even possible anymore?" Audrey asked from over the iPhone. It became unnecessary for Mal and Evie as they saw her coming around the corner now. "Those same objects held the Psycho Rangers and they're gone now. Plus there was no Psycho Green or Gray."

"Actually, interesting aside here; Psycho Black could coordinate with either green or black." Doug intervened and as Evie giggled little at this Mal and Audrey had to share an eye roll. Technically this wasn't the time for a side bar. "When Psycho's were brought back to attack the Galaxy Rangers there was no black ranger, just a green one."

"Come to think of it." Jane now added. "We're only the third instance in history where we've even had a black and green ranger on the same team. The first was Zordon's original team and the second one was in another parallel world where a group called the RPM Rangers live. This doesn't count the spirit rangers." They didn't know about the Dino Charge rangers or she would have included them in as well.

"And that first occurrence had the green ranger not be part of the core five." Doug added.

"That is kind of interesting." Evie noted. "I wonder what the correlation is between black and green. I also noted the Jungle Fury team lacked not only one of those rangers but a pink ranger too. It'd be interesting to chart that out, do you suppose…"

"Okay, E, guys no offense but think this could be discussed at a later point?" Mal interrupted them.

"Sorry, M." Evie said a little sheepishly as she heard Jane and Doug agree on their ends. There was also amused laughter over the speakers from Lonnie, Aziz, Jay and Ally. They found their way to the command center. Jane and Doug made their way to the consoles to help Fairy Godmother pinpoint the new zord.

"Anyone else find it just a bit curious that we just happen to find the new zord now?" Audrey asked.

"Why would we?" Carlos wondered.

"She might be right." Jordan said in thought. "I mean it usually took a little bit of time before the zords were found, and except for the Auradon Megazord it basically required the zords to show up on their own."

"Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth." Jay suggested. "We need all the advantages we can get, especially if Maleficent does have Marcellus on their side."

Jane wandered over to one of the panels and lifted out two iPhones. She handed one to Will and one to Gregory. "Put the

"Where is it?" Gregory asked them. "Do we have any ideas?"

"I've got the energy signatures narrowed down." Doug announced as he looked up. "They're in the countryside, not far from where Queen Belle grew up at."

"We need to be prepared for the idea that they'll find out about this." Mal said. She looked to Ben, Jordan and Ally. "We're all going to try for this together, but if they show up the three of you have to help Will and Gregory get to this zord while the rest of us deal with them." Her boyfriend and the two girls nodded in understanding.

"Be careful." Fairy Godmother warned them. Jane kissed her mother on cheek before the team wandered out of the command center. It took a bit of time to even reach the countryside area and they were all kind of surprised that they didn't have company already waiting for them.

"We're getting closer, everyone stay on guard.' Jay said.

"Good idea there." They heard Reviveslime say as he seemed to form out of nowhere, which was entirely possible for a big pile of slime. "You never know what could try to attack you from behind." Then from around him appeared several warriors.

"Just as we discussed everyone." Mal said as she looked at the group and then announced. "Let's get to work." Ben formed his sword and shield, Jane took out the magic wand, while the rest of the team pulled out their iPhones and input their numbers, and the entire group transformed.

"Be careful." Aziz said to Ally as he saw her and Jordan preparing to make a run for it.

"You too love." Ally said and Jordan was sure Aziz was blushing at that one but now wasn't the time for a laugh at her old friend's expense.

"You be careful too." Ben said to Mal.

"You too Bennie-Boo, keep your guard up. We may be taking this front but that doesn't mean we won't have problems elsewhere." Mal said. He nodded and then minus they split in two, Ben leading the four rangers away while the rest engaged against Reviveslime and the soldiers.

"All is going according to plan." Nerissa said to Paradias. "Maleficent's daughter is leading the fight against Reviveslime with the bulk of the team while the young king has lead the others, including the new rangers, off to find the warzord."

Paradias snickered. "Excellent." He looked to Chad. "It's a shame your powers aren't up yet but don't worry, you still have your role to play in this. It's just later than we anticipated." He looked to Nerissa. "And we must play our part as well; send some soldiers to attack knight and the four rangers." He rose to his feet. "Soon the time will come for Reviveslime to rise to greater heights."

Jordan pulled out her iPhone again to follow the energy signatures that had been detected by the command center. Ben and Gregory were at the rear of the party while Ally and Will stayed in the middle.

It was Will who first saw the first soldier to appear, which he immediately carved into oblivion. He was however followed by several more soldiers to appear.

Ben started to battle them with his own sword and shield. "We've to take these things out as quickly as possible." He said to the others.

"We're working on it, I assure you." Gregory said as he took out his axe and took out another.

It kind of made Ally glad that Chad wasn't able to fight right now, though she suspected if that were the case he would be dealing with other half of the team. She was sure that Jay wouldn't mind that though.

Reviveslime clashed with Mal and Aziz as the rest of the team dealt with the soldiers. He noticed that it wouldn't be long before the team took down the soldiers and it would just be them and him. He lashed out and struck Mal and Aziz had, forcing them to roll backwards. The rest of the team came up to check on them.

"Last man standing Reviveslime." Lonnie reminded him.

"So it would seem." He agreed and laughed. "But don't forget that you can't beat me. I will always reform."

"We have to find a spell to remedy that." Jane noted. "If we can."

Then a familiar green glow surrounded Reviveslime and when it passed he had grown to enormous size. "Looks like the tone of our fight has changed again power rangers." He said mockingly.

"Let's do it guys." Audrey said to Jay, Carlos, Lonnie and Evie. "We need Auradon Megazord power." The five of them were in the cockpit of their zord and inserted their iPhones into their appropriate spots.

"Auradon Falconzord, let's go." Aziz called out. He and Jane boarded the falconzord with the silver ranger inserting his iPhone into the proper slot.

Mal summoned her dragon zord. It came soaring through the skies, where she had left it to roam while they had journeyed to Agrabah. She jumped on top of the head where it took on its alternate form, like a Chinese dragon, and Mal was inside the formed cockpit, placing her iPhone in the right place. "Glad to be back in action?" She asked rhetorically as she pat the console softly.

Reviveslime laughed. "Three against one odds, now somehow this just doesn't seem fair." He noted and then brought his hands together before sending them out again and releasing two similar colored blobs. They formed into slightly smaller versions of himself. "Meet my new slime doubles. Together we'll make sure to take you all out of the game."

"I guess we aren't the only one learning to change it up." Evie commented.

"Any ideas?" Carlos asked.

"I think I have one." Jane replied. She used her iPhone to send something over to the Auradon Megazord. "I was working on this configuration after seeing the Auradon Falocon Battlezord." She revealed. "Except this one is for us."

The schematic appeared for the five rangers. It actually looked very similar in look to the aforementioned battlezord but this one had the wings right in between the arms, similar to the Shogun Falconzord used by the original team of Power Rangers. "What about Mal?" Audrey asked.

"My dragon zord and I are just fine on our own, no worries." Mal told her second in command. "Go ahead and try out this new formation."

"Alright, let's do it." Audrey agreed

The Falconzord descended into the sky and then around, repositioning its wings to fold parallel to each other. The Auradon Megazord's arms separated and enclosed around the wings as the body pressed into the back of the Auradon Megazord's back. Jane and Aziz then got space within the cockpit of the zord.

Meanwhile Mal's dragon zord circled as if it were ready to take out the slime creatures on its own.

"Nice wings." Reviveslime said to the rangers. "Let's see what you've got."

"They have their zords out." Ally noted. "We're running low on time."

Ben looked to Will and Gregory. "You two go on ahead and get your zord. We're going to deal with these things and then go help Mal and everyone out." He said. The two boys nodded and headed inside with Gregory leading the way.

"I hope we can get rid of these things and get to them in time." Ally noted as she unleashed her crystal cards. It took out a fair amount of them but the soldiers seemed to be never ending.

Despite the new wings Jay and Lonnie were able to combine their weapons into the slots to make their sword while Evie was able to place her mirror shield into her slot to make the shield.

One of the slime monsters rammed right into the Auradon though the shield took most of the impact. They brought the sword down on it only to find that, much as the general who spawned them, they reformed just after impact. "Oh, just great. They're like Reviveslime." Audrey groused. "How are we supposed to stop these things?"

The dragon zord lashed out its tail and slammed it into the slime being that was heading toward it. The thing flew right into its counterpart and then the dragon zord raised its head high and unleashed the meteoric barrage right on them.

"Quick, let's launch the feather missiles." Jane said.

"Feather missiles?" Jay questioned.

"Must be a new feature because of our combination." Aziz surmised.

The arms of the Auradon Falcon Megazord were swung wide and a barrage of missiles that looked like feathers were unleashed from the tips of the wings. Unlike feathers these did not fly as if on light breeze but rather like they were launched by the same devices that were used to launch balls on the Tourney field. Combining them with the meteoric descent it turned the two slime creatures into nothing.

"Two down and one to go." Audrey said excitedly.

"Don't think that your neat little trick will work so well against me." Reviveslime cautioned them. "And speaking of…" He repeated the same procedure, replicating two more slime minions. This time though as the two charged the Auradon Falcon Megazord the slime general himself went after the Dragon zord.

Another barrage of feather missiles were released but without the additional power of the meteoric barrage the missiles only caused damage that rapidly healed. Both of them rammed straight into the Auradon Falcon Megazord and the combined weight sent the zord sprawling.

Meanwhile Reviveslime brought his sword down on the Dragon zord and Mal swore she could hear her zord give out a roar of pain. It responded by trying to slam its tail into the slime general but he caught it and then brought it overhead, smashing it into the ground hard.

The soldier seemed to back up now. It was just as well because Ben and the two girls could see that the rest of their friends needed the help.

"Jane, Ally and I are on our way with the Auradon Battlezord." Jordan said from the helmet intercom. "Get ready to join us."

"Acknowledged." Jane replied.

Ben summoned his horse zord, which like Mal's dragon zord, had been released to its own devices for the trip to Agrabah. The two zords charged toward the battle.

As the two descended into the caves Will couldn't help worrying about what was to come. Things were only going to get worse for them as the days progressed and he could only hope Lonnie and the rest of the team could endure what was to come.

The path seemed to be winding but it was very narrow. Will wondered rather or not it was supposed to be that way. It was so much easier compared to how Lonnie had described how the other zords were found.

The winding path ended with a huge upward strip that contained the warzord. It stood as tall as any zord ever did of course. There were no visible weapons but the scanner app on the iPhone revealed gauntlets that extended from the hands as well as blade that would replace the hands and legs. It also had hidden shoulder mounted missile launchers. "This is definitely a warzord alright." Will noted dryly.

Gregory looked at him. "It's time now." He said to the green ranger. "Time for everything to change."

Will nodded grimly. "Yeah, it is." He agreed solemnly. Together the two of them headed up toward the zord's cockpit.


	52. The Warzord Part 2

As the two slime creatures double teamed the Auradon Falcon Megazord, they were caught off guard as the Auradon Battlezord moved in and punched both of them backwards where the rolled to a stop.

The Horse zord moved in and gave a hard rear kick to Reviveslime and he rolled back as well. Then he rose up and laughed. "Look, the other two zords have shown up to the fight." He laughed happily. "I can't wait to see how you try to change up this fight now kiddies."

"He is so condescending." Jordan noted with disgust. "We've beaten him more times than he can possibly count."

Mal meanwhile was trying to figure out the best way to stop Reviveslime and his slimy little creatures. The fact that he could easily create more was a problem she wasn't even sure how they could deal with. "Switch up time guys. Go for the Auradon Defender Megazord and the Auradon Falcon Battlezord." She instructed.

The Falconzord disconnected from the Auradon Megazord, taking Aziz with it. Jane had already joined the other two girls on the battlezord. That didn't last long as the two zords combined, making the room in the cockpit for the four ranger and forming the Auradon Falcon Battlezord.

The Auradon Megazord came around and got onto the horse zord's back, the two connecting to form the Auradon Defender Megazord. A new space was made in the Auradon Megazord cockpit for Ben. Mal's Dragon zord still stayed solo.

"How unexpected. And by that I mean completely expected." Reviveslime taunted. It did however still mean there was one extra zord, making the numbers even. Reviveslime launched himself at the Auradon Defender Megazord while the two slime minions went after the Dragon zord and the Auradon Falcon Battlezord.

"I've seen how these things do on the ground." Aziz said. He had been in the Auradon Falcon Megazord when it had been struck by the first slime creature to have been summoned. "Let's see how this thing takes to the skies." With that the Auradon Falcon Battlezord took to the skies. The slime creature attempted to shoot slime balls after them but were deflected by the wings of the zord.

"That's hardly fair." Chad groused. "They've taken to the skies. Soon Ben's little girlfriend will do the same thing, and if she combines with the Auradon Megazord then none of them will be able to reach."

"Maleficent said she had a plan for this." Nerissa reminded them and looked to Paradias. "Is it ready?"

"Maleficent." He called. A holographic image of the evil fairy appeared in front of him. "Your surprise for the first trip, is it ready for action?"

"It is." Maleficent answered with a laugh. "Those rangers can take to the skies all they want; the distance won't protect them from this."

The Auradon Falcon Battlezord began to move downward to deliver a fatal punch to the slime creature when some dark clouds parted and slammed right into the zord. Ally gasped. "It can't be."

"Oh, but it is." Replied Jabberwock, the mechanical insectoid like creature the rangers had fought and barely won against in Wonderland weeks ago. "You may have killed Red Queen and 'saved' Wonderland but Maleficent has guaranteed me a chance for revenge." With that he released his hold on the battle zord and unleashed a stream of fire from its mouth, sending it straight down to the ground with a harsh crash.

Jordan pieced it together immediately. This was why they had tried to kidnap Ally not so long ago, probably so Jabberwock could kill her, thereby finishing the revenge plan against her mother Alice Liddell.

"Oh my gosh." Evie whispered as the newest addition to the Paradias's team landed. "Jabberwock, somehow he's back."

"I'm sure my mother is to thank for this." Mal noted with distaste. She had not been close enough to hear Jabberwock confirm as much to Aziz and the three girls.

"Looks like the odds are right where we want them to be." Reviveslime noted with amusement. "Firmly on our side."

"Will and Gregory better get here soon." Lonnie noted. "Otherwise it may not matter."

"Mal, I suggest you and the Auradon Falcon Battlezord deal with the slime things like we did the first time." Audrey suggested. "We'll keep Reviveslime and Jabberwock busy."

"Good plan Audrey." Mal said. "Jay, ladies. You heard her. Let's get to work." The dragon zord surged forward and before raising its tail up and slamming it into the ground. It separate the four villains, though putting one of them on a side with Reviveslime and the other with Jabberwock.

"Let's give them a hand bringing them together." Ben said.

"Good idea." Audrey agreed. The Auradon Defender Megazord raised its shield and charged the other slime creature, knocking it over against both Jabberwock and the other slime creature.

The Dragon zord repeated the process, slamming the tail in between the two creatures and Jabberwock and then immediately raising it up to slap Jabberwock hard.

"Quick, while they're separated." Jay said. The Auradon Defender Megazord's sword turned into a spear as they charged the two generals. "I just hope they don't take too long, we can't take those two on our own."

The Dragon zord unleashed another meteoric storm, but Mal realized that this attack wasn't as strong as the last one. She had a feeling that for some reason the more it was used in a single fight the less power it would have over time. That meant she had to make sure she didn't use it too often.

Luckily the Auradon Falcon Battlezord was more powerful than the Auradon Falcon Megazord as it soared up and narrowed the wings in its back to again unleash a flurry of feather missiles straight at the two slime things, again destroying them.

"Quick, lets focus on Reviveslime so he doesn't have the chance to replicate more of those things." Lonnie suggested. The others agreed and they moved in to strike at the slime general. The other two battle zords moved in to deal with Jabberwock.

"You just don't know when to quit." Reviveslime said with amusement. "I guess that's a good thing. Not that it will help you all out now." With that Jabberwock unleashed a strong gust of power from his wings and blew the two battle zords into the Dragon zord.

Then they saw the large warzord coming up to them. "Are you guys okay?" Will called out to them.

"We could be doing a lot worse." Lonnie answered, glad that they were here; especially Will. "But Jabberwock definitely wasn't in the plans."

"I'll say." Will agreed.

Reviveslime and Jabberwock combined their attack and struck again the fallen zords, also managing to strike the warzord.

"I think the four of us can take these guys on." Mal said. "Let's move in and get these guys to retreat."

Evie gasped as she saw on a hill three figures. Maleficent, Paradias and Nerissa. "The time has come to bring you power rangers to your knees." Paradias stated with what Audrey thought was a load of melodrama, very ironic considering.

The Dragon Zord, Auradon Defender Megazord and the Auradon Falcon Battlezord moved in toward the two standing generals. The warzord retracted its arms and legs to become blades and then seemed to crouch down as it prepared to cut a swath toward the generals.

Then it leapt, but instead it swerved and slashed all three of the ranger's zords. "What are you doing Will? Gregory?" Ben demanded.

"Surprise." Gregory said with a laugh.

The warzord landed between the two generals and then combined their fire powers, the overwhelming force causing the zord's to forcefully retreat. The Ben and the rangers landed hard on the ground, the Auradon Knight and the purple ranger landing finding their zords beside them miniaturized and crystallized.

"No, Will…" Lonnie said softly. She could barely stand up as Audrey and Ally helped her.

Then Evie happened to glance around and see a flash of green on the ground. "Guys, look!" She gasped. They turned to see the green ranger lying on his back on the ground as well. He seemed to be unconscious but breathing. They ran to Will's side.

Then on the top of the warzord they saw Gregory, along with Marcellus and Chad. "One of them must have forced him out." Jordan said to them all.

"Gregory, what are you doing?" Ben asked, sounding a little upset. Mal was beside him with her hand on her shoulder. The purple haired girl knew her boyfriend was thinking about Chad's betrayal. She looked to Evie as she was by Lonnie, checking on Will.

Mal thought then about Chad betraying them. How he had not only upset Ben and Audrey, but his mother Cinderella and his father, to say nothing about his sister Callie. "Gregory, don't do this. Think about your parents, any of your siblings." She called out.

"Oh, I think my family would be rather proud of me for this." Gregory said. His voice didn't seem nearly as cultured and understanding as it had beforehand. "I think my father Gaston would be happy to see one of his sons with a stolen ranger power and a powerful warzord."

"Gaston?" Audrey repeated in shock.

Of course the name resonated within Ben. He was the one who tried to kill Adam when he was the Beast; he was the one who wanted Belle while she was possibly the only girl in that village who wasn't impressed by him. It seemed to him that it was all some joke for the son of Gaston to form a friendship with his son of his father's rivals.

Jay and Aziz had that same thought and glanced at each other, realizing that it wouldn't have taken much for them to find themselves in the same position.

"You." Mal said as she looked to her mother. "You did this…somehow."

Maleficent laughed. "Indeed I did Mal." She confirmed. "You should have already realized that we're steps ahead of you and your little band of 'heroes' after our encounter at Wonderland."

"We did win that one you know." Jay pointed out.

"Did you?" Maleficent questioned as she pointed her staff further up, to where the enlarged Jabberwock stood with the enlarged Reviveslime and the warzord. "From here it seems like we broke even. You got three rangers and we got a new fighter." She laughed evilly. "And now we have one of your ranger powers on one of our people and one of your zords under our command."

"And in case you haven't figured this out yet, I have no intention of returning my gray ranger powers to you." Gregory informed them snidely. "T hanks for the container though Janey." He added to the white ranger with a laugh. "I've already blocked it from your network, so don't even think about a technological solution."

"Then we'll get those powers back another way." Jay declared. He and Aziz started toward them, ready to jump up and attack when Marcellus released a stream of energy and struck the two rangers down hard. Audrey and Ally were already at their sides. Seeing the red ranger's concern for the black ranger pissed Chad off, as Mal could easily see.

"It's time to end the reign of the Auradon Rangers." Paradias said. "Destroy them." The generals got ready to move in on them but Jordan used her magic to cause them all to disappear.

"Run all you want children." Paradias called out for what it was worth. "Your end is only a matter of time."

This time Jordan's magic was spot on and they arrived in the command center. Doug was already working on the consoles to see if there was anything they could do to stop the warzord from being taken from them or to take the gray ranger powers from Gregory. The look on his face made the others think he wasn't being successful. The team powered down, then Jane and Carlos moved over to try to help though they too suspected that it was too late, especially since a redundancy had not seemed necessary. Until now.

Jay and Aziz settled Will down on a small cot. Lonnie took off Will's helmet as he was not able to power down at that point. "What's wrong with him?" She asked.

"I think he's just unconscious." Evie said to her. "He's still breathing and if there was any internal damage we would see evidence of damage on the suit too."

"How did a son of a villain slip through?" Audrey wanted to know. She knew how Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos were here obviously, but they didn't slip through either. They had literally been invited by Ben after all.

"However it happened, it doesn't reflect in our school records." Fairy Godmother said. "There is no mention of Gaston in his transcripts. "Only his mother is noted here anyway, a Linda LeGurne Woolverton."

"That has to be an alias of some kind." Jay said to them all. "Gaston's last name is LeGurne. We went to classes with his two sons Gaston Jr. and Gaston the Third."

"And people call me egotistical." Audrey noted as she sat down and wrapped her arms around herself. "I always thought I'd name my daughter Jennifer. I always thought it was such a pretty name."

"Actually I think it is too." Mal noted with a small smile. "But where did Gregory come from and how did Gaston even get him on this island?"

"I'm afraid the only thing I can think of is that we have sympathizers or even traitors in Auradon." Ben answered.

"Hey, that's not fair." Evie warned him. "Remember that Snow White wasn't entirely okay about this and she even supported what you wanted to do with us before most others, including your own parents, understood." She didn't want her step-sister to get into any trouble because she had never shown Evie any disgust or anger.

Surprisingly to most of them Audrey looked to Ben. "She's right." She supported the blue haired girl. "We can't blame any sympathizers there might be without concrete evidence." She did indeed know that there were some who considered the isle too harsh, especially if they were minions or minor trouble makers. She wasn't exactly in that camp but she was willing to give others a chance if they ended up like Jay and the others.

"Remember if there are any sympathizers responsible for this that crosses the line into treachery." Mal reminded her team. She looked to Ben. "But honey we can't assume that that is what happened. We could be looking at something else set up by Paradias that there is no way anyone in Auradon could be prepared for."

"Right now whatever blame that may exist is not relevant." Fairy Godmother said to them all. "We have to concentrate on getting the warzord and the gray ranger powers back from him."

"The warzord is as much Will's as Gregory's." Lonnie said. "Doesn't that mean something? Can't he take it back?"

"Not if Chad and Marcellus are going to start piloting that with him." Jordan answered simply. "Neither of them have zords, but we all do. We can't change that."

Lonnie was still by Will's side as Mal and Ben sat together, each seeking comfort in the other. Audrey was sitting down though Jay couldn't sit, he contended himself with rubbing his hands up and down her arms. Ally sat on Aziz's lap.

After about twenty minutes of silence Doug and Jane sighed while Carlos couldn't help but slam a fist against the console. "It's hopeless." Doug said.

Jane elaborated. "I don't know if Gregory is as technically advanced as we are or if Paradias as yet another unknown genius in his employ, but either way we're locked out of the gray ranger iPhone and the zord." She explained.

"In fact the warzord's station was moved to the moon." Carlos revealed. "We can't get even try to get to it."

"How long until we have the zord's repaired and regenerated?" Mal asked them.

"I'd have to analyze your crystallized zords to be sure about you and Ben." Jane told the two of them as she looked up from a console. "But the Auradon Megazord and the Auradon Battlezord will take at least three days to get up and running, with the Falconzord ready in almost two days."

"Too long if they decide to capitalize on the power of the warzord." Jay noted grimly. Audrey placed a hand over his to try to reassure him, but was sure it was about as successful for him as it was for her.

Will stirred with a moan and Lonnie took his hand. "Will, can you hear me?" She asked softly.

"Yeah." Will answered. "I can." He sat up, wincing a little in pain. Lonnie was a bit shocked when he gently pulled his hand away from hers.

"Gregory, Marcellus and Chad took control of the warzord." Mal told him.

Will stood and powered down. He paced a little bit and everyone thought he was merely trying to absorb the news. Then he looked back at them and replied, "Yeah. I know." He said. "That was supposed to be the plan all along."

They all stared at him in shock. Finally Ally got out with, "Wait? How do you know that?"

"I don't understand." Lonnie said in a near whisper.

Will looked down at his iPhone and the power gem in it. "Two weeks ago Gregory came to the school in my village. Not long afterwards he came to me and told me that I had to help him with a task; to help sabotage the power rangers." He revealed as, not meeting their eyes. "I didn't know what he meant by that but I refused. But he wasn't alone, he had Maleficent with him. She threatened Whitney and my mother."

"You mean she was going to have them killed." Mal said. She felt for him but the betrayal was definitely a slap in the face, sort to speak.

Will shook his head. "No, she told me there were worse things that could happen to them that would make them wish she had killed them. Unless I agreed to do as she ordered." He sighed a bit. "I don't expect you guys to believe me, but I didn't have a choice."

"So what changed?" Ben asked him. His voice sounded like Mal's and Will couldn't figure out what either of them were thinking.

"Maleficent didn't count on three things; the first was Sermaya's invasion of the village. That made us transfer before she wanted that to happen. The second was getting the powers in the Cave of Wonders but as you saw she had no problems working with that one."

"And why did you get left behind?" Fairy Godmother asked him. "If you were partnered with them, why did they leave you behind?"

"Because the third thing they didn't count on was that I would come to like all of you. That I would especially come to like you Lonnie." Will added. He glanced in her direction but she couldn't seem to meet his eyes. He couldn't say he was surprised. "I wasn't going to go through with it and I hoped with both my sister and mother here in Auradon, Maleficent wouldn't be able to go carry out her threat. But they must have known what I was planning. Before I could get Gregory out of the warzord Marcellus and Chad appeared and shot me out so they could take over it."

For a moment silence dominated the command center as they all processed the story they had just heard combined with the feelings of betrayal they all felt on some level. Then Will took a deep breath. "Lonnie." He started.

Abruptly the Asian princess stood up. "No." She said softly but firmly. "I…I can't hear this…I can't…" No one expected her to dash up the stairs and out of the command center. It made them all feel even worse about what happened.

Another tense moment passed before Will tossed Mal the green iPhone. "I expect that you would want to replace me. You can't have someone on your team that don't trust." He stated and started toward the stairs himself. "I can't just leave the school, all I can promise is that I'll keep your secret though if you send Jordan to erase my memories I'd understand that too. I'll see you all around, or maybe not." With that Will started up the steps himself, sure that Lonnie would be long gone and he wouldn't run into her.

More silence followed for a moment as they were each lost in their own thoughts. Audrey looked up at Jay a moment before lying her head on his arm.

"What do you want to do M?" Evie asked her chosen sister gently as she came to stand beside her.

Mal looked down at the iPhone and then looked to Ben. A look seemed to pass between them and then they turned to face the rest of their friends. "I know what needs to be done." She said to them all.


	53. The Path to Set it Right

Chad approached Paradias's throne, where he sat with Maleficent and Nerissa on either side of the leader of the evil forces. From behind him stood Marcellus and Gregory, the eldest son of Gaston and the gray ranger. On opposite sides further on the bridge stood Reviveslime and the newest general of their army Jabberwock.

"Your powers are finally ready to be restored to you Chad." Paradias said. "And not a moment too soon, as you have proved your worth by assisting in the liberation of the warzord that the rangers had intended to use as their own."

Nerissa stood forward and held up an extremely sharp and wicked looking blade. "This sword is known as Maledict's blade." She announced. "Maledict himself is a powerful demon within the underworld that had launched several temporal attacks in the world." She didn't point out that each of those attacks had been thwarted by the power rangers or other groups that would undoubtfully be their allies. "Your dark shield has been modified for the difference in sword shape."

She handed the blade to him hilt first and he took it. "I can feel its dark power." Chad noted with glee. He couldn't wait to try this in combat. "I can feel its thirst for blood, and for life." He laughed a bit, sounding even more cruel if possible. "I have no problems giving it that life, or Audrey's blood." He didn't plan on killing her though, he had other plans for her that would at some point make her beg for death.

"Take it and prepare for battle." Paradias said. "Without any zords to work with we only have to make the last moves to end this game."

Lonnie sat just outside the school against one of the walls. She ran her hands through her hair as she tried to process all of the emotions running through her mind. _Does Will really like me? Was that all just a game? What if we're still being played?_ She shot her head up so abruptly that the back of her head hit the wall a bit and she flinched and had to bite back a word that she knew her mother would disapprove of.

She looked out into the forest and let out a small sigh, though she wasn't sure what to call it. If it had come from anyone else she would have read it as a cross between desperation and sadness, maybe some fatigue mixed into it. "Life sure got harder since I took you up." She said to her iPhone with the pink energy gem.

"You'll get no argument from me." She heard and for a brief insane moment she swore her iPhone had talked back only to look up and see Ben standing at the entrance to the school. "Sorry to startle you." Ben said to her now. He stepped out and asked, "Mind if I sit down?"

"Go ahead." Lonnie said to him. As he slid down beside her she warned him, "But I'm not really in a mood for a conversation right now Ben." She looked down again at her iPhone.

"It's fine." Ben told her with a shrug. "You listen, I'll talk. As the king of Auradon I'm going to have to talk a lot, and it will get ignored anyway so I might as well get used to it." Both of them shared a small laugh at the self-deprecating joke. "I do know what you're going through though." He assured her.

Lonnie laughed shortly at that. "How could you possibly know what I'm feeling?" She asked him.

"Because I did go through the same thing with Mal." Ben answered her. He felt kind of guilty to even be saying it but he knew it had to be said. "They all came here with the intent to steal the magic wand ,we know that now. We also know now that she decided the best way to do that was to become my girlfriend and she used magic to make that happen."

"Yeah, we do know that already." Lonnie said a bit impatiently. "I also think it was my tear that allowed them to do that when I felt sad over their parents being so different from ours." She had caught them making cookies but had thought nothing of it at the time. "But honestly, even though Audrey is my friend, I have to say even if Mal and the others hadn't come to Auradon Prep, you two still wouldn't have made it as a couple."

"I'm not arguing that, and honestly she hasn't said it but I think Audrey has come to realize that too." Ben assured her. "It's not about the spell pressing the end of our romance though. It's about the fact that everything from that first cookie to the end of our first date occurred over a spell."

"Which washed away in the enchanted lake." Lonnie realized. She was starting to piece it together. "What were your thoughts when you realized she had placed you under a spell?"

Ben took a deep breath. "A bit of hurt, though at the time a lot of that was the fact she didn't trust that I would see the good in her despite everything. Some shock, I mean that's the kind of thing that would get us into trouble." He put one of his hands into the other. "And honestly as time went on I felt a bit of betrayal when I thought back on it and realized that it had to be a ploy for something else. Hadn't thought about the wand though."

"But you still kept it up." Lonnie said.

"I wasn't keeping up anything." Ben clarified for her. "I pushed past all of that to realize that despite all that I really felt like I loved her, and that hasn't changed since then. If anything it's gotten stronger." He laughed a little. "And she realized it too, she made a reversal to that spell, not realizing it had washed away. She still took my ring knowing what was expected of her."

"It's different." Lonnie tried to say. "She was doing it because she wanted to please her mother, something that I think we're all fated to try to do on some level." She took a deep breath. "Will meanwhile…"

"Did what he did to protect his family." Ben said to her. "A motive we should all be able to understand, even if we all think the method was left a lot to be desired." He looked over at her now. "But Mal got the wand, and she chose not to go through with it. She instead realized that she wanted to be good and to be with me." He still marveled a bit at the revelation all four of them had had at his coronation. How happy he had been. "She cared about me enough to turn her back on her mother, and Will cared about all of us, and you specifically, to risk Maleficent going after her family."

Lonnie sighed. She knew the young king was right of course. "You think we can trust him then?" She asked softly.

"I think we can trust him." Ben said and then laid a hand on hers. "I think you can love him."

Lonnie smiled a little and laid her head on his shoulder a moment. "You're like the brother I never had." She admitted softly.

"You're like the sister I never wanted." He said with a laugh and Lonnie elbowed him in the side gently for it. "Seriously, you're like the sister I never had either. You and Audrey both, maybe that's why it never seemed like we were working out."

"I'm surprised it wasn't noticed sooner." Lonnie said with a shrug. "You two grew up and were so close that it was just kind of wrong to see you guys that way."

"We both thought that was expected of us." Ben said. "And as you said, we're all fated to try to do what is expected of us to some degree."

"I guess I just thought I knew Will so well, and then we get this huge near betrayal bomb shell dropped on us." Lonnie said and he felt her shrug. "It was just so shocking I didn't know how to cope."

"I'd say you know him as well as anyone ever has." Ben countered softly. "I'd be willing to bet even Mrs. Darling and Whitney even know about this."

"No, I suppose not." Lonnie agreed. They sat like that for another few minutes before she nodded. "Alright, you should return to the command center. I need to find Will and set things right." She stated.

Ben shook his head. "We'll both head back to the command center." He told her. "If things go the way I'm hoping, he'll meet us there."

Will was sitting on a chair playing with his saxophone, playing a few random notes. He couldn't get his mind off of Lonnie's reaction when she found out what had happened. He was sure she'd never speak to him again and he couldn't blame her personally.

He glanced out the window and was startled when he heard a knock on the door. He jumped slightly and turned to see Mal standing there, leaning against the door frame. She was smirking just a little at his reaction. "Sorry to disturb your deep musings." She said with a small smile.

"I take it you brought a memory potion of some sort." Will said dryly.

"Is that what you want?" Mal inquired.

"It doesn't matter what I want." Will replied simply. "I've betrayed all of your trusts and Lonnie will probably never speak to me again."

"Kind of ironic." Mal said. "I thought the same thing about Ben." She gestured toward another chair and he nodded. "You never met me or my friend when we came to Auradon." She mused. "We came here for one simple reason; my mother wanted the magic wand that Jane uses to transform. I put Ben under a love spell because only his parents and his girlfriend could be close enough to the wand to be able to grab it."

"I know that didn't happen." Will said archly. "Or else you wouldn't be here."

"True enough." Mal agreed. "Because as we acclimated; Evie with her being so much smarter than any of us ever thought. Jay with his love of Tourney. Carlos with being a dog person and taking care of Dude. Me, with falling in love with Ben." She leaned back a little. "I had to take the love potion off of Ben…if my mother's plan had gone off having him be in love with me not by choice was just cruel…I couldn't do it."

"What's your point?" Will asked her.

"We were worse than you. You did what you did to protect the people you loved." Mal replied. "Not us though. But like us you realized that the greater good, and the people you became friends with, surpassed anything. And that with your friends you could get past anything."

"I don't think Lonnie would agree with you." Will said.

"I think she will." Mal said. "Once she sorts through her hurt feelings."

Will bit his lip a moment. "How'd you work past your guilty feelings?" He asked her simply.

Now it was Mal's turn to think about it a moment. "This." She said as she held up her iPhone. "Keeping up the good fight, defending the people of the world. And knowing that at the end of the day I have Ben to be there for me through thick and thin." She leaned forward a bit. "And to have my friends there to support me, both old and new."

"Must be nice." Will mused.

"It is." Mal agreed. "Head's up." He looked up and caught the green iPhone in his right hand. "You have friends to support you and you have a thing to help with that whole redemption thing." She stood up. "You aren't Gregory or Chad, you did what you did for love and you feel bad about the consequences of that. You deserve that. You deserve us. You deserve Lonnie, if she's willing."

Will looked down at his iPhone for a moment and then set his saxophone to the side of the bed and stood up. "I'll give it a shot." He agreed. "But I have to find Lonnie first. I have to try to talk to her."

"Come on, let's go to the command center." Mal said. "I think that Lonnie will be waiting for us." Together the two left his dorm room.

Lonnie and Ben had made it to the classroom that the four isle kids had taken Remedial Goodness 101 at not long after coming to Auradon Prep. They had hung around for a few minutes before Will and Mal showed up.

The purple haired girl walked over to her boyfriend and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaned up and kissed him on the lips softly. "Hey, Bennie boo." She said with a small smirk.

"Hey." He said with a smile. He stroked her hair softly and whispered, "Looks like mission complete."

"Not exactly but pretty close." Mal whispered back. "But the rest is solely up to them." Together the two of them headed downstairs to the command center, leaving Lonnie and Will alone.

Awkward silence followed a moment. Then Lonnie said, "What you did, protecting your family." She leaned against a table as she looked at him. "My mother did the same thing for my grandfather during the conflict with the Huns." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Being caught would have resulted in her death." She took a deep breath. "I can't say I like your method but I fully understand your reasoning."

Will sat on the table across from her. "I hated it, even before I knew all of you." He told her. He wanted to take her hands but wasn't sure that would be okay with her. "I just didn't see a way out at first. Then I found I wanted a way to protect them and you…you guys."

"I get it." Lonnie promised him. "But you shouldn't have. This is what we do. Being power rangers, fighting to protect the world, the people we love and the things we care for. We knew what we were getting into, and that involves helping those who are threatened."

"You're right." Will agreed. "I should have thought about that. I just was afraid to take that chance. I should have."

"Yeah, you should have." Lonnie said. "Especially when you got the same powers we did." She reached out and took his hand. "When that happened it became more than just protecting. It became a matter of friends, of family. And not just us, but our parents too and…and well your sister." She again had to reflect that it was odd that none of them had siblings, regardless of whether they were Auradon teens or isle teens.

The two stood and were about to descend the steps to the command center when Lonnie took his hands. "Please promise not to keep something like this a secret from me anymore." She requested. To Will it almost sounded like a plea instead, and it broke his heart a little to have done that to her.

He nodded. "I promise, Lonnie. Never again." He replied.

Lonnie smiled slightly. In the time she had known him he had been honest and truthful with his dealings with her, this one admittedly big understandable incident notwithstanding. She was willing to take him at his word now. "Good." She said in a whisper before she leaned up and gently brushed her lips against his. Then she pulled away and the two went to the command center.

It was clear Mal and Ben had explained what they did to everyone. Some of course seemed more sympathetic than others. Evie, Carlos, Jane and Ally seemed to be okay, they acted like the big revelation even happened; the blue haired girl and the blonde giving friendly waves while the other two were working on the consoles for the solution to the mess he had somewhat helped create.

Everyone else seemed a little hesitant to be giving Will this big of a chance after what happened. Lonnie could understand that from the Auradon kids, especially Audrey who had had a very brutal experience when Chad had betrayed them by beating her to receive his powers, and he hadn't stopped targeting her because of that. Somehow though Lonnie would have expected Jay to be a bit more sympathetic given his background. Whatever it was she felt certain Will would win back their trust.

Fairy Godmother looked over at Will. "We all understand what you did, even if we can't necessarily agree with it." She told him gently but sternly. "None the less we've all agreed you should have shot at redeeming yourself, just as a few others around here have had." With this she glanced at everyone else. "I strongly urge you all not to pursue this matter anymore, just let it die here, unless Will wishes to talk to any of you about it for some reason."

Lonnie silently agreed as she placed her hand on Will's arm, showing the same kind of protectiveness that she had seen Ben display for Mal.

"At any rate, we are left with larger problems than that." Fairy Godmother said. "We have a truly rogue ranger who commands the strongest zord we have ever encountered. I'm open to suggestions."

"Why can't I take it back?" Will asked. "I mean I know I can't do it on my own but maybe Jane and Aziz could give me a hand."

"I thought about that." Jane told him. "In theory the idea is sound but I have a horrible feeling that it'll be recoded to prevent any access from our iPhones." She sighed a little. "Normally I'd say it's impossible but I didn't think anyone would be able to isolate their iPhones from the command center either and he did."

"I don't get it." Ally said. "What's the significance of that?"

"The iPhones are all linked to the command center to a degree." Doug answered her. "Not only does it allow easy access to the monster sensors and to communications that need only be sent to the team, but the powers are linked as well." He lightly brushed the edge of the console. "In theory if we had to for whatever reason all the powers could be shut off here, through a command that Fairy Godmother alone can input." He looked to Jane. "That does include a small chip implanted at the bottom of the wand."

"That seems kind of wrong." Mal said with a smirk and a small wicked grin. The truth was she thought she understood the reasoning for it.

"It's a safeguard." Fairy Godmother assured them all. "One I hope never to implement. It's not a matter of not trusting those that become power rangers, for the most part." In truth she was referring to Gregory but Will still felt the barb of that comment and grimaced a little. "But the truth is there is no such thing as incorruptible powers. If that were to ever happen I'd have a way of making sure they weren't turned against Auradon."

"How did Gregory even know about that safety net?" Audrey asked.

"It would confirm the idea that someone in Auradon is working with Paradias, regardless of whether we're talking about a traitor or someone infiltrating." Jay added.

"Most likely true." Fairy Godmother agreed. "It's a matter that will be addressed with the council. But we may never know who is responsible for this."

"So we can't cut the gray ranger powers off." Jordan said with a small frown. "Can we take them from him?" The others looked at her confused, except for of course Jane and Fairy Godmother. She explained, "Sometimes powers are something that can easily be transferred, it happened about a half dozen times with Zordon's ranger teams, but other times the powers bond with the holder on specific levels, like a DNA level, such as the Dino Gems. Those aren't so easy to take back."

"The hard part would obviously be getting the iPhone back from Gregory." Fairy Godmother replied. "But if we could get it back then we could reassign the powers."

"But we'd have to find someone to hold the powers." Audrey pointed out.

"Doug can do it." Jay said as he looked to him. "We can help you train to become a better fighter and you can be a power ranger."

"I actually wanted to talk to you guys about training up." Doug admitted but then shrugged. "But as for being a power ranger, I don't think so. Fairy Godmother can't run this place alone and you need someone right here just in case, something Jane proved time and again before she became the white ranger."

"He does have a point." Audrey agreed. "And if it really comes down to it he can still take the powers, but we should at least try to consider other sources."

"True, but who?" Jordan wondered. "How do we find someone we can trust for this?" The truth was she knew it was a bit of a gamble with her, Ally and Aziz being power rangers though they had proven to be trustworthy beforehand. Of course Will had too before his secret had come to light, regardless of the reasons. It was something she had to grant Gregory did not have.

"It is something we will have to consider." Fairy Godmother agreed. "But that is secondary compared to actually getting the gray ranger powers back. That won't be easy because Gregory knows we will try to get it back from him."

"It's not just that that should concern us." Will replied. "The warzord is also on their side and you've all lost your zords. It'll be days before they're back up. If they decide to launch that warzord now, we'd have a huge problem."

"I've been looking for any energy signatures that could lead to a new zord or zords but so far I have nothing to show for it." Jane said. "Wherever that warzord was hiding before today, it wasn't showing up at all."

"Neither did our other zords." Mal replied thoughtfully. "Why is that do you think?"

"An energy dampener maybe." Evie suggested. "To prevent anyone from finding it until we're meant to find it. The zords are powerful but as Gregory proved dangerous in the wrong hands."

"Well we need some of these things to stop working about now." Carlos mused.

"What about expediting the zord repairs?" Jay asked now.

Carlos snickered a little bit. "Expediting, that's a big word for you Jay." He said jokingly. Audrey gave a him a bit of glare, the same reaction any couple would give when their significant other had seemed to be insulted, but the comment got some laughter from Mal, Evie and Will. The others let it pass. "No, seriously. Doug's father and uncles are taking the time to help out with repairs and that'll shave off a few hours but we could still be running against the clock."

"What about a spell?" Ally asked. "Could we locate new zords?"

"I thought about that." Jordan told her. "Theoretically it's possible but despite their sizes a locator spell to find a zord would be pretty hard to work. We also can't ignore that anyone who would place an energy dampener on them would also think to place a magic jammer on them too." She shrugged a bit. "I mean think about if Paradias had found this warzord when it was just six rangers." There was no denying what would have happened then.

"Alright then, here's a thought." Mal said as she looked to Fairy Godmother and then all of her friends. "What about a new ranger?"

"Wait, what?" Aziz asked.

"How would we pull that one off?" Audrey asked her with some skepticism. Mal had to grant it was a fair question.

"Can't we either find or create a new power source?" Mal asked, getting a bit more excited about it. "Every new ranger seems to increase our zord options. It's like Zordon or some higher power saw this kind of thing coming? So why not hasten the process a little?"

"Jane?" Ben asked. She seemed to have had a hand in in, as was evidence by her completion of the pink ranger powers Lonnie was using.

Jane seemed to think a moment. "The basics are there." She allowed. "It'd be a simple matter of adjusting the parameters to create the individual power."

"Getting the gem would be easy enough. We've identified the type of gem used for it and Snow White could easily bring us one from my father and uncle's mines." Doug supplied.

"What would it even be?" Jay asked.

"Pick your choice." Jane said with a dismissive wave. "As long as it's not here already we have our choices. Orange, brown, turquoise, aqua, whatever color of the rainbow we needed."

"But we come to same problem we have with the gray ranger powers." Jordan said now. "We would need someone to hold those powers. Someone we know we can trust."

"That's running a bit short around here." Mal noted. She looked to Will. "Not being mean here, just stating the truth. You're the last one here at Auradon Prep we would have trusted with this. Finding someone to fill that role is pretty hard to do."

"Jane, get to work on the new potential power." Fairy Godmother instructed her daughter. She looked to Evie. She looked to Doug. "Text your father or one of your uncles and ask them about. We can send a few of us to retrieve from them, then help Carlos will our next idea of trying to find some idea of where to get new zords from." She looked to Jordan. "See if there is any way we can try to use magic to find something new if this doesn't work." They could tell she still wasn't keen on magic use and made them all wonder what had happened in Auradon to make that happen.

Evie still had the thoughts she was sure everyone else had. _If Jane creates a new ranger power, would do we give it to? And if we can take the gray ranger powers from Gregory, who do we give those powers too?_


	54. A Moment to Reflect

Mal set her head on Ben's shoulder as they sat together on the beach. The sun was setting and they had strawberries and bottle water spread out on a picnic in front of them. By all accounts it this was certainly a great way to end the day but the purple haired girl couldn't help but be distracted by the day's events. The discovery of the warzord and Gregory's betrayal still sat heavily with them all. The only small ray of light was the discovery that Will was still loyal to them despite the situation he was forced into.

"You're not entirely feeling this, are you?" Ben asked as he hugged his girlfriend against them.

"I really want to be." Mal said as she reached for a strawberry. "It's just…" She didn't feel that she could express it.

But Ben knew what Mal was thinking and unlike his girlfriend the young king had been preparing for this his entire life. "It's the burden of leadership Mal." He assured her soothingly as he rubbed her back softly. "No matter what happens in our lives we get drawn into the burdens of our people, especially those we love."

"Paradias and my mother have the edge right now and they know it." The purple haired girl mused softly. "And I don't know how to lead us out of it. Not you, not my chosen sister, not my friends. No one."

"I really want to say an option will present itself." Ben said. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "And logically one probably will…but like you I don't see it either."

"I feel kind of guilty about this." She said as she indicated their abrupt beach date; the strawberries and the water spread over a blanket on the sands overlooking the setting sun. "We're out here enjoying ourselves while Carlos, Jane and Doug are trying to find a solution."

"I understand." Ben assured her, taking her hand. "I wouldn't have brought you out here if Jane hadn't practically insisted that we might as well spend time together because otherwise we'd just be in their way." They were not the only ones out and about this evening; Audrey and Jay were out as they were on a date of some sort. Lonnie and Will had borrowed the gym so that Will could start teaching her the martial arts he had promised her. Ally and Aziz were on a date of some sort as well. Only the unattached Jordan and Evie were dateless and that had prompted the two of them to volunteer to pick up the gem they needed in case Jane was able to create a new ranger power.

That was only one of four options they had to try to deal with the threat of the warzord; though they had the problem of who they would give the powers too. The second option was to try to find a new zord themselves, which was what Doug and Carlos were doing but so far they had found nothing. The third option was to somehow steal the gray ranger powers from Gregory but they knew he would not be fighting alone. The last one was to allow Will and Jane to attempt to commandeer the warzord from Gregory but that had problems as well. The first was that the treacherous gray ranger would not likely be alone; he would have Chad and Marcellus with him. The second was to try that meant they would face the warzord despite their own zords being in the process of repair and regeneration.

Mal sighed. "I must be the worst leader in ranger history." She groused as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I doubt that but I'm sure you're the prettiest leader in ranger history." Ben said with a endearing smile but when Mal didn't fall for that one he went on with, "Come on, don't get melodramatic." Ben said with a light laugh as he wrapped his arms around her. "You're a fine leader in a bad situation. I don't need to know the history of the power rangers to be sure that every leader faces at least one harsh situation in their careers, and probably more."

Mal looked up at him and smiled a little. "You think so?" She asked.

"I'd bet my crown on it." Ben assured with a smile and then brushed her lips gently. Mal returned the kiss for a moment before pulling away. "But you'd still feel better if we had something a bit more concrete to work with though I'd bet. I can't blame you, I would too."

"I would." Mal agreed. "I just…I want to give us some kind of hope to hang onto. Something more concrete than what we have."

Audrey and Jay were having basically the same conversation though over a candle lit dinner on a table in the back of the outside commons area. "It's amazing how things change." Audrey mused. "There was a time something like this happens and I'm just fine with running away and letting someone else take care of the solution." She was stirring the straw in her grape soda. "And now I just wish I could help find that solution."

"When the time comes we'll have our work cut out for us." Jay tried to reassure the brunette princess as he cut into his pork chop. "Don't worry so much about it." He knew that was easier said than done though.

Audrey sighed a bit. "I kind of feel like this is my fault." She admitted softly.

"Don't be so conceited." Jay tried to joke but saw she was being serious. "Really Audrey, there's no way this could be your fault." He reached over to take her free hand and held it in between his own hands.

"Are you sure?" She asked. "Look at how well things worked out for them with Chad. He got the way he was because…"

Jay cut her off. "Because he wouldn't let go of the past like you did and now he's become the very thing he despised and possibly even worse than some of those who were exiled to the isle." He responded firmly. "It was his decision to hit you, it was his decision to beat you for those powers, and it was his decision to become obsessed with you. You didn't facilitate any of that. That is on him Audrey, not you."

Audrey frowned a little but Jay could see in her eyes that she had to admit Jay was right about everything he said. "Furthermore, I think they had to have planted Gregory here a while ago, probably long before any of us isle brats showed up."

Now she did laugh. "Isle brats, huh?" She asked with a flirtatious smile. "If you had admitted that the first day maybe we wouldn't be here right now."

Jay laughed too. "Or maybe would be." He countered as he leaned in toward her. "Looks to be like you like brats. Maybe because it takes one to know one."

Audrey leaned in and brushed her lips against his. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't." She said softly through her flirtatious smile. They stayed that way and held hands for a minute before Audrey cocked her head. "Wait, I have an idea. I want to run it by you first." She said. Jay nodded and she began to talk.

"This is the finest jewel that they've mind so far." Snow White said as she handed a small box to Evie. "I hope it helps you and your friends out."

"I hope so too." The blue haired girl said to her step-sister as she placed the small box into her purse. Behind her and to the right Jordan leaned against the wall looking at one of the books with half interest.

"Can you two stay a while?" Snow White asked them. "I can make us some tea or something."

Evie thought for a moment they should get back to the command center but knew that Jane wasn't going to be ready for the jewel until morning at least, Doug and Carlos were busy and that the rest of their friends were on impromptu dates or whatever. "I'd like that." She said. She looked to Jordan. "Is that okay with you?"

"You two go ahead." Jordan said. "If we're going to be here awhile I'll go outside and give my dad a call."

"Feel free to go upstairs where you'll be more comfortable." Snow White offered the genie girl.

Jordan thought a second and nodded. "Okay, thanks." She headed upstairs

Evie and Snow White headed to the small breakfast nook and the blue haired girl sat down as Snow White went into the kitchen and got some peanut butter cookies on a plate. She then asked, "Would you like some juice instead?"

"That sounds good." Evie replied. "Orange juice?"

"Of course." Snow White said and a few moments later brought out a pitcher of orange juice along with the cookies and two glasses. She then sat down across from her half-sister. "Is making a new power source your best option for this situation?" She inquired.

Evie had reached for a cookie and took a bite out of it and chewed slowly as she thought about it. After swallowing she replied, "All of our options are kind of risky. We're relying on finding someone we trust, which seems to be a small commodity right now, or relying on a sense of luck that seems to show up when we need it but not necessarily when we want it."

Snow White poured some juice for her and Evie, then set the pitcher down. "What about the zords you have now? If they don't attack until after they're ready, would that make a difference?" She asked now.

Evie didn't need to hesitate on this one. She had helped Doug with the math herself. "The only way we stand a chance against the warzord is with the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord, and only in a one on one fight." She answered. "No Reviveslime, no Jabberwock, no other monsters helping them." She reached for her glass of juice. "The Auradon Falcon Battlezord can serve as a distraction if needed against one but after that we have a problem there too."

"And you have no way to combine your two highest zord combinations?" Snow White asked and her younger step-sister shook her head softly.

Only a few minutes had passed before her iPhone buzzed. She looked at it and rolled her eyes a bit. "Speaking of not having the time to wait." She murmured. She looked at Snow White. "Jordan and I have to go. Reviveslime, Chad, Gregory and Jabberwock have appeared in front of the school." She explained as she stood up. She heard Jordan coming down the stairs too. "We're doing what we can to make sure they don't get too far or hurt anyone." She and her step-sister exchanged hugs.

"Be careful." Snow White said to her.

"Time to go Evie." Jordan said softly and the blue haired girl nodded, both of them waving good bye again before they left.

Ally and Aziz were the first ones to show up as they had stayed on campus. With them was Carlos and Jane. They expected Will, Lonnie, Audrey and Jay to be along shortly. It would be their other four team mates that was a bit more of a question.

"A little short aren't we?" Chad asked them condescendingly.

"Like you should talk." Aziz replied with a glare. "You don't even have any powers."

"Oh, about that." He said nonchalantly as he drew his new sword, Maledict's blade.

"Um, that looks worse than the sword he originally had." Carlos noted uneasily. "I don't suppose it's all about looks."

"Don't count on it." Jane advised him.

"As Mal would say, let's get to work." Aziz said. He, Ally and Carlos pulled out their iPhones and transformed as Jane used the magic wand to transform herself.

Gregory pulled out his iPhone and transformed into the gray ranger. Chad combined his sword with the shield. "Where is my friend anyway?" Gregory asked him. "I thought he might be interested in this reunion."

"He's probably out with that evil little girl of his." Chad said derisively. "We should have gone to that enchanted lake first."

Jabberwock unleashed a stream of flame at the four of them and they all rolled to the side. That was what they needed though as Jabberwock slammed into Ally hard, pinning her against the wall.

Chad brought his new blade down on Carlos hard, sending him sprawling and barely avoiding hitting the wall himself.

Gregory swung his axe at Aziz. He barely was able to block it with his spiral spear. The two started to clash.

Reviveslime attacked Jane with his sword. She dodged it but he brought the weapon up instantly and struck her hard.

From the gates the other four rangers showed up. Audrey felt a slight tremor at seeing Chad transformed and ready to fight again before she forced the reaction down. They had to help their friends. The four of them pulled out their iPhones and transformed.

"Will, I bet you'd like a shot at Gregory." Audrey said. He nodded. "Just like Jay would like a shot at Chad I'm sure." She could imagine her boyfriend with a wicked grin on his face. She looked to Lonnie. "Give Ally a hand, I'll give Jane a hand." The three rangers nodded and went about their attack pattern.

Gregory barely heard Will coming and he raised his axe to block the green ranger from attacking with his curved blade. "Nice to see you as well old friend." Gregory said with a laugh.

"We're not friends." Will told him. "We never were."

Chad saw Audrey and wanted to turn to attack her but was intercepted by Jay. "Looks like you got a new blade." The black ranger noted. "Let's see if you remember how to use it." He slashed at him with the soul scimitar but Chad was able to block the attack.

Lonnie slashed Jabberwock with her hurricane tessen's. The attack did some damage but it was clear that despite the vorpal covering it was clear that Paradias and Maleficent had upgraded his armor. He swung at her and she barely rolled out of the way toward Carlos. "Are you okay?" She asked him.

"That wasn't the most fun landing." Carlos noted. "But I'm alright."

Audrey was behind Reviveslime and she brought the edged end of her elemental bow through the general, cutting from the head down to his lower back, or would have if he hadn't been a giant slime monster that reformed itself.

"Thanks Audrey." Jane said.

"Anytime." Audrey replied.

"It's always one thing or another with you rainbow clad fools isn't it?" Reviveslime noted with amusement. "I suppose one has to give you credit for persistence." He then leapt back onto the wall. He was followed moments later by Jabberwock, causing Lonnie to almost lose her balance as she had aimed a strike at him. Then the two monster generals combined sword and metal wing to unleash a stream of energy at the rangers as Chad and Gregory rolled out of the way of the attack.

Audrey barely had time to catch her breath before Chad's foot was on her chest, digging in deeply. "I believe I promised you a few things my dear." He said as he placed his sword below her throat. She could feel the evil radiating from the sword. "First, this is going to have to come off though, so I can see your pretty little face."

"Not today Chad." He heard, looking up in just enough time to be sent flying back from a magical burst of energy from Mal. Standing beside her was Ben, who had just formed his own sword and shield. She then had her own iPhone out.

Gregory heard noise from behind him and turned to see Evie and Jordan emerge from the forests on the other side of them now. They both had their iPhone's out as well. The last four members of the team transformed.

Will lashed his foot out and tripped Gregory. He rolled up instantly beside Chad but now they were surrounded, from the purple ranger and the Auradon Knight on one edge. In between them were the red ranger and the white ranger, the black ranger and the silver ranger, the pink ranger and the crystal ranger, the green ranger and the yellow ranger, and the blue ranger and the gold ranger.

"Give us back those powers, now." Mal demanded of Gregory. In truth she was sure it had no chance of working but she had to try, they did have the numbers advantage after all.

"You think you have the advantage over me Mal, how pathetic." Gregory said. They couldn't see it but he was wearing a dismissive sneer on his face. "But you don't. Not so long as I possess this."

As if on cue a crash was heard from behind them and they turned to see the warzord. They were sure that Marcellus had to be inside of it, and they were equally sure he wasn't alone. The warzord unleashed a flurry of rockets from either side of its shoulders and sent them all flying.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said that." Mal said dryly.

"You think?" Audrey questioned rhetorically a bit sassily. Evie was sure the two girls were shooting each other slightly challenging looks that would none the less be forgotten in a few seconds when something more pressing happened.

"We better come up with something lightning quick here." Jay said to them. "Or else the next blast will finish us all off."

"You're out of time rangers." Reviveslime gloated. "Your time has come."

This time the warzord let the blades form in place of its hands and then unleashed a stream of energy toward them.

Evie stood up and placed herself in front of her friends, raising her mirror force shield.

"What…is she crazy?" Aziz wondered.

"I can't imagine that she could use a zord's own power against it." Ally agreed. She knew that was how it worked in principle but an average size monster was one thing, a large object was another entirely.

But when the stream of energy was near the blue haired blue ranger raised her mirror force shield and tried to collect as much energy to deflect as possible. She already felt herself losing ground against the overwhelming power. Then the shield seemed to reflect the energy all on its own and there was a blinding flash of light and a huge explosion.

Mal felt the wind brush against her face and she realized that she had been forced to power down. All of her friends had. But she saw that Chad and Gregory had as well.

"Stupid girl." Gregory spat out. "What did she do?"

"What's going on with the warzord?" Reviveslime demanded.

They couldn't hear the response, but could guess well enough from the scowl on the slime general's face. "Then get it out of here while you still can Marcellus." He ordered.

"I'd guess that the main power was depleted, overwhelmed like all of our powers were by the blast." Jane said to Mal from beside her. "The warzord's auxiliary power kicked in but if they want to keep the thing they had to use that to retreat it back to where they have it to recharge it."

"That buys us a day at least." Carlos noted.

"It's only a delaying tactic rangers." Reviveslime vowed, and then the four of them vanished.

"Mal!" She heard Audrey call out in a panic. She turned to see why. Unlike the rest of the team that was getting up, Evie was not one of them. She was unconscious. The brunette princess had moved the blue haired girl's head onto her lap. "She's barely breathing."

"We have to get her to the command center." Jordan said as she used her magic to gently levitate the blue haired girl up. Together they made their way there.

"Please stop, too loud." Evie whispered as she opened her eyes to see Audrey and Mal on one side of her. On the other side was Carlos and Doug, the latter of whom was wiping a wet cloth against her forehead. She had them whispering. "What…"

"You're okay E." Mal said relieved as she leaned down and squeezed her hand gently. "You had us worried."

"It worked?" Evie asked softly, not having much of a voice.

"It did." Audrey said as she leaned across to the table and got a water bottle, opening it up and handing it to Doug to help her take a sip. "Jane said it short circuited all of our powers and drained the main power on the warzord."

"Well, good." Evie managed to say before taking a sip from the water bottle Doug offered her. She wondered why they had all been so worried.

"You've been out of it for almost three hours." Carlos revealed to her, making the blue haired girl almost choke on the water she had been drinking. "We were starting to wonder if you had been permanently damaged by taking the brunt of that attack."

"No way." Evie gasped.

"We can all confirm that sister." Jordan said as they all came over to see her.

"That was gutsy." Will said to her. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I am too." Evie saw that Fairy Godmother was there too. "Please don't do that again dear. We have to find less suicidal ways to handle these kinds of things."

Evie laughed a little. "I'll try not to." She promised. That had not been one of her more fun moments after all. She brightened a little and saw her purse on the table. "Lonnie, get in there and find the small wooden box. It has the gem Jane said we needed."

"Where do we stand on those 'don't let Evie do something like that again' options?" Mal asked as Lonnie did as their blue haired friend requested.

"Nothing on energy signatures for zords." Doug answered as he stroked Evie's arm gently and let her take another sip of water.

"With that gem I can try to make a new power but it's still up in the air as to how well it'll work." Jane told her.

"We also have the candidate problem." Jordan added. "I'm not sure exactly who we could try to trust."

"Audrey had a pretty good idea actually." Jay said to them. "Something she brought up to me at dinner."

Mal and Lonnie couldn't help but exchange glances. They were each thinking they had to find the time to harass their friend about how that date with Jay went. "What idea did you have Audrey?" The Asian princess asked.

"Think about this a second guys." Audrey said. "Where did we get all of our extra powers from?"

"Simple." Carlos said off handedly. "Jordan, Aziz and Ally got theirs from Wonderland. Will got his from Agrabah, along with the gray ranger powers." He didn't want to note that Gregory had gotten those powers back when they thought he was on their side.

"Precisely." Audrey said with a wink. "I think that means if we want to get new rangers for the team, we're going to have to look outside of Auradon."

"That makes a lot of sense actually." Ally agreed. "There are plenty of other cities around here that we could go look into."

"But how do we know that all of these cities would have ranger powers?" Aziz wondered. "I mean, it seems like we could be looking at a needle in a haystack situation here."

"We did already find two needles, sort to speak." Evie pointed out.

"True." Carlos agreed. "But with that in mind what are the odds that we can find another one so easily?"

"We can't even scan for them." Jane added as Lonnie took out the gem and handed it to her. "They don't seem to register that way." She looked to Fairy Godmother. "What do you think mom?" She inquired.

Fairy Godmother frowned a bit as she considered it. "Audrey has a point, at least in theory. In practice I can't say where else we would look to find such powers." She replied. "None the less I'll look at some of the records and find some likely candidates."

"We don't have the time to wait on that." Mal replied gently but firmly. "Jane, see if you can get that gem energized with power. We'll have to see about a holder once we know that works." The purple haired girl looked to Audrey. "That was some good thinking though, let's hope we survive the warzord thing long enough to implement it."

With Evie conscious, after a hand squeeze between the two, Doug went over to help Jane work on that. "Have to say, that was gutsy but very dangerous E." Mal said.

Evie laughed softly. "You would have done the same thing M." She replied.

"That's odd." Jane murmured.

"What?" Aziz asked her.

"I just tried to infuse the gem with the first energy stream I had on reserve, an aqua coloring." Jane revealed. "It refused to make the bonding."

"So?" Jay asked.

Audrey looked to him. "Remember what Jane said. The only reason it wouldn't allow that is if there is an aqua ranger out there somewhere already." She reminded him.

That gave them all pause as they considered what that meant. A ranger who hadn't shown up yet. They wondered if that meant they were evil like Gregory had been. Or if meant that it was hidden out there, as the other powers had been.

"Even zordless those rangers have proved to be more than annoying." Nerissa said. "How can we hope to combat them?"

"We may not have too." Maleficent said with a laugh. "I have a new spell that will make it so those rangers never even existed." She looked to Chad. "Prepare to return to Auradon Prep, Chad Charming. It's time to change the course of history."


	55. What Might Have Been Part 1

The sunlight streamed into Ally's room and for a moment she turned around to try to avoid it before realizing it was best not too. It was probably better to get the day started. Just because it was a Saturday didn't mean that there wasn't stuff to be done. She sat up, stretching her arms and arching her back to work out the muscles before she reached for her iPhone. She saw a text from Aziz saying that he was going to be in the weight room when and she could find him there when she was ready for breakfast. She sent a text to Evie to let her know she would meet her so they could work on their designs for their classes in a few hours before getting out of bed and getting ready to go.

She found Aziz right where he said he would be, doing curls. She couldn't help but watch him appreciatively for a moment before saying, in her lilting British accent, "Good Morning."

He smiled at her. "Hey, sweetie." He replied, making her blush faintly. She walked in and sat down on the bench across from him. "Sleep well?"

"Well enough." Ally replied. "I'll have to meet Evie to work on our project in a few hours."

Aziz nodded. "Sounds right. Ben wants to have a quick Tourney practice so I have to meet him, Carlos, and Jay on the field about that time." He revealed as he finished up. "Don't know if Audrey is going to have cheer practice at that time but I guess it will have to be without Evie."

"I doubt she intended too." Ally admitted. "I think she wanted to be there to watch Jay without being distracted." She giggled a little. "Not that that's not a distraction in itself for her." She sure knew she wouldn't mind being out there to watch Aziz and was sure Mal would be there too then.

Jay set the weights down. "Give me a moment to clean up and then we can head for breakfast." He requested as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers.

She smiled through the kiss. "Take your time." She replied. It didn't take more than a few minutes though for Aziz to return. He took the blonde's hand and then together they made their way to the commons area to get breakfast.

That was when things started to get weird.

At first it seemed normal enough. Audrey and Ben walked into the commons together. That was normal enough as everyone knew they had been friends since they were young, and in fact most people knew the young king had gotten the nickname Bennie-Boo because of his uninspired Halloween costume he had worn the year after they had met. As they had grown up they had gotten together, mostly out of obligation as both had confessed to recently, but had broken up shortly after Mal and the others had arrived. For a minute Audrey had been upset about that until realizing that on a personal level she wasn't that worried about and she then had started a relationship with Jay despite his lack of royal status. The two of longtime friends had remained such to this day, unlike Chad.

They had also been friends with Ally and Aziz for a couple of years now and it was no surprise to have them come over. "Do you mind if we join you?" Ben asked them.

They exchange brief glances. It was supposed to be a date of sorts, but they also knew the risks to coming to the commons too. "Sure, go ahead." Aziz said. As the two sat he asked, "Where's Mal and Jay?"

At first Ally thought she must be seeing things as the two looked at the couple confused. Then Audrey cocked her head a little. "Who?" She asked.

"Not funny Audrey." Aziz said more harshly then he intended too. "I don't what Jay did to piss you off but it's not Mal's fault and you shouldn't be playing stupid games." But Ally saw genuine confusion in that question.

It was confirmed when Ben added, "Take it easy there man." He held up a calming hand. "We have no idea what you're talking about here."

"Who's Jay and why would he have made me angry?" Audrey asked, though had become a bit defensive herself after being snapped at for no reason as far as she knew.

"You really don't remember Mal? Your girlfriend?" Ally asked Ben softly.

Ben shook his head and laughed a little. "You know Audrey's been my girlfriend for a couple of years now." He reminded them both. They both exchanged glances with each other.

Ally took our her iPhone to send a text to the others, sure that some spell had been placed under the two. "Oh, that looks so cool." Audrey noted with glee as she saw the side of the iPhone. "And it glows, with that little effect thing on top. Where did you get that?" She asked.

The two exchanged glances again. "You don't have one?" Aziz questioned now. "Like that, except say in a reddish tint."

Audrey shook her head. "No. Even if I did why would mine be red?" She replied and then shrugged. "Well maybe it would be. I mean it does represent fire and passion." She laughed a bit and kissed Ben on the cheek.

Ally was sure Mal would be upset about this one, and wasn't entirely sure Jay would be okay with this either. But she got no texts back at all; not from any of the isle kids, not from Lonnie or Jordan or Will. No one. "We better get to the command center." The blonde said.

"The what?" Ben asked.

That brought them up short yet again. "You know, the place we go to when we have problems of a particular nature." Aziz said. "We've spent more time there recently then we have classes or the Tourney field in the last couple of months."

Ben shook his head. "Dude, I think you better skip practice today. I think the sun's having a crazy effect on you." He noted.

"Maybe I should meet Evie early today." Ally noted diplomatically. "Care to escort me Aziz?" She asked. For a non-royal girl she knew how to play the part.

"Evie?" Audrey asked again in confusion. "Are you sure you two are feeling okay?" Ally hadn't been a ranger as long as some of them had but she could read people pretty well and knew Audrey wasn't lying when she said not to know Evie; even in the early days most of her problems had been with Mal more so than the others.

They then saw Chad come into the commons himself. He smiled and came to the table, sitting next to Audrey.

"What is he doing here?" Aziz demanded to know.

"You mean our friend?" Audrey asked him with a mixture of concern and irritation. Ally could understand why from the brunette's perspective since this all seemed normal to everyone but the two of them.

"What's wrong Aziz?" Chad asked him, seeming concerned even as he placed his hand on Audrey's lower back. Ally couldn't tell if this was real or fake. She had to place her hand around his arm to stop him from attacking Chad.

"Time to take a walk with me." Ally said to Aziz. "We'll catch you later." They quickly turned to walk away.

"See you later guys." Chad called out amiably.

As soon as they had taken a dozen steps away Aziz hissed, "What is going on here? They don't know Mal, Jay or Evie. I assume the same about Carlos too. Chad is here and Audrey acts like it's nothing." He gestured to the iPhone in Audrey's hand. "They've never seen that before even though Audrey has one just like it."

"And I'm not getting a text back from anyone either." Ally added softly. "I know Jane, Lonnie and Evie don't turn their iPhones off."

The two of them quickly made their way to the classroom where Remedial Goodness 101 had been held and started toward the wall that would lead to the command center only to find it didn't move. "What?" Ally whispered as Aziz started to run his hands against the wall.

"Wh-what are you guys doing here?" They heard a voice ask. They turned to see Jane had come into the classroom now. Two things were immediately different that they could see. The first was that she wore her hair in the same fashion, sort to speak, that she had before Mal and the others had shown up. The second was that the confidence she seemed to have acquired in the tenure as group technician and white ranger had literally disappeared. "You guys really shouldn't be here." She added meekly.

"Didn't this wall used to move?" Aziz asked her.

Ally saw for an instant as if Jane were ready to panic, as if she knew it should. But she quickly recovered. "No, of course not." She replied nervously. "Why would a wall move?"

Ally held up her iPhone. "Do you remember this?" She asked the girl softly.

Jane felt dizzy a moment as she had the fleeting thought that she felt she had invented it. Then that feeling subsided. "It's an iPhone." Jane answered simply. "Pretty looking too, but I've never seen that on the market before."

Aziz repressed a sigh and he took Ally's hand. "Guess we were mistaken, sorry." He said to Jane and the two of them left the classroom. As soon as they were far enough away he asked, "Why doesn't she remember the things she built for us?"

"Something is very wrong here." Ally said. "We have to find Jordan. She might have an idea about it."

Aziz shook his head. "Ally, Jordan won't remember about this either." He reminded her firmly. "And before the ranger thing Jordan and I barely got along despite growing up together, she won't be to receptive to us."

"We have to make her receptive then." Ally responded. "Something is wrong here and we're the only ones who know it." She wondered why that was. Yet another reason to find Jordan. "We have to find a way to convince her that something is wrong."

They faced another problem, they weren't even sure Jordan was on campus. Being a genie she could theoretically go anywhere she wanted as long as it wasn't during school hours and even then it was on her honor not do leave during that time. On a weekend she could have gone home to Agrabah or anywhere else for that matter. She had started doing that less and less as she became part of the group, but as of right now there was no group to speak of.

Luckily they were able to catch up to Jordan as he was leaving the library. When Aziz called out to her she gave him a dispassionate wave and barely even glanced at Ally. The blonde had forgotten how much being part of the group had improved her social skills.

"Jordan we need to talk." Aziz said to her.

Jordan laughed a little. "Oh, we do huh?" She asked with unamused humor. She leaned against the wall. "Alright, dazzle me."

Ally held up her iPhone. "You don't happen to have one of these, do you?" She asked.

"Everyone has a phone." Jordan said and started to dismiss the question when she got a closer look at it. "But not everyone has such a unique little item in it." She looked to Ally. "A Wonderland trinket perhaps?"

"Something like that." Aziz said to her as he took out his own iPhone. "And you should have one too, in a gold color."

Jordan laughed. "Right. Like I'd be caught in Wonderland with you two." She said with a small amount of derision.

Aziz felt himself tense up. He'd forgotten how much of a pain she could be. "It's true. We went there to help Ally find her mother when she disappeared there. We went with Audrey, Ben, Lonnie, Carlos, Jay, Evie and Mal." He insisted.

Jordan looked at him curiously. "First off, Audrey and I wouldn't be around each other unless school required it. Second off, who are those last four?" She said. It made Ally realize how lucky they all had been to become rangers, it had literally changed all of their lives for the better despite the problems with Paradias and even Chad.

"Can I ask a hypothetical question of you?" Ally asked as she waved her iPhone in the palm of her hand a bit.

"Sure, why not." Jordan replied with a roll of her eyes. "I love games after all.

"Let's say that Aziz and I woke up, confident that you would know exactly what we were talking about; from the time in Wonderland to knowing who Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos were." She said and Jordan rolled her eyes but nodded. "Now let's say that we know you should have this in a gold color." Again she indicated the iPhone. "And that we know that Mal should be dating Ben and that Audrey should be dating Jay. That we know that Jane should have different hair right now. That we have bigger problems than school. But all of that has vanished for everyone else but the two of us." She leaned forward a bit. "What would cause that?"

"Dementia." Jordan said with a slight smirk before frowning as if she had a thought, but then it flittered away. She sighed a bit and tried to think seriously about it. "A really powerful spell could do it, but I mean really powerful." She brought her hands out high. "I mean my dad kind of powerful. Or like Maleficent powerful if she weren't trapped on the Isle of the Lost."

"Maleficent." Aziz muttered. "Of course it had to be her." He turned to Ally. "And she might have had Nerissa and even Paradias to help her."

"More delusional people?" Jordan asked wearily.

"They're real." Ally insisted. "And in fact Nerissa is the one who cursed Ben's father into the Beast so long ago." Jordan frowned a bit in thought and Ally pressed; "So why would that spell remove four of our friends from Auradon and erase everyone's powers and memories but ours?"

Jordan again rolled her eyes but thought about it seriously. "It would have be a time altering spell…something really strong that reversed everything after a critical event." She mused as she placed a hand under her chin in thought. "The only way I could think of to escape that kind of spell would be if whatever happened here is something that would have stayed the same in your theoretical little universe." She surmised.

Ally and Aziz took a small amount of pleasure in that realization. "We would have ended up dating even if we hadn't become Power Rangers." Aziz said with a small smile as he ran his hand gently down the blonde's arm, making her shiver slightly in delight. Then he looked to Jordan as the genie girl caught what he said. "Yes, we're power rangers. And so are you. You should have been the gold ranger, just as I am the silver ranger and Ally is the crystal ranger."

They could see doubt in Jordan's eyes but they couldn't tell if it was about what they were saying or about what the hypothetical scenario had implied. Finally she shook her head. "Alright, prove it. Power up or something." She demanded.

Ally glanced around and then she input her numbers into her iPhone but nothing happened. Jordan seemed a bit smug about that one. Aziz realized what happened. "The command center was never activated, so neither were our powers." He stated.

"Yeah, whatever." Jordan said with a wave of her hand. "Later." She brushed by them and turned the corner.

"What now?" Ally asked Aziz softly. "How do we get our friends back?"

"That was an interesting lesson." They heard from behind them. They turned to see Chad leaning against a wall. "Every spell has its flaw I suppose. So you two slipped right by on account of your little love fest." He formed the blade of Maledict in his hands. "But you have no powers so you're defenseless. Let's see what the authorities think when you show up dead." With that he slashed at Ally but Aziz pushed her out of the way and barely grabbed onto his wrist. Chad lashed out and kicked him in the chest hard, then brought his elbow down on the back of Aziz's head.

Jordan was still chucking internally as she marveled at the imagination Aziz and his girlfriend seemed to have. A whole other world where she was friends with Audrey and Aziz and four isle kids and them being power rangers. Then Jordan paused. How did she know anything about isle kids, Ally and Aziz had never said word one about that.

She gasped as she felt something strong, powerful, even malevolent nearby. She thought she saw fire and walls breaking and heard the laughing of the damned. Then in a flash she saw Ally and Aziz helping students into the gym to protect from an attack. She saw a flash of magic she used to stop a knight from killing Doug and Jane. She saw the holographic image of Alpha 5 talking before opening of the chamber in the caves that had led to the gems.

Jordan felt tears in her eyes for a brief moment before forcing them away. "No way…they did it." She whispered. "Or almost anyway. " She looked down and took out her gold iPhone, seeing the attempted summons from Ally. And then she remembered the feeling; Maledict's blade. "No." She gasped.

She dropped her books and turned around the corner just as Chad shot his fist hard into Ally's chest and sent her flying against the wall hard. "Which one of you powerless fools should I kill first?" He wondered as he put the blade under Ally's throat.

"You know, I forgot to mention the spell could be broken by intense recollections." Jordan said. Chad looked to her in surprise and realized that the spell no longer affected the genie girl. "Good memories, bad memories. Or in my case; surges of power." With that she unleashed a magical surge that Chad was only able to block because he did so with Maledict's blade. He immediately took off.

"Jordan?" Ally asked softly. The genie girl came over and gave her a tight hug. Ally responded. "I'm glad you remember."

"Me too." Jordan replied, hoping the tears hadn't returned. She let Ally go and shook Aziz awake When he sat up she hugged him, which took him by surprise too. "I'm glad I remember both of you."

"What changed?" Aziz asked.

"Chad did." Jordan answered. "When he took out his new toy the evil radiating from it shot my memories into overdrive. I remember everything." She took both of their hands in hers and squeezed. "We have to reverse that spell. We have to rebuild this team."

"How do we do that?" Ally asked her. "Aziz and I have tried to talk to everyone, except Lonnie so far. We haven't seen her."

"Do you think Will is here?" Aziz wondered suddenly. "If we never became rangers Sermaya was never awakened and his village was never invaded." He looked between the two girls. "Will, Whitney and their mother never had to come here."

"We can always have him brought here." Jordan said. "Look, to reverse this spell we have to rebuild the team." She started.

"We got that already." Aziz told her.

"Listen." Jordan insisted. "As the rangers, we are the most effected, along with anyone else who was close, like Doug and Fairy Godmother." They all started to stand up now. "Also Ben's parents, specifically Belle and Snow White. But this trickles down hill. Anyone who has ever encountered them has forgotten them but a memory jog won't work like it did for me. Like it will for those close."

"So we have to reassemble the team and then force Maleficent to break the spell." Ally deduced.

Jordan nodded. "We have to get the teams memories back again, and then we have to go to the Isle of the Lost and bring Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos back." She declared.

"Don't suppose a simple potion will work." Ally mused.

"No." Jordan answered. "We're going to have to go about it another way." She thought a second. "Let's have everyone we can meet in the classroom that leads to the command center. We have to jog memories there."

First the three of them approached Fairy Godmother and asked if they could hold a meeting in the classroom. She didn't see a problem with that and didn't even know why she was consulted until Jordan asked that she be there as well. Using the PA system Fairy Godmother asked Jane, Ben, Audrey, and Lonnie to report to the that classroom. They weren't surprised to find that Will was not enrolled but Jordan quickly convinced her to have Will brought there as quickly as possible.

Jane was already in the classroom naturally. She had come to do some work on the command center as her mother had requested for the day when they had to call upon their powers. She didn't know that time had already long come thanks to Maleficent's spell. She was surprised to see the three of them with her mother.

"Forgot to mention Jane's hair had changed back." Jordan said to Aziz softly.

"Thought it was kind of obvious." He remarked to her.

Ben and Lonnie showed up easily enough, giving each other friendly greetings. They still had not been as close to each other pre ranger times as they had been afterwards.

"Where's Audrey?" Ally asked.

"She's on her way." Lonnie said. "What's going on here?"

"We can start without her." Aziz said. He looked to Jordan.

"First things first." She said and looked to Jane and Fairy Godmother. "We know about the command center underneath this class room and we know about the ranger powers that you constructed with help from Zordon a long time ago, all so that Auradon could be defended against by the forces of evil" She informed them bluntly. She glanced at Ben. "Among other things."

"How do you know about that?" Fairy Godmother asked her sternly.

"Because we're also power rangers." Ally said as she showed her the iPhone that Audrey had commented upon earlier. Aziz and Jordan followed suit. "Our powers were discovered in Wonderland though, not made here."

Lonnie burst out laughing a moment before calming herself. "Power rangers?" She asked amused. "You have got to be joking."

"Not at all." Jordan said to her simply. "In fact you were the second Auradon kid here to become a power ranger, right after Audrey."

Lonnie and Ben laughed a little. "Audrey?" Ben asked. "Look, no offense to her or anything but Audrey is not the kind of girl who would go out of her way to fight evil. She exploded when I suggested giving kids from the Isle of the Lost a chance."

"This is insane, I'm out of here." Lonnie declared. "There's no way any of this is true."

"Actually." The one word from Fairy Godmother stopped the Asian princess from leaving. "An ancient evil named Paradias did attack not long after Adam created the United States of Auradon. The only way we beat him back was thanks to wizard named Zordon, who then helped us start developing a way to repel him if he ever returned." She set her hand on Jane's shoulders. "My daughter and I, along with Doug have been working on to make it ready ever since."

"The command center." Aziz filled in for them.

"But it didn't work." Jane said. "Or I mean it hasn't gotten off the ground." She looked to Lonnie. "Hypothetically you can take on the most recent one I've made, the pink ranger powers. But aside from Ben who we thought could be the red ranger, we have no other real candidates here."

Aziz wondered briefly why he, Ally and Jordan weren't in the running originally but decided based on how things worked out not to pursue that.

"I get it now." Jordan said. She looked to Ben. "The spell that was cast. For whatever reason you decided not to give kids from the Isle of the Lost a chance here. You never made your decree; Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos never came here, never chose good, and never filled in those gaps in the ranger line." She let out an irritated sigh. "Maleficent thought this one through all right."

"Maleficent?" Fairy Godmother questioned. "She's on the Isle too Jordan."

"Jordan, we have to get memories restored already." Aziz said to her softly.

The genie girl grimaced as she realized one way to bring back Fairy Godmother's memories. She looked to her. "You've already admitted the past, but here's a cold fact of reality. We received help from other power rangers a few times. The first time we did that, the red ranger Andros told us that Zordon had died to save his universe."

"What?" Fairy Godmother asked, seemingly surprised to hear that. Jane's hand touched her mother's shoulder in comfort, just as she had that fateful day when she had really learned that Zordon was dead and it all came rushing back to her. Including the fact that her daughter had grown into a brave and confident young woman as a result of these adventures. She looked back and saw none of that now.

"Do you remember?" Ally asked her.

Fairy Godmother nodded. "I remember everything." She replied softly. "Maleficent couldn't have done this on her own. Nerissa and Paradias had to have helped her with the spell."

"Does that mean they're telling the truth mom?" Jane asked her.

Fairy Godmother nodded. "It's true Jane. They took a lot from us just now. We need to get that back." With that she magically drew the magic wand to her, which had been found its way back in the glass case without being used a power conductor. "Except two of you don't need iPhones to morph. You are one of them, my dear." She offered Jane the magic wand. "This is what you use to become the white ranger."

"And you can cast some amazing spells with that too." Jordan said. "You've been a huge asset to the team since it was first formed. You became a really amazing person throughout the entire ordeal."

Jane hesitantly reached up for the wand. Then she stopped, thinking she didn't deserve that. Then an unfamiliar masculine voice seemed to tell her to do it. "Car…" She started to says softly and then stopped herself. She didn't know anyone with that name.

"Carlos." Her mother filled in for her as she held the wand out. "One of your closest friends here, and I think you might just think a bit more of him than that."

Something felt familiar. "Carlos…" She said again softly and laid her hand on top of the wand, then picked it up. She felt it all come back; the first time she had gotten the wand to defeat Crimson Sage and free those trapped during parent night. She saw herself with times she had spent with Carlos and her friends, saw the changes she had gone through for the first time without living them to realize things had changed for her a great deal and pretty much for the better. What she didn't see that everyone else did was that the magic responded to the return of her memories, giving her the hairstyle that Mal had created for her.

"Are you with us?" Ally asked her gently.

"Yes." Jane said as she wiped some tears that had suddenly collected in her eyes. "I can't believe we forgot." She added quietly.

"But we're remembering." Jordan said to her. "Because what we all have is too strong to be completely erased."

Lonnie had stepped up to Jane's side and touched her shoulder. "What happened?" She couldn't deny the physical change she had seen in her friend.

"Lonnie, we forgot them." Jane said to her. "Our friends. Mal, Jay, Evie…Carlos. They tried to take them away from us so they could our world."

"I don't understand." Lonnie replied. Then they heard a sound and turned to see a couple of campus security people bring Will into the room. He had been kind of protesting it until he turned to see Lonnie and the two caught sight of each other.

"Love at first sight, again." Jordan noted a bit smugly. "Lonnie, this is Will."

"Hello." Lonnie said a bit shyly. "What brings you here?"

"Wish I knew." Will answered honestly. Like the rest of the team his memory had been erased as well. He smiled broadly. "But I can't say I'm disappointed with who I'm seeing right now." He reached out for her hand and grasped it gently.

It came back to both of them. Will watching as Lonnie fought against Chakara one on one in the forest as the pink ranger. He was beating her and Will jumped in to save her heedless of the danger. The time they spent waiting for the boat to Agrabah. For the first time Lonnie could see what Will had done to get the green and gray ranger powers. Will untying her from her bindings at the castle in the black sands. Will could see Lonnie as she showed up to defend Audrey from the very first monster they had ever fought, back when Paradias had decided to isolate the one non-isle ranger among them at that time.

"Looks like you two aren't the only ones whose love will help conquer that spell." Jordan noted to Ally and Aziz as the pink and green iPhones appeared in their free hands. Lonnie threw her arms around Will, and he returned the hug. After a moment she turned away and faced Ben, though she was still crying a little.

"Lonnie?" Ben asked puzzled.

"Jane is right. They really did a number on us." She revealed. "Taking the memories of our friends and loved ones." She took a step closer to Ben now. "You know for the most part we've had Audrey to link us together." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "But recently you were there to help me work through learning that Will was made to work against us. You used your own love for Mal to make me realize mine for Will."

"Lonnie, you know that I'm with Audrey…" Ben started.

"No, you're not. You're not supposed to be." Lonnie replied. "You're supposed to be with Mal. She's supposed to be with Jay." She laughed a little. "Some of the isle kids aren't as bad as they pretend to be, but we're one of the 'rotten' kids too, rather we want to see it or not. But you saw that before all of us." She squeezed his shoulder. "Think about it Ben. Think about the girl with the purple hair and the devilish smile. The girl who preferred to choose good and be with you over being evil. Think of Mal."

Ben seemed to react at the mention of purple hair. He had never told anyone about the dream that had lead him to think about the decree for the isle kids. He had seen Mal in a dream several times beforehand, feeling attracted to her each and every time. Suddenly he remembered it all as well, the first day he had met her when they had come to Auradon. Their first date at the enchanted lake where she had gotten worried about him and come into the water despite the fact she couldn't swim herself. How gorgeous she looked at his coronation as she accepted his ring and declared she wanted to be with him.

He remembered the turmoil he felt when Mal had become a ranger but he couldn't. The pride he felt to see her do it. The shame he felt when Nerissa made him battle her and his friends as the evil knight before they had finally freed them. And it wasn't just Mal he remembered now as he thought of the friendship he had formed with Jay and Carlos. How he and Audrey had fallen into the camaraderie they had when they were younger before getting together out of expectation.

"Mal." Ben whispered. As he did so the outline of the shield and sword appeared around him before vanishing again. Unlike the wand and the iPhones they did not stick around unless being summoned. He shook his head. "How could I forget her?"

"The same way we all did." Will said to him reassuringly. "By a magical force. A magical force that we all beat to remember those we care for."

Ben looked up at him. "Yeah. You're right." He agreed. Then gasped. "Audrey, she doesn't remember. And Chad is here."

"What?" Lonnie gasped in fright. This was the first she had heard about that. "We have to get to her before his façade cracks and he goes after her." She had a horrible feeling. "If it's not too late."

"Will, Aziz, we have to find Audrey now." Ben said as he got up and the two guys moved to either side of him. "After I know she's safe we're going to the Isle of the Lost to bring Mal and our friend's home."

Jane was already revealing the stairs to the command center. "I hope Maleficent didn't mess with the rest of our systems." She mused. "Those won't be nearly as easy to bring back as our memories were?"

"You call that easy?" Aziz questioned as he followed the two guys out.

As the girls descended the steps Ally looked to Jordan. "Get a potion ready just in case." She advised. "Just in case the guys don't find Audrey in time."

The three boys raced through the halls, several times being told to slow down. They also nearly got stopped by another monitor who questioned Will's presence at the school and only a command to let it go by Ben prevented any problems. They had gone through most of the school and had only heard from Ruby, the daughter of Rapunzel that Chad had asked Audrey to come with him to one of the storage rooms in the gymnasium that they finally knew where to look.

They came in just as he hurled Audrey to the floor hard. Her right arm had been snapped at the elbow, her right eye was swollen shut and blood ran from her lower lip. The sleeve of her dress had been torn and she had blood on her knees.

Ben moved in and swung at Chad, giving him a good right hand to his former friend's face. "Get away from her right now."

"Take it easy. We were just messing around." He said. "It was all her idea."

"You can save it." Aziz spat. "They already know now."

Chad frowned. "That sucks." He shook his head. "Thanks to you and bizarre girl you've ruined a lot of our fun now." With that he used the sword to vanish.

"Audrey." Ben knelt beside his best friend. "What happened?" He wasn't sure how much she remembered.

Audrey shuddered a bit. She was having a hard time working through the pain, though surprisingly she found it easier than expected. "He…he said he needed to talk to me in private." She whispered softly. "He brought me here and…and he tried to kiss me, but I told him no, that I was with…" She struggled as if trying to fill in a name there.

Ben knew what she should be saying right now. "With me." He tried to fill in.

"Yes…no…" She sighed. "I'm with someone, but I don't…" She shook her head. "He told me he was tired of me denying him." Will handed Ben a cloth which he used to start cleaning her lip. "He kissed me, and I pushed against him." She shivered a little. "He bit my lip hard."

"When Jay finds out he's going to kill him." Aziz stated.

"Jay…" Audrey whispered and shook her head. "That…name…" She shook her head again, trying to sort through all the thoughts in her head. "Chad, he's…he's hit me before…" She whispered. "I kneed him in the stomach, though that wasn't where I was aiming for." That drew a small chuckle from Will and Ben. "He tossed me, scraped up my knees." She looked down at her bloodied knees. "I tried to run and he broke my arm." She raised her hand to her eye. "I don't even know when this happened." She flinched in pain.

"Enough of that." Ben said and he lifted her into his arms, making sure her broken arm was not against him. "Let's get you to the command center."

"Infirmary…" Audrey whispered as she was fighting to not pass out without the adrenaline of fear in her system. Something seemed to click in her mind. "Mal…Evie…Jay, where is he? I want J…" She lost the battle, though they saw the red iPhone appear on the floor, which Will picked up.

Ally was glad that Jordan had went ahead and made the potion when they came in with a badly beaten Audrey. Aziz looked more than ready to curse up a storm but Ally placed her hands on his and squeezed gently.

"We were too late." Ben said. "He probably was waiting for a chance to get Audrey alone. I went to the locker room to change for the Tourney meet. Then that call for us over the speakers."

"Which he had when we called you on the PA system." Fairy Godmother added grimly. "He must have grabbed her before she could make her way here. That's why she never showed up."

"She remembers." Ben said softly though as Will set the iPhone on the table. "And she's going to feel as bad as we do about what happened."

"Jordan, go with Ben and make the arrangements for you all to leave for the isle." Fairy Godmother said. "We need everyone back if this is going to work." She knew they wouldn't be well received on the isle by the populace but they didn't have a choice.

On the Isle of the Lost, Evie met Carlos at a small place that they could get food from before heading off to the shop where Jay tended with his father Jafar, by which meant often stealing items from the shop. Then they would go meet the other two girls as they prepared for the next task at hand. Maleficent had a very specific task for the them.


	56. What Might Have Been Part 2

I'd like to give a big shout of THANK YOU to pinksakura271 for letting me use her OC in this story. I hope I can do her justice.

There were two things that Maleficent hadn't counted on when she had done the time reversal spell to prevent the decree that had sent her daughter and her little friends into Auradon. The first was that two of the ranger's would have found love with each other even without said powers, and hence ruin the spell around their team mates. The second was that doing so would reverse the memory alternation spell she had put on Mal before they had left for Auradon so that she had plan b ready in case Mal had done what she did. That memory alteration spell was now gone, but only Maleficent knew that. "Mal, Amelia, get in here now." She demanded.

The purple haired girl entered, clad in the same leather outfit she wore on the isle. Behind her was a girl with hair color like that of a dark pink rose wearing a leather jacket like Mal's but was open to show her dark pink tank top that said "Think pink or evil" on it. Sometimes Mal would tease her about that, calling them complete opposites of each other. Her blue jeans were coated in pink, purple and blue roses on the sides. Black ankle boots complete the look, normally they had black plastic skulls on them but they were jangling in one of her pockets as they had come off just recently.

"I really don't think there's any need to get Amy involved in this." Mal said condescendingly to her mother with an eye roll at her younger, by five minutes or so, twin sister though really it was just an act because Mal didn't want her to get hurt in one of these schemes.

"I can take care of myself." Amy said to Mal, but again it was the cover the two sisters had developed to disguise the relationship the two sisters had with each other, less Maleficent find a way to use that against them.

"Normally I would like nothing more than to leave the childish, over pinked one out." Mal said with derision as Amy managed to flinch at the insult and glare at the same time. She knew her daughter hated being those two criticisms. "But in this case I need Amelia as well."

"I asked you to call me Amy." The rose haired girl reminded her with the same sort of eye roll that her Mal would give. Both girls became slightly more irritated when Maleficent waved off the protest.

"What do you want us to do mother?" Mal asked her. Maleficent glowered at her and for a moment had to resist the urge to strike her eldest daughter down at that moment. While the evil fairy remembered Mal and her friends turning their backs on evil and all those who served it only to become one of the paragons of good ,a Power Ranger, she did not.

Amy however proved that she knew just a bit more than her mother would have preferred. "This is about the rumored gem of the forest, isn't it?" She asked. When Maleficent looked at her she took a step closer to Mal. "I…It was discussed in school earlier this week."

Mal was quick to step in for her sister. "Yeah, I remember that. It was said to be placed on the Isle long before we were all exiled here." She filled in. "And it was also supposed to be something that no evil could ever touch, which means sending us after it would get us killed."

Maleficent recalled that rumor too, just as it had been said with the infamous Zeo crystals. No one knew if that were true or not, and likewise after researching the matter she had determined that the 'gem of the forest' could very well be a power gem like Mal had once possessed before the time reversal. If that were true than Mal could touch it, as could her friends and probably even Amy.

In truth Amy had always disappointed and even at time disgusted Maleficent. While Mal seemed to embrace most aspects of evil, though she had received saddening information from Mother Gothel that killing innocents had not been part of Mal's thought processes yet, Amy had only reluctantly learned those ways. She even had heard that when anyone tried to pick on Amy she did her best to avoid the fight. It was always Mal who had come to her defense. When she had asked her purple haired daughter about it she claimed it was only because she wanted all the experience she could get.

Amy frowned a moment as she caught a wave of disappointment and disgust but she couldn't figure out how. She felt dizzy and leaned against Mal for support as she had flashes of a limo taking her sister along with Evie, Carlos and Jay. Of her going out into said forest that Maleficent was sending them too as she worked to better prepare herself to face life on the island without those she cared about the most.

For once Mal's façade broke for concern. "Amy are you okay?" She asked as she turned to face her and put her arm on her younger twin sister's shoulders.

"I…I think so." Amy answered as she placed a hand on her forehead. She didn't think she was running a fever. She had a flash of Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay first meeting Audrey and Ben. She felt an immediate dislike of the brunette princess as she haughtily told Evie that the Grimholde the evil queen had no royal status in Auradon and kept her hands protectively on Ben's arm despite the fact the two seemed intrigued by each other. It made a flash of resentment travel through her body.

"You better be." Maleficent said to Amy. "You're not getting your way out of this evil little quest Amelia." She turned her back on her daughter's to retrieve something, unaware of the glare and tongue sticking out that the two girls gave their mother.

"Knock knock losers." Jay said as he opened the door. He waltzed over and threw his arms around Mal's shoulders as Evie and Carlos came in, releasing hands. Something about that suddenly seemed wrong to Amy despite the fact that she had been certain not too long ago that Evie and Carlos would get together. She shook her head as she had a flash of Jane and Doug, and gain of Audrey. She didn't understand why that would matter when Audrey was with the other one, the one that her sister seemed to like. She saw Lonnie talking to them, her sister saying that life on the Isle was different…and was Lonnie crying? Amy felt that kind of sadness sometimes but expressing it to anyone but Mal and occasionally Evie was unheard of.

Maleficent returned with a glare at them, silencing them all. In truth though it was because unlike the four teens she knew exactly what her Mal's friends had become as well. She found almost as much annoyance with Jay as she had Mal because he had fallen for the daughter of the family that had forced them onto the Isle of the Lost. "Use this to track the signatures. It was something that Professor Facilier cooked up just for it." It was actually made by Nerissa but they didn't need to know that.

"We're going to the woods for a gem?" Carlos asked with a laugh. "Can't we just go to the market and swipe one?" He laughed again and Amy had to giggle a little at that too.

"This is a very special gem." Maleficent snapped at them. They all jumped a little at the power in her voice, even Mal and Amy. "With this we can finally start to get back at those in Auradon."

It was on Amy's tongue to ask why they didn't just try to improve their lives here and show Auradon they could be honest, contributing members of society but held it. She knew where that would lead.

Mal rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine." She relented. "We'll go get your gem already." She tapped Amy and Jay on the shoulders and looked toward Carlos and Evie. "Let's move out people, I want to be back by dinnertime."

They left Maleficent's castle and headed toward the forest. Some of the people who liked to pick on Amy because she wouldn't fight back shot her cruel glares but backed down almost as soon as Mal or Jay looked their way, with only a few exceptions.

One of those was Helen Hook, the daughter of Captain Hook from Neverland. She always bragged that she could take Mal in a fight though so far that hadn't been proven. She still liked to harass Amy just to provoke Mal in the long awaited fight though. Still, the sight of all five of them was enough to keep her back for now.

The other one was Gaston Junior, who seemed to like Amy a lot. She did not share his feelings, even telling Mal that he actually kind of repulsed her. As a result of the way of live on the island, both Evie and Mal made sure Amy was never alone when he was around.

Amy looked over at the blue haired girl and for some reason the words sustainable urban planning went around in her head and she didn't understand why. Then Evie looked at her. "Mal is right, you don't have to come with us. We can hole you up somewhere or…okay, that sounded bad." She said with a shake of her head.

"What she means is that you go do what you want, and we'll meet up with you later." Mal said as she stroked Amy's rose colored hair gently. Despite being twins and Amy was actually quite a bit smaller than the purple haired girl.

Amy shook her head. "No. I feel like I should go with you guys this time." She revealed. "Is that okay?"

Mal nodded. "Absolutely." She replied. Evie smiled too and said, "Anytime."

The five crossed a small group, including Gaston Jr, playing a version of street hockey. He saw and flexed his biceps at her, causing Amy to roll her eyes at him and Jay to shake his menacingly at him. Then Amy thought she heard someone say something about not talking to them, unless someone wanted to take another hundred year nap. But there was no one there. Still, she swore it sounded like Audrey, the same person who told Evie she had no royal status in Auradon. She had flash of another guy by her. Despite that though he seem really dark to her and she didn't know why. She an echo of Evie calling him the biggest jerk in the land and she laughed softly.

"What are you so happy about you dork?" Mal asked her sister with a smile.

Amy snickered again. "Nothing." She replied. She loved that line and wondered if she could ever use it.

They crossed into the forest and started toward in, following the scanner Maleficent had given them. Carlos was currently working it. Amy felt a flash of jealousy, wishing that she were smart enough to run it before cocking her head and frowning with shock at the realization that she could easily read it.

"You sure you're okay?" Jay asked her. "You seem kind of out of it."

Amy shook her head. "Yeah, fine." She tried to assure them.

They heard a noise and were approached by five guys. They gave Evie, Mal and Amy looks of approval that neither of the three felt comfortable with. "We're on a mission from Maleficent, I suggest you get out of our way." Mal stated coldly as she stood in front of Amy protectively.

"Take it easy Mal." Said one of the guys. "We were just out here looking for something to do. We'd love to help you with your mission."

"Sorry, we're not hiring goons today." Jay said. "We're fresh out of money."

"It's fine." Another guy said. He grabbed a hold of Evie's wrist. "I think we can work something out."

Out of nowhere Mal and Jay had a flash of a brunette girl bound to a tree as another guy leaned down to try to kiss her against her will before flashing back to the guy coming onto a very unresponsive Evie. Mal leaned over and grabbed his wrist, squeezing until he released her wrist. Then Jay clocked him across the face hard.

"What's the deal man?" The lead guy demanded of Jay.

"We said we are NOT interested." Jay warned with a glare.

"So back off." Mal added with a flare of green in her eyes.

Apparently dense the guy again reached over to grab Evie's wrist but Amy pushed past Mal, red flashing in her eyes, and intercepted his hand, taking him by the wrist and bending it back before flipping him onto his back hard.

"You little…" One of them snapped and reached for Amy but Mal was in front of them with her eyes glowing green, and surprisingly to everyone, including Mal herself, there was a large roar as if from a mighty beast and then she unleashed her own attack similar to the meteoric attack that her at the moment forgotten dragon zord used.

"Wow, what was that M?" Evie asked shocked.

Amy blinked in shock too. She had always thought her sister was the stronger of the two, but even that was beyond what the rose haired girl expected. "Wow."

They didn't even think twice about running from the five of them.

"Practicing magic somehow Mal?" Carlos asked in awe.

"Not possible." Mal said in shock. "I don't know what that was."

After the moment of shock wore off the five teens continued on their way. Amy couldn't help but glance at her sister though. That wasn't just magic, it wasn't just power. She wasn't exactly an expert but she swore that was power, not only but also of the good. She always doubted the abilities of her, her sister and the ones she had thought of as surrogate siblings, to be evil. Now she was even more unsure of that.

On the heels of that thought came other images in her mind. Mal telling Evie that when the villains invaded Auradon and ruined their lives having Ben in love with her seemed cruel. She saw Evie with her B+ chemistry test, as if realizing she was a smart as she was beautiful. Jay looking at an MVP trophy for something called Tourney. Carlos with a dog…how odd Cruella instilled fear of dogs into him. And again her own sister, making a mix for an anti-love potion and crying. She felt tears in her eyes that she quickly had to blink away.

Then she thought of herself, in the forest, focusing her mind despite missing the four of them terribly, though she had never really been away from them. Realizing she could feel things around her. These memories were starting to really confuse her.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" Evie asked her gently. "You seem to…I don't know, out of it I guess." She placed a hand on her forehead now. "Are getting sick?"

"No." Amy assured her. "I'm just fine."

"Hey." Carlos said. "I've got the energy signature." He said. "It's just over the horizon, in that tree up there."

"I'll grab it." Jay said and he tried to get on a branch but it broke under his weight and he hit the ground. Carlos and Mal burst out with laughter, while Evie and Amy did their best to hold it back. He looked to them and growled, "Not funny guys."

"I respectfully disagree." Mal said with another laugh as she helped Jay up. "Seriously though this tree is pretty old Jay. You can't climb this thing. I don't think even Carlos could."

Amy suddenly realized why her mother had sent her with them. "I can." She realized. "We might be the same age Mal but I'm smaller and weigh less than you." That was something she and Mal had a few clashes over as the purple haired girl thought that her sister was too light, not more than 100 pound soaking wet. Amy meanwhile always pointed out that wasn't really her fault and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Amy, you might be light like a twig but you aren't one." Mal reminded, getting a small glare from her twin. She raised her hands. "Okay, okay." She relented and stroked her sister's hair. "Just be careful Amy."

Amy nodded and went to the tree. Her hands reached out and touched it and she got a shock, more visions. She saw Ben give Mal his ring, the four of them deciding that the lives they built in Auradon and choosing good were more important. Maleficent confronting them at the coronation and Mal overpowering her. She saw Mal say something to another woman about the girl; she assumed the woman's daughter and she saw the brunette princess give a bow of appreciation to Mal, something he sister returned. She wondered how Mal and her friends could leave her behind.

She took a deep breath and got onto the tree. Then she found out how they could leave her. Just after Mal had given her a purple headband with a purple rose on it for luck, Maleficent had come to them. _For this mission you will lose all your memories of your Amelia._ Maleficent had told Mal, Jay, Carlos and Evie. Clearly she had known how close they were after all.

 _No way mother._ Mal had stated in hard voice. If she had had her way she never would have given up her memories of Amy. The other three echoed the same disagreement.

Maleficent had forced the memories out of her sister and her friends. _So much the better Mal, when you return maybe you'll have them back but honestly we'd be better off without that little pink pipsqueak holding us back._ Amy had felt her heart breaking at that comment. She knew her mother had never really liked her but that was more than she ever needed to hear. Since they would not remember to say goodbye again to her she had ran away as the limo had left.

As she continued to climb the tree she had more memories come to her. Her time training in the woods. She had been near this tree a lot as she worked to find every way to improve herself as she learned to live without her sister around and even her mother. It had given her a certain hardness to her resolve, but as she focused her mental energies she had found something in her responding that seemed to allow her to read emotions and even strong thoughts…which explained all of the visions she had started to get, of another life they had all lived. She thought maybe it was the right life though. Through her meditations she had encountered someone who helped guide her and train her, something she scarcely remembered but each day she woke up feeling more confident in herself and her ability to fight. She had even taken up hunting, quickly becoming a top archer in order to survive.

While that had happened she saw the images of her twin and her friends. Fighting new evils. Making friends with Audrey and with Lonnie and making new friends in the forms of Ally, Aziz, Jordan and Will. Becoming the Power Rangers, and the legacy they had only started to learn about when the Space Rangers Andros, Ashley, Cassie, Carlos, TJ, Zhane and Amber had shown up to help them with the Psycho Rangers. She saw Mal get close to Ben's mother Belle and had to love the library she saw in the castle. She saw Evie getting close to her older step-sister Snow White. She saw the return of her mother from the loss at the coronation and their mother's frustration at Mal until she disowned her sister, and her sister's secret heartbreak over it no matter what front she tried to put up for others.

What Amy didn't understand was if that was their lives then what had happened to change it all.

Finally she reached the top of the tree, which was so fragile even she wasn't sure how long she could stay up there. But nestled in between a bunch of leaves was something she had never seen before. A small perfect looking gem that was dark pink in color, almost like a dark colored rose. She reached out and grabbed it and she saw the same colored energy surge up her arm and through her body.

It was then that the branches around her snapped clean off and she started to fall a long way down.

"No." Evie gasped and tried to figure out what she could do at least break her fall. Jay and Carlos gasped in shock too.

Mal let out a slight scream as she saw her twin sister falling and she wanted to move to help her and for an instant came to a realization there was nothing she should be able to do. Then she had a thought; she had a mental image of two people standing beside her that she had never had met, or at least so she thought. If she had her memories intact she would have recognized Amber, the purple space ranger and one of the longest serving rangers in history. The other was a woman she had never met but wore a ranger uniform similar to the green ranger but in purple instead, right down to the gold shield on the chest. It confused her as to why she would see them or why they would help her then almost as if they had planned it; the other two women lifted their arms and cupped their hands. Despite their seemingly ethereal nature Mal jumped, planted her feet, and with a toss from the two she launched up and caught her sister in her arms. Together the two landed on the ground only stumbling slightly.

"Wow." Amy breathed softly and then looked at her sister. "Thanks Mal."

"I've got your back little sister." Mal told her with a smile. "Everytime." Amy smiled; glad to know that short of magic that was true. "Though it's so weird that we're the same age but I can catch you like this." She sat her sister down. "You need to put some meat on those bones." She teased.

Amy swatted her older sister's arm softly but was willing to let the jibe go on account of Mal saving her from serious injury or even killing herself. "Oh get off it Mal." She said with an eye roll. Mal laughed a little bit too.

Now her friends were by her, Evie giving her a quick hug. After confirming she was okay Jay asked her, "Did you find anything up there?"

Amy bit her lip. She hated to lie to her friends but she had a sudden feeling that her mother shouldn't know about the gem she held in her hand. That meant right now her friends and her sister couldn't know either. "It must be inside the tree or something. There's nothing up there." She answered.

"Mom is not going to like this." Mal noted. "I wonder if she expects us to cut down this tree."

"That wouldn't be right." Amy said. "It's been here longer than anyone on this island has."

"I agree with you." Evie replied. "But what can we do if Maleficent wants whatever is in here so badly?"

"Only one way to find out." Mal said. "We have to go back to my mother and tell her what we found out."

"I get we have to go and get Mal, Jay, Carlos and Evie." Audrey said as she was working on the potion Jordan had made for her. She was glad her formerly broken arm was one of the first things to heal. "I just want to know how we're going to be prepared for the fact that we won't be welcome there and we won't have any powers to protect ourselves."

Despite their memories returning Jane and Fairy Godmother had concluded that the actual ranger powers could not be reactivated until the whole team had been reunited and returned to the command center. That meant they would go in without that to protect them. Similarly while Ben was able to make arrangements for them to go to the Isle of the Lost it was pretty much unsanctioned. They could not count on any help beyond that.

"You're going to have to get in and out as quickly as you can." Fairy Godmother answered with a small shrug. "Right now it's the best we can do." She motioned toward Jordan. "Well, that and disguises."

"It won't be much." Jordan warned them all. "But the good thing about a place like that is that most people won't question…" She waved her hands and cloaks appeared in their hands. "A bunch of mysterious cloaked figures running around."

"This won't be permanent protection so we have to get in and out as soon as we possibly can." Ben said. "That means finding Mal and the others and running out of there as quick as we can."

"Then let's get going." Audrey said. She wanted Jay back as soon as possible, and really having Mal and Evie and even Carlos back would be a really good thing. She stood up and flinched a bit, still feeling stiff.

"You sure you're up for this?" Ben asked. As much as he wanted Mal and the others back he knew they needed to be as on top of things as possible in order to be able to survive going to the Isle of the Lost.

Audrey nodded shakily; Lonnie wrapped an arm around her. "Positive." She told Ben. "I want them back. I want Jay back."

Ben nodded in almost understanding. There was one small difference as far as he was concerned. He wanted Mal back by his side. After what had just happened again, his best friend needed Jay back by her side.

"Then our coach awaits." Will said as he came over and placed a reassuring hand on Lonnie's shoulder. "Let's bring them home."

"Good luck to all of you." Fairy Godmother said as they went up the stairs. "Please come back safely." She had a horrible feeling that they might not, and there was nothing she could do about it…


	57. What Might Have Been Part 3

Once more a huge THANK YOU to pinksakura271 for letting me use her character Amy in this story. Also the minions Maleficent uses here are part of the Kingdom Hearts franchise and are not owned by me.

"We need Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos back." Lonnie said to Will as they were on their way to the Isle of the Lost. She knew Ben was worried sick that something could have happened to his purple haired girlfriend. Audrey looked lost without Jay around though in fairness she suspected another beating at Chad's hands didn't make her feel any safer. And truth was she missed them too. As much as she was glad she knew the truth now part of her felt a bit envious that Doug and everyone else didn't have to face the reality of forgetting everything.

"Don't worry, we will." Will promised her. The two of them were up front with Will the driver. The only other person who could drive was Audrey and they decided the brunette princess wasn't in any shape for that. Even he missed them. He didn't know them that well but he certainly felt like he owed Mal for helping him to realize what he needed to do to redeem himself with Lonnie and the rest.

Jane took out a small device that looked like a remote control and got ready to extend the magical bridge that would take them into the Isle of the Lost. Their plan though was to ditch the car after entering the barrier and proceed to the city on foot to minimize the attention they drew to themselves.

"Get ready." Will called back to the white ranger.

Jane nodded and on cue activated the magical bridge. They had all heard about it of course, it was part of the discussion on the history of constructing the Isle of the Lost but they had never seen it before. It really was kind of amazing.

"Think we could walk on this thing?" Ally wondered.

"I don't see why not." Aziz answered. He looked to Jane. "How long can this thing stay active?" He asked.

Jane shrugged a bit. "Truthfully it's never been tested." She replied as she thought about it. "It was primarily built as a safe and secure way to transport the villains and minions to the isle. If they didn't have to worry about the stragglers and runners they might not even have kept it operational."

"That was also before someone decided to give villain kids a chance too." Audrey said with a small smile at Ben. She was trying to tease him but the humor didn't reach her eyes. Ben tried to smile kindly back at her but it seemed a little flat as well.

As soon as they had crossed the area and Jane had lowered deactivated the magic bridge again Will pulled off to the side. Jordan handed them all the cloaks and together they got out of the car. Ben took the lead because in theory he knew how to get to where they needed. In reality none of them knew the isle the way that Mal and her surrogate siblings would have.

They made their way to the gate dressed in the robes and slipped right into the gates. They were immediately met by the horrible surroundings of the isle. "Everyone try to stay together." Ben advised him. Jordan couldn't argue that one. In truth she figured she was the best 'prepared' for the isle though she didn't know Will well enough to be positive with him. Even she had her doubts about her preparation.

"Where do we to find Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos?" Audrey asked Ben in practically a whisper. Needless to say she didn't feel very comfortable there.

Neither did anyone else of course.

"Um, we could ask for directions." Ben suggested.

Will tried to avoid rolling his eyes. "This isn't Auradon, we can't just ask and expect them to give it to us." He glanced around a little. "We also have to remember that most people who have been here long enough know where Maleficent used to live."

"You know it just occurs to me that if time was reversed and Chad was at Auradon Prep then Maleficent might have come back here." Lonnie said nervously. "That might be a good thing as far as ending the spell but without powers I don't know how we'd do it."

They were doing their best to avoid any sort of problems but Ally turned and nearly tripped over some stray logs. She almost fell but was caught. Her hood slipped off and she found herself looking at Gaston Jr. who smiled at her. "Well hello there my blonde beauty." He said.

"Hello." Ally said softly as she moved to stand up. He kept his hands on her arms though.

"I'm glad to see you've fallen for me so easily." Gaston Jr. said with what he thought was flirtatiousness. He didn't notice Ally wasn't so impressed and he leaned down to kiss her on the lips.

Aziz moved up to him and took Ally's arm, pushing him away from her. She instinctively clung against him as her boyfriend stared back hard at her would be savior. "Glad you helped her." Aziz said to him coldly. "But she isn't yours."

"And you're laying claim to her?" Gaston Jr. questioned him.

It was on Aziz's lips to say yes but he didn't truly believe that anyone could really claim a person. "I am dating her." He responded. "And she clearly isn't interested in you."

For a moment it seemed as if Gaston Jr. intended to start a fight over Ally. He might have too if he hadn't realized that Aziz was not alone but had several other friends with him while he had no one to back him up. "Whatever man." He said with a glare.

They all watched him walk away and they could easily see the similarities between that boy and the man that Gregory had really been. It made them all shudder a bit.

They walked around a little bit, appalled at the condition of the isle. Ben was wondering if Auradon should do something about that but also thought the way everyone here was they might not appreciate the help from their enemies. He resolved to ask Mal about it.

They continued on, trying to avoid as much attention as they could. They found it kind of interesting to find a forested area around there. Then Audrey perked up and looked to Ben. "I think I see Ben and Mal, along with Evie and Carlos…" She squinted her eyes a bit trying to verify what she was seeing. "And, that girl looks like Mal except she's shorter and has dark pink colored hair like a rose." She cocked her head. "Actually it looks kind of pretty."

"Remember they don't know who we are so we have to be careful." Lonnie reminded them. "But as long as they're in the forest I think we should try to talk to them there to avoid getting drawing anyone else's attention."

"Good idea." Ben agreed and the group moved into try to get there last four team members, and to find out what the story was with Mal's apparent twin sister.

Amy could just make out the larger group's interest in her, her sister and her friends. She was still having a hard time sorting out the lives they had apparently lead not too long ago, and that included the training she had undergone while the others had been in Auradon. Still, interest didn't necessarily translate to a good thing and she found herself backing up against her sister as they approached.

That drew Mal's attention and she stopped her other friends. She already decided it was better to confront them in the open where they could have more space to fight or run if she needed too. Beside her she felt Evie tense as well; the bandits in the forest fresh in her mind. Carlos grabbed the blue haired girl's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. On her Mal's other side Jay took a slightly protective step in front of Mal.

That made both Ben and Audrey hesitate a moment. They had both agreed, and the purple haired girl had confessed as much to Jane in Agrabah, that if they hadn't ended up in Auradon then Mal and Jay would probably have ended up together. Though time had been messed with and it wasn't supposed to be that way it still was a bit of a shock to see. It wasn't much easier for Jane to see Carlos holding Evie's hand as Mal had also said her two friends probably would have ended up together if not for her and Doug.

"Is there something you guys need?" Mal asked them a bit coldly. She was not fond of strange groups approaching her, she was not looking forward to her mother's wrath, and she realized she was still on edge about the bandit encounter too; they had clearly wanted to hurt Evie and her sister.

Ben stepped forward first and removed the hood on his robe. Mal let out a small gasp as she had a memory flow into her. Though it had never been discussed, not even between the young king and the purple haired girl, she too had dreamed about Ben in the same manner as he had dreamed about her and now that dream pushed its way to the surface.

Amy cocked her head just a bit in fascination. He looked like the boy who she had seen in her visions. The one who would date her sister, be forced to turn against them as a knight before finally being set free. She had a sudden idea who the others were.

"Mal, it's me. Ben." He said as he took a tentative step toward her. "Do you remember me? Do you remember who you are? What we mean to each other?"

For just an instant Mal flashed back to the first date at the enchanted lake, the dates on the beach, dinner with two other adults…his parents she presumed and wondered why she felt such comfort at that, especially the woman. Then she shook it off. "I don't even know who you are, why would I remember anything about you?"

The others took off their hoods too, revealing their faces. Amy was not surprised to find the brunette princess and the rest of them there. The others truthfully didn't mean much to her one way or another but she had to fight her resentful feelings toward Audrey over what she had seen.

Jay looked surprised at them, but especially at both Audrey and Aziz. Carlos meanwhile had a shocked look at seeing Jane. Even Evie seemed to take a moment to be shocked at seeing Lonnie.

Amy took a step back away from her sister and her chosen siblings and received another flash across her mind. All of them were wearing a costume of some sort in a different color. Her own sister Mal in purple, beside her Evie in blue and Jay in black. Carlos in yellow. Across from them Ben in shining silver armor. Audrey in red, Lonnie in pink, the boy next to her in green, followed by the others she didn't really know in white, gold, crystal and silver. Then like that it was gone.

For a moment no one knew what to say, then Audrey shifted just a bit as if she were trying to decide if she should move closer to Jay or not. A muscle in her leg twisted and she went down to her knees with a barely concealed gasp of pain.

Jordan was by her side in an instant. "The potion hasn't had time to take care of everything." She said with a mixture of concern and annoyance. "I warned you that you might still feel some effect from the attack."

Amy watched with a bit of surprise as concern lit her sister and friend's faces, particularly Jay.

"Add me to the list of people who want to make Chad pay for this." Will said grimly. Unlike everyone else there, except now apparently Mal, he had a younger sister and would have made anyone who tried to beat her up pay for it.

With that comment Jay had a flash of memories. Audrey approaching him to dance after Ben's coronation, the second sign she had shown to accept them all with the first being her show of respect to Mal for stopping her mother. Winding up in Audrey's monster induced nightmare to bring her out of it where he told her she was one of them now regardless. The two of them on their dates, where he realized that despite the front's she put out Audrey was in fact just as much of a scared and uncertain teenager as the rest of them. He saw Chad push her, and hit her, and even kiss her despite her struggles. "Audrey…" he whispered.

"You know her?" Carlos asked.

Jay wasn't certain for just a moment. Then he remembered fighting the dark knight as he was determined to make him pay for what he was doing to Audrey. And with that, seeing her on her knees again, made him realize that somehow he had failed to protect her and it all came back. He moved away from his friends to come to Audrey's side.

"What happened?" He asked Audrey. "Did Chad get to you again?" Only Ben and Lonnie noticed as the black iPhone appeared at his side.

She nodded and wanted to say more, but she couldn't find the words as tears pooled into her eyes. She threw her arms around Jay and started to cry. Jay wrapped his arms around her gently and stroked her hair softly, trying to soothe her.

This display caught Amy off guard. Not only because of Jay's actions but from Audrey as well. Everything she had seen didn't portray her in this way. She was wondering what exactly she was missing here. Then she remembered that Jay and Mal were supposed to be dating and she looked to her sister. But Mal didn't show any signs of feeling hurt, anger or betrayal. Her eyes were on Ben.

Likewise his eyes were on her. "Mal, does any of that help you?" He asked her. "Remember who you are, who we are?"

Mal blinked in confusion. She looked between Audrey, who some part of her remembered was starting to think of her as a sister in the same vein as Evie, and again at Ben. Something about his eyes, his gentle smile, it tugged at her again. "I…" She started, making her speechless for the first time Amy could recall.

Audrey's tears and started to subside and she looked to Mal, giving her a weak smile. She thought of something that might help jog Mal's memory. "Mal." She called out, her voice hoarse. The purple haired girl looked to her. "Don't you remember your love for him, Bennie-boo and his crowned swim trunks and all?"

Will had to repress laughter though he couldn't hide a chuckle.

Mal looked at Audrey and the memories struck. She had mocked the trunks and she had mocked the nickname even as she kind of adopted it, but the mockery on the latter had gone away when she realized that Audrey had created it out of pure childhood innocence on a Halloween almost a decade ago. Audrey had never protested Mal using the nickname even though she probably could have. Then she had another memory and looked to Ben. "Ben…Ben Florien." She whispered.

Ben smiled at her softly. "It's better than Bertha." He repeated to her. Amy was confused, she didn't even know that her sister's middle name was Bertha, but she figured it made sense for her mother, just Maleficent being evil. She had never told anyone her middle name either.

Mal couldn't help but laugh a little. "Oh, okay." She remarked. She felt warm as she looked at him. She then had another memory as she remember fighting Ben as the Auradon Knight under Nerissa's control. They had clashed evenly and she had to turn around and free him though, not as a power ranger but as herself. Ben took a step another step toward her and Mal didn't react.

Another step and Ben took Mal's hands in his. "Mal, do you remember?" He asked again softly.

Mal hesitated a moment and then replied, "I…I think…I do." She said. "Ben…my prince…" She squeezed his hands softly. The soft purple glow of the iPhone appeared around her waist. Then another overwhelming thought occurred to her. Those memories though had come at a horrible cost, she had been forced to forget her own twin sister. She looked to her. "Amy…"

She smiled sweetly at Mal but didn't say anything. She knew her sister had to realize whose fault all of this was on her own.

"Amy?" Ben asked curiously. Mal seemed unsure how to handle that.

"Carlos?" Jane asked a bit nervously. "Do you remember me by any chance?" She asked.

Carlos looked at her. He remembered words that he suspected could easily have come from her. "I…I don't know." He admitted to her reluctantly. In truth both of them were shy enough that they hadn't had the bonding moments that Ben and Mal or Audrey and Jay had had.

Jane bit her lip as she started to take a step toward him but she managed to get her foot twisted in a small tangle of roots and she found herself taking a plummet toward the forest floor. Before impact though she was caught and Carlos helped steady her. "Easy." He said to her softly.

"Thanks, again." Jane said with a bit of a blush on her cheeks. She placed her hand on Carlos's shoulder to start to stand but he placed his hand on hers as he remembered another time when he caught her, that time from falling off a ladder in Agrabah's library. That time though it hadn't gone quite as well as he had taken a fall to the floor with it. "Do you remember something?" She asked.

Carlos nodded. "When were we in a fancy library?" He asked her.

"Agrabah." She answered shyly. "And that would probably have caused more damage than a fall on the forest ground." She giggled nervously. "Don't know which one would have been messier though."

Carlos laughed softly. "It's only dirt. Better than blood." He replied. The two looked into each other's eyes and he felt warm. He didn't have the memories to draw on the way that Jay and Mal had but there was still something familiar.

Then Jane said. "I don't know how to tell moods with dogs or anything, but I think that Dude misses you."

Carlos looked shocked. "Huh?" he asked. Jane took out her iPhone and showed him a picture she had taken of him and Dude one day while the cheerleaders had practiced but Tourney practice had started late. He and Dude had sat there with Jane waiting and she had snagged that chance for a photo op.

"That's Dude." Jane said. "I know you think you're afraid of dogs because of what your mother told you but you're really not."

Carlos would have loved to argue with her but the evidence to the contrary was in front of him. He had memories of first meeting Dude in the woods near the Tourney field. Carlos watching the little dog sleep that first night. Telling his mother Cruella DeVil that he was the perfect size for a pet. He remembered another time where he and Jane had gotten kind of bored and decided to make a go of bathing the little dog. It had been rather messy for such a small animal.

"Wow." Carlos said softly as he brushed the screen of the iPhone, then his hand moved to Jane's and rubbed the top of her hand gently. "I…don't know what's going on." He looked at her. "We know each other, don't we?"

"We all know each other. "Jane said softly. "We're all friends, all family." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. The yellow iPhone appeared around his waist.

"You hear that Mal?" Ben asked softly. She smiled at him and nodded a little. He looked to Evie. "How about you Evie? Ringing any bells?"

Evie bit her lip. Some of it did but Ally and Aziz hadn't been able to convince Doug the way they had everyone else despite the ties he had to the command center like Jane and Fairy Godmother.

They heard footsteps and they turned to be approached by a bunch of strangers. Mal recognized some of them from the bandit encounter earlier in the woods. "Not you guys again." The purple haired girl said with a roll of her eyes.

"A couple of you owe me something." He stated with a look between Evie and Amy. "And I intend to take it."

"Jerks like you we can handle." Aziz warned him. "So back off right now."

Some of them laughed as they got a look at Ally, Jordan and Audrey. "Look, they went out and got new friends I guess." One of them remarked. "More to go around."

One reached for Amy. Mal tried to get in the way but he shoved her to the ground hard. Before either sister could react Ben was in between them now. "Back off." He demanded with all the authority of a king. Too bad that it didn't matter to them.

Another reached for Audrey and Jay didn't even hesitate. He stood up and gave him a good, stiff uppercut. Aziz brought his elbow up hard into the guy who tried to reach for Ally. One tried go for Evie but got kicked in the chest hard by Lonnie and Will.

"You all really want to make an issue of this?" One guy asked as he looked Lonnie over.

"I think it's time to see how badly you really want to push things." Will responded. With that from within his own robe he withdrew a curved dagger of his own, it shone in the waning sunlight of the forest. "Next one to approach any of these people will get this thrust into their gut."

"Oh, wicked." Mal had to say with some glee. "I like that."

"Bro, that is so neat." Jay agreed with some amusement. Audrey now stood beside him and looked as ready to fight as she could ever be without having her powers for protection. Everyone was ready to defend themselves and each other, even though Mal still had Amy close to her.

Lonnie looked to Evie. "Are you okay?" She asked. Evie saw such earnestness in the Asian princess's eyes and it reminded her of the friendships she had formed with Audrey, with Ally, with Lonnie. The increasing sisterhood between her and Mal. And she remembered the two other important people in her life that couldn't be there at that moment; her massive crush Doug and her older step-sister Snow White, who bore no ill will to her because of the Evil Queen's actions.

"Lonnie." She gasped and hugged her friend tightly. Her blue iPhone appeared in her right hand. "What's going on?"

"We'll tell you after we've gotten some privacy." Lonnie promised her.

The two girl's reunions was not distraction enough for the others. They were too gripped by the wicked looking dagger in Will's hands. "So how about it guys?" He asked them with a thin smile. "Feel like taking your chances?"

"Rolling the dice?" Jordan added with a wicked smirk of her own.

Amy clung to Mal a bit as she watched the situation but the fact they were still debating trying to hurt them all anyway made her feel kind of angry. Her eyes flashed red on and off. Mal's meanwhile were shifting between green as well.

They couldn't quite be sure if it was the glow of power in the two twin girl's eyes or if it was the blade in Will's hand or if it was the aura of power and certainty that seemed to permeate the team of warriors, or perhaps something more. Maybe all or none of those, but whatever it was the group of bandits were smart enough to back away from them.

""Where'd you a wicked looking blade like that Will?" Jay asked him, still sounding kind of impressed.

"A gift when I got my black belt." Will answered with a grin.

"Ben…I don't…what's going on?" Mal asked him. Her memories were still struggling to return but it was clear they were trying. Ben squeezed her hands softly but looked to Ally and Aziz, the ones who had been able to figure it out since the start.

"We're not quite sure how yet, but your mother cast a spell that reversed time to a point that Ben never made his proclamation to give the kids of this place a second chance." Ally explained to her in her soothing British voice; Amy kind of liked it, it sounded nicer than a lot of the incessant noises and jabbering they could hear on the isle at any given time. "As a result of everything that was supposed to have happened didn't happen, except for Aziz and I getting together."

Evie was the one who pieced that together then. "So because you guys would end up together regardless the spell's effect bypassed you guys." She reasoned. "Without the first criteria to take out of your minds, it didn't even bother messing with them."

"Sounds like a flawed spell to me." Carlos tried to joke.

"Far from it." Jordan said sourly. "It was strong enough to even scramble my memories, and as a genie not too many spells will do that to me."

Mal looked to Ben. "It was strong enough to separate us." She reflected softly. "I'm so sorry about that Ben." She hugged him tightly, laying her head on his chest. "I should have been able to resist this better, to come back to you on my own."

"You can't blame yourself Mal." Ben said reassuringly as he stroked her hair softly. "Besides, after you rescuing me from Nerissa's control I owed you one anyway."

"I know mom is powerful." Amy voiced now, which kind of surprised them all since most of them didn't even know who she was. "But mom isn't that powerful, especially here on the Isle of the Lost."

"She didn't cast the spell here on the isle Amy." Mal said to her twin sister. "And come to think of it she probably didn't cast it on her own. She probably had help from Nerissa and Paradias."

"Who's Nerissa?" Amy asked. She had never heard of her, at least to her knowledge.

"She's actually the one who cursed Ben's father Adam into the Beast." Evie explained to her. "She was hoping to use Adam in the plans she and Paradias had but that was forced upon Ben after Belle broke that curse."

"Who are you anyway?" Audrey asked Amy. "I thought that no one here had siblings."

"I guess you happen to be wrong." Amy said a bit confrontationally. "I'm Mal's twin sister; she's older than me by a matter of minutes." She took a step toward her. "And don't let my size fool you, I am just as dangerous as she is, so don't get in the way of Mal and Ben."

"Hey, easy." Mal said to Amy with the sternest voice she had ever used on her. In truth that didn't say much in the long run. "Calm down Amy. Audrey's my friend, whatever differences we had when we first got to Auradon are long buried. She's my second in command now." That last one was a bit of a revelation to her as well since her memories were only just returning but even as she said to her sister she knew it was true.

Amy looked to her sister sharply only to see the truth in her eyes. Everything she had seen in her visions about her sister and their friends arriving in Auradon was truly in the past. She knew she was going to have to remind herself of that for a little while, but if Mal could see Audrey for something better than she would try too. "Sorry." She said to Audrey. "So many conflicting things in my head right now."

"I understand that one." Audrey promised her. "We have to break that spell your mother has over everything."

"Hey hold up." Amy said. "All of you seem to have recovered your memories and mine have been fighting the spell for a while now." She looked confused. She was still at that stage where she hadn't had the time to learn about magic the way they had. "So what's left to do?"

It was Jane that filled in the gap on that one. "No other student or faculty member, aside from my mother Fairy Godmother, would remember us. They'd be unaccepted strangers instead of accepted students when we return." She filled in.

"Oh." Amy said softly, almost sadly. She didn't want them to leave again but she couldn't stand in the way of their new lives.

Mal wrapped an arm around her sister's shoulders and hugged her softly. "And we might just need all of that stored up trust and good will if we're going to convince them to take in another villain kid, especially when she's the expected trouble maker of the evil Maleficent." She said with a teasing menace in her voice. Amy laughed.

"Just what we need, another kid from here." Audrey remarked and Amy was about to bite back when she saw the smile on Audrey's face and the humor in her eyes as she added, "Even if she does have pretty colored hair."

"Time to get back to Auradon then." Ben said and he smiled at Amy now. "All of us."

They started back into town and Amy gasped, "Oh, I forgot, I should show you…" She started but was interrupted by movement. They all turned to see the town mostly deserted for a moment before large shadowy creatures with horns and tails and swords formed in front of them. "What are those?" She asked.

No one had any answers. Jay was the first to try to attack but he slipped right through the strike. Will tried to stab another one with the knife with the same results. That same insubstantiality didn't apply to them as they struck the two boys hard.

Evie looked to Lonnie. "Can we transform?" She asked.

Lonnie shook her head regretfully. "No. Our powers are down until we can take the iPhones, the wand, and Ben's weapons and resynch them to the morphing grid." She explained. In truth it was a bit over her head but she could see that Evie understood each word perfectly.

"I wish we could use magic here." Jordan said in a whisper to Jane and Mal. "I don't even know what these things are, let alone what we can do stop them." She wasn't sure they could get out of here now.

"They're a breed of creatures called Heartless. Somewhat antiquated creatures I used to have some command over, lost it until recently." They heard a familiar voice say from the back. Some of them parted to reveal Maleficent. "I'd suggest asking some of your parents in Auradon about them but you won't be returning there."

"What are you doing here mother?" Mal asked.

"I had to make sure the spell continued to function, though I didn't think your little prince and the Auradon brats would show up here without powers. The failsafe I had just in case something like your two little friends over there happened." She gestured to Aziz and Ally.

"You took Amy away from us." Jay said with a dangerous narrowing of his eyes. "You stole our memories of her away."

"If you four had done your mission the way you were supposed to then you would have never known about that." Maleficent stated as she glared from Jay to Carlos to Evie before settling in on Mal. "That was your own doing."

"You really are a terrible excuse for a mother." Audrey snapped. That surprised Mal just a little and Amy quite a lot.

Maleficent laughed. "Coming from you that's rather rich." She commented and then unleashed a stream of energy at the group, sending them reeling. As they struggled to get up they were surrounded by the Heartless that Maleficent had summoned. They forced the teens to stand and held their arms. Two of them had even done the same with Amy despite her not having any known powers. Though Amy could have tried to attack them she suspected she'd have the same luck as Jay and Will.

Maleficent strode forward, completely disregarding Amy's presence as she truthfully had more often than not in her life. She stood in front of Mal, with Evie and Ben on either side of her. "You and all of your little friends have caused me enough trouble. Tonight all of your ends have come." She promised.


	58. Never Alone

Maleficent stared down at the iPhones that contained her powers belonging to her eldest daughter and her friends. She was also extremely glad of the bonus; the magic wand belonging to Fairy Godmother. She had not thought it necessary to search Amy and did not find the rose gem. "Your mother will be so disappointed." She commented to Jane. She looked to the rest of the Auradon teens. "Of course all of your parents will have more than disappointment on their minds when I leave this place and present them with your bodies." She sneered at Evie. "And let's not forget your precious little Snow White."

"They won't let you get that far." Ben vowed. He wished he could summon his sword and shield right now.

Maleficent laughed. "I bet right now no one else knows you're here except for the 'fairy godmother' and she couldn't do anything to help you anyway." She waved the wand a bit. "With this no on in Auradon can save you now." She stepped forward to her daughters. "Mal, you need to be eliminated with the rest of your pathetic little team." She glanced at Amy. "And you're such a waste, there's no point to sparing you."

Despite everything Amy couldn't help but flinch a little at the remark. Mal felt for her, as it seemed Amy was not aware that her older sister had already been disowned.

Maleficent pulled back to look at them. "In one hour I will have you all killed. Think of your parents," She looked at Ben and Audrey, referring to Adam, Belle, Phillip and Aurora. Her glance slid over Lonnie as she thought of Mulan and Shen. "Your siblings." She looked to Evie again referring to Snow White while Will thought of his mother Wendy and his younger sister Whitney. Ally thought of Alice as Aziz thought of Aladdin and Jasmine. Jordan thought about Genie and Eden. "Mourn while you can because soon you won't even have that."

"The invasion beings in two hours." Maleficent added to the Heartless. "Paradias and the generals will meet us there. Auradon will be ours by daybreak. With no power rangers active in Auradon nothing will stop us at all."

Maleficent already had some Heartless gathering at the gates to that would lead to Auradon. When the evil fairy queen showed and took possession of the remote for the bridge they would meet Paradias and his minions to overtake Auradon.

By nature the Heartless were little more than unfeeling creatures, almost like puppets. They could not love nor hate, feel pain nor sadness. They maintained some curiosity and initiative but not enough worth worrying about leaving unattended.

Still a couple of Heartless heard the rustling in the wooded areas around them but paid them no mind, figuring it had to be a wild animal. They were oblivious as over two dozen shapes headed past them and toward the town.

Not twenty minutes after her daughter and her friends had left for the Isle of the Lost Fairy Godmother felt powerless. A spell had been strong enough to even affect her and now they were putting themselves at tremendous risk to fix everything and she could do nothing to help.

She stayed in the command center trying to find some way she could lend a hand with no luck and her frustration level grew. She was starting to question her decision to let them go and was just about ready to take this matter to the former king when a console beeped, startling her. The last thing they needed was a monster attack.

But she saw it wasn't from the sensors, it was from the communications system. At first she thought somehow Jane had found a way to contact her from the island. Instead she found herself looking onto something else but then it occurred to her that this would be much more welcome…

In the small room they had been placed in Ben had his arms around Mal's waist even as Amy had her head on Mal's lap, crying just a little. Jay and Audrey, Will and Lonnie, and Ally and Aziz were in the same position. Jane and Carlos sat by each other while Jordan paced restlessly.

When the door opened she was ready to spring but stopped herself. She couldn't get by Maleficent on her own, let alone the four Heartless that accompanied her as well as the two outside. That was what they could see.

"There's been a few changes in plans here." Maleficent said casually. She looked to Ally. "Seems someone wants to spend some alone time with you." She announced. A Heartless reached for Ally. Aziz tried to stop it but was slammed in the chest hard. She looked to Audrey and the brunette princess had a horrible feeling she knew what was coming. "You're no longer scheduled to die. We'll take you with us and present you to General Chad as a gift." Jay glared with hatred at her. She then looked at Amy. "And there's no point in waiting for you, you get to die right now." Two Heartless grabbed her and Ben was barely able to restrain Mal so she didn't get hurt in the process. "Later." She said with a laugh.

"Who would want Ally?" Jane wondered.

Aziz already knew. "Gaston Jr. He was all but claiming her when we got here." He stated.

"Amy." Mal whispered softly and then started to cry as she imagined her sister's death.

Ally was dragged to the streets where they had first run into Gaston Jr. and tossed to the ground hard. She saw him leaning up against a support pillar for a building. He seemed rather proud of this turn of events. "You should have accepted me when you had the chance to do so willingly." He said, sounding so calm and logical.

"I didn't want you. I still don't." Ally said as she stood shakily. She knew what Chad had done to Audrey and what he still wanted to do to her and she didn't want that same fate if she could avoid it. "I will resist you with everything I have."

Gaston Jr. let out a laugh. "I look forward to that." He leapt at Ally and she barely moved out of the way. He shot his foot out and tripped her up. She hit the ground hard. Then he was on top of her, giving a leerful grin. She brought the palms of her hands into his chest and struck but it almost felt like hitting concrete, he was definitely well muscled she had to admit.

He pinned her wrists together above her head with his right hand while his left hand stroked Ally's cheek. "This is going to be so much fun, I promise." He leaned toward her. "You might get to enjoy some of this."

"That's no way to treat a lady." They heard from the shadows. He jumped off of her shocked, no one was supposed to be here. Most people were indoors contributing to the Heartless's presence, no matter how much they knew that.

"Show yourself." Gaston Jr. demanded.

From the shadows came a figure. Ally recognized the outfit as that of a Power Ranger but she didn't know from where. The figure wore red though he had a golden shield across his chest with golden arm bands. "I suggest you get out of here, right now." He said.

Gaston Jr. looked shocked. "Maleficent said there were no more power rangers here." He mused. "This must be a trick." He pulled a long dagger from his boots. "This was meant to slice into something more delicate." He glanced at Ally. "But I'll make the exception here and take you out imposter."

The red clad figure laughed. "Imposter, huh?" He questioned. "I guess it's time to re-evaluate that opinion." He held his hands and called out, "Power sword." It was then that Ally was able to place this man. He was the original red ranger.

Amy could tell that her mother Maleficent seemed to get a certain amount of joy at the prospect of seeing her youngest daughter executed. She had all but shown that she had been a disgrace to the evil fairy.

Then Maleficent laughed. "You know as much of a disgrace as Mal turned out to be, she seemed to so such potential." She reflected. "The truth is I can blame the brat king for luring her to the light and the prospect of true love for her downfall." She now looked hard at Amy. "But really, it all started with you. You were so weak and pathetic from a young age that the truth is you lead Mal down the path of good. I should have gotten rid of you long ago."

Amy was determined not to show how much hearing her mother's words hurt. She may have known that Maleficent didn't really care for her but to think it and hear it were two different things. She still felt her lower lip quiver just a bit despite herself.

Maleficent raised the magic wand she had stolen off of Jane. "I'm going to right that wrong. I am going to finish you myself." She started to gather energy into the magic wand when from out of nowhere several Heartless around Amy were shot down. Then two Heartless next to Maleficent were struck down. She turned only to have the wand kicked out of her hand, then she was kicked back.

Amy saw a girl in purple catch the wand her mother had stolen. Beside her was a red clad guy and a blue clad guy. Coming in closer was a pink clad figure, a yellow clad figure, and a black clad figure. She remembered seeing them during her visions; they were six of the seven Space Rangers.

"Who are you?" Maleficent demanded to know. "There are no more Auradon Rangers."

"We're not from Auradon." Amber said to her as she came up to Amy's side. "I won't let you hurt Mal." She thought it odd the girl had changed her hair color but said nothing. "Or the others. You mess with one team of rangers you might just mess with them all."

More Heartless showed up but she saw the other five rangers moving in to take care of them as Amber seemed ready to take on Maleficent herself.

Gaston Jr. swiped at the red ranger and he blocked it with the sword. Ally saw several Heartless start to emerge from the shadows but before she could worry about how to deal with them they were blasted with lasers. She turned to see a black ranger, a blue ranger, a yellow ranger and a pink ranger gathering around her. Another Heartless was taken out by a white ranger.

"Who are you guys?" Ally asked them.

The pink ranger touched her shoulder reassuringly. "We're friends. I'm Kimberly, that's Aisha," She indicated the yellow ranger. "That's Billy," To the blue ranger. "That's Zack." To the black ranger. "That's Tommy." She indicated the red ranger and then she indicated the red ranger. "And that's Jason."

Jason easily disarmed his adversary and kicked him hard in the chest. He went flying and some of the wooden pallets crashed down on him. He then turned to Ally. "We have to get to the square." He stated.

"Wait no." Ally protested. "We have to get the rest of my friends out of captivity."

"Don't worry about it." Zack said to her. "We have it covered."

Ally hesitated only a moment before nodding. "Then we need to get to the square indeed, which is where our iPhones and Ben's weapons are being held." She frowned a bit. "But Maleficent has the magic wand which also serves as the white ranger powers."

"First things first." Kimberly said. "Let's get the iPhones."

Mal had stopped crying but she was still trembling a little. She hated the feeling but her little sister was about to be killed if she hadn't already and for the first time in her life she couldn't protect her.

Aziz was no better off, panicking about Ally's safety.

Jordan stopped as she heard a scuffle. "What is that?"

For a moment they heard nothing. Then they heard a feminine Australian voice call out, "Zeo One Power punch." Then they heard the sound of something flying and then dissipating.

There was another call for, "Zeo IV power kick." From a guy this time and then another sound of crashing and dissipation.

Then another female voice called out. "I think they're in here." A moment later the door opened and five figures came into the room. They were clad as power rangers, Jane remembered them as the Zeo Rangers. The one in pink had to be Katherine Hillard, the one in yellow had to be Tanya Sloane, the one in blue had to be Rocky DeSantos, the one in green had to be Adam Park, and the one in red had to be Tommy Oliver.

Then the red ranger spoke and the voice was feminine. "We have to go to the square and get your iPhones back guys." She said.

"No, we have to go and find my sister Amy." Mal protested. "My mother is going to kill her."

"It's alright." Kat told her. "Amber and the Space Rangers were going to distract Maleficent." She placed hand on Mal's shoulder reassuringly. "She'll be alright."

If there was one person Mal thought she could trust as much as she trusted Ben or her surrogate siblings it was the purple space ranger. "Then let's make this quick. The sooner we get to her the better."

"Wait, Ally…" Aziz started.

"It's alright." The red ranger said. "I just heard from Jason, they have your friend and she's unharmed."

Jane wanted to know who she was. Last she knew there were no female red rangers outside of Audrey and the second red samurai ranger Lauren.

Maleficent unleashed an stream of energy at Amber and Amy but she protected the young girl. Then another ranger, looking like Zhane except in white, attacked Maleficent. Amber looked to Amy. "We've got your back Mal." She promised.

Amy shook her head. "I'm not Mal. My name is Amy, I'm her twin sister." She revealed. For a moment she was worried that might make them turn her back on her.

"My best friend's name is Amy." Amber said with a small smile in her voice. "Well, we have your back too Amy. We always look out for our friends, that's why we're here. I contacted the command center to see how things were going and it's a good thing I did. Fairy Godmother told me what had happened."

She recalled the reluctance she had displayed to do so and Amber understood it once she had heard what had happened. The spell had wiped out the memories of everyone in Auradon, effectively erasing the Auradon Rangers from history and separating the team. It had been discovered the spell had one more flaw; it didn't cover other universes and so the Space Rangers remembered their encounter with the Auradon Rangers very well and hadn't hesitated to offer assistance. When Fairy Godmother told them where they had had to go she decided they needed to bring some old friends with them to help out and had recruited her friends from the original ranger team and the zeo team, one of her personal favorite powers.

"I'm glad that my sister has other good friends." Amy said with a small smile.

"I'd be glad to count you as one too. I'm sure we all would." Amber told her. "My name is Amber." She looked to the white ranger that was doing a good job fighting Maleficent. "That's Karone, and the red ranger is her older brother Andros." She motioned to the yellow ranger. "His wife Ashley Hammond." She motioned to the pink ranger. "Cassie Chan." She indicated the blue and black ranger. "TJ Johnson and Carlos Vallerta."

"You rotten little brat." Maleficent spat and swung at Karone. "You would know nothing about what I'm trying to do here for the sake of all evil."

"I don't know." Karone agreed. "But I know it's wrong. I spent too many years as Astronema not too know which side of the coin is the better one." She had blocked it and then was joined by her brother and her brand new team mates, as the white space ranger powers had just been given to her by her old Galaxy ranger team mate Maya after they had been discovered on Mirinoi.

"You may have saved my pathetic little daughter." Maleficent said. "But the real problems are nice and contained." With that she vanished, unaware that the Zeo rangers had helped rescue the rest of the team.

"Mal." Amy gasped. "We have to help them."

"Easy." Andros said to her. "They're taken care of."

"Andros, we have to get to town's square center and get the iPhones back." Ashley reminded them.

"It'll be fine, trust me." Amber said to Amy. Without Mal and her friends around, Amy didn't see any other options and she nodded in agreement. With that, Amber took Amy's hand and they started off toward the square.

The original rangers were the closest to the square. Kimberly hung back to protect Ally, though she had her power bow ready to go and was helping to take out Heartless from afar. The rest of them were being taken out by his team mates and their power weapons, and Tommy used Saba.

"I see the iPhones and stuff from here." Zack said. "We're going to have to cut through a lot of them though."

"Then that's what we're going to do." Jason announced. "Everyone keep it together, we're in for a long fight."

"Right." Tommy and Kim acknowledged.

"I can help." Ally said. "Just give me a weapon."

Kimberly nodded. "Okay." She agreed. She took out her power blaster and converted it to the dagger and then handed it to Ally. "Here we go." With that the blonde normally crystal ranger dove into the group of Heartless.

From another angle in the square they saw the Space Rangers show up with Amy. Cassie and Ashley hung back to protect the rose haired girl while Amber, Karone and the guys started in on their Heartless.

Then Amy heard a very welcome voice shout, "You're alive." She turned and ran straight into Mal's arms. The two girls hugged each other tightly. When Amy went to hug Evie Mal ran up to Amber. "Thank you so much for saving my sister and keeping her safe." She said. She would have hugged the other girl if they weren't getting into a fight right now.

"Anytime Mal." Amber said. "Like I said before, we rangers stick together." She handed Mal one of her Solar Sais. "Now let's get your iPhones back."

The Zeo Rangers were diving into action now as well. Together the four ranger teams started to fight toward the podium where the powers were being kept.

Then Mal glanced at Amber. "We have to get rid of that spell that my mother put on Auradon." She said. "Or else we're going to have a hard time going back to the school."

Amber nodded. "Alright, I think if we destroy whatever is that conducted the spell we can end it." She said. "What do you think that would be?"

It was Amy who answered that. "I would bet anything that it's mom's staff." She said.

Mal nodded. "I bet anything Amy's right." She confirmed.

As if on cue Maleficent appeared by the podium that held the iPhones. She grimaced when she saw that Amy was not the only daughter that had been saved and the two couldn't help but give her a smug look in return. Then Maleficent understood what happened. There were not one but three outside ranger teams. "You may have come this far but there's no way you can take these. To do so you have to get by the Heartless, and by me."

Mal grinned wickedly as an idea crossed her mind. "Amy, Audrey, Evie, we need to get those powers." She said. Then she turned and called, "Jane! Got a present for you." She tossed the girl the magic wand and the white ranger practically beamed in relief.

"Gladly, but we have to get by these Heartless things first." Audrey said with a small roll of her eyes.

"Don't worry about that Audrey, you know I have it covered." Mal said with a wink at her second in command. Audrey rolled her eyes good naturedly and Amy couldn't help but giggle at how the two of them seemed to feed off of each other. She thought maybe she could learn to like Audrey in time. Mal looked to Amber. "I think it's time for a storm."

"I think you're right." Amber agreed. With that she unleashed her own signature lighting strikes. Several of them sent Heartless back to where they came and it was so strong that even Maleficent stumbled back and fell.

Mal waved her hand and the four girls ran toward the podium, each of them jumping onto the stage and grabbing all of the iPhones between them.

"Even with our iPhones back we can't use our powers here." Jay said. He had gotten Billy's dagger and was fighting with them. Likewise Will, Lonnie and Aziz were fighting with the same borrowed weapons.

"What about one time charge?" Amy asked. "From a new burst of power?"

"That might work." Billy agreed.

"Totally agree with that." Evie stated but then frowned. "But where do we get one of those?" She asked.

"Maybe from this?" Amy suggested shyly and pulled out the rose gem she had found in the old tree what seemed like a lifetime ago now.

"You did fine something up there, you rotten little sneak." Carlos mock scolded her with a laugh.

Jay stroked Audrey's hand. "You were so right about the power search criteria." He praised.

"Jason, Andros, Emily, we need all of you to keep them these things off our backs." The red power ranger, red space ranger and the red zeo ranger (which answered one of Jane's questions on who the ranger was) nodded in understanding and the teams moved out to do so. "Bring your iPhones and the wand in together." Billy instructed the Auradon Rangers. They did as instructed and then the blue ranger looked to Amy. "Put the gem in the middle." She nodded and placed the rose gem in the center. The iPhones and the wand glowed and a stream of energy shot into each of the teams arms before transforming.

"I have so missed this." Jay stated happily. "So glad to be back in black."

"I missed this, I missed all of us." Audrey said happily. "This is what's meant to be."

Mal looked to Ben. "Keep Amy safe for me please." She requested. Ben nodded and placed an arm around her shoulder after Amy had picked up the rose gem and held it tightly in her hand. She could feel that the energy had been drained from it but could also feel it recharging. She looked to her team. "I don't know how much time we have, we need a plan."

"Don't worry, I have one." Jason said. Mal nodded, understanding that while she was the leader of the Auradon Rangers that Jason was the first ever and arguably the most experience leader of the power ranger's line, she had no problem acquiescing to him though reluctantly, old habits died hard after all. "Let's bring all of our strongest weapons out."

"Good luck with that." Amber said to them as she rotated her solar sais in her hands. "I have something to deal with quickly."

Mal smiled at her friends in delight. "Time for the Auradon blaster." She announced. She laid out her dragon's eye staff, then Audrey placed her elemental bow, Evie placed her mirror force shield, then Jay placed his soul scimitar on top, then Lonnie placed her hurricane tessen's on either side followed by Carlos's earthquake claw daggers.

"Time for the lamp cannon." Jordan said with as much delight. She would never admit but she missed the ranger thing as much as anyone else had. She raised what was normally her own home but was a weapon as a power ranger, and Ally placed her crystal cards in the tip as Aziz placed his spiral spear around the weapon as Jane placed the magic wand on top.

Zack and Billy stood next to each other, then Kimberly and Aisha moved in behind them. The four of them got on their knees as Jason and Tommy stood behind them and together they formed the Power Cannon.

Kat, Tanya, Adam, Rocky and Emily formed the Zeo Cannon and energized it.

Andros combined his spiral saber with his blaster to form the booster mode. Karone combined the sword she had used to battle Maleficent with along with a crossbow that no one had seen her use in that battle to form her own boosted blaster. Carlos, TJ, Ashley and Cassie combined their weapons to form the Quadroblaster.

Maleficent glared at them all. "Stand your ground Heartless, weather the storm out." She commanded. She was then kicked to the ground and she turned to glare at Amber. "How dare you girl?" She demanded.

"Do you know how many times I've heard one?" Amber asked rhetorically. She unleashed a solar stream for her sais and Maleficent was barely able to block the attack. That gave the purple space ranger the opening she needed as she brought her weapons down on the end of the evil fairy's staff shattering it.

Maleficent didn't even know what had happened until the pieces hit the ground. "No!" She gasped. "My spell." She glowered at Amber. Between her and Mal, she was starting to hate purple rangers.

There were several radiant blasts. All but one of them was from each of the ranger team's combined weapons that either destroyed the Heartless or sent them all scattering. The last originated around the Isle of the Lost and acted as a shockwave over the entire worlds of Auradon as the spell's destruction returned everyone's memories.

"This can't be." Maleficent growled. She turned to glare at the purple space ranger to find that she was instead confronted by all of the power rangers, as well as Ben and Amy.

"You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us." Jason warned her.

"This is true friendship…true family, mother." Mal said coldly. "Not what you, Jafar, Grimholde and Cruella tried to teach us." She raised her hands to indicate the other rangers, to indicate her chosen siblings and her real sister and her boyfriend. "This is something you and yours could never understand. Being able to rely on each other when really needed, to know that there are people that have your backs through thick and thin. We're leaving, and this time, you won't make us leave Amy behind."

Maleficent glared at them before seeming to vanish with, "This is far from over, rangers of any worlds."

A moment passed before Jay tapped Mal's shoulder. "Hey, you're getting good at the leader thing." He praised and then added jokingly, "You're even getting those patronizing speeches down." Carlos and Aziz laughed at that one with him.

"Yeah, yeah." Mal said with a wave of her hand as she powered down. She went over and kissed Ben on the cheek before taking Amy's hand. "Come on Amy, it's time for all of us to go home." She turned to the three teams of rangers. "And no running off this time, you're coming with us. You did a great thing."

"Not just for us, but for our entire world." Ben agreed. "And you should get some kind of acknowledgement for that."

They were clearly uncomfortable with the idea but they couldn't leave yet anyway. "Until we get your powers back to the command center and resynched up we can't leave anyway." Andros said. "We can't risk Paradias striking you guys while you're down."

"I don't think anyone's coming out for the moment." Mal said. "I think it's safe to power down, not that we have much of a choice anyway." They all powered down as they walked toward the gates. Mal wrapped an arm around Amber's shoulders. "Again, thank you so much for saving my sister's life."

Amber smiled and hugged her back. "Anytime, we take care of our own." She said.

"Next stop; home. To those we love." Evie said with a small laugh. She couldn't wait to see Doug and Snow White again.

They found the car half demolished. They were willing to bet it was the work of the Heartless at some point, probably just in case they had gotten out. Thankfully Jane had stashed the remote under the seat just in case they did end up captured and was able to retrieve it. They activated the bridge for the walk home. It wouldn't be the quickest but it would home.

"I can't wait to show you Auradon." Mal said to Amy. "Unlike the four us, I don't think you'll have any problems fitting in." She gently tousled her sister's hair. "You were always far too sweet for the Isle anyway."

Sometimes Amy didn't know if Mal intended to sound so condescending or not, then she realized that it wasn't condescending at all. She had been offered a compliment on anyplace that wasn't the Isle of the Lost. Still she had to point out, "You know we are basically the same age despite what it may look like."

"Meat on bones little sister, meat on bones." Mal said with a laugh. Amy shoved her gently and then laughed with her as they started on the magical bridge that would take them all back to Auradon. No one saw the slight rosy glow in Amy's pocket.


	59. Homecoming Honors

The journey across the bridge took about a half hour and they were able to get some blanks filled in. Tommy revealed that Zhane had discovered the power coins on a beach on an alien world and were able to reassemble the original powers. That allowed them the blueprints to revive the other lost powers throughout their times, like the Zeo powers and the Ninja Storm powers. They then had to find other people to fill in the gaps left. Tommy himself was a great example of that having been the White Ranger, Zeo Ranger V and the Black Dino Ranger among others. Amber was too as she had been the purple ranger from the beginning right up until becoming the purple space ranger.

Amber told them that for this mission Tommy had put down the Black Dino Ranger powers and borrowed the White Ranger powers from her best friend Amy, who had taken up that mantle upon the power coin's discovery. Karone meanwhile had returned the pink Quasar Saber to her predecessor Kendrix so that she could take on the newly discovered mantle of the white space ranger.

One of those mantles to fill in had fallen to Emily, a pretty blonde who had once caught Jason's eye as she had worked at an outdoor café run on Angel Grove beach by a friend of named Ernie. Though the romance between Jason and Emily had cooled off, they had all remained friends and as a result they had agreed to let Emily in on the secret and offer her the position of Zeo Ranger V.

"Don't suppose you have someone you could send here?" Carlos had said half-jokingly. "We have to find someone to use the gray ranger powers when we finally take them from Gregory."

"Someone also needs to use the gem I found in the treetop as well." Amy noted.

"Oh, don't worry about that one." Mal said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "I have an idea on that one, but that can wait until it's energized and put into an iPhone before we deal with that."

The four groups of ranger's made it to the other side and once again to their surprise they found an entourage waiting for them; consisting of Belle, Adam, Snow White, Aurora, Phillip, Alice, Doug, Mulan, Wendy and an almost ten year old girl that most of the rangers had never met. Fairy Godmother, Jasmine and the Genie along with a retinue of palace guards.

Ben was already at his parent's side with Mal and Amy slowly trailing behind them. Mal of course was happy to see them but she knew that Amy didn't know them and she didn't want to leave her younger twins side at the moment.

Audrey was at her parent's side, though Jay had gone with her. Aurora gave Jay a warming smile, knowing how much her daughter adored him now. Phillip nodded welcomingly as well. It was a nice thing as far as Jay was concerned but didn't quite meet the same level of elation he felt when Jasmine welcomed in back as warmly as she did Aziz. Genie meanwhile enveloped Jordan in a warm hug that managed to make his daughter both happy and embarrassed. "Unfortunately your father couldn't make it here." Jasmine said. He was the sultan of Agrabah after all. She laughed a bit. "I wouldn't even have been able to make it here if not for Genie."

Fairy Godmother hugged her daughter gently and then reached out to take Carlos's hand and give it a gentle assuring squeeze. It surprised him but he didn't fight it.

Evie was wrapped up in two hugs at once, one from Doug who was so happy to see her and felt vaguely guilty like he had done something wrong even though he had no control over the spell. The other was from her step-sister and she suspected their relationship would change yet again now that she had a vague idea of another type of sisterhood as she could now remember Mal around Amy and vice versa.

"Will." The girl said excitedly and ran to him. He caught her in his arms and lifted her up, hugging her tightly back. "Welcome home." She said.

"Thanks sis." He said as he kissed her cheek gently. After seeing firsthand the way Maleficent reacted to Mal and Amy he wanted two things desperately at that moment; to see his little sister again and to see his mother, who actually cared about the two of them. When Wendy came over he hugged her as well with his free arm, the other he used to still hold Whitney. He then smiled at Lonnie who was embracing Mulan as well.

Lonnie smiled at him and the look in their eyes showed the same thing. Right now each of them felt supremely grateful for the mother's they had.

Belle came over and hugged Mal, to which the purple haired girl accepted gratefully. Then she pulled back and introduced, "Belle, this is my younger twin sister Amelia, but we all call her Amy, except for our mother."

Belle leaned down a little bit to look into Amy's eyes. Despite being the same age Mal had some height over her younger sister. "Hello Amy." Belle said kindly with a soft smile. "Welcome to Auradon."

"Thank you, ma'am." Amy said a bit shyly.

"You can call me Belle." She told the young girl with the rose colored hair as she placed her hand gently on her shoulder.

"I would like to get Amy enrolled into Auradon Prep as soon as possible." Ben announced. He looked to his father. "She deserves a second chance."

"She deserves a first chance." Mal emphasized. "She was never really one of the us, sort to speak. She never even lived up to a spark of the evil our mother expected from us." She looked to Belle and Adam. "I always had to protect her and keep her safe. It was hard for her to hurt anyone unless she thought they really deserved it."

"We'll make the proper arrangements once we get back to Auradon Prep." Fairy Godmother promised them. "We have to get your iPhones resynched to the grid in the first place."

"I think we've got someone who can help us with that too." Jane said with a smile.

Ben nodded. "I agree." He said and then motioned to the others. "Everyone, these are our friends too. Jason, Tommy, Aisha, Kimberly, Billy and Zack the Power Rangers. Kat, Tanya, Rocky, Adam and Emily the Zeo Rangers." He looked to Fairy Godmother. "And I'm sure you remember the Space Rangers Andros, Ashley, Cassie, TJ, Carlos and Amber. This is Andros's little sister Karone, who just became part of their team."

"They've been a great help to us." Audrey added as she looked between her parents. "The space rangers also helped us a couple months ago against the Psycho Rangers."

"Welcome to Auradon, Power Rangers." Adam said to the three groups. "On behalf of all of us and our people I extend my thanks for all that you have done to help our rangers and the world."

"It's an honor sir." Tommy said with a nod.

"It might seem weird to say this." Kat said to them. "But all of grew up hearing your stories." She reflected on them all, from Sleeping Beauty and Snow White to even Mulan and Aladdin. She had been surprised when Cassie had told her that the fairy tales they had known growing up were real and continued on after the books were done.

"After becoming power rangers we've all learned some about some extraordinary things." Jason noted fondly. "Other kinds of people who do the same things we do," He nodded respectfully at the Auradon team just as his thoughts went to other allies like the futuristic SPD rangers. "Other life forms that do the same thing," He remembered Tommy telling them about their encounter with a boy named Dex who held the powers of the Masked Rider as well as his own predecessor and successor to the gold zeo ranger powers, now king of Triforia named Trey and the rangers of the planet Aquiatar, who had Tommy had told him had come to their aid at a critical time when Master Vile had used the Orb of Doom to reverse time. "And even other such allies." His thoughts then went to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"It's really a big wide world out there." Kimberly agreed with a soft smile. "And it's an honor to basically be ambassadors from our world to yours."

"I only hope that someday we can return that favor," Ben said with a smile of his own. "And every other one you've done for us."

"I know of a way we can at least start to thank you all for what you've done." Belle announced. "Please, all of you, join us at our castle for thank you dinner."

"Yeah, that'd be great." Amy said happily. Evie and Ally very quickly agreed with the sentiment.

The ranger's exchanged brief glances and then nodded. "Again, it would be our honor." Jason said with a slight bow.

"Wonderful." Adam said with a pleased smile and a nod. "Once we get you to the castle we'll have you outfitted with proper formal attire."

"I'll take care of you though Amy." Evie promised her with a smile. "I already know what to do for you."

Mal leaned in to her little sister. "Run." She advised humorously. Evie gave her chosen sister a mock scandalized grin and they laughed just a little. It felt good to do that after very nearly being killed. They returned to the castle where the guards lead the rangers off to get some appropriate attire for the party. Before Evie could take Amy off to get her ready as well they had one important thing to do. With a see you later to their parents Fairy Godmother and Doug lead the rangers toward the command center so that their iPhones could be resynched to the morphing grid so they could be ready for action.

"I feel really bad about not being able to remember all of you." Doug said to them, though it was Evie his gaze held the longest and it was Evie's hand he held onto as they walked to the command center.

"It's not your fault Doug." Evie promised him softly. "It was part of Maleficent's spell."

"I wouldn't be surprised if anyone who didn't hold a power here or was magically inclined couldn't break through the spell." Jane noted. For obvious reasons Fairy Godmother was able to break through the spell. She was sure Jordan's parents would have been able to if they had had any reason to think it had to have needed to happen.

"And it was still an uphill battle, as Ally and Aziz can attest too." Jordan added.

Jay held Audrey's hand in his own and squeezed a bit. "Still, I really hate that it gave Chad another chance to go after you again." He said to her. No one had shared the details yet of what he had done to her but by now Jay had a pretty good idea as it was not the first time he had attacked her.

"And don't say it's not a big deal." Mal warned her. "Or I will hurt you."

"I wasn't going to say that." Audrey replied but Amy had to repress a frown as she her empathic abilities gave her good reason to believe the brunette princess was lying. She wondered if she should tell her sister and the others about that.

They descended the stairs and entered the command center, where Jane took all of their iPhones to an open panel. Ben summoned his sword and shield and gave them to Doug and he followed Jane.

"How many ranger teams are there out there?" Amy asked her older sister.

"Here in Auradon it's just us, but in the world where our powers seemed to have come from there are a lot more." Mal answered.

"Eighteen currently, not including us." Jordan filled in for her. "We're actually the biggest group though at eleven to date, twelve if you include that rose gem." As the genie girl spoke Amy handed Jane the rose gem so that later on she could get it encased and ready for the next day. "And thirteen when we take the gray ranger powers from that snake Gregory."

"Wow, that's a lot of people." Amy mused. "And their all your friends?"

"We haven't met them all yet." Evie told her. "But yes, by virtue of the legacy of power they are all our friends." The blue haired girl made sure to emphasize the word our as Amy was one of them now, even if she didn't have powers. She had an idea of what Mal wanted to do with that new gem however.

"Maybe we should have them stay here for now." Carlos suggested. "We still have like two days before the zords are going to be ready to go again."

"They can't stay." Amy told them simply. "They have other concerns to worry about." She hadn't gotten the full details but she had gotten from their hesitation at the invitation from Ben's parents that they might not have been able in a position to help the way they had. It just proved what Amber had told her; that they each ranger team had the other's backs regardless. She thought it kind of touching.

"What makes you say that?" Audrey asked her. It wasn't a challenge but an honest question.

Amy recognized that one. "It's just the feeling I got off of them." She answered. "The tension in their minds, the worry." That brought them all up short. They wanted to pay back their friends for their help, despite their own problems here.

"Now I think I fully understand why they came here." Lonnie mused. She looked at them all as they all started to realize the full scope of the family that was the power rangers and what it meant.

"If they ask, we have to go." Mal stated. "Regardless of what is going on here." She received nods of agreement from her team mates and even Fairy Godmother. "But that's a problem for later. Right now, we have to celebrate being home again."

After returning to Auradon Prep Evie rushed Mal and Amy upstairs. As she set to work the two sisters sat on the bed together. "Do we all have roommates?" Amy questioned. The droning of the sewing machine Evie was using grated on her nerves but she buried the annoyance as nothing could change that.

"Pretty much." Mal answered with a shrug. "I think Ben and Audrey have separate rooms because of who they are but I'm not sure." She hadn't really thought about it to be honest. She knew Jay and Carlos shared a room like she and Evie did, but she didn't know the rest of her friend's roommates.

"Lonnie might too." Evie added as she worked. "She offered for me to stay with her tonight so that you could have my bed." She smiled at Amy a little. "Then tomorrow we'll find out what the long term arrangements will be."

"I could stay with Lonnie." Amy offered. She didn't want to separate Mal and Evie.

"It's fine." Evie assured her with a dismissive wave. "You two have a lot of catching up to do."

"Do they have any rooms bigger than this?" Amy wondered as she looked around . "Maybe the three of us could room together."

"It's worth asking about." Evie said. "Somehow I doubt it though." She stood up and announced, "Alright, here is your dress for tonight." Evie showed off a pink floor length dress with a sweetheart neckline and straps around the shoulders.

"Not bad." Mal said.

Evie set it out on her bed and said, "But that's not all." She went over and took out one inch dark pink heels that reminded Amy of the color of the rose gem she had discovered and set it out.

"I think this would go great with the purple rose headband you gave me." Amy said to Mal. With all of her memories restored the purple haired girl could remember giving that to her sister before Maleficent had taken their memories of Amy away as 'incentive'. Amy got up to examine it and then exclaimed, "Oh my pink! I think this will go even better with it." Mal laughed a little at her younger sister's favorite catchphrase even as Amy ignored her jibe and took out a rose pink ruby necklace and laid it across the top. "What do you think?"

"Are you sure you don't have a knack for fashion?" Evie asked the girl with a smile. "I bet we could get Ben to enroll you into the fashion design class that Lonnie, Audrey and I are taking."

Amy shook her head. "Thanks but no thanks." She drolled but brightened a little. "By the way you might want to talk to Ashley, the yellow space ranger. She helps design clothes in her off time."

"Did you read that from her mind?" Mal asked a bit suspiciously. As much as the empathic powers would be of help she knew Fairy Godmother would insist on doing it only under certain circumstances.

"No." Amy answered her. "I know enough not to intrude on people's minds." She shrugged a bit. "But I can't help it I overheard a conversation like that between her and the other pink ranger, I think it was Kimberly."

"Then we better get showered and get dressed, the party will start soon." Mal said as she sat up. "Let me show you the settings on the shower and then you can shower while Evie and I get our stuff out." It was the same outfits that the blue haired girl had designed for the coronation, they hadn't worn it since the nearly disastrous parent's night in which Jane had ended up becoming the white ranger.

"Sounds good." Amy said and Mal lead her to the bathroom.

"You know I've always dreamed of being in a princess, marrying a handsome prince and living in a castle." Kim said with a small laugh as she brushed her hair.

Kat smiled as she stretched, trying to work the sore muscles out of her back from one of the Heartless attacks earlier. "I know what you mean. I always wanted to be like Jasmine, fierce and independent but with the regal bearing behind me."

Amber looked at her Australian borne friend. "I think you already have that, except for the whole regal bearing thing." She commented. She was unlike a lot of her friends, though unknowingly more like her fellow purple ranger and her little sister, in the fact that she wasn't as concerned about her looks as they were. She attributed that to being a single child to her single parent, a father who made sure to train her in multiple forms of martial arts.

"It's just nice to be able to forget our troubles for a while." Aisha noted as she combed out her hair. She turned to look at them. "And a fairy tale vacation is as good an idea as any."

"I'm not sure I see the appeal." Karone admitted as she admired one of the tiaras they had available for that night. "I mean some of it can be fun, but being royal also leads to a lot of responsibilities. There are people who don't handle that well and can even become spoiled because of it." To an extent she knew from experience from her time as the princess of all evil, before embracing her inherent goodness. Of course the flipside is she never grew up with fairy tales or what they would call the Disney movies.

Amber shrugged. "What can we say, you either get it or you don't." She said with a small laugh. She didn't really point out that she fell into the latter category. Then she frowned just a little as she looked to Kim, Kat and the so far silent Cassie. "How safe do you think Lonnie is here though?"

Cassie frowned a little now. "Relatively I guess. No one outside of the ranger's even knows she exists. And between Mal, Jane and Jordan it's not like she doesn't have magical protection of sorts." She speculated.

"Don't forget that Amy has to have some inherent magic in her too, also being the daughter of Maleficent." Ashley added. In truth they had no idea how magically adept the younger girl really was.

"Yeah but Vida and the Mystic Rangers have magic on their side too, and it didn't completely protect her." Cassie noted gently. "Granted it's different than the magic here." She allowed.

Amber looked to the skies above them, which really did seem so similar to that of Earth despite everything. Their world and Auradon really were very similar. "Well let's just hope then that it doesn't matter. That for Lonnie's sake in this case ignorance equals bliss then." She mused.

The party was only just starting in the banquet hall. Tommy and Jason stood together, both in black tuxedos. Jason's shirt underneath was red as a representation for his ranger color though he had green cufflinks as a nod to the dragon shield he wore. Tommy had opted go with a white shirt underneath as the white ranger he had been today, though he was currently really the black dino ranger. He finished his ensemble with red cufflinks to signify his time as the Zeo Ranger V Red and the red turbo ranger. On the upper left sides of their chest they had symbols sewn on. Each wore a lightning bolt, the symbol of the original power rangers. Both also wore the zeo symbol that had been on the Zeo Megazord warrior mode helmet. Tommy wore the symbol of the turbo rangers that had been on Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster and the dino ranger symbol that was on all of their costumes.

In that respect the guys of Auradon sported something new on their formal attire. A small blue and yellow striped shield, the symbol of their Tourney team, overlaid with the A from their school logo to represent the Auradon Rangers. Ben had one as well.

"This sure is something." Tommy noted. "Nothing we ever threw at Angel Grove High ever came close to this." He glanced at a crystal carving admiringly, it was one of Belle and Adam.

"You can say that again man." Jason said with a certain amount of glee as he looked up at the high ceiling. "You don't see castles like this on Earth too often." He looked back to his oldest friend. "I guess that's one of the reasons they fight."

"It's why we all fight." Andros said as he came up, dressed similarly to Jason except he had a the symbol of the space rangers, reminding Jason a little of an envelope if truth be told.

Around them they could see the other ranger guys interacting, mostly with themselves as they were strangers here but also with some of the others. They too wore tuxedos similar to Jason and Tommy in their respective color, or more if appropriate like in the case of Adam whose shirt was green to symbolize his time as the zeo ranger IV green and the green turbo ranger. Jason could see Adam talking with Jasmine, the queen of Agrabah and he could see Zack engaged in a dance contest with Jordan's father the Genie. He hoped the genie was at least playing by human rules.

He could see Aziz and Jay talking and found it ironic but very cool that the sons of two enemies could become friends. Doug and Billy were talking very animatedly and he was sure that it was something technologically based for their command center and he hoped it would be worthwhile for them both. Maybe Billy could even use it on Aquitar and his continuing life with Cestria and the Aquitarian rangers.

The doors opened and the ranger girls walked in. Unlike the guys they didn't have an abundance of colors to worry about so they were all in pink, yellow or purple, except for Karone who had a combination of pink and white in her gown and Emily in red. Their long flowing gowns did have one trait common with the guys though. They wore the symbols of their ranger teams. Unique to Karone's was the symbol for the Lost Galaxy rangers as she was part of their team as well, no matter how brief that time may have been.

Right behind the ranger girls of Earth were the ranger girls of Auradon. On each of their dresses was the same symbol the boys wore, except Amy at the moment. Jay and Aziz each lost their conversation as they stared in awe at Audrey's pink dress with red highlights and Ally's dress, the sleeves and some of the hem around her legs almost translucent like crystal.

Ben approached Mal and took her hands. "Mal, wow." He said with a shake of his head. "I know I've seen you in this before, but every time I do it's like the first time. I'm always blown away by how beautiful you look in that."

"Oh, give it a rest." Mal tried to dismiss the comment but the blush on her cheeks showed how she really felt about hearing that one. She touched the lapel on his jacket. "A new decoration I see." She teased.

Ben laughed and touched her shoulder where the symbol stood proudly near her left shoulder blade. "We match." He teased back and they chuckled softly. "Of course so do the rest of our friends." He added with a smile.

"You guys all look very nice." Amy said though she was really looking at her sister and his boyfriend.

Ben smiled at her. "You look nice too Amy." He said and smiled. "That headband had to have come from Mal I bet."

Amy reached up to touch it softly. "Thank you. It was a gift from Mal before they came here to Auradon." She answered.

"Actually, on reflection I think your dress is missing something." Mal said to her little sister. She reached into the little purse at her side and took out a patch with a symbol like the rest of them wore. She leaned down to her sister and sewed it into her dress. "Now, it's flawless."

Amy looked down at it. "It's…it's nice, but I'm not a power ranger." She said.

Mal again gave a mischievous smile. "Keep it little sister, you're going to need it." She replied, leaving Amy to look at her sister blankly. There was only one way she could know what Mal was thinking but she would never read her mind without consent unless she had a very good reason.

Mal glanced over at Amber. "I think you and Tommy are in the running for most patches." She noted with a wry smile. Amber wore the lightning bolt of the original rangers, as well as the emblems of zeo, turbo and space.

"We've made our presence known." Amber replied with a light laugh.

Not long after that the food was brought out. Kat noticed that Amy had only taken a few chicken strips and some strawberries onto her plate and she couldn't help but frown just a little. She had spent some of her life dealing with a food disorder, it had reared its head once when a rival had put her down while she was a Turbo Ranger but had reared its ugly head again after she had gone to London to study ballet. Only the intervention of Tommy, Kimberly, and Jason had helped her to see past it and she knew it could still affect her if she let it. Kat only hoped that this was a matter of Amy being a picky eater and not something more serious.

"Hey, guys." Zack said as he came with a plate of pizza slices. "I can't believe they have this at a formal function." He took off a piece of pepperoni from a pizza slice and ate it. "Mikey would love this." He added.

"That would be my doing." Lonnie said to him as she stood next to Will. She smiled at him. "A little bird told me that it's one of Will's favorites." She smiled.

"It had to have been my mother." Will said with a smirk. Whitney likewise enjoyed pizza and he could see his little sister at a table with Cinderella's daughter Callie as the two of them talked and ate pizza themselves. They were being watched by Cinderella and Wendy themselves.

"You know, I heard Callie's dad talking to my dad." Lonnie noted as she speared a piece of sautéed shrimp with her fork. "He was saying that Whitney has been invaluable in helping Cinderella and Callie come to terms with Chad's betrayal. He didn't say it but I think he was also talking about himself too."

"I'm glad to hear that." Will said sincerely. He looked at his little sister again. "She can be an inspiration without even taking on powers." He commented with a smile.

"Sounds like someone else I know." Lonnie said as she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. She thought about the first time she met him, when he had helped them against Dark Mist with no reason to other than because it was right, despite being hurt. And of course he protected her against Chakra when she as forced to fight him without the others.

"I still feel bad about all of that." Will admitted. Audrey was about to assure him it was okay but was interrupted.

"Don't worry about it man." Tommy said to him. "It happens. My first time as a ranger was very similar to yours." He glanced at the young king. "Rita Repulsa made me the green ranger to destroy Zordon and my friends, and I very nearly succeeded. Jason barely put that to an end."

"I was also used by Rita, to infiltrate among the rangers. I very nearly cost Kimberly her life." Kat said. "I managed to break the spell but it was hard and I did my share of damage."

"Nothing compares to me." Karone said, feeling more than a little embarrassed by this. "I used to be nothing less than Astronema, the princess of evil. I lead the attack against so many worlds, including my own. I hurt so many people in my time and I lead the attack against Earth for months before learning who I really was." They could all see the truth in her eyes. She was still fighting to redeem herself from those actions today.

"Now I get it." Audrey remarked softly. They all looked at her. She in turn looked to Amber and Mal. "When you told Mal that those who didn't start off good could find their way." She explained. "I didn't know that some of your own people started off against you."

"And looks what can happen despite that." Jason said as he placed his hand on Tommy's shoulder. Kimberly gave Kat a hug and both Cassie and Ashley wrapped their arms around Karone. "All the good that come with diversity, even like that."

"No argument here." Audrey replied as she smiled at Mal and Evie and then squeezed Jay's hand, which she held in her own. Jay laughed a little and kissed her cheek.

The party started to wind down, and Ben excused himself with a kiss to Mal's cheek as he went over to his parents. Amy saw the look in Mal's eyes and cocked her head. "What?" She asked.

"You'll see." Mal said to Amy as she squeezed her shoulder gently. "We have one more thing we'd like to present to those who have, or will, be around for us in the future." She thought of the Jungle Fury rangers who had helped them against Sermaya the last time they had seen him though they were not here tonight.

They gathered the rangers of Earth together, along with the family of the rangers of Auradon. "You look absolutely gorgeous Amy." Belle said to the rose haired girl. The comment made her feel happy. She could never recall a time her own mother had praised her. At best she was indifferent and at worst she was downright insulting.

"Power rangers." Adam said to them all. "I can't thank you enough, not just for what you've done for our world, but what you've done for our children." It was a slight exaggeration as none of the isle parents were there, Snow White had no children despite her being there, and Chad was obviously not there despite Cinderella, her prince and Callie being there. "And while I can only hope that one day we will be able to repay you for all that your kindness, there is one other thing we can do right now." With that he looked toward his son, who was the king of Auradon despite his age.

Ben motioned several guards forward. "Power Rangers of Earth," He said in his most formal tone. They couldn't help but think that didn't suit the king who would be knight, but didn't say it. "From this point forward, we of Auradon would be honored if you and yours would consider yourselves as honorary citizens of Auradon."

Gasps of shock traveled through the female rangers of Earth even as radiant smiles passed among the Auradon rangers. Then Amber, Tommy, Jason, Kat and Kim stepped forward. "Prince Ben, the honor would be ours." Tommy said to him. "And on behalf of our friends everywhere, we accept this prestigious honor."

As Mal watched Aurora embrace Amber, Ben shake hands with Tommy, Shen shake hands with Jason, Cinderella embrace Kat, and Belle embrace Kim she again squeezed her sister's shoulders and hoped that someone else would be willing to accept a request.

The party wound down and the ranger's changed back into their civilian clothes. It was decided it was best for them to leave their Auradon formal wear there as they would have no chance to use it on Earth. Tommy and Amber promised to get the measurements of the rest of the team so they could have things ready for them if and when they came to Auradon. The Auradon ranger's saw them on their way, through the same Iconian gateway that both the Space and Jungle Fury rangers had used to get to their world the first time.

Even as Ben had an arm around Mal's waist and she had a hand on her sister's arm, Adam had his hands on Ben's shoulders and Belle had a hand on each of the daughters of Maleficent's arms. They heard Fairy Godmother say, "It's been a long day. It's best to get some rest because tomorrow will be a whole new challenge."

Mal leaned over to kiss her sister on the cheek. "It certainly will be." She said with that same mischievous twinkle in her eye that she had had all day. "It certainly will be."


	60. Every Rose Has Its Thorns

Mal woke up with a small gasp and sat up before remembering she was in the dorm room of Auradon Prep. She took a deep breath but couldn't stop shaking. She had just dreamed Ben had broken up with her, and the last time that had happened was when the monster Invader of Nightmares had trapped her, Evie and Audrey in their nightmares. Only of their nightmares had turned out to be signs of reality, unfortunately for Audrey.

She looked around and for a moment thought Evie had gone somewhere before she remembered that Amy was in the blue haired girls bed right now while she had stayed with Lonnie that night so the two sisters could reconnect, sort to speak. She forced down her irritation at her mother Maleficent for stripping the four of them of their memories of her own twin sister before sending them to Auradon Prep to steal Fairy Godmother's wand what seemed like a lifetime ago.

She looked at her cell phone to find a text message from Ben that said **Sleep tight my love; we have a long few days ahead of us.** She couldn't help but smiling despite the ominous tones of the text. Calling her his love was evidence enough that she was not going to lose him. Still, adrenaline coursed through her body, more than enough to keep her awake. It also occurred to her how little they carried around or even used their original phones since they became rangers. Even Jane and Ben carried around one of the special iPhones despite the fact they didn't need it to transform.

She noticed the time and with a weary moan she stretched as she got out of bed. She went over and did something she normally wouldn't have had to do. She shook Amy gently and said, "Time to wake up."

Amy stirred a bit but wasn't quite ready to concede yet. "Time is it?" She asked sleepily.

"Just after six." Mal answered.

Amy shook her head a bit. "Too early." She said with a sigh. "Even you can't be that mean." She teased lightly.

Mal laughed a little bit. "It's important. We need to get our powers back." She replied.

Amy looked to her sister but still didn't get out of bed yet. "All of this is really important to you." She noted with a small yawn. She was impressed, but still. "I didn't know you took anything but trying to impress mom seriously."

"A lot has changed." Mal agreed. She herself had confessed to Evie that she just wanted to make Maleficent proud of her as they had gotten her ready for her first date with Ben. Of course that was when he was under the spell and they'd had plenty more honest dates since then. "Now come on sleepy head."

"It's too early Mal." Amy tried to protest, though she could feel her body getting to the point that she probably couldn't go back to a restful sleep if she wanted too. "I'm glad that you're getting your powers again, but come back for me later."

"No." Mal said and took her sister by the arm. She teased her younger twin about being pretty light, not even one hundred pounds soaking wet, but in this case that worked to her advantage as she was able to easily sit Amy up. "You have to come with Amy."

At that point any attempts at sleep would have been futile. She let out an exaggerated breath of annoyance and groused, "Fine, I'm up. I'm up."

The two girls got ready and headed downstairs where the team was starting to meet up. So far the only ones who were not there was Jane, Carlos, Jay and Audrey. Mal knew that Jane had gotten even less sleep than they did but would already be at the command center because of that. Jay was probably dragging Carlos out of bed the same way Mal had dragged Amy out but with more rough housing.

She was about to go check on Audrey when they heard the brunette princess say, "I'm here. Sorry I'm late." She was just straightening out the sleeves of her silk shirt. "We may be up at a horrendous hour but that doesn't mean we have to look it."

Amy couldn't help but glower just a bit at the comment but didn't follow up on it. Besides, if she wanted to be honest with herself they had all taken the time to look decent. And she couldn't argue the horrendous hour part.

A moment later they heard Jay coming down the stairs with Carlos in tow, almost literally as he had a hold of his arm. "Man, I should still be up in bed with Dude." Carlos moaned. "Lucky dog, at least he gets to sleep in."

"Remind me to find a tiny violin." Jay remarked, which made Mal and Amy laugh a little. "Suck it up man; we have other things to worry about."

"Be glad you're not Jane." Jordan said with a smirk. She didn't seem to be terribly inconvenienced about this and it made Amy wonder just how much sleep a genie actually got, or even needed really. They started to walk to the command center. "Between the resynch and getting the rose iPhone up and running she probably got like two hours of sleep."

"Next time we have a party, let's not have to be up this early." Aziz noted, barely awake himself. They had just had a dinner the night before to thank three groups of Power Rangers for helping them to get out of the Isle of the Lost when the group's attempt to bring back Mal and the others had gone south. Not that it didn't work out in the end, and they brought Amy to boot.

"I'll send that memo to mom and Paradias." Mal noted dryly with a roll of her eyes.

They entered the classroom where Fairy Godmother had once held Remedial Goodness 101 for her, Evie, Carlos and Jay. It had taken some convincing for from the four isle kids but their mentor had agreed to give Amy a preliminary test on Monday and if she passed it she could skip that class itself. Mal was sure her sister would pass with flying colors; it was one of the reasons that Maleficent had basically despised her after all.

They descended the stairs to the command center where they received tired smiles of greeting from Jane, Doug and Fairy Godmother. They were all pleasantly surprised to see the table they had in the command center had some breakfast items and some sodas there.

"Oh, caffeine." Mal noted happily as she reached for a Pepsi. She took a plate and took a bunch of strawberries and a jelly filled donut. She offered some strawberries to Amy which she gladly took but passed on the donut. She did take some bacon though.

"You do eat meat." Ben said to her jokingly. Amy tried to refrain from laughing but didn't entirely succeed. She ignored the comment itself though.

Audrey took a chocolate chip muffin and then paused, "Mal, Amy, did you ever try a strawberry muffin?" She asked them.

Mal paused with a strawberry halfway to her mouth. "They make those?" She asked with interest.

"They do." Audrey confirmed. She held one up. "Who wants it?" She asked.

"Go ahead and give it to Mal." Amy replied. It wasn't that she had a problem accepting it from Audrey, she just generally deferred to her older sister.

Mal took it from Audrey. "Thanks." She said and Audrey smiled in response. She then took the wrapper off and then split it in half. She already knew Amy would never agree to pick one of the pieces so she just turned around and gave what she thought was the bigger piece to her. "Here you go." She said.

Amy thought for a moment about declining but knew Mal was too stubborn to let her, not about something like a muffin. "Thanks Mal." She said instead. Mal smiled at her.

"Hey, we should try a statue of liberty play." Jay said as he picked up a cinnamon muffin.

"A what?" Ally asked confused.

"Don't know exactly what it is." Will answered as he took some bacon himself. "But Jason and Tommy were talking about it last night after they found out there was pizza. They were saying some friends of theirs did it once with some pizza, much to another of their friend's dismay since she had just gotten a new apartment."

"To bad too." Jay replied with a shrug. "If we knew what it was we could try it out on the Tourney field." He took a bite out of the sausage link he had and then looked to Will as he swallowed it. "Hey there's an idea. You ever thought about trying for the team?" He asked.

Will shrugged. "On and off." He replied.

"You should." Audrey advised him. "We haven't found a decent replacement for…" She broke herself off there and Jay stroked her hair softly.

"We need someone new." Ben filled in, though everyone knew for sure what he meant aside from Amy.

Evie leaned into her and whispered, "Chad was part of the team before he turned evil. He's been obsessed with hurting Audrey ever since." Amy nodded in understanding. She was kind of surprised to realize she felt such sympathy for Audrey upon hearing about this.

"Alright, now that we've had some time to wake up, let's get down to business." Fairy Godmother said. They all turned to her and set their plates down on the tables, or in a few instances consoles. "First off, we are ready to return your powers." A point on the console moved out to display their iPhones, as well as the magic wand and Ben's sword and shield. Ben, Mal and Audrey worked to distribute the iPhones out to everyone as Fairy Godmother picked up the magic wand and gave it back to her daughter.

Evie hugged hers to her chest. "I can't believe how empty I felt without it." She lamented.

"I know how you feel." Aziz assured her.

"And I have this ready to go." Jane said as she held up the iPhone with the rose gem in it. "It's synched to our system and ready to go. Using the previously untapped rose gem as a baseline I've set to scan the world for other signs of untapped gems." She looked to Mal. "We still need someone to take these powers but mom was saying you had an idea for that."

Amy was interested in who her older sister had in mind for that one. She generally liked her sister's ideas. "I propose we give this new power to Amy." She announced to the others. The rose haired girl almost swore she felt her jaw drop. This wasn't one of those ideas she could say she liked.

"What?" She heard the incredulous question. For just a second she had the urge to snap at Audrey for the tone of voice before she realized it had not been Audrey's voice to say that. It had been her own. "You want me to be a power ranger?" She asked.

Mal nodded. "You'd be perfect for it Amy." She promised her twin. "You certainly know wrong from right better than me or my friends did. You've become so strong and fierce since we left the Isle the first time, I can already see that." She took her little sister's hands in her own. "I saw you helping us fight those overwhelming number of Heartless. I know you can do the job."

"That was different, if we hadn't those things would have killed us." Amy protested. She also didn't want to point out that the Heartless couldn't be read the way that her sister or her friends or even Maleficent could be.

"Paradias wants us dead too." Lonnie pointed out reasonably. "We don't even know what he wants with Auradon but with your mother with him we can already be sure it's not going to be pretty."

"Sermaya wants us dead too." Audrey added, also sounding entirely reasonable. "And who knows what he wants to do to this entire world if he ever gets his way. He was here before we were apparently so his world might not be what any of us could survive in."

"We do this because the world needs us to Amy." Evie said to her gently. "If we had any other options we would take it, but these forces aren't looking to negotiate a truce."

Amy still seemed very uncertain. Before anyone could try to convince her any further the alarms went off. She jumped slightly even as Ben said, "That's the monster sensors. Paradias must have sent something down to us."

On screen they saw what looked to be a normal man. Still as they watched they saw that he seemed to be rather well muscled and they could see tentacle like vines encircling around his body. To make matters worse he had dozens of soldiers with him. They couldn't figure out though why he seemed to have come down with none of the generals.

"He's appeared on the outskirts of Briar canyon." Lonnie said.

"We have to go." Mal said as she went over to Jane and put the rose iPhone on the console next to Amy. "If you don't want to be a ranger, I understand. We'll figure something else out." With that she kissed her sister on the cheek and they started to file out.

Jordan stopped by Amy though. "Look, I get it. When I first found out I didn't really want to be a part of it. I had my own life, my own problems, and my own responsibilities." She said softly. "But I watched what your sister and our friends do, and I just don't mean fighting. I saw Ally and Aziz helping to keep students safe and that was before they knew the inside story." She reached out to pat the rose haired girl's shoulder gently. "Think carefully before you make your final decision, this chance might not come up again." With that she followed the others, leaving her with Fairy Godmother and Doug…and the rose iPhone.

The team showed up at the canyon though they hadn't transformed yet. The monster man looked up to them and bowed. "Power Rangers, it's an honor to meet you all." He stood up straight and proud. "I am Treusadale, gladiator of the ages. I am ready to take out all out, in an honorable fashion."

"That sounds like a contradiction in terms to me." Audrey noted.

"What do you mean by that?" Lonnie questioned him.

"One on one to the death." He announced.

The team looked at each other uneasily. Then Mal stepped forward. "I am Mal, daughter of Maleficent and I lead the Auradon Rangers. If you want a fight then I'm your first opponent." She looked to her team mates. "We play his game for now, but be ready to jump in if you have to." She instructed. They all nodded and then Mal called out, "Let's get to work." Jane used the magic wand to transform into the white ranger, Ben combined his sword and shield and everyone else input their numbers to transform.

With her dragon's eye staff Mal stepped toward Truesdale. After a moment it occurred to Evie that she should have some extra protection. "M." She started. She took one step forward to give her surrogate sister her mirror force shield but struck something hard. She fell to the ground hard, Jay and Audrey already by her side.

Mal sighed inwardly. She hadn't been counting on a force field to stop her team from coming to her aid. "Thanks anyway E." She said to her friend. She looked to Audrey. "If this goes wrong, you have to take care of them." It was her way of telling Audrey it was time for a plan b, and as second in command it was in her court now.

"You got it Mal." Audrey promised. "Be careful and good luck."

Mal nodded a bit and smiled, though no one could see it. "Thanks." She replied and then turned to meet the gladiator monster head on.

Amy felt tears in her eyes as it unfolded. Her sister was now fighting one on one and it could very well end in her death. "I just got her back." Amy whispered fearfully.

"Don't fret child." Fairy Godmother said consolingly as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "Mal can do it."

Amy bit her lip and nodded. She also had to admit to herself she felt touched. She of course knew that Evie cared for her sister, but to see that in Audrey…she was finding it just a bit harder to be annoyed by her.

Trusedale had a staff as well and he charged Mal. She blocked it expertly and started to parry him. She lost her focus though as she made sure that the soldiers were not trying to attack her team. They were not but the distraction resulted in him sweeping her legs out from under her.

"Mal, keep it together." Ben called out, voice full of worry. "Don't worry about us." He was starting to think he should have gone first, since he had the armor of the knight. The problem was, as he knew well, that Mal was stubborn and that leadership had its dangers as well as its perks.

He tried to bring his staff down on her throat but she rolled out of the way of the attack. She got up and blocked another staff strike to her side. She lashed out and struck him with what she thought was great force but he didn't seem to feel it.

"That thing we did when we were captured in Agrabah, to lend our strength to those who were fighting." Ally said as she looked to her team mates. "Can't we do it again?"

Jane placed her hand on the force field. She sighed. "I'm afraid not Ally. It's been magically insulated. No spell will get through to her." She revealed.

Jay looked to Aziz and Will. "Let's punch through it then." He said.

"That won't work." Jordan said. "Nothing solid can get through this thing. We can't get through it until that monster is dead or until he's ready to let us in." She didn't want to point out that the only way that would happen was if he killed Mal.

Mal tried to aim for the middle of his staff, hoping to break it in half but it was sturdy enough to weather the impact regardless of the additional power of the dragon behind it. He brought it down hard onto the purple helmet and it resulted in a resounding crack that Mal swore took out her hearing for a moment until she realized she heard Evie and Ally call out her name.

"Try the neon armor." Lonnie called out to her desperately.

Mal was able to activate the neon armor but even with the increased speed and strength she found that she was only matching Treusdale. He turned around and slammed the top of his staff against the dragon's eye and it cracked. It shot out a jolt and Mal was forced to drop the staff.

"No." Ally gasped.

"This is not good." Carlos said softly. "We have to do something. Now."

Jane thought she heard her mother asking something about being sure but she wasn't paying attention just now. She was trying to fight the horrible feeling that Mal was about to lose, and not just the fight but her life.

Truesdale tried to bring the staff down on her helmeted head again but Mal raised her hands to catch the staff. She intended to pull it away but she heard the sound of something but unsheathed and though she didn't know how yet she realized she had made a fatal mistake. From her opponents boot extended a dagger than was driven right into her stomach.

"Mal!" Ben called out in panic.

"No!" Jay exclaimed as the three boys tried to charge the force shield with no effect.

"Jordan." Audrey started, her voice near panic.

Jordan was frozen for a second and then stammered. "I…I can make a potion…but I don't know how we're supposed to get…to get in there." She said.

"Do it." Audrey practically pleaded. She summoned her elemental bow and tried to unleash a stream of what she hoped were shattering arrows. It wasn't enough to take out the force field.

Carlos and Mal were now trying to help the other three boys but to no avail.

Treusdale laughed as he looked to them. "One down, or near enough." He twirled his staff as he waited for the field to drop. "As soon as she is dead the field will drop. I expect that at that point you will all charge me. But my master will be rid of one ranger, and the leader to boot." He laughed again. "Unless you all lose your will to fight at her death."

Jordan had the potion ready but saw they couldn't do anything. "Sorry Mal." She said softly.

Then they heard footsteps as Amy approached. Through her tears her eyes glowed red. "You stabbed my sister." She said with a calm deadly voice despite the tears in her eyes and the angry red glow. "You're hoping she dies."

"And what are you going to do about it little girl?" Truesdale taunted her.

Amy reached out her hand and requested, "Potion, please Jordan." The gold ranger handed her the potion.

"Amy, you can't take him on even if you could get in there." Audrey said to her. Amy couldn't muster energy to snap at the red ranger, not when she could hear the tears and fears in her voice.

"Don't worry Audrey. I know what I'm doing." She said instead. Then she stepped up to the field and placed her hand on it. For a moment it was solid enough, just as the others had already discovered. Then she started to push her way through it.

"No way." Aziz gasped.

"She has the gift of intangibility." Jane said in awe.

Treusdale seemed less than impressed. "So you breached my walls little girl. What are you going to do now?" He asked.

Amy took the rose iPhone out of her pocket, input the numbers 9976 and transformed. Her ranger costume looked like the others except it was a dark rose coloring, just like her hair color. The visor of her helmet was rose shaped, a unique addition to her helmet. Vines were wrapped around her legs though they were purely decoration.

"Now that is cool." Carlos had to admit.

"If you want to fight someone, then you fight me next." Amy said softly. Her voice was full of venom though.

Treusdale charged her, intending to slam his staff into her face but she was small enough to roll out of the way. She intentionally let go of the potion and it rolled toward Mal, right as she intended. She then stood straight up to look at the gladiator.

He hadn't noticed the potion, he was so intent on his small yet lithe opponent. He lashed out his staff at Amy but again he underestimated how she could use her small size to her advantage and dodged it. She then summoned her weapon, it looked very similar to Billy's power lance but the lance edges were red in design, so much so that it looked like the petals of a rose. He swung at her again and she blocked it, then jabbed one of the pedaled ends into his face, and it sent him falling back hard. She then moved in to try to give the same impact he tried on Mal but he dodged it.

"Nice move but you can't stop me." Truesdale warned. He shot his staff out to try to jab it into Amy's head. He would have connected too if she hadn't dodged out of the way, proving she was just as agile.

She separated her one long rose lance into two pieces and brought it down on her opponent's staff into a total of three pieces. She then kicked him hard.

The blade on the toe of his boot lashed out and slashed at Amy. She was able to back up in enough time to avoid being impaled as her older sister had but it still managed to slash her hard and she fell back.

He moved in, ready to bring his fists down on her. At her 97 pounds he had the strength to fracture her skull but then Audrey and Lonnie were in front of him, blocking his fists. It hurt their arms to do it but it was worth it to protect their newest team member.

Will and Jay lashed out with their swords and slashed Truesdale away from the two girls hard.

Amy looked up to see the rest of the rangers were fighting the warriors, who had also rushed into the area to fight the rangers when the Rose Ranger brought down the force field by shattering his staff. Except for Ben who was checking on Mal, who at least seemed okay thanks to Jordan's potion.

"Are you okay?" Lonnie asked Amy as she helped her up. It dawned on her that technically she was a fellow pink ranger, though her shade of pink was darker than her own.

"Yes." Amy answered and made sure to catch Audrey's gaze in her own now as well. " Thank you."

"You're welcome." Audrey said to her with an appreciative nod. "Now let's show him what happens when a monster tries to kill one of our own."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ben asked Mal.

Mal nodded. "I'm fine." She said and pat his hand gently. "Remember, this is the risk we all take out here. Just be glad we have Jordan to make sure that it doesn't turn out worse." She was still a bit fuzzy on how Amy got through the field but that was for later. She did a quick glance around, saw Amy with Audrey and Lonnie and Will going up against the gladiator. "Go have Evie and Carlos come here." She told Ben. "Then Aziz and the girls with the soldiers. I'll send Will and Amy your way too. We'll take care of Truesdale."

Ben nodded. "Okay." He agreed, his voice still a little light as he realized how close he had come to losing his girlfriend. "Please be careful." With that he was heading toward the other rangers with his sword drawn.

Mal joined her sister and her friends facing the gladiator. She gave her sister a brief hug and then looked at Will. "You two go over and help fight the soldiers, Evie and Carlos are on their way over here." She instructed. Even as she said that Ben had tapped Evie on her shoulder to deliver Mal's instructions.

"No, I want to stay with you." Amy announced.

"Don't worry about it." Will said to them. "We've got the easy part. You guys have the hard part. You'll need the extra muscle." With a quick touch to Lonnie's arm he left to go help against the soldiers. He passed Evie and Carlos on the way over.

Truesdale moved to attack but Lonnie and Jay intercepted with their tessens and scimitar respectively. They both struck him hard and he fell back. The gladiator recovered quickly but Audrey already had her elemental bow ready and shot out an ice arrow at him. It seemed as if her aim had fallen short as it struck his leg rather than his chest.

Amy, who was quite good at archery herself, looked over at Audrey. "You missed." She stated. She didn't want to ask her if she knew what she was doing.

Audrey looked over at her and asked simply, "Did I?"

The gladiator got ready to attack again, Lonnie and Jay more than ready to defend against him. But it became unnecessary when it became apparent he couldn't move because of the icy effect of the arrow Audrey had shot at him.

Amy looked to Audrey and again had to admit that the brunette princess's plan had been a good one. "Okay, nice shot after all." She relented.

They of course knew it was a temporary measure and Truesdale broke through the ice. With that speed and strength he smashed his fists hard into Jay and Lonnie's chest, sending them to the ground hard. Then he turned and grabbed Audrey's bow and tossed her hard into Amy. He turned to Mal but that was when Carlos jumped up and slashed him with his earthquake claw daggers.

"What's the plan M?" Evie asked her chosen purple haired sister as she came up to her. "We don't have much time." As if to prove the point the gladiator got a hold of Carlos, the yellow ranger being smaller than his opponent and in fact the second smallest of the rangers after their new rose ranger, and tossed him away hard, where he rolled to a stop by the recovering pink, red and black rangers.

Mal recovered her staff, slightly dismayed over the crack in the dragon's eye and wondered how they were going to repair that. "Let's bring our weapons together and hope it has enough power to take him out." She said.

They heard Doug's voice over the intercom helmet, which was a rarity actually. "Right now it doesn't, especially with the damage to your weapon. Luckily I was able to make a modification to Jane's original design to compensate for it. Amy can add her two rose lance pieces on the top with Jay, Lonnie and Carlos's weapon to increase the power of your blaster."

"You must be clairvoyant too." Lonnie teased Amy as she recalled the rose ranger had wanted to stay with them and help fight the gladiator.

Amy shook her head. "No clairvoyance here." She admitted. She may have been able to read emotion but she wasn't able to see the future or read minds like she read books. "Just a good coincidence."

"Call it what you want to, we need it now." Audrey said. She looked to Mal. "Ready?" She asked.

Mal nodded. "Let's do it." She first placed her dragon's eye staff, again hoping that they could find a way to repair it. Doug had already confirmed it was damaged and that it would have an effect in combat.

Next Audrey laid her elemental bow on top of it. Behind that went Evie's mirror force shield, the compacts around it opening up. Then Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle. On either side of it went Lonnie's hurricane tessens, Carlos's earthquake claw daggers and then as a new touch Amy's rose lances.

"It's like a deluxe pizza now." Carlos commented with a laugh.

"Won't be able to get many more toppings on this." Audrey drawled.

Now they stood; Lonnie, Jay, Audrey, Amy, Mal, Carlos and Evie. The seven rangers unleashed their blaster attack on the Treusdale and were able to destroy him. They lowered their weapons only to see the soldiers had vanished and the other members of the team were coming toward them.

"I didn't really notice a drop in power." Jay observed.

"Neither did I." Audrey said.

"It was there, I promise you." Carlos replied.

"It was the addition of Amy's weapons to the formation." Evie explained. "Her additional power offset the drop that the blaster suffered because of the damage to Mal's dragon eye part.

As the two teams converged again and they powered down Ben swept Mal up into a fierce hug. "That was so close." He whispered.

"We've been in worse spots before, Bennie-boo." Mal said with a small smile as she rubbed his arms gently.

"Yeah, but this was different." He said to her as he placed one of his hands on her stomach. "He made you bleed, horribly. If it weren't for Jordan's potion you would have bled out." They all studiously avoided looking at the spot where their leader nearly had done just that.

"He's right Mal." Audrey agreed softly. "I mean I've had my share of cuts and bruises and even a couple of broken bones thanks to Chad, but I was never looking at death's door before." Not that Chad hadn't had a couple of opportunities for that but it was clear that he had far more long term sinister intentions for Audrey than just death.

Amy hugged her sister. "I almost lost you today." She voiced softly, near tears as she had been when she saw Mal fighting the gladiator. "That's why I chose to become a ranger, no matter how uncertain I felt, and still do feel, about it. Because I can't lose you."

Mal hugged her sister gently even as she squeezed Ben's hand and then looked at the rest of their friends with as reassuring a smile as she could muster despite the near death experience frightening her more than she would ever like to admit to everyone. "That's why I want you on this team Amy, because I trust you to have our backs just as much as I trust each and every one of them to have mine." She gave her sister a meaningful glance.

Amy understood it all too well. That included Audrey, no matter what kind of reservations Amy had about her. To be part of the team meant accepting Audrey's place among them. And Amy realized that after what she had seen today there was a really good chance she could do just that in time.

Evie frowned a little. "But you did almost die today M." She pointed out.

"We all knew that risk when we took up these powers E." The purple haired girl reminded her chosen sister simply. "Granted I came a lot closer to that today than any of us ever have before, but that reality has always been there. That's why we all watch each other's backs, that's why we all work together as a team, as one." That she said as she looked to them all.

They all returned to the command center, first attacking the food with renewed vigor, even Amy ate more though it was limited to strawberries, strawberry milk and some more bacon. Jordan had made an omelet station from out of nowhere. Mal reluctantly got Amy to eat a small bacon and cheese omelet.

After they had all gotten some of their strength up Mal formed her dragon's eye staff and showed it to Fairy Godmother. "He managed to crack it, something I thought was impossible." She noted. "So how do we go about fixing it?"

Fairy Godmother shook her head a little. "I wish I knew what to tell you on this one." She admitted. "I don't know anything about this. But since Belle gave it to you it might be advisable to ask her if she has any ideas." She added.

"Then I'll take Mal and Amy over there now." Ben decided.

"Good idea." Mal agreed. She did want Amy to see the library his mother had, knowing her little sister would freak out. She looked to the rest of the team. "Do whatever you can to get our zords up a little faster, I think we're going to need them sooner rather than later."


	61. Trial By Firebird

"Wow, this is incredible." Amy breathed as Ben walked her and Mal into the library of the castle where he had grown up at. She did a cute little twirl as she tried to get the full scope of the library. "Oh my pink, look at all of these books!"

Mal laughed affectionately at her little sister's affections. "She's always been a big reader." She said to Ben idly. "It was too bad for her that there weren't many books on the isle, and most of the ones we had pertained to evil, the one subject she tried to avoid whenever possible."

At one of the couches they saw Belle sitting there, just lowering one of the books she had been reading. Amy could tell from its condition that despite every attempt to keep it looking pristine there was no way to hide how often that particular book had been read. Adam was by a small table looking over some of the parchments, he looked up at the interruption as well and both smiled softly.

"Ben, Mal, Amy." The queen said with a smile. She got up and gave Ben a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She did the same to Mal. As she sat down she instinctively sat Amy down beside her, handing her the book she had been reading. "What brings all of you here?"

"I wish I could say it was just because I wanted Amy to see your book collection." Mal said as she saw Amy open up the book she had been handed. "But it's more than that."

"What happened?" Adam asked.

"Well we got our powers back a couple of hours ago." Mal revealed. They seemed happy to hear that. "And we got Amy to take the rose ranger powers." She added and Amy managed to look both pleased and annoyed by that point. "But we ran into a monster and it did this." She summoned her staff and showed Belle the damaged dragon's eye.

"Oh, my." Belle whispered as she ran her hand across it.

"I'm sorry." Mal said, managing to look as upset as Amy had ever seen her. It made Amy happy to see that her older twin seemed to see Belle as a surrogate mother figure too. "It wasn't my intention to damage it."

"Oh honey, I know it wasn't." Belle assured her as she reached out to stroke Mal's hair softly.

"We were hoping you would know a way to get it repaired mom." Ben said to Belle.

"In truth that would be so much easier to answer if we had ever been able to find out what kind of material it was made from." Belle answered as she leaned back on the couch to consider their options. Amy seemed engrossed in the book that Belle had given her. "We already know that it isn't made from anything here in Auradon."

"The information Fairy Godmother has from the Earth the other power rangers are from also don't have anything that corresponds to this." Ben added. "But it had to have come from somewhere."

"You know that the appearance of Zordon had already lead to discussions about other worlds parallel to ours." Adam mused. "As well as discussions about the past and the future and alternate universes. It also lead to discussions about other forms of life and material in space." He looked to them. "Did Fairy Godmother have any insights into that?"

"I'm afraid not." Ben said with a frown.

Though it seemed that Amy was not listening to the discussion at all she suddenly perked her head up. "Evie said that anything from the past, the future, or another parallel world would leave," She squinted her eyes as she tried to recall the blue haired girl's exact words. "Distinct quantum signatures that would stick out like a sore thumb to our sensors." She filled in for them.

"If that's true that would just leave us with a material of some sort from space." Belle said. "It would make a certain amount of sense.

"But it doesn't help us to repair it." Mal reminded them softly.

"No it doesn't." Ben agreed seemingly absentmindedly as he rose and went to one of the bookshelves. "But Jane said that Fairy Godmother used a particular spell to even uncover the power behind it, maybe there is a spell that could repair it."

"There is another way actually, but I have to warn you all that it is risky." Adam said to them quickly. It was enough to make Amy and Mal exchange curious glances with each other. The younger girl had not been around Auradon long enough to realize that lack of magic was not just limited to the Isle but she could see from her older sister that this was not an isolated comment to avoid magic use.

Ben however had been. But what was important now was repairing the dragon's eye, not trying to drag that knowledge out of his parents. Especially when he didn't think it would help. It was a miracle that they got away with using what Jordan already did but most of it was either harmless or benefited the ranger team. "What do we need to do?" He asked his father.

"On the far side of the mountains where the Auradon Megazord is there is a volcano called the Heatmor volcano." Adam revealed to them. "I think you can use the molten lava and some of Jordan's magic to repair the damage."

"Great, all we have to do is waltz into the heart of a volcano." Mal said with a dramatic eye roll. She took a deep breath and said. "Alright, let's go then."

"Hey wait a second." Amy said as she finally set the book down on the table. "I know we need to repair your staff but Paradias has to know what happened. We should get everyone together and tackle this all together."

"She's right Mal." Ben agreed. "You would never sanction anyone else doing something like this without the team."

Mal knew her boyfriend was right. "Alright, I'll text Evie and have them meet us at the foot of the mountain. We'll make the journey together." She decided. She looked to Belle and Adam. "Thank you for helping us." Belle embraced her son and the two girls.

"You can come and borrow whatever books you would like Amy." Belle told the rose hair colored girl. She practically beamed at the invitation, making Mal laugh. She mouthed thank you to Ben's mother before they left.

"Well how about that, looks like my traitorous little daughter had her pretty little staff damaged." Maleficent said with a laugh as she watched the image of Truesdale shattering the dragon's eye staff on her wand. She frowned in disgust. "And my other little brat followed in Mal's footsteps." She shook her head. "To have not one but two disappointments, it's sickening."

"But an opportunity none the less." Paradias said. "They will move to repair that staff. I have no doubt that the former king and queen can put them on that path. They will direct them to the Heatmor volcano."

"That inactive rock heap?" Chad questioned. "How is that going to help them?"

Nerissa laughed a bit. "The ignorance of youth." She mused with amusement. "You see, that volcano was not naturally formed. It was made as fallout from the destruction of a great monarch name Volcanus, a predecessor to the former leader of the United Alliance of Evil Dark Specter. That fight was lost but the monarch took down a mighty creature, a dragon that once roamed the galaxy with the arguably unfortunate name of Star Eater."

"And the piece of the staff that Mal possess came from it." Gregory surmised.

"Just so." Nerissa confirmed. "Some of that essence was mixed into the volcano as well. The molten lava will not only restore the dragon eye's structure it may very well make it more powerful."

"Then we have to stop them from making those repairs." Chad said.

"Indeed we must." Paradias agreed. He looked again toward the screen as he witnessed the damage done to the dragon's eye. "Nerissa, send down Infernal Flame."

The team met at the foot of the mountain and Ben told them what his parents had told them they could do to restore the dragon's eye.

"So we get to scale the mountain?" Carlos asked, not looking forward to that one.

"We'll take the trolley up to the top." Ben said to them. "And once we reach the top we just have to get up further to the volcano and put the dragon's eye into the magma."

"Wait a second." Jay interrupted confused. "There was a trolley? How long has it been there."

"Oh, years." Audrey answered.

"Then why didn't we use it the first time when we went looking for the Auradon Megazord?" He questioned.

"Because we had to inside the mountain to track the megazord." Evie reminded him simply. "We aren't going inside the mountain for this. We're going just beyond that to the volcano."

They headed toward the side and boarded a trolley. It was a bit crowded but they didn't want to take two of them. Audrey sat on Jay's lap. Lonnie sat on Will's lap. Ally sat on Aziz's lap and Mal sat on Ben's lap. Amy crowded up next to Ben and Mal. Carlos and Jane were all but on each other's laps. Jordan was just thankful she could levitate a bit above the floor for a little more room.

"Are we just supposed to dip the dragon's eye in any spot of magma?" Audrey asked even as Jay stroked her hair.

Mal frowned a bit as she thought about it. "Good question." She conceded. "There has to be something specific we need." She was rubbing the top of Ben's hand even as he held hers.

"If there is something specific we need, I might be able to get a better sense of it when we reach the volcano." Jordan said. "It would have to be real subtle magic to not be detected or sensed on some level beforehand."

"Perhaps that would be because it might not be magic." Ally suggested even as she enjoyed the feeling of Aziz stroking her blonde hair.

"What makes you say that?" Carlos asked her.

"Just what Jordan said." Ally replied. "If it were magic it would have been sensed. The truth is that while Jordan is powerful she's still a beginner compared to her father and her mother. Likewise I would think that for as long as the volcano and the dragon's eye have been around that there would be no mystery about it to Fairy Godmother."

"She's right about that." Jane had to agree. "Mom had to use magic to even get an idea of what it could be. She would even point out that despite the name the former queen gave it, the dragon's eye is in fact not an eye but more of a scale."

"You know the idea of alien intelligence or anything like that would have seemed ridiculous to me a few months ago." Will lamented with a slight chuckle. "But ever since Paradias and Sermaya started attacking Auradon those aspects don't seem like that anymore."

"Maybe somehow there was something from up there," Ally looked to the skies as she spoke. "That came down and left that behind or created the volcano or something."

"Now that's something that we won't ever find in history books." Jay said with a slightly sarcastic tone, referring to when Jane had said her mother believed the magic was in the history books.

The trolley came to a stop at the top and the team got out of the car. They could just make out light gray powder falling around them. "Is this snow? "Amy asked. She had never seen snow. No one on the Isle of the Lost had really seen it.

"No, this is ash from the volcano." Lonnie answered her newest friend. "Snow tastes like water while this ash would taste…well truth be told I don't know what it would taste like because as a rule you're not supposed to taste ash."

"We never got snow on the Isle." Amy admitted to her.

"We rarely get it in Auradon." Ben informed her as they started to walk upwards toward the mouth of the volcano. "Agrabah never gets it."

"I saw it a couple of times when I was younger back in my homeland." Lonnie said. "It has to be really cold for that to happen and a lot of Auradon never gets that cold." She shrugged a bit. "I hear that those who grow up in Arendelle are pretty familiar with it though."

They heard a slight rumbling and they glanced around nervously. "I thought your parents said that this volcano was dormant." Audrey said to Ben.

"Technically they never said that." Amy pointed out. She knew though that Audrey had a point, they never would have sent them up to a volcano that was anywhere close to erupting. Plus this close to the mountains it would probably destroy the forests and even some of the towns in Auradon.

It was then they got their answer as their iPhones went off. Amy was still adjusting to the sound but everyone else knew what it meant. "There's a monster somewhere around here." Mal said. "What did Paradias send down now?"

Then some boulders burst apart. They practically melted into a puddle as a creature that looked vaguely to have the upper body of a lion if they were bipedal and the lower body of a manticore landed in front of them. The monster was literally on fire.

"Oh, this is not a good thing." Carlos said.

"Welcome to my territory rangers." The monster said with a laugh. "You can call me Infernal Flame."

"Your territory?" Audrey questioned. "You're on a dormant volcano in Auradon."

He laughed a throaty laugh. "True enough girl, this is your world of Auradon." He spread his fiery hands. "But fire is a pretty universal concept and I am the embodiment of fire. And as for this volcano being dormant, well the truth is that no volcano is ever truly dormant, at least with the right kind of persuasion." He replied.

"You won't get the chance to try that one out." Audrey declared. She looked to Ben and Amy. "Get Mal to that volcano and get the dragon's eye fixed, hopefully this idea works. The rest of us will deal with this Infernal Flame guy."

"Be careful guys." Ben said as he placed his hands on both of the backs of the daughters of Maleficent and started to lead them a different way.

"Let's get to work." Audrey said. As Jane used the magic wand to transform the rest of the rangers took out their iPhone's input their numbers and transformed.

"Tell me rangers, are your suits and equipment fireproof?" Infernal Flame questioned with some delight as he unleashed a stream of fireballs that exploded all around the rangers and sent them scattering.

Evie had her mirror force shield out and ready to go.

Lonnie had her hurricane tessen's out as well. "A weak enough flame doesn't need water to be taken out." She said, almost as if she were quoting a proverb. "Because all it takes is a strong breeze." With that she unleashed a stream of energy with the gale forces of a hurricane right at the monster.

The winds struck the monster and he took a step back but laughed. "And a strong enough fire will simply ride the winds and fan the flames out." With that he unleashed a huge firestorm right at Lonnie.

Evie got in the way and did her best to collect the firestorm the monster had used. She wasn't entirely successful and it damaged both girls. Whatever power the blue ranger had collected she unleashed at Infernal Flame even as she fell. To their dismay he seemed to take it without a problem.

"Never fight fire with fire." Infernal Flame reminded them even as he unleashed a stream of fire at Carlos and Jane, striking them hard. "All you do is get burnt."

Jay, Will and Aziz looked at each other. "Dudes, anything we try will just hurt us." Aziz pointed out. While their weapons could stand up to some amount of heat, the level their adversary was packing would probably all but destroy their weapons.

"I'm not too well of either I'm afraid." Ally pointed out. She was pretty sure the intensity of the fire the monster used would melt her crystal cards.

"I don't have that problem." Jordan stated and unleashed a stream of energy from her lamp cannon. The monster dodged the attack and then unleashed a massive fireball straight at her that the gold ranger barely was able to dodge.

"Okay, let's try this." Audrey said and unleashed several ice arrows at him. They all quickly learned the heat that the monster generated was enough to melt ice as well. "Well that sucks." The red ranger noted.

Ben and the twins had almost reached the top of the volcano when Reviveslime appeared in front of them. "Going somewhere?" He asked with a laugh. "Surely you can stop and smell the roses." He looked to Amy. "No pun intended to you little ranger."

"What kind of creature is that?" Amy asked.

"One of Paradias's generals." Mal told her little sister. "Evie thinks it's some kind of anaphasic organism thing that managed to replicate a life of its own."

Ben formed his sword and shield and then transformed. Amy and Mal pulled out their iPhones and transformed. "We have to Mal by him so she can get to the volcano." Ben said to Amy. She nodded in agreement and the young king said, "Let's do it."

Ben attacked first and as he intended the slime general blocked the attack. Amy and Mal both tried to get by him, though the new rose ranger intended to try to flank him. Instead Reviveslime brought his other arm down hard onto Mal's back. She lost her grip on her staff as she fell.

Reviveslime then turned and slashed Ben hard, making him roll down the path a few feet. He turned as Amy picked up Mal's dragon's eye staff and started toward her sister to return her weapon but stopped as she saw the slime general's eye on her. "Well, let's see if you can take a hit as well as your team mates can." He said and then pulled his slime sword back and unleashed a massive stream of energy that impacted Amy hard and sent her sprawling into the mouth of the volcano. She could see boiling lava as the attack rotated her around.

"AMY!" Mal called out in horror.

"Plan B, let's go with the blasters." Audrey said to them.

"Good idea." Will said. "We don't have to get in close to him." The green ranger just hoped that their blasters were strong enough to get through his apparent heat shield.


	62. Taking the Highlands Road

"You know when you look at all of these records, our chances of destroying these rangers really are rather abysmal." Gregory noted with disgust from one of the consoles on the bridge of Paradias's ship. "All of their opposition has had mass armies with a vast array of monsters at their disposal against a handful of people, usually no more than six or seven and perhaps a few assorted allies and yet those rangers always seem to win."

"I'm forced to agree that the records are woefully one sided." Maleficent admitted. They had recently bought these records from a bounty hunter long thought dead. "But what's important isn't the MANY," The evil fairy rolled her eyes for emphasis. "Losses but to be able to cherry pick the wins out of them."

"And we have just done so." Paradias added with a satisfied gleam in his eyes. The generals rose as Paradias beckoned them and Maleficent to follow him. "As much luck as we've had putting their zords into an inoperable state, it's rather common for zord's to be either destroyed or encounter a power that makes them obsolete." He continued. In truth he was working on just such a contingency to for that as well. "Even the loss of powers wasn't unheard of until recently. But very few have happened at the same time."

"You mean that's ever happened?" Chad questioned.

"Yes. One of the first recent occurrences was in fact sadly resulted in the ranger's receiving help against the Psycho Rangers." Paradias answered. "A space pirate by the name of Divatox used one monster to destroy the Turbo rangers' zords and arsenal, followed by the destruction of their power chamber and the loss of their powers. Only finding the KO-35 red ranger allowed for the powers to be restored."

"How did she do that?" Gregory asked now.

"With a monster named Goldgoyle." Nerissa answered now beside Paradias. "He was the one who crushed those zords. Their arsenal was destroyed in the process of their destruction of the monster. And now we will replicate their success with his little brother GoldSheiva." With that they revealed their newest monster. He looked exactly like Goldgoyle did but he had four arms instead of two, which Maleficent knew would be of benefit since there were now twelve rangers to contend with.

"Your task should be simple enough as they've already had two battles today already." Paradias said. "Destroy the power rangers." He looked to Chad, Reviveslime, Gregory and Marcellus. "And be ready with the warzord as will be using it to demand Auradon's immediate surrender."

"Your wish is my command Paradias." GoldSheiva promised.

"I just wish we could repair your zords as easily as we repaired the dragon's eye." Amy reflected as they walked back to the command center where they planned to spend most of the day working on aforementioned zord repairs and seeing what they could do to find other ranger powers. The fact that she didn't come with a zord sort of upset her as she knew that was what the team seemed to need. The fact that she was needed to help take back the warzord was beside the point.

Audrey seemed to be right about looking to other places in Auradon for the other ranger powers but that didn't mean they had the time to personally visit them all to try to find them. Even if they found a power source that didn't guarantee a holder. In fact she and Ben would be working with Fairy Godmother to review student files to determine eligible ranger candidates. If Amy had turned down being the rose ranger they would have already needed to find someone for that power and they needed candidates for anything they found, including taking back the gray ranger powers.

"We'll make it work Amy, don't worry about it." Jay said and then shrugged. "Besides if it were easy anybody could do it." He added with a laugh.

"Sometimes easy would be a good thing." Carlos noted.

Audrey looked between Ben, Mal and Amy and hoped that everything was okay. In almost two hours they had all come close to losing Mal against Truesdale and Mal had almost lost Amy because Reviveslime had blasted her into a volcano. It was kind of an eye opener if ever there was one.

"How are the repairs coming along?" Will asked Doug and Jane.

"Could be going better." Doug said with a slight shake of his head. "I hadn't realized how much of the damage was internal. We're looking at another day at least."

"Is there any way Amy and I can take the warzord on our own?" Will wondered.

"I'm afraid not." Jane said. "There are at least three different places that need to be filled up and that's not including dealing with the generals inside."

"Told you we should have asked one of the ranger teams to stay for a while." Carlos stated, which earned him looks of annoyance from some of them.

Amy yawned a little bit. The day had started earlier than even she would have liked and they had already been into two fights. She hoped there wouldn't be any more today but Mal had already expressed doubt about that one.

The monster alarm went off again and Aziz sighed, "Maybe Paradias's plan is to wear us out so we eventually don't have the energy to fight." He mused.

"It's been tried before." Jordan said as Jane brought up the monster on the view screen. "Speaking of tried before, something about that monster seems familiar." The genie girl mused.

"We can figure that out later." Mal said to Jordan. "Right now it's time to get to work…again."

They left the command center and up the stairs, leaving Auradon Prep. "I'd like to tell you this isn't common." Audrey said to Amy. "But my luck they'd start doing this just to make me a liar." Amy gave her a small smile in return, she had to appreciate the fact she was trying to make Amy feel comfortable in the team.

Ben formed his sword and shield and transformed. Jane took out the magic wand (she still refused to see it as hers) and transformed. The rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed as well.

They didn't have to look far as the monster had been looking for them so that he could follow Paradias's orders. "Greetings rangers." He said to them. "I feel as if I should introduce myself; I am GoldSheiva and it will be such a pleasure to destroy you all." The four arms of the monsters seemed to pulse in anticipation.

Jordan frowned. "Something about that name…" She mused again.

"I'm afraid the pleasure would be all yours if it were going to happen." Mal said as she summoned her dragon's eye staff. The rest of the team summoned their weapons as well. The monster in turn summoned his own blades and charged right at them.

Audrey tried to see if she could cut him off before he even got there by raising her elemental bow and unleashing a hail of arrows right at him. With lightning quick reflexes he used his blades to cut down or deflect the incoming arrows. "Okay, so much for that idea." She muttered.

"It was a good idea." Mal promised her. Most monsters probably would have been taken down by that tactic. "Get ready guys, here he comes."

Jay and Will took the first attempt with their respective swords, Jay's being a scimitar really and Will's being a curved blade with four sharp points; two on either end. Jay tried to strike at the chest while Will tried to strike at the midsection. GoldSheiva blocked with the upper right and lower left arm and then used the free arms to strike the two rangers hard.

Aziz and Ben moved in now as they drew energy into their weapons; the silver ranger with his spiral spear and Ben with his Auradon sword. The four armed monster caught the weapons in between his own as they dove in for the attack and then unleashed a beam of energy from his eyes that sent them recoiling back.

"Um, should we rock scissor paper for this?" Carlos asked in slight panic.

"Come on Carlos, we can do this." Audrey tried to encourage him. Together the red and yellow ranger started toward the monster. Audrey again released a hail of arrows, this time with the hope that she and Carlos could cut him down while he was busy dealing with the arrows. The energy beams from the eyes dashed any hopes of that and then he rushed forward to slam his blades into the two rangers, two at a time.

Jane extended the magic wand with magic so that it almost served like a sword as Lonnie stepped up to her. "We should try flanking him." She suggested to the pink ranger. "I can use my magic to get behind him while you attack from the front."

Lonnie nodded. "Good idea Jane." She said to the white ranger. "Let's do it."

Jane disappeared with a flourish as Lonnie started toward GoldSheiva. It seemed for a moment as if he were too focused on Lonnie to pay attention to where Jane had gone too. The white ranger appeared behind him and as Lonnie moved in expecting him to block, Jane moved in to attack him from behind. Then he started to rotate from the waist up and he extended his arms, slashing the two girls with his arms multiple times and sent them reeling.

"I don't think I want to get in close to him." Evie noted after seeing that dizzying 360 degree display.

"We don't have too." Ally replied as stepped up to the blue ranger, Jordan came up on her other side. "We know he can handle arrows, but let's see what he can do if all three of us attack him together."

Evie unfolded her mirror force shield and pressed the appropriate button to release her storming mirror force as Ally let loose with all of her crystal cards and Jordan unleashed a stream of energy from her lamp cannon. The combined attack headed toward the monster.

"There's no way he could stand up to that." Amy said. It almost sounded like a prayer from her twin sister as far as Mal was concerned. She just hoped the prayer was answered.

Sadly it wasn't as GoldSheiva raised all four of its arms and used his blades to act as a shield when the attack struck. It pushed him back a few inches but ultimately he withstood the attack and then unleashed it right back at the three girls, sending them back in a flourish.

"Let's see what we can do with a little bit of twin magic." Mal declared as she twirled her dragon's eye staff.

"Right." Amy agreed as she raised her rose lance. Both of them had a slightly horrible feeling about this. The sisters tried to attack the four armed monster but he used those extra extremities to his advantage as he used his blades to catch in between the long lengths of their weapons and flipped them over his heads and onto their backs on the ground hard. As they started to stand up he slashed them hard and sent them reeling backwards.

Mal and Amy came to a stop and saw the rest of the rangers had regrouped around them. Ben helped Mal to her feet as Lonnie helped her fellow pinkish ranger to her feet. "What do we do now?" Ally asked.

"Let's try to use our blasters." Jane suggested. "With thirteen of us we'll generate more power than we have on either of the two occasions with only ten of us."

"It's worth a shot." Mal agreed as she looked the approaching monster. "Spread out guys, keep out of his reach." With that they all did as the purple ranger commanded and then drew their blasters. Ben didn't actually have one of his own but he could add his energy into the stream without a problem.

"What is it you've pulled from your sleeves now?" GoldSheiva asked with amusement.

The ranger's activated the refractors on their blasters and then fired the energy expanding as it hit the reflectors. Ben added his own energy as well and then they unleashed the torrent of energy building around him right at the four armed monster.

To their horror the four armed creature caught the torrent of energy and released it upward into the sky with a huge explosion that probably shook up half of Auradon and woke anything that was asleep right now.

"At least he wasn't able to reflect that back at us." Carlos said. "One small blessing for us."

"Yeah but we'll need about another two dozen small blessings if we want to defeat this thing." Evie noted with dismay.

"We haven't even scratched him yet." Amy noted in a worried tone.

"Is that the best you've got?" GoldSheiva asked mockingly.

"Not by a long shot." Mal bit off. The truth was that all they had left was the Auradon blaster and Auradon cannon. If he was able to deflect those or even use the attacks against the team they were out of luck. She already knew the neon armor would only make the recoil damage even worse for them.

It was as if Audrey had read her mind. "Do we try them?" She asked simply. It amazed Amy a bit how the red ranger and purple ranger were such polar opposites that they could easily clash with each other and yet they seemed to think on the same wave length, especially when the situation called for it.

"I don't see that we have a choice Mal." Ben interjected softly. "Without that attempt we've all but lost anyway."

Mal knew her boyfriend was right. "Let's bring them together." She told her friends though to Amy there was a subtle undercurrent that suggested she suspected it was going to be a futile maneuver.

Mal's fully repaired dragon's eye staff went first, placed underneath with Audrey's elemental bow. Behind them Evie's mirror force shield was placed, the compact of the mirror unfolding. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle, followed by Lonnie's hurricane tessen's, Carlos's earthquake claw daggers and Amy's rose lances. They all got together to aim the blaster.

Jordan raised up her lamp cannon. As Ally's crystal cards were placed in the spout and Aziz placed his spiral spear around the lamp, Jane placed the magic wand in the top of the lamp.

Ben and Will exchanged glances. They didn't really add to either of the weapons formations. Still they decided to take a page from the book of the generals and combine their bladed weapons together to unleash a stream of energy at the same time as their friends did.

Together the three separate but combined units unleashed their strongest combined attacks on GoldSheiva. The monster raised its four arms and allowed the energy to collect against it before unleashing it straight back at the ranger's sending them flying backwards and landing hard. Their weapons fell to the ground as well.

"That was our best shot." Ally lamented softly. "And then some." She added as she realized normally Ben and Will didn't use that kind of attack either. "And we still couldn't get through him."

"Foolish amateurs." GoldSheiva gloated cruelly. "For all of your battles, all of your attempts, all of you were nothing more than untrained infants jumping into the deep end of the pool. You can't hope to defeat me."

"We can't give up guys." Mal said as she slowly rose to one knee. "We have to think of something. We can't let this creep beat us." She wished she knew how to make her words more than just that.

Several soldiers appeared around GoldSheiva. "Perfect timing boys." The four armed monster said. "I'm going to need help to take these rangers apart." They started to move in on the slowly recovering rangers.

A streak of purple with green electric highlights suddenly appeared out of nowhere as it took out two of the soldiers on the right, and then with the same flare took out two the soldiers on the left. Both rangers and creatures turned to follow with their eyes as the streak landed and coalesced into another power ranger.

"Mom, Doug, are you seeing this?" Jane asked over the intercom helmet.

"We're seeing it dear one." Fairy Godmother answered her daughter. "But…I don't know what else to tell you. We didn't send this ranger."

It was clear that this newest ranger was female. It was a unique oddity for their world to have more female rangers than male rangers if they had thought about it. This ranger wore purple like Mal but her shade of purple was lighter, almost pearly looking. Interspersed throughout were dark green streaks, almost like the vine decorations around Amy's legs. Unlike the rest of the rangers though she had a shield a silver shield on her chest that looked very much like the Zeo Gold Ranger, though they wouldn't know that as they'd never met him.

"Looks like it's time to even out the odds around here." The new ranger said. They could detect a strong accent in the voice but none of the team could identify it. The only accent they'd heard was Ally's British accent and Kat's Australian accent ant it wasn't one of those.

"One ranger against us?" GoldSheiva questioned and laughed. "This has got to be joke."

"Not at all." She said seriously. "Let me give you a demonstration." With that she formed two swords in her hands, about the size of Ben's. She brought them up and dashed toward them.

"Take her out." GoldSheiva ordered the soldiers.

For a moment time seemed to be normal as the soldiers charged toward the new ranger. Then it was almost as if time stopped as there seemed to be a roar from out of nowhere. The team could barely make out the images of the new girl slashing her way up, down, and around the soldiers until she stood behind them, ready to face the four armed monster, and the soldiers exploded.

"Wow." Amy said. "That was almost like time manipulation." Though time manipulation was not something she could do, she had empathic powers, control of the elements (though she had only demonstrated two of them) and the ability to walk through objects. She would have ideally limited the knowledge of who knew that but it was hard to keep that a secret in battle.

"I think we're one on one now." She said to the monster.

"We may be one on one, but I think I've got a couple more advantages over you." GoldSheiva declared and attacked her. He tried to bring all four of his blades down on her but she blocked it with her two and then lashed out with her foot to send the monster sprawling back. She then leapt up and delivered a kick to his chest before bringing her swords down on him hard.

Mal had to blink a moment. She swore those moves looked almost like Amber's. Of course the accent was very nearly proof enough that it wasn't the purple space ranger. Not that vocal noise couldn't be fabricated but she was still sure it wasn't Amber.

He tried to attack her with his swords, one arm after another, and she step backed, dodging each strike. Then she finally caught the two upper arms in between one of her blades. She lashed out and kicked him back hard.

"Nice moves girl. But it seems to me we're too evenly matched." He said.

"We have to get in and help her." Lonnie said.

"Hang on." Mal said to her. The pink ranger looked confused but Amy held up a hand as well. "She can do this." She promised.

"Ye might be right." The girl relented. "But your friend are gone. Mine aren't."

"Your friends don't look to be in much rush to help you out." GoldSheiva retorted.

"It wasn't them I was referring to." The ranger replied and then called out, "Let's see how you like this." Twirling her swords in her hand she unleashed a blast of energy toward him, but as it drew closer it started to take the shape of a spirit animal.

"That's a bear." Audrey said in surprise. "A grizzly if I'm not mistaken."

The spirit of the bear lashed out with its paws. GoldSheiva tried to block it only to come to an unpleasant realization that as a spirit it couldn't do so. The bear spirit slashed him once across the face, a second time across the chest, and a third in an upward strike that sent the monster flying into the sky.

She leapt up and brought her swords arcing upwards. The rangers were amazed to see the new ranger take off the lower arms of GoldSheiva. Then she brought her blades down again on the monster and sent him crashing to the ground hard even as she landed gracefully on her feet.

"Now that's impressive." Will said and Lonnie could do nothing but echo, "Very impressive."

"I won't let you beat me." GoldSheiva snarled. "I have a legacy to uphold, and uphold it I shall."

"Funny because we have one to uphold too." Mal said to him. "And something tells me that with her help our chances of continuing to do that are a lot better now."

"Ye can say that again." She agreed. She drew energy into her swords and tossed them. They angled straight and true as they destroyed the blades in the monster's remaining two hands, then they twirled around and slashed him hard again. As the blades angled back to their owner she called out, "Feel free to end this now."

Mal, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Lonnie, Carlos and Amy again combined their weapons to form the Auradon blaster even as Jordan, Aziz, Ally and Jane formed the Auradon Cannon. Will and Ben retrieved their swords and together the three units again unleashed their attacks on GoldSheiva, this time destroying the monster.

"Yes!" Carlos exclaimed. "We did it, we won."

"Thanks to our new ally." Mal said as she turned to her…well her purple ranger counterpart if she wanted to be honest, just as Amy was like Lonnie's counterpart despite being a darker rose color. "Who are…" She started.

Her question was interrupted by a giant landing sound. They turned up to see the warzord glaring down at them. They could barely make out Chad, Gregory, Marcellus and Reviveslime in the cockpit. "This game is over." Gregory said. "This time we're going to end you all."

"You better pray you don't survive Audrey." Chad said with venom in his voice. "If you do, I'll make sure to make you wish you hadn't over years of time." Amy felt the fear and panic in the red ranger and despite the fact the rose ranger was still struggling to like Audrey herself, she couldn't help but want to try to reassure the brunette princess.

"Our worst fear come true." Jane whispered. "We can't stand up to the power of a zord."

"You won't be ending anyone today." The new ranger told them all. Then there was a loud roar like there had been when she had outdone the soldiers single handedly.

"No parlor trick is going to do us in." Reviveslime warned her. "Your reign as a power ranger will be very short indeed." The warzord raised its arms and started to gather up energy in an attempt to unleash it upon the rangers. The crashing sound stopped them as they turned to see a large bear zord leaping right at them, quite fast for its bulk, and slammed right into the warzord.

"No tricks here." She said to the four in the warzord. She leapt straight up and into the cockpit. Though the others couldn't see it she placed a gem the same light purple color against the console. She didn't know what the small slot for it underneath was, though it was the same size as the other zords had for the iPhone. "Time to convert to the Battlebear."

Much as the White Tigerzord shifted from tiger mode to warrior mode, the new bear zord did the same thing. It had no sword though its mechanical hands very much resembled Carlos's when he was using his claw daggers.

The warzord's arms and hands were replaced by blades as it moved in to engage the Battlebear. The zord responded by raising a hand and getting the blade twisted up in the claws. Then with the free hand it slashed the warzord hard, doing some damage but not the amount even she had been hoping for.

"There's a reason this is called a warzord girl." Reviveslime said with a laugh and then slashed the Battlebear. He grimaced though as he realized this zord was built thick like the hide of a bear. Penetrating it would not be easy.

Gregory glared down at his former team mates as he saw them getting up. Their zords were still down and couldn't help their new friend in this fight. But he wasn't stupid enough to count them out, especially since they might have had the numbers to take the zord from them, even if they lacked the rangers to pilot it. He reasoned for them a dormant zord was better than an adversarial one. "Forget this, but we'll be back Highlands ranger." He spat. With that the war zord took to the skies in a flourish of smoke and light.

"Why'd the run?" Jay wondered as he tried to brush smoke away from his eyes.

"They must have been afraid we'd try to take the warzord away from them even if we can't use it ourselves yet." Will speculated.

"Where's that other ranger?" Amy asked, catching a fleeting glimpse of Gregory's mind and what he had called her. "Where's the Highlands ranger?"

"The what?" Aziz asked.

Jane understood. It seemed to be a similar situation to what Time Force had experienced, where there sixth ranger Eric Meyers had been colored almost exactly like the red Time Force ranger Wesley Collins but had been called the Quantum Ranger.

"I think I see her." Audrey said. And for a moment she had as the light and smoke cleared. Then a particularly heavy smoke cloud passed and she lost sight of the newest ranger.

"I don't see her." Jay said.

"I don't feel her." Amy said, referring to her empathic awareness. Though she wasn't not trying to read any glimpse of emotions it was hard to edit out the general feeling of everyone around her. The loss one person's empathic awareness was easy to detect in limited surroundings. "She's gone."

This mystery lead them back to the command center where they reviewed the battle from an outside perspective. "Do you recognize the accent at all mom?" Jane asked Fairy Godmother.

"I'm not sure right off hand." Fairy Godmother answered. "It seems familiar but I can't place it."

"I'd like to know where she came from." Lonnie said. "And who she is?"

"She had her own zord." Amy said excitedly. "And it was able to stand up the warzord."

"Which is a good start." Mal agreed. "But in a real fight they won't have Reviveslime at the controls, they'll have him fighting with the warzord."

"And we can't forget about Jabberwock either." Ally reminded them all softly. Truth was he was starting to give her a few nightmares.

"We have to find out who she is sooner rather than later though." Audrey said as she took a few steps away from the group and then turned back to them with a grave look in her eyes. "Because if we're looking for her then we all know so are Paradias and Maleficent. And their intentions will be far less noble than ours."


	63. Attack on Auradon Prep

Lunch had come around and again Jordan had whipped up something that would make them whatever they wanted for lunch. Mal selected cheese ravioli and a strawberry shake. Ben selected beef ravioli with a chocolate milkshake. Audrey had selected a chicken Caesar salad and orange juice. Evie had selected a chicken and steak quesadilla with and bottled water. Jay selected a double bacon cheeseburger with fries and Pepsi. Carlos had selected a taco platter and a Pepsi. Amy had selected chicken tenders and a strawberry shake (like her sister), Jane selected veggie lasagna and bottled water. Jordan had selected an exotic and spicy dish from Agrabah that no one else but Aziz had been able to pronounce. Aziz selected roasted chicken and mashed potatoes with a Pepsi too. Ally had selected spaghetti with mushroom sauce and an apple juice and Will selected chicken fried steak and au gratin potatoes with a Pepsi. Fairy Godmother had gone in to pull some records for review, at least as much as she could without violating any sort of confidentialities and Doug had accompanied her.

"I have to say it feels like we deserve this." Jay noted as he picked up a French fry. "We've been in three fights in the last six hours."

"And gotten beaten down in the last one." Carlos added. Ben frowned slightly as he cut into one of his raviolis as he recalled that Mal had been all but gutted during the first fight of the day too. Amy had also almost taken a one way trip down into the mouth of a volcano as well.

"I wonder what the Highlands ranger is eating for lunch right now?" Amy mused to herself as she picked up one of her chicken tenders.

"Raw fish." Carlos speculated jokingly, based on the fact she had a bear zord and a bear animal spirit. He and Jay exchanged snickers before falling quiet at Audrey and Jane's looks of annoyance.

"They might be right." Mal said and when Evie looked at her in some shock she waved her hand. "I don't mean raw E." She said a bit snappily. "But I bet she's the kind of girl who can go hunting for her own food, clean it and cook it to a fire camp perfection."

"I bet Mal's right." Will agreed. He used his fork to take some mashed potatoes from his plate. "When I was younger one of the guys in the village taught my sister and I how do to do things like that. It's kind of fun actually."

"I can't say it would be my thing." Audrey said with amusement as she speared some of the salad on her fork.

"Maybe we can go out overnight some time." Lonnie suggested to Will.

"That might be fun." He agreed. They both exchanged smiles.

"Oh, gag me." Mal said with a roll of her eyes and that received amused glances from everyone else who knew that Mal and Ben still took the cake in what many people would call sickly sweet romance.

Will received a text and he checked on it and then sent something back. Then he looked to them. "That was Whitney. She wants to have dinner with Callie and her parent's tonight. She asked if mom and I wanted to come." He explained.

"I'm glad that Whitney's been so good for them." Audrey said with a soft smile. Amy was surprised again to read feel something unexpected from the attitude she tried to show; she had a soft spot for little kids. "After Chad left, my mom would spend hours trying to assure Cinderella that she had done nothing wrong, that it was all on Chad. And Callie was starting to withdraw into herself."

Ben remembered that he and his parents, along with Audrey and her parents, had been there when Cinderella had had Callie. He did fondly remember that after her own parents Audrey had been the first to hold the newborn girl. He knew then, just as he knew now, that when the time came she would be a good mother. Audrey had likewise told Ben that he would be a good father when the time came. It struck him now that they had never said they would be good parents together, making him think that perhaps even then they subconsciously realized that they weren't likely to end up together.

A flash of anger passed through the team at Chad. "To turn against us is one thing," Evie mused sadly. "But to turn on his family, to turn his back on them, it…" She drifted off. "I guess we have no room to talk." She glanced at her isle companions. "One could argue we turned our back on our parents."

"I don't think it's that simple." Lonnie replied. "You're pursuing what you want and it's not hurting them, unless you count the fact that Maleficent is still trying to follow her evil ways by joining forces with Paradias. They haven't made any effort to contact you despite the fact that they technically could." It occurred to them that no one knew what had happened to Cruella, Jafar and the Evil Queen Grimholde as they had not been seen in the small time they had been on the Isle of the Lost. "Chad has hurt Audrey several times now and even though he could easily come to visit them he doesn't."

"He is a wanted fugitive." Ben pointed out to the Asian princess. Several people there alone would have loved to teach Chad a lesson for all that he had done.

Amy thought she understood what Lonnie was saying though. "If Mal had been able to come see me even though she wasn't necessarily welcome on the isle anymore I wouldn't have told mom." She revealed. "I bet anything Callie feels the same way." She couldn't say what Cinderella would think, say or do.

Mal thought about the party they had had in honor of the power rangers of Earth and how Whitney had interacted with Callie and even Cinderella. Then she thought about her interactions with Belle and the fact that her sister also seemed to like her, and Belle seemed to like both of the sisters as well. She was going to say something but it was like Ben had read her thoughts. "Maybe in a way it's for the better for them though. Sometimes family isn't just about blood."

"No it isn't." Evie agreed with a smile as she looked at Mal, Jay, Carlos and Amy. She also thought about Snow White. Neither was blood related to the other simply by law, but they got along very well.

"So what did you tell your sister?" Jane asked Will.

"I told her I'd be there as long as I'm not held up." He answered. They had decided to tell Whitney about him being a ranger since if something happened to him it would affect her. It was no different in its own way than Callie learning what her brother was now doing.

"The way things have been going today that might be a real possibility." Jordan lamented with a roll of her eyes. "We've had three fights in the last six hours and none of them have been simple."

They were very nearly finished with lunch when the last thing they wanted to hear went off; namely the alarm that indicated a monster. Jane was already up and at the consoles with Jordan not far behind her. "Oh, no." Jane whispered.

"What is it now?" Aziz asked.

Jordan brought up the images on screen. The walls of Auradon Prep were being overrun by these hideous two legged bull creatures with axes, and right behind them were two huge baboon creatures and another beast looking warrior. "Oh my pink, that's an army." Amy gasped and then cocked her head a bit "What are those things?" She asked.

"Those are the battle oxens." Lonnie told her ranger counterpart for lack of better terms. "And three of Sermaya's generals Gottomas, the Forest Defender and Forest Archer."

"We need to get out there before they hurt someone." Ally said.

Mal nodded. "You're right. Let's go." The team left the command center and up the stairs. Finding trouble was not hard and they were actually attacked by two battle oxen's as they came up the stairs.

One swung at Will and he dodged under it and delivered an elbow into his stomach, then came up with a hard uppercut to the jaw.

The other swung at Carlos but Jay caught him by the wrist and twisted enough to the beast drop the axe it wielded and then swept its hooven legs out from under it, where it went crashing down the stairs it had come from.

"Let's get to work." Mal said and they all took out their iPhones as Ben formed his sword and shield and Jane took out the magic wand. They all transformed.

"Where do you think Sermaya is?" Aziz wondered as they looked around. "And that freaky mage of his?"

"I don't know." Mal answered. "We're going to have to deal with that after we've made sure the students and faculty are safe." She knew that Jane had to be worrying about her mother. Doug was with her too, so Evie was probably more than a little worried.

Almost as if Will had read their leaders mind he voiced, "I'm going to go find Doug and Fairy Godmother and escort them back to the command center." Mal nodded her approval and the green ranger headed off toward the administration office.

"They might be here for the scroll that we brought back from Agrabah." Ally realized. They had traveled to Agrabah to get a scroll that Jasmine had found pertaining to Sermaya in Agrabah's library, where the green and gray ranger powers had been discovered. But between the attack on Agrabah, the appearance and commandeering of the warzord, the spell that nearly wiped out all of the Auradon rangers knowledge and the events of the last day alone they had not been able to examine the contents.

Jordan and Aziz knew the crystal ranger was right. "The three of us will head toward our archive room and defend it." The genie girl announced.

"Go ahead." Mal agreed with her. "We'll call you if we need the help." She hoped Will would join them soon enough and in the meantime they had Amy to help them out, Sermaya didn't know about the rose ranger for whatever that was worth. Nor did he know about the Highlands ranger, again for whatever that was worth. The three split up and the rest headed down to deal with the battle oxen.

The team immediately summoned their weapons and began to fight through the battle oxen. They however were the least of the problems. "Look what we have here." Forest Defender said. "The power rangers."

"Yes." Forest Archer agreed. Being the predator that their kind were he noticed the newest ranger, who was also the smallest and therefore in his opinion the weakest of the pack. "Looks like another pretty pink princess. Let's see what we can do about that." He took out his long wooden bow and aimed it Amy.

Amy didn't even notice. She had learned some things since becoming a ranger. Soldiers were mindless, she could get nothing on them. Her empathic powers were great with people who were open to her or were at least human on some level. Even her mother had been readable to her most of the time. Paradias's monsters were not. She could only attribute that to their alien nature. While she could feel something from these beast warriors the sensations she experienced might as well have been alien to her, essentially making reading them useless. She thought in time she could learn to sort through it for something useful, but she needed time.

So the rose ranger was unaware of the large arrow that was shot right at her. Audrey however had heard it and she quickly raised her elemental bow and unleashed a fire arrow. Though her arrows were smaller than Forest Archer's were the fire consumed it quickly. Only when it was ash did Amy notice something bad had just been prevented.

Forest Defender let out a roar and then landed on the ground. He charged toward the red ranger, knocking over several of their own minions as well as Carlos and Jane in the process. He smashed into Audrey hard and she fell with an ungraceful roll. "You ruined my brother's shot." He glared at her.

"Better than seeing one of my friends turned into ashes." Audrey noted with a grimace as she began to stand up. "Roses might smell good but that doesn't mean we have to kill them to get that scent."

"And they smell a lot better than you creeps do." Jay added as he moved in and slashed at Forest Defender. He brought up his arms in enough time to take the majority of the attack but the intensity in itself was enough to force him back further from Audrey.

Forest Archer took aim again, this time at Jay. He pulled back on the bow string only to hear a roaring sound. He turned and was only just able to dodge a Quaking Mirror Force attack from Evie. When he landed on the ground he was approached by Mal. "First you go after my sister and now one of my friends?" The purple ranger asked. "That doesn't seem like such a good idea to me."

Then Gottomas was in front of her. "Attacking us doesn't seem like a good idea to me." He confronted her and then grinned. "Looks like you and your little friends have upgraded your weapons." He added with a gleam in his eye.

Mal remembered that the last time they had fought him he had stolen their weapons. If not for the Jungle Fury rangers showing up to help them they might have very well lost the day. Of course that was when they had learned to harness their spirit animals. "Too bad the only way you're going to know is when we use them to destroy you." She said.

Gottomas swung a huge long sword down at Mal. The purple ranger raised her staff and was barely able to block it. She grit her teeth with the effort as these beasts did have strength over every one of the rangers, even those like Will and Jay. She barely knocked the sword to the side and lashed out to slam the staff into his chest only to hit the flesh with very little effect.

He lashed out again and struck Mal hard. He moved in lightning quick to try to plunge it into Mal's chest but Ben was in front of her then with his shield raised. It struck the metal object hard and it took the young king everything he had to maintain his balance, but he did it. Ben shot his sword straight out and struck the general, drawing some brackish looking blood from the wound.

By that time Mal had recovered and had retrieved her staff. "I don't really like our odds here." Mal noted.

"I don't either." Ben agreed.

Then Gottomas released a stream of energy from his sword and both of them had to roll away from each other to avoid the strike. It was then that a fist connected hard with Ben's face. It probably would have shattered his skull had he not been transformed. He looked up to find himself face to face with the creature that had once called him his brother; Sermaya himself.

"We meet again boy." Sermaya said. "For the last time."

Ben twirled his sword around. "I can't agree more." He said. "It's time to put this little dance to an end." He swung the sword around at the beast warrior but he dodged it far swifter than he had any right too and then caught Ben by his arm. He lifted him into the air and tossed him hard into the wall.

"Ben!" Mal shouted out and started over to her boyfriend only to get a huge elbow delivered into her lower back courtesy of Gottomas. She landed hard and just rolled out of the way of the approaching large booted foot aimed at her skull. "Ben!" She called out again even as she started to rise.

The young king had had the wind knocked out of him. He was only starting to get air back into his lungs when Sermaya stood over him. He reached down toward him and Ben prepared to try to knock his arm away but he instead picked up the sword Ben used to transform. "Let's try this again. But first…" Sermaya placed his seemingly massive hands over the sword and snapped it in two.

"No, my sword." Ben started even though it was far too late to matter. It fell to the ground in three jagged pieces and to make matters worse Ben felt himself power down against his will as his powers seemed to be lost to him.

"Ben." Audrey gasped now and raised her elemental bow to try to snipe Sermaya but had several battle oxen get in her line of sight. She then glared in frustration as she called out, "Jay, Ben is down."

Jay saw the situation too but was unable to get past Forest Defender. He could also see that Carlos, Lonnie, Evie, Jane and Amy were too busy with the massive army of battle oxen to be able to do anything.

Ben started to his feet shakily but he didn't know what he could do about it. Then he had to duck quickly to avoid a fist to the face that surely would have killed him. "It's over Ben. I told you that you would regret not joining me when you had a chance. I didn't say for how long."

"Leave him alone." Mal demanded even as she tried to slip by Gottomas. She wasn't quick enough and received a knee to her chest for her efforts. She fell to the ground hard, the staff again slipping from her grip.

Then a flash of green struck Sermaya and he turned to see himself face to face with a new ranger. Will twirled his recursive sword around. "Before you can take out the king, you're going to have to go through me." He warned him.

Even as Mal let out a sigh of relief she had doubts that Will could take Sermaya out on his own any more than they could have.

Sermaya swung at the green ranger but Will took a step back and brought up his weapon and two of the ends scraped his arm. The beast warrior growled in annoyance at that. He tried to bring his fists down but Will rolled to the side and kicked him in the leg hard enough to unbalance him slightly. He then leapt into the air and used his right leg to deliver a kick to his chest, causing him to fall back even further.

Gottomas was now going after Mal again. He swung his sword and she blocked it with her dragon's eye staff. It was hard to maintain the block on his weapon.

Forest Archer was still in a spot to see everything in front of him, including the fact that he had a shot at Mal that none of the rangers could stop since they had their own problems. He raised his long bow to do just that. Amy caught it out of the corner of her eye and was about ready to try to yell out to her sister for whatever that was worth.

Then she saw the same light purple blur with green flashes in it and the Highlands ranger appeared behind him. He heard her appear behind him but even as he turned to find out what had shown up she brought her swords down, destroying the long bow. She then performed a spinning reverse kick and knocked him off of the wall he had been standing on. The thudding landing was heard by everyone, and both Sermaya and the weapons master turned to the sound.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." The girl said as she landed on the ground gracefully. "But I can't as I like what I'm seeing here."

Sermaya was not happy to see another new ranger here. And he didn't even know about Amy. "Gottomas, finish off this interloper." He ordered simply before turning back to dealing with Will.

The weapons master knocked Mal back hard. She recovered instantly but found herself being blocked by the Forest Archer who was currently lacking an archery weapon thanks to the Highlands ranger.

Gottomas turned to face the Highlands ranger. "You humans keep showing up, dressed in your fancy colored costumes and brandishing your shiny little weapons." He said patronizingly as he started toward the unknown girl.

"Oh ye like the shiny weapons do ya?" She asked with amusement. "I'll be more than happy to give you a taste of these then."

"You will indeed." Gottomas laughed and then leapt forward, intending to take the swords away from her as he had from the rangers last time. But as he drew closer there was a roaring sound and the bear spirit she was bound to emerged and brought its paws down on him hard, bringing him down with a crash.

"You forgot to watch out for my partner." She said with laugh at him. "With that I'll never be fighting alone regardless." She slashed at him with her weapons, though he was able to dodge it. He struck back with his sword and she brought her blades together to block strike against her.

Will was barely able to meet Sermaya's strength with his own, making it hard to protect Ben and almost impossible to mount an offense against the beast king.

Mal struck out with her staff at the Forest Archer and he caught it hard and lifted the staff up, and the purple ranger with it. She swung back a bit and then brought her feet into his face hard, making him recoil and drop her. It wasn't the softest landing ever.

"You seem to have quite the numbers advantage." The Highlands ranger noted as she pushed the beast general back a little. "Let's see what I can do about that." She decided even as she back flipped out of the way of the attack and raised her blades.

"There's nothing you can do girl." Gottomas retorted.

"Want to take bets on it?" She asked and then gathered energy into her swords and released them. Gottomas prepared to block them with his own sword and possibly reflect them back at her but they completely bypassed him and started to strike the battle oxen from behind, much as she had done to the Paradias's soldiers in the first battle she had assisted the rangers in.

"Awesome." Jay said with delight and then announced, "I'm going to back Will up against Sermaya to keep Ben safe."

"I'm coming with you." Evie said to him.

"I'm going to help Mal." Lonnie decided.

"Me too." Amy agreed.

Audrey and Jane hadn't forgotten there was one foe that wasn't going to go down with that sword strike as they turned to face the Forest Defender. "I'm really glad my bow has sharp corners for close combat." The red ranger noted. Arrows wouldn't cut it against this big beast.

"I'm glad that the wand can be a bladed weapon in times like this too." Jane agreed.

"Don't worry, I've got your backs." Carlos reminded them as he got ready to fight with his claw daggers.

"What is you even want here?" Ben asked Sermaya despite the fact the best course of action should be to run. He could only assume that Will had gotten Fairy Godmother and Doug to the command center or at least some place safe, which is where the young king should have been now that his powers seemed to be out of commission for the moment.

"I've come for what I need to restore my civilization and end yours." Sermaya replied as he tried to bring his fists down on Will. The green ranger dodged the strike.

"Good luck with that, you can't even get your goons past the front gate." Jay noted as he leapt out and struck at Sermaya, forcing him to fall back a few inches and allowing the black and green rangers to stand side by side.

"Oh no." Evie gasped. "Where's the mage guy?" She wondered.

"What mage guy?" Amy asked. She didn't know about Chiron. This was her first encounter with Sermaya and his brood. She had her rose lance out and tried to jab at Forest Archer though he batted the small weapon aside with only a few cuts, almost nothing for his enormous size.

"Evie is right, where is Chiron?" Asked Lonnie now as she was able to finally see from the mostly cleared area that the centaur like thing was not to be found.

The blades returned to the Highland Rangers sides as she got ready to go up against Gottomas. He swung his sword in arch meant to decapitate her but she bent backwards far enough to avoid the slashing attack and then let her body fall, her hands catching the ground to kick the beast general with both of her feet hard. Gripping her weapons she rose to her full height as he started to stumble backwards.

"Let's end this then." She stated and drew energy into her blades again. This time she didn't throw them; instead she stepped up and double slashed him across his chest and then flipped over the monster, landing ready to face the Forest Archer and Sermaya even as the beast general fell back and was destroyed in a blaze of glory.

"You destroyed my weapons master!" Sermaya exclaimed, somewhere between shock and fury. He turned his back on Will, Jay and Ben as he turn to shoot the mystery ranger a murderous glare. "For that I shall tear you apart with my bare hands!"

He had taken a few steps forward to attack the Highlands ranger and for what it was worth she seemed ready to try to take him on when he suddenly stopped, as if something was said that only he could hear. Well, that wasn't quite true as it seemed to attract the attention of the two Forest baboons as well.

Sermaya shot a murderous glare at the girl. "You've gotten yourself a reprieve, but make no mistake. The next time I see you I will tear you apart myself." With that the three beasts took a tremendous leap, getting onto the slightly destroyed walls of Auradon Prep, before leaping off into the forests.

"Reprieve?" Audrey wondered.

Mal was already reacting. "Jordan, Ally, Aziz, come in." She ordered frantically.

Jordan's voice came back sounding decidedly bored. "You finally need some help out there Mal?" She asked, and at the point the purple ranger could detect some annoyance in the gold ranger's voice. "We might as well be guarding a cemetery for all the excitement we're having."

"Wait a minute." Evie now said as they could all hear the conversation. They weren't too clear on rather or not the Highlands ranger could hear it or not though. "You're bored? But didn't they take that scroll we got from Agrabah?" She asked.

"We haven't seen any beast warriors of any kind here Evie." Ally answered the blue ranger. She at least seemed far less edgy than Jordan had. She was probably more grateful for the lull in action that either her boyfriend or the genie girl.

"Then what exactly caused Sermaya and his goons to retreat?" Will asked curiously.

"Spread out and search the area." Mal said to the rest of the team. She turned to talk to the Highlands ranger only to see she had disappeared again without a trace. "Dang, she's good at that." The purple ranger mused.

It didn't take long to find out what had happened. The school library was in shambles. Since some of the students and faculty had fled there, there were several injuries though none of them were fatal. Luckily, or not depending on point of view, one of them was Whitney and she gladly told the green ranger everything that had happened. "This thing with the legs of a horse and body of a man came in." She said, unable to remember the term centaur. "He had those oxe things with him and they were tearing apart the shelves until they found this one book, red backed and really thick." She had taken a deep breath. "It was in the section on the ancient cultures in the desert."

"You're okay though, right?" He had asked his little sister, voice full of concern.

She nodded. "I'm fine, green ranger sir." She replied. Lonnie and Mal repressed small chuckles as each recalled when Dark Mist had attacked and Mal had been unable to transform. When Lonnie had shown up as the pink ranger the purple haired girl had addressed her in much the same way.

"I'll review the archives and see if I can figure out which book was taken." Jane said to them.

They returned to the command center, powering down after they got there. As Jane got to work on that Mal was sitting by Ben as Doug examined the broken sword. He sighed. "I don't think this can be repaired Ben." He lamented.

"What do you mean it can't be repaired?" Audrey asked a little hotly. Under the circumstance Amy found she couldn't really blame her for it.

"Of course it can be repaired." Lonnie also replied. "Can't your father or uncles do it? If not I can take it to my father, he's got a blacksmith…"

"Let me be more precise." Doug interrupted after he had cleared his throat. "The sword itself can undoubtfully be repaired in a day or so in the right hands." He knew that his Uncle Bashful could repair the sword himself, and that Lonnie knew someone who could do that too. In fact Ben's own father had a swordsmith in his castle. "The repair itself isn't the issue, it's the power that was inside the sword that I can't guarantee is still there."

"What about a new sword?" Ally suggested.

"We'd have to find something pretty good." Jordan replied now. "I mean it took the Maledict blade to restore Chad's powers. I don't know much about it but I felt the power in that thing when Maleficent worked the spell to try to wipe us out. I don't know if we can find anything that comes close to it."

"We have to try." Mal said as she squeezed Ben's hand gently.

"Mal." Amy said. Her older twin sister looked at her. "I don't think we have anything in our world that can do that." She looked like she might be ready to explode at her little sister for the first time in forever until she added, "We need to ask the Earth rangers for advice. Maybe they have something."

"This had better be worth it." Sermaya said as he held the book. "We've lost Gottomas in this raid and they must pay for it." The fact he had destroyed Ben's source of power was of no consolation as far as he was concerned.

"I promise it is exactly what we need my lord." Chiron said to him.


	64. A Tragic Turn

"That's so horrible." Kat said over the view screen. Standing on her left side was Jason the red ranger. On her other side was Kimberly. Tommy stood beside her though he was in black, indicating he was had retaken the black dino ranger powers. Last was Amber the purple space ranger. Mal was really glad to see her fellow purple ranger.

"Too top if off we're not sure what to do now." Mal said as she stood beside Ben, her arms wrapped around his. On her other side Amy stood by her sister while Audrey stood by her best friend. Her loyalty to Ben was another reason Amy was finding it easier to accept Audrey. "And with Chad possessing Maledict's blade?"

"I've never heard of that weapon." Tommy said.

Jason filled in for his old friend. "But we've heard the name." He said grimly. "It's named after one of the strongest demons ever known."

Kimberly frowned too. Each of the first three generations of rangers also knew about the demons that Maledict had spawned from. "What do we do guys?" She asked them.

Amber seemed to be deep in thought. Then she seemed to brighten. "I have an idea that I'll have to take the other space rangers to explore." She gave Ben and Mal a reassuring smile. "We'll do it immediately and hopefully we can send you something to help your majesty."

"You don't guys don't have to call me that." Ben assured them with a small but genuine smile. "We've been through too much together for that."

"What do you think about the Highlands ranger?" Amy asked now.

"Sounds like what Trey did when he first came to Earth as the Gold Zeo Ranger." Kat noted.

"But with Amber's skills or very nearly close to them." Jason added.

"That time manipulation thing you said she displayed is far more impressive than my lighting could ever be." Amber replied with a mixture of awe and even a bit of envy. "She'll reveal herself when she's ready. Just hope it's sooner rather than later."

"No argument there." Mal replied. "Both Paradias and Sermaya want her."

"I'll contact you when we have something." Tommy promised their Auradon counterparts. "Be careful guys." With that the communications with the megaship was terminated.

Amy glanced at her sister. "Seeing them is almost as cool as seeing Belle." She said happily.

"And that's our next stop." Ben said to the two girls. "Just in case mom and dad have a solution that's a bit more immediate than hoping something pans through in that world."

"Do you want us to go with you?" Audrey asked him.

Ben thought about it a moment. The idea of having the entire team with him presented a unified front that might be nice for his parents to see. Not that it was a problem otherwise but it might be somewhat inspirational. Then he shook his lightly. "I think it's better if the three of us go. The rest of you should stay here and continue working on the zord repairs and record searches."

"Ben is right." Mal agreed. "If I could get Amy to stay here I'd do that, but nothing short of an order would make that happen." She placed her hand on her sister's shoulder. "And I won't do that one."

Audrey nodded in understanding. "Alright." She relented. "But contact us if anything happens."

"Promise." Mal said and the three of them headed out of the command center.

An hour later they made their way to the castle. Each was more exhausted than they wanted to admit; after all they had now had four long and tiresome battles in one day. They entered the castle to see something they had not counted on. Belle was having a late afternoon tea with Cinderella and Wendy, with their two daughters doing homework at a table a little ways from them.

"What a surprise." Belle said as she stood up, embracing Ben and the two girls. Then she gave a mock frown to Mal. "You didn't break the dragon's eye again, did you?" She asked teasingly.

"No, ma'am." Ben said. "I'm the one with the broken weapon here."

"Are you alright? When did that happen?" Belle asked him with shock in her voice.

"I bet it was when those beast things attacked the school." Callie noted as she looked up from her homework. "There were a lot of them." She had been in one of the classrooms at the time of the attack and those who were able to were locked down. She had heard a lot of the commotion but had gotten most of the information second hand.

"Sadly it was." Ben confirmed even as he looked to his mother. "He grabbed my blade and snapped it into a few pieces. They're at the command center now."

"I'm sure repairing the sword is an easy matter." Cinderella surmised now. Mal felt a bit uneasy around her, as in a way she assumed the woman would blame them for what happened with her son, though if she did she gave no sign of it. "But I bet it's the magic that was in it that's the problem here."

Ben nodded. "You're right ma'am." He confirmed. He looked to his mother. "We were hoping something in here," He indicated the library. "Might have an answer to that."

"I also suggested we contact the rangers of Earth." Amy added with a small smile. Mal was certain her sister was looking for some approval from Belle. It was a feeling she understood, Maleficent was practically nonexistent with it. "Amber and the others said they would look into it."

"A very good idea Amy." Belle said with a smile as she stroked her hair softly. She looked to Ben and Mal. "And probably a very realistic one too." She added with an apologetic tone to her voice. "These all originated with Zordon. Being able to replace them is very hard to do, maybe even impossible."

Mal stroked Ben's hand. They were both afraid she would say that one.

"Can't Fairy Godmother place an enchantment on it?" Cinderella questioned them. She of course knew what it could do; it had won her her prince after all.

"I assume not since she never mentioned it." Mal replied. Fairy Godmother had been rather reluctant with magic use after all and only allowed it with the ranger problems because it was important to win. "Maybe it has to do with it being an item that came from Zordon."

Suddenly the power in the castle went off, making everyone jump just a little. Amy could just make out Callie and Whitney move closer to each other as if that would keep them safe. Of course she backed up closer to Mal so what could she really say about it?

"You would think that you guys could afford to pay your electric bills." Mal tried to joke weakly. As expected the joke seemed to have fallen through.

Then an eerie orange light seemed to pulse throughout the library. Ben noticed Mal and Amy both wince in pain. "What's wrong?" He asked them.

"That pulse." Mal tried to explain. "It felt wrong. Evil."

"As opposed to?" Ben asked.

"Not just evil." Amy tried to explain. "Not like Paradias's or even like moms. It felt like…" She was grasping for words and failing to find them as much as her sister was. "It felt more primal than that, more powerful."

The doors seemed to open on their own and a moment later they saw Chad standing there at the door.

"Chad?" Callie asked. She felt confused to see her brother after all this time. Her mother stood in front of the two girls a little.

"Oh, no." Mal gasped. She looked to Ben. "Text the others and tell them to get here right now." Then she and Amy stepped forward a little more to deal with him.

"Hello ladies." Chad said with an evil grimace. He looked to Belle and said nothing. Then he looked to Cinderella. "Hello, mother. Is that my darling little sister you have behind you?"

"Chad, whatever you're doing you have to stop this before it becomes too late." Cinderella tried to plead.

Chad laughed. "Stop what?" He asked as he stepped into the room. They noticed he had drawn Maledict's blade. Both girls remembered what Jordan had told them she felt when she had first seen the blade. Its overwhelming evil had helped her break out of Maleficent's spell. "I've finally realized why the Isle of the Lost was created, and that was to stop others from realizing the true power of evil."

"The true price of evil you mean." Mal stated as she reached for her iPhone. "Chad, by rights most of our parents should be dead after what they did, from Jafar and Grimholde and even our mother."

"Or imprisoned." Amy added. "Like Cruella." She too was reaching for her iPhone. "

"I was wrong to try to follow that path." Mal said. "Amy was right never to want that path." She looked hard at Chad. She wasn't sure Audrey could ever forgive him for what he had done to her but was sure the brunette princess would try if she had to. Then again, Mal wasn't sure she could forgive him for what he had done to her second in command and extended sister. But she had only so much room to talk. "You need to get off of this path before it ruins you or ends your life."

"You were the foolish one Mal. You and your friends." Chad said. "Not to follow the paths laid out before you." He raised his sword. "I am going to cement my legacy by ending the people who would think they could keep be bound."

"We won't be so easy to kill Chad." Mal promised. She and Amy took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

Chad laughed at them. "Don't think so highly of yourself Mal." He told her with amusement. "The world may revolve around you as far as Ben is concerned, but it doesn't." He again stepped toward them. "I have this for you." He waved the sword and a large scorpion like creature appeared in front of them. It had two tails rather than one and Mal was already sure they didn't want to get hit by those stingers.

"What is it you want Chad?" Ben demanded.

"I've come to end them." He pointed the blade at his mother and sister. "And then I'll end my father. Then my past will be behind me for good."

"I won't let you do that." Ben said. "And the rest of the team are on their way."

They were indeed running toward the castle. Then the team got blasted and they were forced to stop. They looked to see Reviveslime, Gregory, and Jabberwock in front of them. "You're not allowed go to the castle, they need some privacy." Gregory told them.

"Out of our way." Will demanded. Ben had told him that his sister was there and he wanted to get there and protect her.

"Feel free to try then." Reviveslime said. "Get by us, if you can."

The rangers took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed. Except for Jane who needed the magic wand to transform. They moved to engage the enemy though some of them were trying to slip by them to go to the castle.

"I wouldn't worry so much about it." Reviveslime said as he slashed at Will and Lonnie. "Your little sister doesn't have to die. All she has to do is stay out of Chad's way as he completes his ascension."

"I don't know what you mean by ascension but it can't be good." Lonnie noted.

Will grimaced because he knew if Whitney had to keep a friend safe she would do it regardless of the risk. And he knew Callie was probably her best friend.

"Mal, keep the safe." Amy said to her older sister. "I'll deal with the scorpion thing."

"But…" Mal started. Then she saw her sister's posture and sighed. "Be careful." She drew her dragon's eye staff even as Amy drew her rose lance. Then they went to work.

Mal jabbed the staff at Chad and he stepped back. He combined Maledict's blade with the shield to transform. He slashed the sword at her and the two weapons clashed. Mal could feel the power even from that position and it worried her.

"You're getting in my way Mal." He said, sounding entirely reasonable. "You might not live to regret it if you don't get out of my way."

"I won't let you hurt Cinderella or Callie." Mal reminded him.

Amy moved in to attack the scorpion monster and instead let out a little shriek as the two tails lashed out and tried to smash into her. She took enough steps back and then it pulled the tails back and moved into try to entangle her into its pincer. She jumped up and landed on its back, but found the skin was scaly and slimy. She was unable to stay on long and barely managed to land on her feet.

"Looks like a slippery little freak." Ben noted. He wanted to help one of them but he couldn't figure out how.

Chad tried to slip by Mal but she was able to block him again. "I won't let you get to them." She warned. "You have to get by me to do it."

He laughed at her. "Suit yourself." He replied. "But if you protect them you lose your sister. She can't take that monster on her own, your prince can't come to her aid and I have some friends that are going to make sure your friends aren't going to make it."

Mal hesitated. She suspected that he was referring to Gregory, Reviveslime and Jabberwock, as well as maybe Marcellus. She grimaced as she realized she was in a very tight spot. "It's the risk we take." She tried to convince…someone.

The scorpion monster lashed out with its pincer. Amy tried to dodge it but didn't expect the thing to raise its arm up and it sent her flying hard and into Ben. Belle let out a gasp as she saw Ben's head strike the floor and Amy was forced to power down.

Mal couldn't help it, she panicked. She ran over and tackled the scorpion creature hard.

That was the opening Chad wanted and he advanced on the two young girls and his mother. Whitney reached over and grabbed a glass and tossed it at him. It struck the armor harmlessly. "You stay away from them." Whitney said to him.

He laughed. "Do you really think you're intimidating me little girl?" He asked her.

"Chad, don't do this." Cinderella tried to plead to her son. She had already feared that she was had lost her only son but this was the final proof. Still as a mother she could always hope.

"Sorry mom." Chad said with a sardonic tone. "But I have to do what I have to do." He raised his sword, ready to take Cinderella down. Whitney was trying to intercept it but was being held back by her.

Then one of the windows shattered and the Highlands ranger flipped right in. "Sorry about that, your highness." She said as she glanced at Belle. "I'll be more than happy to pay for that." She faced Chad with her blades drawn. "Just as soon as your unwanted guests are removed."

"Don't worry about it." Belle said to her. "Just stop him." She was already at her son's side and tending to Amy as well.

"Gladly." She turned back to Chad but even felt a shiver go up her spine as she saw Maledict's blade. "That's a nasty blade ye have there."

"You'll find out when I take your head off with it." Chad promised. He tried to feint right to get to his mother but the girl was already in front of him. She lashed out and kicked him hard in the chest. Then she twirled around and brought the blade down toward him but he used his shield to block the attack.

He tried to slam the shield into the Highlands ranger but she was able to dodge the ram attack and then leapt up and kicked him in the head. She saw Cinderella and Callie flinch at that but unfortunately she could have told them it didn't have much impact.

"We have to get by them somehow." Audrey said as she slashed Jabberwock with pointy edge of her bow. She was not happy to see that the creature didn't seem to care about that and then had to dodge a stream of fire sent her way.

"No, actually only some of us have to get by them." Jordan realized. She already knew Will would want to check on his sister and Lonnie would want to go with them. She kind of assumed Audrey would want to check on her friend and Evie would want to check on Mal and Amy. "Ally, Aziz, focus on Reviveslime. Carlos, Jane focus on Gregory, Jay we'll focus on Jabberwock." The rangers nodded and three attacking units moved in and attacked as quickly as they could.

The four remaining rangers were just barely able to slip by the fight, though Reviveslime launched an attack at them that they were barely able to dodge.

"Hang on Amy, M." Evie whispered. "Help is on the way."

Chad brought his blade around and tried to take the Highland ranger's head off but she blocked it one of her blades even as she turned around and set her other blade on the ground as leverage to connect hard with his chest.

Mal dodged a dual tail strike from the scorpion monster. She then moved in and brought the staff up against its head but it didn't seem to feel it. "What are you made of?" Mal wondered irritably.

Ben moaned softly and rubbed his head. "What hit me?" He asked and then looked at Amy. "Oh right, he flung you right at me." He said and laughed.

"Yeah, flung me like I was a piece of paper." Amy said softly. She went to slide off of Ben and realized her head was spinning. "Oh, dizzy." She moaned. Ben kept her steady by his mother.

The scorpion monster slapped Mal hard and she rolled hard into one of the bookcases, causing many of them to fall to the floor. It then reared its tail back and started toward the three undefended people. The two tails lashed out at them and Mal reacted, taking the two tail stings right in the shoulders hard.

"Mal!" Belle gasped.

The scorpion thing seemed to let out what sounded like a laugh as Mal tumbled hard to the ground beside Belle and was forced to power down herself. It then reared its tails back and got ready to strike again.

"You are one ugly thing, and I can't even call you little." Audrey said as the four rangers burst in. The scorpion turned to look at them. Audrey released a hail of arrows at the scorpion creature only to see most of them reflect off.

"That's some tough skin." Will noted. He was glad to see that his sister was okay. Cinderella was protecting her and her daughter. He was also doubly relieved to see that Chad had his own problems in the form of the Highlands ranger. He and Lonnie moved to help her with Chad.

The scorpion let loose a burst of energy from its mouth and the four of them flinched at the close impact. "How are we going to beat this thing?" Lonnie wondered.

Evie had an idea. "Let's get to Chad." The four rangers moved out again and this time the scorpion monster let loose streams of energy from its open claws. That was Evie wanted though as she raised her mirror force shield and let the energy collect, forcing it right back at the monster, who seemed to implode from the impact.

With that done Will moved in and slammed into Chad hard. Lonnie was right by him and he was surrounded by the three rangers even as Audrey and Evie went to check on Belle and their team mates.

Chad growled as he realized his chances of killing his mother and sister were had just gone downhill drastically. "I don't know who you are but when we find you we're going to make sure you pay for all that you've done." Chad promised the Highland ranger.

"Oh, I'm a shakin' can't you tell." She said mockingly as he vanished.

Will was about to ask her who she was when Audrey let out a small horrified gasp. "I just lost Mal's pulse." She announced shakily.

"What?" Amy asked in panic. Will and Lonnie were immediately by their second in command side.

"Where's Jordan? Ben asked as he placed his hands on Amy's shoulders to comfort her. Belle was by her son with her hand on his arm.

"We got stopped by Gregory and the other two monsters." Evie said shakily, trying her best not to lose her footing. "We separated to come help you guys."

"They should be on their way here right now then." Lonnie said. "I bet they ran when Chad did."

Sure enough they did and had come to the castle only to find out what had happened. Jordan knelt down and placed her hand on Mal's forehead.

"What are you waiting for?" Audrey asked, trying not to explode. "Make with the potion so we can get the poison out of her."

"It's not that simple." Jordan snapped at her. After a moment the two girls calmed down and gave each other apologetic looks that conveyed their understanding. "Look, I don't recognize the poison in her. Whatever was in that scorpion things two tails is a poison I've never seen before." She explained.

"So what do we do?" Amy asked her, tears already in her eyes.

"Chad summoned that thing with that scary looking blade of his." Whitney said to them. "If that helps."

"Maledict's blade?" Jordan questioned and when the girl nodded she sighed. "It must have been some kind of demon then." She concluded. "That's why I don't know the poison."

"How do we find out what it is then?" Ally asked as Amy went over to her sister and placed her head on her lap.

"We have to contact the rangers again and see what ideas they have." Ben said. "Which means we have go to the command center."

Belle stood and went over to the fireplace. She pressed a small indention in it and it separated to reveal a large screen. "We can link to the command center's systems from here and contact the Earth rangers from here." She said to them. She was too was very worried about Mal. She looked to Cinderella. "You can use the phone there to make sure that your husband is safe as well."

Cinderella nodded, only leaving her daughter's side when Will came over to stand with her and his sister. Then she moved to the phone to make sure her husband was okay.

They hadn't really been paying attention and so they were all surprised to hear, "If that thing used a poison on her that we canna cure here, then even if we find out what to do, how do we go about doin' it?" The Highlands ranger asked.

Identity was not important right now. The truth was. "I don't know." Ben answered her grimly as Jane shakily went over to help Belle connect their system with the command center's system. "I just don't know." He repeated softly as he looked down at Mal, unconscious and slowly dying on Amy's lap.


	65. The Healing Ways

Belle had one of the castle servants bring a small glass of water and a cloth to them. Amy had then taken it to try to keep Mal's temperature down. It was kind of hard as the rose haired girl kept having to blink back her tears of worry. Ben paced restlessly as the rest of the group was around, lost in their own thoughts.

"I'm sorry that your library became such a mess." Amy said to Belle softly as she came to check on Mal herself.

Belle gave a small but humorless laugh. "Oh, sweetie. Don't worry about it." She replied as she stroked her hair. "This wasn't any of your faults."

Evie became so restless that she started to pick up some of the books on the floor and try to organize them out. Her hands were shaking the entire time, making it pretty hard to do.

Whitney sat on her brother's lap. She looked up to Will. "Will your friend be okay?" She asked quietly.

"I hope so." Will answered softly. No one even knew how much time she had before the poison killed her. He glanced over to see that the Highlands ranger was cleaning up the glass from her entrance into the castle. He knew though that if she hadn't made that mess to get in then Chad would have killed Cinderella, Callie and probably his sister as well.

"Got it." Jane announced. On screen appeared Jason and Tommy.

The two veteran rangers immediately took in the scene. "What happened?" Tommy asked them.

"Mal's been poisoned." Ben told them as he faced the view screen. "By this big scorpion monster with two tails. Chad summoned it with that blade of his."

"The Maledict blade." Jordan added.

"We could barely scratch it." Evie also said as she turned to face them. "The only way I destroyed it was to reflect its own energy back at it."

Jason sighed. "I was afraid of this." He said with a shake of his head. "Chad using the Maledict's blade affords him the ability to summon demons."

"Demons?" Carlos couldn't help but ask skeptically. "You have got to be kidding me."

"I wish we were." Tommy told him grimly. "We have some familiarity with the kind of demons that come from there but I've never heard about one poisoning. I guess they weren't satisfied with what they had."

"Someone spent some late nights with coffee and nachos then." Will joked grimly. "How do we help Mal if its poison you're not familiar with?" He then asked.

"Could you send someone through your gateway device to get a sample of the poison from Mal's bloodstream?" Jane asked them.

"Analyzing the sample could take hours." Tommy said with a shake of his head. "Time we can't be sure that Mal even has."

"Wait couldn't we do it?" Jay asked now.

Jane frowned. "We can extract a sample from Mal's bloodstream easily enough." She answered and even reflected that it might not be a bad idea in case it happened again or if the demon were to appear to the other rangers. "We should even do so now."

Belle again arranged with one of the servants to make it happen.

"The problem is the equipment in the command center has as much experience with these things as we do, it will take even longer to find out what we need to do about it, assuming it can at all." Jane finished.

"It sounds like what we all need is some kind of fix all hands solution." The Highlands ranger said as she finished getting the glass together.

"That's it." Jason said. "They could try the Healing Hands technique."

"The what?" Ben asked.

"It's called Healing Hands." Tommy said. "It's an incantation that might be able to expedite the toxins from Mal's body." He took a deep breath. "Normally it's only used by expert martial artists. Jason, Amber and I have been learning it from a friend of ours named Leo but we haven't been able to actually make it work yet."

Lonnie frowned a bit. "None of us are exactly expert martial artists." She reflected softly. She looked to Will. "Maybe you could do it, you do know Anbo-jitsu." It was the martial arts that Will was trying to teach her if they ever got the chance.

"I could try." Will agreed. "But it's debatable whether I'm a master or not. Like you said none of us are exact experts."

"That's not entirely true." The Highlands ranger said now. "I am. I've spent most of my life learning for moments like what we've seen."

"Two of you will be more than sufficient." Tommy agreed. "Hopefully it'll work."

"Not be negative, but what if it doesn't work?" Aziz asked even as one of the castle nurses came in and Belle instructed her to take two vials of blood with the poison in it. One would be looked at by their own doctors while another would be sent to the rangers of Earth.

Jason and Tommy didn't really have an answer to that. They didn't need to elaborate why. "We'll teach you two the hand gestures and the incantation you need and then you can use it on Mal."

Their iPhones went off again and they all recognized it as the sensor app that detected monsters. "This is the fifth time today." Carlos muttered in frusturation. "Can't they just give us a break?" He pulled out his iPhone.

"Breaks aren't part of the job description." Lonnie reminded him grimly as she took hers out. The rest of the team followed suit and found on their screen was a lean and seemingly muscular creature. The slightly disgusting part was that it seemed skinless so the muscles could be seen on its body.

"Paradias can't ever send down any cute and fluffy monsters, can he?" Audrey couldn't help but ask. They both glanced over at Mal, her head still on Amy's lap as Will and the Highlands ranger had approached the screen to listen to Tommy and Jason. Jane was still maintaining the connection. "We have to stop it." She said.

"Do we take Jane and Amy with us?" Carlos asked.

Audrey shook her head. "Amy needs to be here for her sister." She decided. She knew that they all wanted to stay but someone had to fight the monster before it caused any trouble. "Jane can join us when she gets the chance." She looked to rest of the team; Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Jordan, Ally and Aziz. "Let's get to work."

The team left the castle and as they did so they removed their iPhones and transformed. Finding the monster was not that hard at all as he had already been headed toward the castle. "How do they always seem to know where to look for us?" Ally wondered.

"They must have some kind of ranger radar." Aziz speculated.

"I see you've come to your end like moths are drawn to flame." The monster said with amusement. "I am Garzett and if it makes you feel any better I'll make sure you are all there to welcome your leader at your final destination when the poison kills her."

"That's where you're wrong." Jay said and leapt at him, summoning his soul scimitar as he tried to descend upon the monster. He raised his overly muscled and apparently armor coated arm to block the attack, receiving not a single mark from the scimitar in the process. He then slashed him backwards hard.

Ally let a stream of her crystal cards fly right at Garzett. He knocked many of them aside even as he seemed to ignore the ones that managed to strike at him. Granted she knew her weapon was not the strongest but a part of her still wished that he would show some kind of reaction to it.

Aziz moved in with spiral spear and Lonnie moved in with her hurricane tessen's, each trying to strike him. He raised his arms and blocked both attacks, then moved with surprising grace with a roundhouse kick, the claws on his feet were sharp enough to cause the same amount of damage as the claws did.

Carlos slammed his earthquake claw daggers into the ground, sending a tremor his way only for Garzett jumped straight over the attack and aimed his claws right at the yellow ranger. He was able to raise his own claws to block the attack but he forgot that the monster was still stronger and taller than he was and Garzett lifted him up and tossed him into Jay hard.

Jordan raised her lamp cannon, Evie raised her mirror force shield to prepare a Storming attack as Audrey raised her elemental bow and prepared a hail of arrows. Together the three rangers unleashed their attacks at Garzett, which might have done him damage if he didn't display the agility he had already did and brought his clawed feet down hard on Audrey's chest before twirling around and slashing both Jordan and Evie.

"How much longer do you think it will take?" Amy asked softly as she wiped Mal's forehead with the wet cloth. "I don't know how much longer she has."

"It should be anytime now." Belle said to her soothingly. "Remember that they want to make sure they have this right. They might not get a second chance if it this is done wrong." She stroked Amy's hair gently. "Do what you can for your sister, and let them make sure they're ready to do what they can for her." She could hear them reciting the incantation yet again, she was sure by the look on Tommy and Jason's faces they must have had had it down.

Will, Jane and their mystery friend were walking toward them now. Jane pulled out the magic wand. "We're ready." She announced. She looked to Ben. "You might want to take Amy's place by Mal."

Amy thought Jane wanted her to go with to help fight the monster, and intellectually she knew that was the right thing to do. But as a frightened little sister she couldn't get herself to do that. "I won't leave Mal." She said.

"We're not leaving." Jane told her. "You and I have to help the incantation along with our magic." She held her hand out to Amy. Ben sat beside her and the rose haired girl laid her sister's head on her boyfriend's lap and then let Jane help her up. "We're going to reinforce this incantation."

Amy nodded. "Okay. Let's try that." She said as she wiped some of the tears out of her eyes so she could see easier.

Will and the Highlands ranger got on their knees and started to repeat the hand movements that the two Earth rangers had taught them. Belle thought the language sounded Japanese. Jane and Amy started moving around them, Jane releasing burst of magic from the wand while Amy just tried to copy the gestures and add prayers of her own.

"How do we know if this works?" Cinderella asked Belle softly as she came to stand by her friend even as she kept her eye on her daughter Callie and her friend Whitney.

Belle frowned softly. "I don't know." She admitted. "I feel as if the only way we'll know is when Mal wakes up." She bit her lip a bit. "I wish there was an easier way to know."

"Come on Mal." Ben whispered to his beloved. "You have to pull through, we all need you."

"Any other ideas?" Carlos asked Audrey as they tried to regroup.

"The neon armor." Lonnie suggested. "We can use that to give us an edge since he doesn't seem to use our own strength against us."

Audrey nodded. "Okay, let's do it." They activated the neon armor and then started to move in on the monster. Carlos slashed at him and he blocked with an arm, getting a couple of cuts in before his hand connected with the yellow ranger's chest hard and sent him sprawling.

Audrey tried to stab one of the sharp ends of her bow into the monster only to receive proof of why she didn't do that too often as he Garzett caught her bow and slammed it back into her hard. She landed hard and was at least glad that she hadn't been gutted.

He then swung and Lonnie dodged the attack before kicking him in the chest hard, making him stumble back a little. Aziz and Jay moved in with their weapons and brought them down hard on the monster before he could recover and sent him flying back.

"Most of his defensive power is in his arms." Evie realized. "That's why he's blocking with those. If we can get by that we can damage him."

Ally released another stream of cards at him, slashing him. He raised his arms to absorb most of the blows and Carlos used that opportunity to unleash another tremor at him, unbalancing him. Then Audrey raised her bow and unleashed a stream of arrows at him. Garzett went flying back and rolling to a stop.

"Looks like our greetings will have to stay on this side of the fence Garzett." Jay said to the monster.

"Don't get too confident power rangers." Garzett said as he rose and then raised his arms and unleashed a massive stream of energy from each of his fingers, lashing out and striking the ranger's hard.

Amy was trying so hard not to lose her focus but she was starting to think this idea wasn't going to work. She was so close to panicing that she jumped just a little when Mal let out a gasp like she was trying to regain her breath after being underwater for a long time. She coughed and sat up.

"What? What happened?" Mal asked as Ben hugged her and Amy dove to the floor to hug her too.

"That scorpion monster demon thing poisoned you." Amy said as she wrapped her arms around you. "Jordan didn't know how to cure it and we had to contact the other rangers."

"I'm glad to see it worked." Mal heard and turned to the screen in the library that she didn't even know was there. It was Tommy and Jason. "We weren't sure it would work because the method used is only useable to martial arts masters, it's something that Jason, Amber and I haven't even mastered yet."

"Whoever you did learn it from should have my gratitude expressed to them." Mal said as she hugged her little sister back with one hand and placed her other hand on Ben's arm, rubbing it gently.

"We'll pass that onto Leo and his teacher." Jason promised.

"What happened to the monster?" Mal asked.

"Destroyed." Will answered her gently. It was only then that she realized it must have been him and the mystery ranger who had used whatever method Tommy and Jason had given them. "Evie used her mirror weapon to reflect his own attack power back at it, the only thing that could destroy it."

"Thanks guys." Mal said to the two of them as Amy released her and Ben helped her to stand up. "Where is everyone else?" She asked now.

"Another monster attack, bringing us up to six in a day." Ben told her as he placed his hands on her arms. Mal leaned up and pressed her lips against his gently, so glad that she was able to do that again.

She pulled back after a moment. "Then we have to go help them out." She said.

"Are you sure you're up for that Mal?" Belle asked her.

Mal nodded though she was only partially sure about it. "We don't have a choice anyway." She replied as she reached down now to pick up her iPhone. "We'll be back Ben." She promised him. Amy pulled out her iPhone and the four rangers left; the two sisters transforming with their iPhones and Jane transforming with the magic wand.

Garzett started to approach the recovering rangers. He raised his claws as he got ready to take out the closest ranger, which happened to be Lonnie. He started to bring his strike down on the pink ranger but Will intercepted him, raising his recursive blade to take the attack. The green ranger then kicked him away from the rangers hard.

As Garzett stumbled back Mal leapt out with him with her dragon's eye staff and Amy leapt out at him with her rose lance and they both struck him hard. They both then delivered a kick to his chest and got ready for his next attack.

"M!" Evie gasped and ran to her side. Only the monster across from them stopped her from hugging her chosen sister. "You're okay."

"Thanks to our friends." Mal said to her. "And you defeating that freaky scorpion demon thing." She glanced at the blue ranger. "So thanks for that E."

"Anytime." Evie said as the other rangers came over to them. "So let's add this muscle bound freak to our list."

"Maybe it's time to bring your weapons together again?" The Highlands ranger suggested to them. "I'll keep him distracted while ye do so."

"Great idea." Mal said though she felt a little sad at the fact that was something Ben would usually do. She hoped that he would be able to do so again soon. In the meantime she said, "Let's bring them together guys. Both sides." She looked to Ally, Aziz, Jordan and Jane who nodded in understanding.

The Highlands ranger moved in and started to fight Garzett. She didn't care that he spent a lot of time blocking since she was merely trying to stall him out.

Mal placed her dragon's eye staff, followed by Audrey's elemental bow underneath. Behind Evie placed her mirror force shield, the compact expanding around it. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the center, followed on either side by Lonnie' hurricane tessen's, Carlos's earthquake claw daggers and Amy's rose lances.

Jordan held up her lamp cannon so that Ally could place her crystal cards in the spout. In the top went the magic wand and that was followed by the spiral spear around the lamp.

"It's time!" Will called out to their mystery friend. She ducked under his grasping arms and then rolled to the side just as the Auradon blaster and the Lamp Blaster unleashed their attacks on the monster. It exploded in a shower of flames.

Before they could celebrate though the green rays of light shined down on the area and Garzett was back in economy size. "You all look so crushable now." He gloated.

"This is not good." Lonnie said. "We don't have our zords."

"I guess this one is on me then." The Highlands ranger stated. With a roar the large bear zord emerged from the forest to stand toe to toe with the enlarged monster as she jumped into the cockpit, placing her gem on the console in lieu of the iPhone slot.

"One on one then." Garzett said happily and then lashed his arms out at the bear zord. The bear zord tried to bite down on one of the arms but he simply used the grip to toss the zord hard. She had to keep her hand on the gem in order to stop it from flying off the console.

"Alright then, let's see how ye like this one." She said. "Activating battle bear mode now." The zord shifted from the bear mode to its battle mode. She launched out with the zord's claws but Garzett blocked it. He then knocked the hands away and struck with his own clawed hands.

"There has to be something we can do." Audrey said.

"What would that be?" Jordan asked her. "We don't have any of our zords repaired. We have no Auradon Megazord, no Auradon Battlezord, no Auradon Falcon, Ben couldn't access his horse zord even if it were repaired and no…"

There was a disturbance in the skies as Mal's dragonzord burst through the clouds and unleashed a stream of energy from its mouth, striking all around Garzett and sending him sprawling backwards.

"Wait, what?" Carlos sputtered out in shock.

"The incantation must have healed up the dragon zord too." Lonnie realized.

"How is that possible?" Amy asked.

It was Mal who answered with a smile on her face and even felt tears in her eyes. "The dragon zord and I share a unique bond only matched by Ben and his horse zord." She revealed to her little sister. "When that technique was used to remove the poison from my system it must have removed the degradation from the dragon zord that our zords have been suffering from."

"Great, now we all have to be poisoned to repair our zords." Audrey said sarcastically and then looked to Mal. "You're the only one who can help her fight off Garzett the bulky." She said.

"You're right." Mal said simply. "Keep Amy safe just in case." She told her second in command, imagining a slightly aghast look on her little sister's face as she took out her iPhone and jumped onto the dragon zord's muzzle. "Hello old friend." She said softly.

The dragon zord roared even as it settled by the Battlebear Megazord."A dragon and bear?" Garzett questioned. "What can you do with that?"

"He seems to have a point." The Highlands ranger said to Mal, who was technically her counterpart as much as Lonnie was Amy's. "Any ideas?"

It was Jane who spoke, thinking quickly. "Mal, you could link with the Auradon Megazord to form the Auradon Champion Megazord. Maybe you can link with the Battlebear Megazord to form a new configuration, assuming that all our zords are designed the same." She said.

"It's worth a shot." Mal said.

"Agreed." The Highlands ranger said. "What do I need to do?"

Mal got into her dragon zord and placed her iPhone in the appropriate slot. It altered its form to resemble a Chinese dragon. "Hop on board and let's see if we get a response." The Highlands ranger did as the purple ranger said and to both their surprises they found the two zords interlocked as easily as the Auradon Megazord did and in much the same way. Mal found herself side by side with their mystery ranger.

"Welcome to the Auradon Dragonbear Battlezord." Mal said. She knew the name technically left something to be desire but now wasn't the time to worry about that.

Garzett lashed out and struck the new battle zord, forcing it back a moment before lashing out with the tail and sending him rolling back. They then proceeded to unleash a stream of meteors on the monster and he was sent recoiling back.

The Auraodon Dragonbear Battlezord soared in the skies and then both the claws of the dragon claws and the bear claws aimed right at the monster as it increased speed. Striking with what Amy privately dubbed the driller claws right into the monster and with a quick maneuver they escaped the explosion of the monster's end.

"They did it!" Amy exclaimed as she jumped up in celebration.

"Awesome." Jay said with a laugh.

As the two zords separated and returned to the wild the two purple rangers landed in front of the team. But the attack was fresh on their minds and they immediately rushed back to the castle to make sure that Ben and the girls were okay.

They made it to find that thankfully they were. Ben was talking to his mother and Cinderella about some of what had happened and that he felt kind of helpless without his powers, that he hated to be back with Mal and his friends fighting and him being stuck on the sidelines again.

They all powered down except for the Highlands ranger. "We hope that won't be long." Mal promised him now as she came to sit by him and laid her head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her waist. Belle let Amy sit by her.

Whitney came over to again greet her brother, glad that he was okay. The screen was blank again.

"Before Jason and Tommy cut the line he said that the space rangers had a lead on a way to restore Ben's powers." Belle revealed to the Auradon Rangers. "They just couldn't be sure how long it would take to find it."

"Hopefully not too long." Jay said. "We need all of the help we can get."

"Speaking of all the help we can get." Mal said as they turned to look at the Highlands Ranger. Her team followed their leaders gaze. "Maybe it's time we find out who you are." She shrugged. "As cool as it is to get help showing up out of nowhere, we kind of like to know who our friends are."

She sighed a bit but nodded. "Aye, I suppose you're right." She agreed. With that she lifted her arms to her helmet and they heard the buckles that kept the helmet secure unsnap and then she began to lower the helmet off of her head…


	66. The Evening

The first thing they noticed as the helmet was coming off was the red hair that flowed straight down to her mid back. It looked like every attempt was made to keep it straight but it was just waiting for a chance to go curly again at the slightest movement. Her green eyes shined from her position by the light coming in from the doorway. "My name is Miranda." She introduced herself.

Belle brightened instantly. "Your Merida's daughter." She realized. "That's why your Scottish accent sounded so familiar." She looked to Ben, Audrey, and Lonnie. "It's been ages since she and her mother have been here though. It's no wonder you don't remember her."

"When did you get powers?" Jane asked.

"I found them a month or so ago in an old cave. It activated without me even trying, as if it knew that you guys needed help out here." Miranda explained to them "Glad to say that I've always been the active type. I was training in martial arts and swordplay since I was a wee lass, even younger than you two." She looked to Callie and Whitney.

"Since you're here are you going to enroll in Auradon Prep?" Ben asked her.

She nodded. "That would seem to be the wisest course to follow." She replied.

"That works out great then." Evie said. "You can room with me so that Amy and Mal can room together." She looked to the sisters. "We were looking for a new arrangement and this would work out great."

"The room across the hall just lost its occupants." Audrey supplied helpfully. "You two can move in across the hall so that at least you guys won't be too far apart."

"I'm alright with that you if you two are." Miranda said as she looked to them, and primarily Mal since the two, along with Jay and Carlos but were obviously housed in a different part of the school, had come in together.

"I'd be okay with that." Amy agreed.

Mal nodded. "Sounds like a plan then." She sighed. "If we can get the chance to make the move. We keep getting attacked every time we turn around."

"I hear that." Jay said with a sigh of his own. "I can't wait for this day to be over with."

"Why don't you guys stay for dinner today?" Belle suggested. "We can even have rooms made out for you so that you don't have to make the journey back to the school today. You can all arrange for your permanent moves tomorrow." Ben of course didn't need one made up as he still had his room from when he lived in the castle set up.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Carlos said. "I could use a nap right now."

Mal couldn't exactly argue that one. She had been poisoned, nearly gutted, feared her boyfriend would be crushed by a big beast freak when he was cut off from his powers and was certain for a minute she had lost her sister in a volcano. It made for a rather exhausting day.

Belle looked to the two servants that had been helping out since Mal had gotten poisoned. "Can you please take them to their rooms?" She requested. "So they can rest before dinner." They nodded and lead the rangers off. As soon as they were gone she sighed softly.

"You must be very concerned for them." Cinderella noted.

"I am." Belle agreed. "They're so young and they have to shoulder such responsibility." She laughed a little. "I sure wasn't doing that at their age though I may have wanted to at that point in my life."

"I wasn't doing that sort of thing either." Wendy agreed as she brought them their teas from the table they had been at before all of that had started. "Perhaps stories a lot like it but certainly not living it in reality."

Neither wanted to say it but Cinderella beat them both to it. "It's a shame that Chad couldn't be doing the same thing." She said softly. "Even if he hadn't been a ranger I wish he hadn't gone down the path he's gone down." She shook her head. "He'll never be welcome in Auradon again."

Evie had just been escorted to her room and she had sat down on the bed. She looked at her iPhone and saw that she had a worried text from her step-sister. Undoubtfully she had found out about all of the battles she had been in today. She dialed Snow White's phone only for her to pick up after the second ring. "Hey Snow." She said.

She heard her exhale sigh of relief. "Oh, Evie. I'm so glad to hear your voice." She replied to her. "I was so worried you had been hurt. Five battles in one day, that's a lot for anyone."

"You won't hear me arguing that point." Evie told her as she curled her legs under her and leaned back against some pillows. "Still I got off really easy compared to Mal. She was all but gutted in one battle and got poisoned in another one."

"Where are you guys now?" Snow White asked her from the other end.

"We're at Ben's house." She answered. She knew it would have made just as much sense to say castle but somehow it just didn't seem right to say that.

"Did you want me to ask Belle if she minds if I come over?" Snow White asked now. "We could spend some time together."

"I was hoping to grab a nap right now after letting Doug know we're all okay." Evie answered. "But we're having dinner here too. If Belle is okay with it I'd love if you joined us for dinner though."

"I'll be sure to check with her." Snow White said with a small laugh. "Go call your boyfriend and hopefully I'll see you tonight."

"He's not my boyfriend." Evie tried to protest rather weakly even as she heard her step-sister laugh and hang up the phone as she said told Evie to sleep tight.

Mal was trying to sleep but her mind was whirling with thoughts. How lucky she was that she could even still stand after being nearly gutted and poisoned. How lucky they were that when the Healing Hands technique that had been used to heal her had also had the side effect of eliminating the factor that hindered the zord's repairs had been healed from her dragon zord. How lucky she was that Will and their new friend Miranda, combined with some magical assistance, had been able to utilize the technique.

Jane had promised Mal that she would have her mother do a bit of investigating on Miranda. She seemed trustworthy enough and the fact Belle had recognized her also helped but Gregory had seemed trustworthy too and look what happened with him.

She tossed restlessly. She didn't want to rush the Space Rangers on what they were trying to do since she wanted to mistakes about getting Ben his powers again but at the same time she knew Ben would feel so much better with his powers restored. She had mixed feelings on it herself as she hated the idea of him being in danger but knew that he wouldn't want to be sidelined permanently again. There was also the small matter of what would happen to Auradon if their king ever ended up killed in battle, it wasn't like Belle and Adam had another child after all.

It was just if she had to be perfectly selfish about it she would feel much better without him fighting. No more than Amy though, who she could still see falling in the volcano, if it weren't for her spirit animal she would have lost her little sister. But being selfish about it would cause nothing but trouble so she kept those thoughts to herself.

There was a knock on the door and Mal sat up as she called out, "Come on in."

It took just a moment for Mal to realize it was Amy; she seemed so small around the interior of the castle. It amazed her sometimes that her rose haired sister was actually her twin sister. Many people always assumed she was her younger sister because she was shorter than Mal and was less than one hundred pounds soaking wet. On the surface she looked like she was the same age as Callie and Whitney. "What's up little sister?" She asked.

"I was trying to sleep." Amy answered her. "But I can't get the images of you getting poisoned or gutted out of my head." Her voice seemed rather small at that point.

Mal reached out a hand to Amy. "Come here sweetie." She said to her. Amy went over and climbed onto Mal's bed. Both girls laid back on the bed, Mal letting her sister lay her head on her arm and her hand absently started to stroke Amy's hair. "It was kind of scary." She agreed. "But we're all okay, no worse for the wear."

"Except Ben can't access his powers." Amy pointed out as she snuggled up against Mal's side.

"Better than losing access to his life." Mal replied simply. "We'll find a solution for the powers thing."

"I just got you back." Amy mused. "To lose you now…I don't know if I could survive it."

"You would survive it." Mal assured her firmly. "You'd have Evie and Jay and Carlos to help you. You'd have the rest of our friends, even Audrey if you let her." She laughed a bit though. "Not that I plan on leaving you guys anytime soon."

"Just don't want to lose…" Amy started but stopped speaking as she drifted off to sleep next to her sister. Mal turned her head to kiss Amy on the cheek before staring up at the ceiling.

"I know what you mean." Mal promised her sleeping sibling quietly. "I wasn't the one who took a swan dive into a volcano." She didn't know how long it took afterwards but she drifted off as well.

Miranda had texted her mother to let her know she had finally told the other rangers her identity so that she didn't have to worry about her being alone anymore. She knew she should have come forward with her identity sooner but she wasn't quite sure what to make of them either since she had heard about what happened with both Gregory and Will. In fact she figured someone would still look into her background.

She still found it hard to believe she was even here. Her mother had not been happy when she found out she had gone to explore the caves where Mor'du once resided. In the rubble she found the gem that would later become her powers. She had taken that to her mother and after getting lectured about the dangers of doing something like that on her own she too marveled at the discovery. It coincided with the news they were hearing in Auradon and she knew she had to come here.

There was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" She called out.

"It's Jane." The white ranger replied.

"Come on in." Miranda replied.

Jane came in. "Do you have a minute?" She asked.

"I assume your mother did her homework and declared me trustworthy?" Miranda retorted with a laugh.

"Well yes." Jane admitted simply. She could remember when such a direct and potentially volatile question would have caused her to blush and stammer, uncertain of what to say. That girl was basically gone. "She did check and she said you're not likely going to be another Gregory." That was referring to the gray ranger, who wouldn't be holding those powers much longer if they had any say in it. "But technically I didn't have to tell you that one."

"True enough." Miranda agreed with a nod. "So what did ye come for then?"

"Can I see your gem please?" Jane asked.

Miranda nodded and took out the gem and handed it to her. "Is it alright?" She asked her and then a bit worriedly, "You're not taking the power from me are you?"

Jane smiled softly. "No. More like I want to make you an official ranger." She took out a fresh iPhone and placed the gem inside it. The iPhone glowed a light purple and she handed it back to the red head. "It's connected into our network and everything. Rather that's a good thing depends on the day."

"Thank you." Miranda said sincerely. "I appreciate that."

"Anytime, you're one of us." Jane said with another smile. "And I bet you're as tired as the rest of us, I'll see you at dinner."

"Count on it." Miranda said as she walked Jane to the door. "Sleep well." Jane left and Miranda closed the door, and then looked down at her iPhone with the gem inside of it. It felt good to be officially welcomed.

Audrey was dozing softly but jumped as she heard someone call her name, no as she heard Chad call her name. She sat up quickly only to realize that she was alone. She placed her head in her hands as she tried to calm herself down. _When did I let Chad get into my head like this?_ She asked herself.

Being unable to stand still at that moment she got up and left her room. She saw Jay in the hall examining a painting. "Hey, are you planning on stealing that?" She asked teasingly as she walked over to join him.

"Are you kidding me?" Jay questioned as he turned to look at her. "I'd never fit that in my pocket." He pointed to a small oil lamp. "Now that is something I could probably slip out of the castle without a problem."

Audrey laughed a little but Jay could hear the sadness in her voice. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

"I just woke up after swearing I heard Chad calling to me." She answered him softly. "I just…when did I let Chad get in my head like that? I thought I was so much stronger than that." She leaned her back against the wall as she was talking and ended up slipping down to the floor.

Jay sat down next to her and took her hand, squeezing it softly. "After everything that Chad has done to you, it's only natural that he would be in your head, sort to speak." He said softly even though he knew it wasn't the best thing to say, it was the truth. "But despite all of that you are so much stronger than you give yourself credit for. On the Isle I've seen people who are put through much less than that who break."

Audrey laid her head against his shoulder. "How do those who don't break deal with feeling so helpless, so vulnerable?" She asked him softly. "If I'm doing it then I don't know I'm making it."

"Because you're not alone." Jay said to her. "Because you have Ben, you have Lonnie, you have Mal and Evie. I bet you have all of our friends." He hugged her close to him. "You have me."

"And it really does mean a lot." Audrey promised him with a small smile. "There are just some days where it feels so overwhelming. Especially since somehow he always manages to take that abusive stalker thing and overcome it all just to get to me. It's so nerve wracking."

Jay again kissed her on the cheek. "And that is how you know you're strong. Everything he throws at you, you overcome it and you let it make you a better, stronger individual." He replied to her.

Audrey couldn't help but smile at him as she felt no small amount of pride at the fine compliment.

The sun had just set and everyone had come out for dinner, feeling more refreshed than they had in days really. Evie was very happy to see not only Snow White but Doug as well. She embraced both of them.

"You two look much better." Ben said to Mal and Amy.

"I for one feel better." Mal replied to him in what was a loud conspiratorial whisper.

"I think most of us do." Will replied. He had a very content Lonnie on his arm though no one could say for sure if it was because she had gotten a good nap or because she was happy where she currently was. He had to use his other arm though to give Whitney a hug.

Belle came in, this time with Adam. Ben greeted his father happily and then they were all escorted to the dining room and they took their seats. They started to bring in the entrees.

"This looks wonderful." Wendy said as the lid in front of her was revealed to hold a couple of pork chops, some mashed potatoes and a salad underneath it. "And it smells wonderful."

Amy had some strawberry pancakes and bacon along with a strawberry milkshake. "Think you can handle all of that?" Mal teased her sister gently, and received a look of annoyance in return. They also set down some strawberry syrup for her.

Mal had a bowl of strawberries herself to go with her chocolate chip waffles, hash browns, ham steak and strawberry soda.

"Ah, sweet." Jay said as he revealed his triple burger with cheese, bacon and sautéed mushrooms with fries and a chocolate shake.

"You're arteries are going to get clogged if you eat like that all the time." Audrey half-joked as she had her rotisserie chicken and baked potato revealed. "But at least you'll burn the calories off quickly in our line of work."

Lonnie gladly mixed in her sesame chicken and shrimp with the rice she had and then added some soy sauce. She then took a sip of her Sprite. "This smells so good." She commented.

Wil laughed. "It does." He agreed as he took a piece of his meat lover's pizza and added some parmesan cheese. Right beside him was a Pepsi.

Whitney laughed as she took a piece of her pepperoni, olive and mushroom pizza. She had a root beer float.

"Your mother told me that your powers are currently inactive." Adam said to his son. "How are you holding up?"

"Just fine." Ben answered honestly as he cut into his medium rare steak topped with sautéed mushrooms. "I don't expect to be out of powers too long, Amber had an idea and we're waiting to hear back from them on that."

"I think they're going to the underworld." Doug revealed as he cut up a piece of his spinach and three cheese ravioli."

"That's kind of mean." Ally pointed out as she scooped some of the taco meat she had on a burrito shell.

"No, I mean literally." Doug replied. "That Maledict blade came from the underworld, Chad even said so himself. They have to find something with the same kind of power."

"You don't really think that they would want to take something like that and give it to us." Lonnie said incredulously.

"Not at all." Doug replied. "According some of the things we've gotten from them one of the most powerful artifacts they used in that conflict was invented by an older civilization that had also combated the demons. I think they're looking for a weapon from that civilization to edge out the demonic power of the Maledict blade."

"It's quiet an interesting idea." Miranda allowed. It had been hard to figure out what she wanted to eat since they had just met her but Belle had contacted her mother Merida to find out her favorite meal and the chefs had been able to whip up the boneless ribs and French fries without a problem. "This job doesn't lack in creative problem solving opportunities, that's for sure."

"And are you alright Mal?" Adam asked the purple haired girl. "I heard you've had quite the morning too."

Mal laughed softly. "That's one way of putting it." She said. "Very nearly gutted, poisoned, a heart attack at the thought of losing my twin sister, yep it's been quite a morning, even quite a day."

"I'm glad you're here to help them out Miranda." Belle said. "It's hasn't been an easy journey for them and the more the help they can get the less stress it will be for them."

"Mom is right." Ben agreed. "It's one of the reasons I want to get back out on the battlefield."

"You don't want to rush it though." Cinderella warned him. "If you try to get on the field without being sure it won't backfire on you, it might cause more harm to you and your friends than good."

Ben paused as if he hadn't thought about that. And he hadn't. He had been so anxious to be able to fight again that he hadn't stopped to think they should make sure it wouldn't be a problem. Granted he had the utmost confidence in their fellow rangers but at the same time no one could be sure of everything.

"I designed an app this afternoon before I came here that will let us scan whatever it is that they find for Ben reduce any chances of it being harmful to him or anyone else before we implement it." Doug told them all. "It's a good safeguard, I'm afraid there's no such thing as a guarantee without Zordon himself showing up and presenting it."

"Zordon?" Miranda asked curiously as she picked up a couple of fries.

"He's the one who worked with my mother to make the technicalities of the powers and the arsenal that we're currently using." Jane explained to her.

"Did you two know this Zordon too?" Amy asked Belle and Adam as she reached for her strawberry milkshake.

"Most of us met him briefly of course." Belle answered as she cut into her triple cheese lasagna, also indicating that Cinderella and Snow White had met him. "After all we were part of the ruling body of Auradon. But Fairy Godmother was one of those who worked closely with him, along with your father and uncles, Doug." She added.

"Your family was invaluable in getting the resources that were needed to construct the command center and the zords." Snow White said. "Though we just provided the material for the zords, Zordon produced them on his own. A great deal of the effort made with us was the command center."

"What happens if we lose the command center somehow?" Jordan asked as she remembered how close Ben had been to destroying the command center when he had been forced to be Nerissa's dark champion, coming to the point where he had all but destroyed the consoles and might have even killed Jane and Doug had she not chosen to lend her full support to the cause.

"I doubt that's even possible." Carlos replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I mean it's in the school. We couldn't lose that place without losing Auradon Prep."

"That was the way we were trying to look at it." Adam allowed with a nod. "But anything is possible."

"In which case I'd be willing to bet that Zordon had some kind of backup plan for that." Cinderella said. "He seemed to have one for almost everything from all that we had been told."

"The fact that he even had all of this laid out speaks wonders." Wendy noted appreciatively. "All these different powers you've unlocked and zords that have been discovered, all to fight in the name of good."

"At least that was the intention." Will added grimly as he thought of the warzord and the gray ranger powers that were in Gregory, the eldest son of Gaston's, hands.

"If there is one thing even I learned about evil it's that that side is often the proactive one." Amy said as she reached for her napkin to dab at her lips. "While good anticipates and reacts. Because if all goes according to plan the anticipation should never have to be taken to the next step."

Mal laughed. "Amy and I would debate this all the time." She remarked as she speared some hash browns with her fork. Sometimes in private she would prefer to think of hash browns as finger foods but wasn't going to follow that one up here. "That without evil doing what it does there could never be any good since all good does is keep the balance, not set it."

"It was a popular debate topic in Dragon Hall too." Evie noted as she finished up her spaghetti, though she had some sauce set aside to dip the Italian sausage she had in. "Usually it was in the highlights of being evil courses we all had to take. The ones who got stuck arguing for good hated it, they knew they would always wind up on the losing side."

"Except one year." Carlos added with amusement. "When Amy and I were placed on that side." He laughed at the memory as he reached for his root beer float. "Amy was so good at arguing for good that our teachers had no choice but to call it a draw."

Miranda smiled at Amy. "I can't imagine that made ya that popular though, not on the Isle of the Lost." She said.

Amy shrugged. "I was never that popular to start with." She replied with a small frown. She had hated being on the isle but figured she'd spend her life there and so had wanted to at least find some way she could live there without giving up who she was. "Sometimes I think I would have died young if I didn't have Mal to protect me."

"You survived just fine after Mal was brought here." Audrey pointed out.

It wasn't really meant to be a rude comment or anything but part of Amy wanted to register it like it was. She barely held that impulse in check. "After the four of them were taken to Auradon I went out in the forests and just kind of stayed there, where I found ways to make it work." She answered, perhaps still a little more heatedly than she had intended because she could see some surprise on the others faces. That had been when she had started to fully develop her abilities from the elemental control and her own emotions to the things she hadn't anticipated like the empathic skills and the ability to walk through objects. She felt a little embarrassed and even a bit ashamed though at how she reacted.

Lonnie quickly glossed over it. "Miranda, what about your ability, the time manipulation thing?" She asked their newest ranger.

"I'm not sure it's time manipulation exactly." Miranda said. "I mean it's nothing I can do whenever I want. It's more like the ability to speed up in battles." She reached for her own Pepsi. "And it only seems to work as a ranger, I haven't done it at all without being transformed."

Amy herself could use her abilities without being transformed though they seemed stronger when she was, except for the empathy which was more based on her mind than her powers.

Dinner had just ended and they were waiting on dessert when the iPhones went off. A few of them sighed in irritation until Jane said, "It's okay guys. It's not the monster alarm. Mom is routing a signal to us."

On their screens Amber appeared. They all smiled at seeing her, Mal a little more so than the rest. "I see we have a new face here." Amber noted. "I can only assume this is the ranger that you spoke of when you told us about Ben's sword."

"That's right." Mal said. "Amber, this is Miranda the Highlands ranger. Miranda, this is Amber the purple space ranger."

"It's nice to meet ya." Miranda said with a smile.

Amber gave a smile and a small nod. "Always a pleasure to meet another purple ranger." She replied.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Ben asked a bit anxiously.

"We did." She replied. They noticed that the shoulders of her uniform seemed to be singed and her hair was kind of messy, with soot on her forehead. "It wasn't easy. Right now Alpha is running a diagnostic on the sword we were hoping to find to try to limit any risk to you." That was indicated toward Ben. "But if all goes well we'll send it through to you tomorrow morning."

"That's great to hear." Mal said. "The sooner we have our team at full strength the better."

Belle was behind Ben now as she looked into the screen. "Amber, the kids will be staying here for tonight. When you're ready to talk to them tomorrow let them know and we'll link you in through the screen in the library." She said.

Amber nodded. "Sounds good." She replied. "Then we'll talk to you tomorrow. Sleep well guys." With that the line was cut.

After dessert, cheesecake with a different array of topping for it, was done Wendy and Cinderella bid everyone good night and left to drop their daughters back at Auradon Prep, along with Doug. For what it was worth Adam insisted on both women being escorted by some of their guards, the one that dropped Cinderella off would also do the same thing for Snow White. Will said goodbye to his sister and mother, just as Evie did for her step-sister and Doug, giving him a kiss on the cheek too.

The group sat around a small fire catching up Miranda and Amy on anything they thought was important to know about their past fights, including how Will and Gregory had gotten their powers, their adventures in Wonderland in case it ever became important to know outside of the Jabberwock, what they knew of the rangers from Earth and in the case of Jay, Lonnie and Carlos the dreams that seemed to precede their weapon upgrades.

After that Mal stood and stretched a little. "I think it's time we call it a night. We might have another early day tomorrow." She said.

Ben took Mal's hands in his own. "I'll walk you to your room." He said. He was going to volunteer to do the same for Amy but Belle had already beaten him to that and to take Miranda to her room. Meanwhile Jay did the same thing for Audrey and Evie, Will did it for Lonnie, Aziz did it for Ally and offered to walk Jordan but she gave a dismissive wave and just used magic to return to her room. Even Carlos offered to walk Jane back.

"I hope this works." Mal said to Ben as the two walked hand in hand, her head on his arm. "I know how much you hate being out of commission like this." She again didn't divulge her mixed feelings about it.

"I trust in our friends Mal, just as I trust in you." Ben said. "If they say it will work then I believe in them." They stopped by her door and he leaned down and kissed Mal gently on the lips. They stayed that way for a moment before he pulled away. "I love you Mal. Sleep tight."

"You sleep well too." Mal said and opened her door but turned to watch Ben as he went to his own room. She called out, "Ben, I love you too." With each of them smiling Mal slipped into her room as Ben walked away. Mal couldn't help the sort of in love sigh that some girls would emit, the very kind that she would have teased anyone else for if the situation were reversed, even Amy and Evie.


	67. Struggle for the Sword Part 1

Mal heard her iPhone going off and she almost wanted to ignore it. Then she realized it was just a regular call and she reached over for it. "H'llo?" She mumbled half asleep.

"Mal, it's me." Amy said, sounding rather bright and cheerful. Clearly she had been up a for a bit. Mal pulled back to see that it was almost nine. "We've got Amber on hold until you guys get here."

"Okay, be there in a minute or two." Mal told her sister and then hung up. She turned onto her back and stretched a moment before getting out of the bed she had borrowed while the team had stayed overnight at Ben's home. She hoped before they had to take off for their next quest she would have a bit of time to freshen up.

Making her way to the library she saw that she was the last to arrive. It seemed out of the group only Amy, Will, Lonnie and Miranda had not been woken up from sleep. Mal had no doubts that Amy had gotten up somewhere between seven and eight and had come to the library to explore the Belle's library. She wasn't sure what had gotten the pink, green and new Highlands ranger up so early.

Luckily the table in the center also had some light breakfast foods and drinks set out for them. Mal reached for an orange juice and a blueberry muffin. She saw both Evie and Audrey eating a chocolate croissant. Amy was slowly making her way through a strawberry muffin. Ben was eating a chocolate chip muffin. Ally had a blueberry muffin of her own. Jay had a croissant but with ham and an egg in it. Carlos was eating a banana nut muffin. Aziz was eating an apple. Will and Lonnie both had their own muffins, looked like poppy seed. Jane was working her way through a cranberry muffin. Miranda had made an impromptu omelet with the egg, ham and cheese. Jordan didn't seem interested in the food.

"Enjoying the library?" Mal asked as she sat down by her sister and unwrapped her muffin.

Amy nodded. "Yeah. It's so cool. I'd love to have a library like this when I get older." She said. She then smiled. "Maybe I could even write some of my own work."

"I'll be the first to read it." Mal promised her with a smile. "Though you might want to let Jane or Evie proof read it though." She then looked to Jane. "Alright, we're here. Let's get this started and hope for the best."

Jane went over to one of the large bookcases to reveal the screen behind it and let the call come through. At a table on the screen was Amber, Jason, Tommy, Kim, Kat, Andros, Ashley and Karone. It looked like they too were enjoying breakfast during this conversation.

"Did you guys all sleep well?" Kat asked them.

"Pretty well." Audrey replied. "I think the long day we had yesterday went a great deal toward that."

Not one for small talk Andros was the one who got on topic. "We did find something that Alpha is pretty sure will not only restore your powers but even make you stronger Ben." The young king's ears perked up at that.

Amber leaned over out of view just a little and returned with a long elegant sword, the blade rounding out slightly from the hilt until it tapered at the very edge of it. The hilt itself had two yellow looking gems on either side of it and one at the bottom of the hilt. "It took Alpha a while to figure it out. We're not entirely sure what it's made out of but it's immune to radiological scans, just like the weapon we once had that proceeded it." She told them all. "But it shows mild shifting properties, enough to fit into the shield of and reactivate your powers."

"The original weapon became stronger as the enemies around were defeated." Jason said. "So the possibility of this weapon doing the same thing is there."

"That sword looks so awesome." Evie said. Mal was sure she would have loved to analyze it on her own, and was sure Doug and Jane felt the same way.

"This is called the Sword of Praeleanthor." Tommy told them. "The original weapon spoke to Amber when we retrieved it and that's what it called itself but this one hasn't shown that characteristic. We named it after what we assume was the ancient race that created these two weapons."

"What's the best way to get it to you guys?" Kim asked them.

"Right here at the table works." Ben said.

Tommy nodded. "Alright, we'll have it over to you in a few minutes." He replied.

Unknown to them the same transmissions appeared on the view screen of Paradias's ship. Most of the background was unknown to those who stood on the bridge. But it was known and fully understood by Paradias, who unknown to any of the rangers had been alive during that time and knew everything about that incident, including details they would never find in the ancient civilizations carvings.

"We can't allow Benny boy to get that sword." Chad stated. The idea that his former friend could out do him again did not sit well with him. The only thing that would have made it worse in his mind was if the sword was supposed to go to Audrey.

"And we shall not." Paradias announced as he stood. "They have been using the Iconian Gateway to travel between their own world and Auradon."

"Shut it off then and we can isolate the Auradon Rangers from the others and keep that sword on away from the king." Gregory supplied.

Paradias hated to admit this. "Completely shutting down the gateways are beyond even my abilities." He informed the gray ranger. Instead he looked to Maleficent and Nerissa. "But with our combined energies we can direct the Praeleanthor sword away from the castle and to another destination where we can get a hold of it and destroy it."

"An excellent idea master." Nerissa said.

"Then let's get it done before the ranger's ruin our chance." Maleficent said. The three magical beings joined together in a triangular pattern on the bridge and began to a chant lead by Paradias.

The team waited anxiously for the sword to appear to them. They had even cleared off a spot for where they hoped it would appear. A few minutes passed and they looked to the screen. "Was the sword sent yet?" Carlos asked.

Tommy checked with the bridge only for his face to go grave with concern. "Alpha sent it through the gateway; it should be with you guys right now." He told them.

Jordan pulled out her iPhone and then looked up in alarm. "There's a massive amount of magical energy being directed around the hemisphere of the planet." She told them and added, "It's coming from Paradias's ship."

"What good would that do?" Evie wondered. "It wouldn't stop the gateways from functioning." She looked to the view screen. "Would it?"

It was Ashly who responded. "It wouldn't stop it from functioning but it might disrupt the targeting." She replied. "They might be doing that to try to stop you from getting the sword."

"We have to try to track it." Mal said as she looked to Jane. The girl was already working on her iPhone. "Is there anything you can tell us right now?"

"That the signals been all jammed up." Jane said. "The magic that Paradias is working is interfering with whatever targeting scanners the gateway uses and our own sensors. We may not even know where it is until it appears."

"I'm going to contact the command center and get them working on this too." Jordan said as she stood up with her iPhone and headed toward the window. She looked at the rest of her friends. "I think those of you who just managed to drag yourselves to this meeting should take a few minutes to freshen up because we might not have another chance for the rest of the day."

They all knew the genie girl was right. "Contact us when you know anything." Audrey told her.

Jordan nodded and then transferred the information Jane had to her iPhone so Jane could do the same thing. Then she moved on to talk to Doug who had picked up.

About ten minutes later Jordan saw Will, Carlos and Jay entering. It was no surprise to her that the guys would finish up first. She in fact expected some of the girls, like Audrey and Evie, to be the last ones in.

"Where do we stand?" Carlos asked Jordan.

"Fluctuations." Jordan answered. "Andros has Alpha tracking them too. We're starting to think it's not just Paradias interfering." She revealed.

"Who else would be interfering?" Jay asked as he picked up a chocolate donut even as Aziz came into the room.

"Maleficent and Nerissa." Will guessed grimly.

"I'm sure they have to be helping." They heard Cassie say from the bridge of their own ship. "But I think it's more than that. I think that prince you mentioned with Maledict's blade is helping."

"Chad?" Ben questioned as he came into the room, messing a little bit with his shirt collar. It was clear he probably rushed himself more than he usually would to make sure he didn't miss anything. Jay thought about teasing him for his princely habit but didn't as now was not the time. "How?"

"He's probably not doing it consciously." Cassie replied. "It's probably an effect of possessing Maledict's blade."

"The demons and that civilization are old enemies." Karone reminded them from a little further up on the bridge. "Whatever part of the blade that retains demonic energy can sense whatever energy remains in the Praeleanthor blade and is probably trying to repel it too."

Ally, Miranda and Lonnie came into the room. Ally stumbled a little and Aziz caught her. "How did you ever get to become a ranger with your grace?" He teased her softly.

"It's because of my charm and beauty." Ally replied in a soft teasing voice.

Aziz laughed. "You won't get any arguments from me on that one." He promised her.

"Are you two trying to compete with Ben and Mal?" Carlos asked with an exaggerated roll of his eyes.

Lonnie stood by Will, placing her hand on his arm. "I heard that we're facing some form of demonic opposition now." She mused.

"In a roundabout way." Will replied.

Mal and Jane were the next ones in. Jane immediately went to find out from Jordan what she had missed as the purple haired girl went over and kissed Ben lightly on the lips before asking, "What's the good word?"

"We have words." Ben told her. "Not necessarily good. It seems like the Maledict blade may be working to stop that Praeleanthor sword from showing up here."

"That's just great." Mal said with a roll of her eyes. She saw Evie and Amy rush, Amy very nearly ran into the couch they had sat into earlier and she let out a little laugh.

"Were you two racing?" Ben asked them.

"Maybe." Amy said with a giggle.

"She won." Evie added with a shrug and a giggle of her own.

Jay and Mal exchanged glances and were about to leave to when Audrey walked in. "Sorry." Audrey said softly as she came in. "I was in a war with the shampoo bottle. It nearly won." She said so seriously but with amusement in her eyes that everyone laughed a little, even Amy.

"I've got something." They heard TJ say from the view screen. "We're losing any form of it here so it must be coming to your world now."

"I can see the signatures." Jane reported now. "It looks like it's falling toward the ocean, where we last tried to take a break at."

"Then I guess we're going to the beach." Mal said. "It's not exactly the way I would have wanted to go there but at least we're going."

"I'm coming with you, powers or no." Ben declared. Mal wanted to argue that for just a moment but knew it would be futile. Besides if they found the sword he would need to be there anyway and so she just nodded in agreement.

"We'll keep this channel open on your iPhones just in case." Andros told them. The group nodded and the view screen went to black.

"I'm not even in the right outfit for it." Audrey said with a roll of her eyes.

"I don't disagree there." Jay said with a smile that Audrey had seen on Chad that had creeped her out, but on Jay it just made her blush and wish the trip to the beach wasn't ranger related.

"Looks like it went into the ocean." Gregory said. "The rangers might not find it, but we won't either."

"I wouldn't be so certain of that." Maleficent said with an evil glint. "Fortunately I made some small changes while I was back on the isle when I cast my spell. I think one of those should come in handy right about now."

They made their way to the beach as fast as they could. Audrey knew it would have been too easy for them to find the sword in the sand, and of course she was proven right. They moved to the beach's shore as far as they could without going for a swim to look any signs of it.

"I don't see it anywhere." Carlos said. "How far do you think it could have landed?"

Jane hesitated only a moment. "It could have landed anywhere in the ocean. It could beyond our sight and who knows where." She finally admitted. "And that's assuming it floats. If it sunk into the ocean we may never find it."

"Can't we scan for it?" Aziz asked.

"Remember what Amber said, its immune to radiological scans." Evie reminded him. "And since no one is sure what kind of alloy was used to make it we can't even guarantee we could build something to draw it to us."

"How did Nerissa get ahold of the Maledict blade then?" Ally wondered.

"Something tells me evil demons weren't concerned about giving an evil blade to an evil sorceress to give to an evil minion." Jordan said with some annoyance.

"Are you suggesting that the keyword here is evil?" Lonnie asked with seemingly complete innocence as she glanced around. She ignored Jordan's scowl of annoyance.

Amy had an idea. She entered the water ankle deep and then leaned down to try to feel the sword out. It was true that they couldn't detect the sword itself but she knew she could feel objects in the water, something she tested out during her solitary time on the isle. But she had never tried to find anything specific and she had never tested the limits of her senses. She did remember Amber saying the other weapon was alive, and if any spark of intellect was in the sword as well her empathic powers might allow her to sense it unless for whatever reason it was immune to that as well. It had never come up before, and Amy had never admitted it, but Freddie from the Isle of the Lost was one of the few things she had run into that forever reason she could not read with her empathic powers.

"What are ye doing?" Miranda asked her.

"Trying to see if I can feel it in or on the water. If it has any spark of intelligence like Amber said maybe that will help too." Amy answered her. "If this works we can track it down without a needle in a haystack problem."

Then there was a movement no one needed help to see but it wasn't a sword. It was a large tail that emerged from the depths before crashing back underwater.

"Oh, my pink." Amy gasped. She felt the larger body underneath the surface. "That is not good."

"What was that?" Audrey asked no one in particular.

"Are there any sea monsters in Auradon?" Mal asked now.

"Not that we know of." Ben answered. "But a great deal of our oceans are unexplored despite the mer population that lives in the seas itself." He didn't know it but that was one way in which their world resembled Earth.

"I've actually heard stories of such creatures." Miranda voiced now. "But honestly most of them don't bother comin' this close to land."

At that point a giant blue head rose from the depths. It's red eyes glared at them, its razor sharp teeth gleamed in the sunlight, along with the blue scales that covered its body. The beak like nose of the creature had water and what they feared was blood on the tip. As the tail swished up a bit they noticed an additional amount of red scales from the end of what would be the spine to the tail. They saw small three clawed appendages that could have been hands on about midway down the scaly hide.

"Oh that is so not good." Carlos said and then amended, "I mean it's kind of cool, but so not good."

"I don't suppose it's friendly." Jane said uneasily.

"Something tells me a creature with teeth like that doesn't know what it means to be friendly, unless it's looking to gobble something down." Will noted with uneasy sarcasm.

"How could we possibly have missed it all these years?" Lonnie wondered. She too agreed that something like that wasn't known for being friendly. She also doubted it hid away shyly in caves.

"At least it can't come over to us on the sand, right?" Evie asked.

The creature opened its mouth and unleashed a massive stream of energy at right at them from its position. Ben grabbed Amy and pulled her with him even as the rest of the team scattered out of the way of the attack.

"Looks like it doesn't need to come over here to threaten us." Audrey noted.

"No, it doesn't." Mal agreed. Right now they couldn't be sure if it this thing was a natural born but terrifying sea creature, a really terrifying monster that Paradias had released, or somehow some demon that was here to stop them from finding the Praeleanthor sword, or maybe even something else unknown, and right now it didn't matter. "Let's get to work."

"Easier said than done." Aziz pointed out as he took out his iPhone.

The rest of the team took out their iPhones too, except Jane who needed the magic wand, and then they all transformed.

"I didn't get the time I needed to see if I can find the sword." Amy revealed to them. "I have to get in close to the water again if there's any hope of my idea working."

"Right now I'd be more worried about keeping all of us alive than finding the sword." Audrey pointed out. "We have to get rid of that thing first."

The creature again shot a stream of energy from its mouth at the team. This time Evie had her mirror force shield up and ready, collecting the energy and reflecting it right back at the monster. It roared in anger and even a bit of agony and dove back into the water.

"Was it really that simple?" Carlos asked.

"No." Jordan said. She pointed to some of the waves. "It just descended into the depths, but it's still here."

"Do you think that thing can get any closer to the beach than it already was?" Lonnie put forth. She was sure it didn't really need much more distance to try to snap any of them into its jaws but if it moved in closer they would have a problem.

"It doesn't need to get any closer to get a hold of us." Miranda said as if she had read her mind.

Mal frowned a bit. The relative distance of the creature made it hard to fight it with everything they had. "We have to keep that thing off of Amy so she can try to find the sword." She said. "Will, Jay, Carlos, Aziz, your normal weapons have no range options so you'll have to stick with the blasters." She took out her own blaster and gave it to Ben. "I know you want to help, and we can use all the long range support we can get."

"Are you sure?" Amy asked. She knew no one wanted her to really be that close to the water with that thing there.

"We don't have a choice." Mal said softly. "Lonnie and I will go closer to the water with you in case we need to pull anything off. Our long range options are still limited." She looked to Ally, Audrey, Jordan, Jane and Evie. "Yours should work pretty well so you guys stay behind the guys for maximum effectiveness."

"I actually don't know how well my crystal cards will work at this distance with a monster that big." Ally interjected. "I may have to fall back to the blaster with the guys."

"If that's what you have to do then make it so." Mal replied. She looked to Miranda. "What about you, where do you want to be?"

"At home." She said with a deadpan joke. "Seriously, I can use my swords to and shoot energy at it which might be more effective than the blasters but not as effective as the other girls."

Mal nodded. "Okay then. Go where you think you're best." She said. She looked to Amy and Lonnie. "Are you ready?" Both pink like rangers nodded. "Let's do it everyone." She formed her dragon's eye staff and Lonnie her hurricane tessens and they moved with Amy to the water's edge.

"Everyone get ready." Audrey commanded. The guys knelt down on one knee with their blasters raised. Evie readied her mirror force shield but even she wasn't sure rather she should defend or attack with it. Audrey prepared a hail of lightning arrows. Jane prepared to unleash a magical barrage. Jordan got ready with her lamp cannon and Ally had her cards positioned for whatever she thought it would be worth.

Just as Amy's foot touched the water the creature reared up from the waves again and let out a ferocious roar. Then it brought up one of its massive appendages and then slammed it into the water, generating a near tidal wave that headed straight toward the beach.

"Can you stop that?" Lonnie asked Amy in slight fear.

Amy took a deep breath. "I…I don't know." She confessed. If it had been natural she thought maybe she could, but with the force of it generated from a monster she was definitely not sure.

"Don't worry about it!" Audrey called out as the arrows shifted from electric to ice and she unleashed it upon the tidal wave. It took a bit longer than any of them would have liked for it, but the arrows effects froze the tidal wave up. The massive paws of the creature shattered the ice walls as if they didn't exist.

"I think it's time to go on the offensive here." Miranda said. Audrey, Evie, Jane and Jordan nodded. Audrey released a hail of lightning arrows and Evie released a storming mirror force as the other three girls released blasts of energy from the magic wand, lamp cannon and two swords respectively.

They struck the hide of the creature and it roared in pain before turning away from the three girls on the beachfront and more toward the small brigade further on shore. It then unleashed a massive stream of energy that forced them all to disperse.

"We just don't have the size for this." Carlos noted with annoyance. "We need a better plan."

"The size." Mal murmured. Then she had an idea, it was a long shot but it was better than what they had now. "I need dragon power now." She called out.

From the darkening skies her dragon zord emerged with a roar. It got the attention of the sea creature that looked up at it with malice in its eyes. It unleashed a stream of energy from its mouth at the dragon zord but its own attack blocked that one out.

The creature leapt out of the water and slammed right into the dragon zord. The dragon zord however was more nimble and just managed to slip out of the monster's full attack as it plummeted into the water, apparently wanting to take the zord with it. Mal had no idea how her dragon zord would fare underwater and didn't wish to test that out.

Amy again reached out sense for the sword. This time she found it. She surmised the tidal wave must have moved it from wherever it had crash landed. But as she tried to reach out for it, she felt something move around it. Then she let out a small scream of pain.

"Amy." Mal gasped and was at her side. "Are you okay?"

"Something else is in the water." Amy revealed to her. "And it just found the Praeleanthor sword."

As if on cue there was a large explosive burst from the sea. Out strode a woman with gray hair and gray skin. She had the body of an appendage of an octopus surrounding her legs and she swirled the blade with expert precision. "Hello again. It's so nice to meet you." She said with a cruel sneer on her face. "I see you've had the pleasure of meeting Daedalus, my pet." She added with laughter.

"It can't be." Amy whispered.

"No way." Mal agreed.

"Oh my gosh, how?" Evie wondered.

"What are you talking about?" Audrey asked her. "How do you know her?"

"That Undine, Ursula the sea witch's daughter." Carlos told the brunette princess with trepidation. "And she's basically everything you feared Mal would be."


	68. Struggle for the Sword Part 2

This new revelation couldn't help but make Amy flinch. Undine, daughter of Ursula. She was everything that Maleficent had hoped that Mal would be, and even that Maleficent had briefly hoped Amy would be. She had broken Amy's legs once just because she could. She had broken Mal's arm just because she had defended Amy. She had given Carlos a concussion when she had hit him in the head with her tentacles. She had hurt Evie with internal injuries when she had hit her in the stomach with the tentacles. Even Jay had suffered a broken wrist when he had tried to protect Evie.

She had also lead Gaston Jr. and Gaston the third to believe that Amy was interested in them and that she refused them simply because she was playing hard to get. That was why the two of them had grown so obsessed with her.

"You have something that belongs to us. I want it back." Mal said in a cold voice that she hadn't even used on Audrey before,

"I'll be more than happy to give it back to you Mal. Or whoever you would like me to give it to." Undine said in a slightly melodious voice before it turned ugly. "I'll give it to them right in the chest and laugh as I watch the life and their blood drain from their bodies."

"Morbid much?" Lonnie questioned with disgust.

"You don't know the half of it." Evie replied with a voice mixed with disgust and even a little bit of fear. She had once told Mal that her mother scared her sometimes. This woman scared her pretty much all of the time.

In the background they saw Daedalus shoot another beam at Mal's dragon zord. The maneuver pulled off by the lithe zord was certainly enough to qualify as an expert dodge. It then did a one eighty and slammed its tail down hard on the sea creature though the truth was its scales were thick enough to absorb the brunt of the attack.

"Your zord is as stubborn and abrasive as you always were Mal." Undine said with amusement.

"We have to get that sword away from your little playmate before something bad happens." Lonnie said to Mal. She truthfully didn't know if evil could corrupt the power of the sword or not but she didn't want to take any chances on finding out.

"Agreed." Mal said. She figured it useless to point out that Undine was not her playmate. She also figured in a twisted way that was exactly what she had thought of Mal, Amy and her friends. She moved in with her dragon's eye staff and swung it at her head. She blocked with the sword and then slammed a tentacle right into Mal's side hard enough that if she weren't transformed she would have shattered the entire left side of her rib cage.

Undine looked to Amy. "I've always wondered who was weaker, you or an Auradon brat." She glanced at Lonnie now. "It's time to satisfy my curiosity." With that she charged toward them. She tried to bring the sword down on Amy but the rose ranger caught her wrist to stop the attack but a tentacle wrapped around her leg and sent her sprawling backwards. "Oh, I didn't break your leg again?" She asked cruelly. "Remind me to remedy that soon."

"You really are a representation of what expect from the isle." Lonnie said with disgust. "Mal and the others were so right to get away from you." She swung her hurricane tessens at her and she blocked again with Praeleanthor's sword. She tried to jab Lonnie in the chest with one of her tentacles but she was able to dodge the attack. She didn't notice the other one that slithered around behind her and wrapped itself around Lonnie's neck before tossing her away hard. If she hadn't been transformed she might have broken the Asian princess's neck.

Jay moved in and slashed at her with his soul scimitar. She blocked it easily. "Oh, Jay." She said coyly. "What a couple we could have been if you had the sense." She tried to take off his head but he blocked it and rolled past the tentacles. "But I hear you have a thing for defenseless little pink princesses."

"You always did have a big mouth, but nothing you said ever came out like someone with a good intellect." He said back coldly. Then she brought her tentacles out and from what would be the normal suckers on an octopus came out a stream of goo that still managed to cause a good sized explosion when it came into contact with him.

"I'll show you defenseless." Audrey promised as she moved in toward her. She unleashed an arrow that the sea witch easily blocked with the sword. The red ranger moved in. She tried to slap Audrey with her tentacles but she jumped up and used them as leverage to leap right behind her and slash her hard with her elemental bow.

"Nice." Undine hissed at her and then lashed out with her entire body and slammed right into Audrey. The red ranger fell hard and had the sea witch looking up at her cruelly. "I can see why Maleficent said that boy Chad was interested in beating you down." She reached out a tentacle and caressed her helmeted face almost lovingly. "To watch you suffer and break." She started huskily.

"People like you really get on my nerves." Miranda snapped as she moved in and tried to take that tentacle off of Audrey, and Undine. She slithered to the side easily and got ready to face off against the Highlands ranger. "I'm not one to bash self-confidence but to act like you're superior to others is just wrong."

"Now I have to say I have no idea who you are." Undine admitted. Technically Miranda was still too new to the ranger world. Only the friends and family of the team knew her identity at the moment. "But I only count two arms on you, where as I have six." She lashed each of her tentacles at Miranda and the girl blocked them with her own swords. She tried to bring the sword down on Miranda and she barely blocked that one. So focused was she on the sea witches aforementioned arms she wasn't prepared to be kneed in the chest by her opponent.

Carlos and Jane moved in and both tried to attack her but the tentacles struck out quickly and slapped them both back. "Now that was just so rude." She said condescendingly to them. "Maybe I did damage that puny brain of yours after all Carlos."

Jordan aimed her lamp cannon at Undine only to notice that technically there was someone else who needed help. The dragon zord unleashed another stream of energy from its mouth at Daedalus but the sea creature dove under the waves. For just a moment all was silent, and then it sprung from behind, slamming into the dragon zord. A quick twist stopped zord from meeting ocean but the sea creature lashed out and clamped its teeth hard into the zord. She instead redirected her lamp cannon and fired at the sea creature, causing enough of a distraction to at least release the dragon zord from its mouth.

Undine now found another target to pick on. "Who would have thought the little brat would become a hero?" She questioned Evie. "Only that pathetic runt is more of a surprise. So what do you have little queen wannabe?"

"I'll show you if you don't drop that sword." Evie warned as she raised her mirror force shield.

"Then bring it on, spoiled little girl." Undine dared her.

Evie unleashed her blazing mirror force on the sea witch but she merely laughed as she dove under the sands of the beach. The blue ranger tried to switch to her quaking mirror force only for her to jump out of the sand slam her lower body right into Evie's very hard.

Will moved in with his recursive blade and tried to bring it down on her shoulder but one of the tentacles blocked the attack. She tried to elbow him in the jaw but he raised his weapon to block and she cut herself. With a growl she slapped him away with two of her tentacles.

Jay and Carlos moved in and barely got a hold of her arms. "Someone grab the sword." Jay said as he struggled to keep her subdued and out of tentacle range.

Ally moved in to try to do just that but two of those tentacles lashed out and slammed right into her shoulders hard, hard enough that if she were not transformed it probably would have shattered both of her shoulder blades. As it was she let out a gasp and fell to the sand hard.

Undine twisted and tossed Carlos off hard. "Still a weak little pup." She sneered at the yellow ranger. She then whirled again and caught Jay in the throat. "Nice try darling." She said with a sneer and tossed him hard into Aziz.

Audrey, Lonnie, Mal and Amy moved in to try to surround her and take the sword. Lonnie was immediately slapped away hard with a tentacle where she crashed into Jane. She raised two tentacles and from the suckers two almost pine needle objects shot out and pierced both of them in the arm hard. That was followed by the ink blasts to send them reeling.

Audrey swung her elemental bow at her but this time Undine ducked the attack and then slammed all four of her tentacles hard into Audrey's stomach and chest. She flew back hard, having the wind knocked out of her.

"Give me my sword, now." Ben demanded.

"This is supposed to be yours?" Undine questioned and laughed. "Alright young prince, sorry I mean king." She started toward him. "I'll give it back to you point first."

Mal stood up now with her eyes glowing green. She held out her right hand as she wielded her dragons' eye staff in her left hand. It disturbed Amy just a bit to realize that made her seem quite a bit more like their mother Maleficent. "That Praeleanthor sword isn't yours to wield, it's meant for my beloved, so take it from your slimy grip and let the king receive his gift." She recited.

It took a moment for Undine to realize Mal was casting a spell and by that point it was too late as the Praeleanthor sword disappeared from her hands and appeared in Ben's free hand. A surge of energy enveloped him and his shield formed in front of him. "No." She growled.

Ben combined his new sword with his shield and the area around him glowed for an instant before he stood newly transformed. The shiny silver was gone to be replaced by an almost black silver armor but the alloy went to looking very much like the sword, being an unknown alloy. Will was willing to bet that he could have walked through a radiation pool without any significant damage though he wasn't willing to test that out.

Undine seemed very annoyed but not so worried. "I was hoping to prevent that but I can still destroy you." She gloated and then a bunch of Paradias's soldiers appeared, confirming that she was working with Maleficent. Then she called out, "Daedalus, stop playing with the dragon zord and destroy these rangers."

The sea creature tried to move to do just that but was rammed into by the dragon zord.

"Let's show these guys what they just walked into." Mal said as her team got together. Then they charged Undine and the soldiers.

Will, Jay, and Aziz were glad to be fighting the soldiers because it was something they could use their weapons again. Jay looked to Mal. "We have Ben back; I think it's time you go to your zord and take out that Daedalus thing. We'll deal with Undine and these freaks." He said.

Mal nodded and ran past the soldiers, jumping into the cockpit and placing her iPhone in the slot. Her dragon zord shifted to its alternate form, resembling that of a Chinese dragon. "Okay, let's add a little sizzle to this steak." The purple haired purple ranger said.

Daedalus leapt up again and tried to slam into the dragon zord but with Mal in control she twisted the zord around and wrapped the sea monster up in its body. They stood practically face to face. Daedalus responded by leveling the beam from its mouth at the dragon zord, though it responded in kind.

Amy used her rose lance to take out a couple of soldiers. Undine came up from behind and slammed her tentacle down hard on Amy's already aching right shoulder again. She gasped in pain and fell to the ground.

In the dragon zord Mal felt a pain in her right shoulder and flinched at the unexpected feeling. Her concentration slipped and the dragon zord's hold on the Daedalus faltered. It slipped out and fell back into the ocean.

Undine slithered on top of Amy and grasped her helmet hard. "Let's get this thing out of the way; I want to see the fear in your eyes." She said to the girl cruelly.

Amy was about ready to try to slip through her but it wasn't necessary as Audrey leapt out and kicked the sea witch in the chest hard and forcing her off of the rose ranger. Undine raised her tentacles to strike gleefully at the red ranger but then Miranda leapt out and slammed into her hard.

"Ye underestimate us if ye think that we can't beat you sea witch." Miranda warned her. She lashed out with her blade, which Undine blocked with one of her tentacles but that was when Audrey jump kicked her in the chin hard.

"Are you okay?" Evie asked Amy as she came up to the rose haired girl and knelt next to her.

"I think so." Amy said to her. "My shoulder hurts, she still hits pretty hard." She glanced to the side and saw Daedalus shoot the dragon zord with the beam from its mouth which struck head on. She let out a gasp. "How did that thing get that past Mal?" She wondered.

Undine faced off again against the Highlands ranger and the red ranger, getting very annoyed with their double team strategy. "You good guys always think you're so clever." She spat angrily. "But if you were so clever I never would have gotten my hands on that sword." She raised her tentacles and shot out the inky goo again, sending them both flying backwards.

She gave Audrey a nasty glare and started to move in on her. Ben though had been slashing through the soldiers and felt something he'd never felt before. His energies seemed to be growing with each time he took out one of the soldiers. He remembered the rangers saying it was also something that happened with the original weapon. He turned toward Undine and unleashed a huge wave from the blade that lashed out against Undine and sent the sea witch away from his best friend.

"Man that was awesome." Jay said to Ben. "That has to be a new power from the Praeleanthor sword."

"It was an interesting feeling, not entirely unpleasant either." Ben replied.

"I'm not sure Mal can defeat that thing." Jane said. It was still unclear rather the Daedalus creature was natural or created by Paradias. "The only way we can get rid of that thing is to get rid of Undine."

"That's not exactly going to be easy." Ally noted. "She's been doing a number on all of us."

Undine could see the soldiers were getting taken out by the rangers and their newly reformed Auradon Knight. She could see Mal was on the losing end of Daedalus. But she wasn't ready to give up the fight yet. "This isn't over yet." She told the rangers. "I have another little surprise for you."

"I'm really starting to hate your surprises." Lonnie stated.

"Don't worry about that." Undine said. "I'm sure my surprise will take a bite out of that prickly personality that you inferior Auradon brats seem to have. Meet my minions, the shark brothers." From the water burst three shark creatures that, like most monsters, still managed to stand on two fin like legs.

The first was coated in oily white scaly armor, the upper fins almost looking like cannons. The second one didn't seem as armored up but had blades in place of the upper fins and a sharp tail. The last looked the most fearsome as it had claws on its primary fins, and it stood on six appendages that looked like spider legs, each as sharp as the claws. That last made Amy think of a spider and made her shudder a bit. In her opinion the only thing worse than spiders were cockroaches.

"Power rangers, meet Spider Spear Shark, Nightmare Shark, and Drake Shark." Undine said with laughter. She gave a leer at Amy. "I knew you would appreciate my first shark monster."

"I take it you don't like bugs." Audrey said to Amy.

"No." She admitted. "I don't. I really hate spiders and especially hate cockroaches."

Audrey would have exchanged a smile with Amy if they weren't both helmeted. "Who would have guessed we had something in common." She said, and that did get Amy to giggle a little. "Grasshoppers are up there for me too, I'll tell that story later if you want."

Amy nodded a bit. "Okay."

"Technically spiders aren't bugs, they're arachnids." Jane said. "Not to interrupt your touching moment of connection."

Spider Spear Shark leaned down on the appendages and extended its blades. Nightmare Shark lowered its cannons and Drake shark extended its blades. Undine placed her hands on their scaly backs and channeled her energy into her shark monsters, the four of them unleashed a horrific blast of energy that sent them all flying and landing hard. Amy landed hard on her left leg and felt a muscle give a shock of protest.

Mal directed the dragon zord to unleash a stream of energy at Daedalus who slipped underneath the waters. Mal watched the waters, ready to bring the tail down on the sea creature when all of a sudden she felt a pain in her leg, and she had to grab the console to avoid losing her balance and falling. "What is going on here?" She wondered.

The three shark creatures and Undine now headed toward the recovering rangers with what remained of the soldiers. Drake Shark tried to stab Will but he brought his up his recursive sword and blocked the downward strike before lashing out with his foot and catching him in the face.

Amy let out a little scream as Spider Spear Shark approached her but Ben was up and slashed at him with the Praeleanthor blade. The two appendages came up to block him, and then the monster hooked the swords around the young king's blade and tossed him farther away from the fight.

"Ben." Lonnie called out and rose to her feet but was blocked now by the Nightmare Shark. He aimed his cannons and shot at the pink ranger, forcing her to back flip out of the way of the bombardment.

Undine all but slithered toward Jay and Audrey. "So tell me, if I kill off your little princess there, what will you do about it?" She asked Jay with amused mirth.

"I won't be so easy to kill off witch." Audrey snapped, tired of the way she belittled her and bashed her friends just because they didn't embrace evil the way she did.

"Even if you did you wouldn't be looking forward to would happen next." Jay added with venom in his words.

Undine slapped out at the two with her tentacles and both of them dodged to the side. She turned to Audrey who had already readied an electric arrow that she shot straight at the sea witch. She grabbed the arrow, intending to break it in half but received a bit of a shock for her efforts. Then Jay tackled her from behind.

The tentacles lashed out and hit him the face hard, making him fall back.

Spider Spear Shark again turned toward Amy. She was intent on not letting this arachnid shark freak her out and raised her rose lances. It lashed out with one of the blades and she knocked it off course with her rose lance and then kicked the thing in the jaw, at least for what that was worth. It didn't seem to feel the blow. Then it brought down both blades hard across Amy's body, sending her back reeling.

In the dragon zord Mal suddenly gasped in shock and fell to her knees. She wasn't sure what was going on but then was laid out on her back as Daedalus rammed itself into the dragon zord hard.

Nightmare Shark turned to the other rangers and began to let loose on them with its cannons. Evie stepped forward and collected some of the energy into her mirror force shield and sent it back against the monster. Then over her shoulders Miranda jumped up and down, bringing both her swords down on the cannons and then kicked the creature back.

"You have the Praeleanthor sword I see." Ben heard Chad from behind him. He turned to face his former friend and current adversary. He was transformed as well and holding Maledict's blade. "You know these two weapons are artifacts of sort that date back long before any of our families existed, and their creators were at war with each other."

"So I've heard." Ben said as he prepared to fight Chad.

"We're going to be fighting the final fight of that war." Chad declared and pointed the sword at his chest. "And I intend to win that fight."

"We'll see about that." Ben warned him before the two knights started to clash with each other.

Spider Spear Shark moved in to continue its attack on Amy but let out a screech as it was cut into with multiple small crystalline objects, Ally's cards. Before it could decide how to respond to the crystal ranger Aziz and Will leapt out with their weapons and brought their weapons down on the creature hard.

Shark Drake moved in to attack Jane but Carlos got in his way and blocked the sword attack with his claws and then kicked him back from the two of them hard. Jordan then leapt out and hit the monster in the snout, forcing it back even further. The gold ranger came to join them and while Jordan raised her lamp cannon and fired at the monster, Jane used the magic wand to unleash a magical explosion that struck Shark Drake at the same time.

Spider Spear Shark stood up on two of the appendages even as it raised the its other four appendages. Then with the two bladed appendages it released a barrage of razor sharp projectiles at Ally, Aziz, Will and Amy. A large explosion followed and the four rangers fell back hard.

Daedalus slammed into the dragon zord again, wrapping its thick scaled tail around the zord and unleashed a destructive stream of energy in face to face. That combined with something Mal was still unsure of sent her flying out of the cockpit of her zord hard. She hit the sand, feeling worse than when she had been poisoned by the scorpion demon monster.

"Mal!" Amy gasped as she tried to stand up. Ally helped her and together the rangers moved in to check on their leader.

"It's been an interesting game Mal." Undine said as she stood with her shark monsters. They were at the head of the beach while the rangers, minus Ben who was still clashing with Chad, stood by the water's edge. "But I hold all the cards, so I win."

"You don't hold all of the cards." Jay retorted. Then they heard a roar and looked up to see the dragon zord had finally lost the fight, turning into the small crystalline dragon and falling in front of Mal even as she was working to stand up.

 _How do I look as beaten up as everyone else when I was in the cockpit of my zord?_ Mal couldn't help but wonder as she glanced around at her friends, each looking in various stages of fatigue.

"As I said, I hold all of the cards." Undine emphasized. A large splashing sound made them turn to see that without the dragon zord Daedalus had now shifted its weight to look directly at the rangers. Will was certain the only reason one of them hadn't become a snack was because Undine had not ordered it yet. "This game is mine."

The team stood back to back, unsure of what to do now but were readying themselves for the next strike, the one that just might end them. Evie kept her gaze on Undine and the sharks even as Lonnie and Audrey prepared to unleash their weapons on Daedalus. It still did not look promising.

"I hope you're ready for a snack my pet." Undine said to Daedalus. "Because I'm about to give you some crispy rangers." Again Spider Spear Shark got onto its appendages and raised its blasters. Nightmare Shark followed though it wasn't clear how powerful its blast would be with the damaged cannons. On the other side was Shark Drake and finally Undine channeled her powers into her shark monsters. Then they took aim and began to unleash their attack…


	69. Battlefront at the Beach

I don't own the Aqua ranger, I'm just borrowing the charrie from the movie. If you know then you're well informed, if not then I guess it doesn't make much of a difference.

Audrey was not happy with how things were looking at that point. On one side she had her elemental bow drawn back with an electrical arrow, along with Lonnie ready to toss her hurricane fans, at the large sea serpent like creature that was supposed to be named Daedalus who had just won a narrow fight with Mal's dragon zord. It was only waiting for a simple command before trying to turn the rangers into a light snack, something that it could probably do to all of them with one chomp of its massive jaws.

On the other side Evie, Ally and Jordan were trying to be prepared to deal with the three shark monsters and their mistress. Undine, the daughter of Ursula had shown up and nearly cost them their attempt to get a new sword for Ben. She had the cannon wielding Nightmare Shark and the oily armored blade wielding Shark Drake. Underneath the three was perhaps the ugliest of them all, a shark creature with six spider like appendages. Its bladed arms were also extended. They were trapped between the proverbial rock and hard place.

Ben was no better off as he was clashing with Chad. Ben could feel the history there, not just between the two former friends now turned enemies over their views on Mal and the other isle kids and even their changing but now completely conflicting views over Audrey, but the history between ancient civilization that had made the Praeleanthor sword and the demons that had made Maledict's blade.

"It's been fun, rangers." Undine said with an evil laugh. "I think I'll miss you most of all Jay." She channeled her energies into the shark monsters and they started to unleash their combined attack against the power rangers. Evie was prepared to try to reflect that but before she could even try it a large clam shell appeared in front of them from nowhere and absorbed the attack.

"What?" Lonnie gasped.

"Who did that?" Carlos asked.

"That was me." They heard a girl say. They turned to see from the other side of the beach a young brunette teenage girl. She wore a gold locket and a small gold ring on her right pinkie. They didn't know who she was precisely but everyone knew what she held in her hands. The Auradon rangers knew it from there classes in history while Undine knew it because it was her mother's obsession; the trident of King Triton the ruler of Atlantica and the father to seven daughters, one of whom was Ariel who had become human to be with her prince. "I won't let you and your little friends win."

It was then that Jane also noticed something, imbedded in the handle of the trident. "That's…she has an gem like ours. I think it's the aqua one I detected a couple of days ago." She realized. She thought it was kind of nice to see someone else not need an iPhone to transform into a ranger.

"Give me that trident." Undine demanded, wishing to take what her mother had not been able to keep.

"No." She said simply. "I made that mistake once a few years ago and I won't do it again."

The sharks and Daedalus kept the other rangers cornered as she turned to face the girl. "Who are you anyway?" She hissed.

"My name is Melody." She answered as she brought the trident in front of her body. "I've heard about your mother from my mother and my grandfather. I won't let you do whatever it is you want to do." She could still remember her mother Ariel taking her down to the beach over two weeks ago where they met with Ariel's father and her grandfather Triton, the king of Atlantica. There he had done something neither girl had expected; he had handed his trident to Melody along with a round aqua gem. He had told them that guardians in Atlantica had guarded that gem for centuries until it needed to be activated. At one point he had even considered that the gem was meant to belong to Ariel herself. Then Maleficent had cast her spell and disrupted everything, including the stability on the Isle of the Lost and Triton knew he had to help restore the balance. Melody had even questioned that since the only way to know that was for the spell to have been broken, but there was more damage done than just the spell.

And she was looking at one of them now. Undine had left the isle. And no one knew who else had left as well.

Aqua energy surrounded the trident and she raised it to the sky, transforming into the aqua ranger. She however had a smaller version of the clam shield that was used to protect them from the combined shark blasts across her chest.

"Just what we needed, another pathetic princess." Undine said disdainfully. She saw that the rangers were watching this turn of events as much as the shark monsters and Daedalus were waiting for her orders. She felt a sudden rush of hatred for the daughter of her mother's enemy. She summoned more soldiers. "Get her, bring her and that trident to me."

Will exchanged glances with Aziz and Jay. They were about to go ahead and make an attack against the waiting shark creatures but they lost that train of thought as they saw the soldiers heading toward the aqua ranger only for her to simply bring the trident down to the ground. From out of nowhere multiple little bubbles appeared for a moment before popping to reveal sharp edged shurikens that looked like starfish, they were then sent zipping forward at rapid speed, taking out soldiers in very much the same fashion as Miranda had done only without the time manipulation effect.

"That was nice." Miranda said.

"Totally." Carlos agreed.

Undine was not so pleased. She growled and called out, "Shark Drake, destroy her and bring me that trident." She then snapped at the other two. "Finish them off."

That was what both sides had been waiting for. Spear Spider Shark again blasted at the rangers but Evie moved in and reflected the attack right back at the two. Then Jay and Will leapt over her shoulder and struck Nightmare Shark with their bladed weapons.

A roar resounded from Daedalus and he started toward the shore. Audrey pulled back the string on her elemental bow and released her lighting arrow even as Lonnie tossed her hurricane tessens. They smacked the large sea serpent in the face. That only annoyed him but the lighting arrow hit directly in its eye and it let out an ear splitting scream.

Mal raised her dragon's eye staff. "Time to see what we can do to turn the tide." She announced. The rangers charged toward the two remaining shark monsters.

Shark Drake leapt out and tried to bring his blades down on Melody. She blocked it with the trident and then kicked him backwards from her. She slashed him with the trident, and that attack hit. She tried to follow up with another only for the Nightmare Shark to block it. Then Amy lashed out with her rose lance and struck that monster. She was just glad to be able to get away from the spider looking one.

Mal moved in from behind and tripped up Shark Drake. She looked to Melody. "We can handle these shark things okay, but Daedalus is another matter. Our best shot just went down." She felt some remorse at that as she wondered if whatever had affected her despite being in the zord had contributed to that. "If you have any sway over that, it'd be really good time to use it."

"I don't have any sway over that thing." Melody said to her regretfully. Then she cocked her head. "But I have an idea that might help with that." With that she unleashed a burst of blue energy into the waters.

Undine laughed. "What was that little girl?" She questioned rudely. "You don't even know how to use that thing do you?" She then raised her tentacles and shot out the same inky sludge at the three girls sending them back hard.

"I think she knows exactly what she's doing." Mal said with more confidence than she wanted to admit she felt. She swung her staff at Undine's head but the sea witch blocked it and then flipped Mal hard onto the ground, where her back hit the sand hard.

Melody noticed that Amy seemed to flinch as she placed her hand over lower back now. Then she grabbed Amy's arm and pulled her away from the approaching Shark Drake so that he could not hurt her and then she slammed the trident into the monster hard.

"We have to get control of this situation somehow." Audrey said. Three different monster battles going on, plus Undine attacking Mal, Chad attacking Ben, and the giant sea monster waiting in the wings was just a bit too much to chaos to manage.

Then there was another huge surge of water as something else came from the depths. Carlos saw it too and was tempted to let out a scream of frustration himself. What emerged was a whale like creature with two long pectoral fins on either side of its body, each having four white like nails on either end of the fins. On the top of its head were two small yellow eyes.]

Undine looked unhappy. "No, not that." She protested.

Melody looked impressed. "It worked." She said in surprise.

Though Daedalus looked to be more agile when it leapt at the new sea creature it expertly dodged the attack before releasing a massive water pulse at the monster. It hit it and then followed up with a body slam. The two creatures were submerged into the waves.

"No." Udine growled and turned to Melody. "You stupid little girl." With that statement she rushed past Mal, not even bothering this time to give her old nemesis a parting shot. She leapt right at Melody who let the attack roll and then came up to face her.

Lonnie caught her tessens. "I don't know where that other one came from or what it is, but something tells me Daedalus won't be a problem for the time being." She said.

"I agree with you." Audrey said. "So let's cull the herd."

"What's the plan?" Carlos asked her.

"Cannon boy is first." Audrey answered him. "Lonnie, Carlos, Ally, Jane. It's time for the triangle spark attack." She knew Jay and Aziz would keep that Nightmare Shark distracted. As the two guys did just that Carlos, Lonnie and Jane lined up together. Then Audrey and Ally jumped onto their shoulders. "Jay, Aziz, incoming!" Ally called as the five of them drew their blasters and unleashed the Auradon Triangle Spark.

The two guys flipped around Nightmare Shark and then kicked it closer to the blast before dodging to the sides themselves. The triangle spark took out the Nightmare Shark in an explosion.

"One down." Lonnie said happily.

"Ye guys deal with the Spear Spider Shark." Miranda said to them. "I'm going to go free up some help by dealing with the Shark Drake."

"I'll come with." Will said to her as he touched Lonnie's shoulder softly. The others nodded in agreement and the two rangers ran to help their newest ranger and to help Mal and Amy.

Undine swiped at Melody and she took a step back. Then Mal was in front of her and her staff connected with the sea witch's jaw. She lashed out and slashed Mal across the chest. Amy, who had been going to help her sister, flinched in the sudden pain in her chest and fell to the ground.

That was when Miranda came out and kicked Undine in the face hard. She fell back only to find Will was with the Highlands ranger as well. "Shark Drake, finish off these five." She ordered.

Mal was by Amy's side and was ready to fight though her little sister didn't seem quite as quick to recover. It didn't matter. Will, Melody and Miranda stood ready to fight the Shark Drake monster.

He leapt out and tried to attack Will, who raised his recursive sword to block the attack. Melody moved in and kicked the monster straight in the chest. He stumbled backwards with a growl just as Miranda moved in and brought her swords straight down on the shark monster's wrists, snapping the blades off of the arms.

Undine's anger grew as she watched the three rangers overcoming yet another of her shark mutants. She found herself blaming Melody for ruining her entire plan despite the fact the daughter of Ariel had not been there when Mal used her magic to take the sword from her and return it to Ben.

Speaking of the newly powered Auradon Knight he was clashing with Chad. Both boys could feel some extra power working through them as if the demons and the ancient civilization were indeed continuing their war through the two of them. Mal could even feel both of their essences, and the demon one made her worry for Auradon in a way that Paradias hadn't. But at least her beloved was holding his own.

Miranda now came in between Will and Melody. "I think it's time we finish this shark off." She announced as she placed her blades point out toward Shark Drake "Are ye two with me?"

Will placed his recursive sword on her left blade. "I'm with you." he answered.

Melody wasn't sure what to expect for a minute but decided they had nothing to lose. "Let's do it." She agreed. She placed the trident on her other blade.

Energy channeled from the trident and even to a degree the recursive sword. Both channels of energy were unleashed from the tips of the blades and struck the Shark Drake. Even as the weapons were separated and the aqua, green, and highlands ranger turned their backs on the monster to check on Mal and Amy the monster exploded in an explosive burst.

Undine watched in anger and even a little horror as she realized how quickly the tide had turned. It left her, Chad, and the Spear Spider Shark standing. Again she found herself irrationally pinning it all on Melody. "You little brat." She said with a glare and charged Melody, knocking her to the ground hard. "You've ruined everything."

Miranda reacted, kicking the sea witch in the face hard. "Now that's hardly fair." She said. "It's not her fault that you were destined to fail because ye chose the wrong side." Will was now by her side to help her fight.

Amy helped Melody stand up even as Undine backed up to watch Miranda, waiting for the next move from the two rangers. Mal was on her other side. "If she this is her fault then I'd say it's something worth taking pride in." The purple ranger stated. "You've made no small amount of effort to try to take us out."

Except it wasn't over yet as the Spider Spear Shark kneeled again on two appendages as the other six were brought up with its appendages to unleash a massive stream of energy at the other rangers and sending them flying backwards hard.

The five rangers came over and joined them. Will helped Lonnie to stand. "Are you alright?" He asked her.

"I think so." She said and sighed a bit. "He hits really hard."

"Let's see if fourteen rangers can put this thing down." Mal declared. Then she looked at Jane. "Hey, is that a record?" She asked.

"I do believe so." Jane answered with a smirk.

Undine headed toward the water. "This isn't over rangers. Melody." She said with a venomous tone to her voice. The aqua ranger realized that she was destined to continue the rivalry that her grandfather and her mother had been involved with. "You haven't seen the last of me." With that she dove into the water, and a splash from behind them confirmed that the Spear Spider Shark had taken a dive too, leaving Chad and the team alone.

"Let's go help Ben." Mal said to them. She was worried about the energies coming off of Chad now that the Praeleanthor sword had come into their position.

The two boys clashed, neither gaining an edge over the other. Their supernatural blades and their powers made them equal matches to each other though none of them liked that turn of events. Chad started to back off though as the other rangers approached. He'd been so busy with Ben that he didn't even realize an aqua ranger was now part of the team.

"This isn't over Ben." Chad said. "Our war is only heating up." Ben noted he no longer said it was starting. He had bonded with Maledict's blade just as much as Ben had bonded with the Praeleanthor sword. His former friend vanished.

"Ben?" Mal asked wearily as she took a step toward him. She had a brief fear that she had lost him.

But Ben turned back to her and sheathed his sword. "Looks like we did it." He said and came over to her, wrapping her in a hug. When he set Mal down they all powered down. Now it was Amy and Audrey's turn to hug Ben. Jay and Will exchanged high fives with the young king.

"Thank you for coming to help us." Jane said to Melody. She knew her mother would run a check on her as well but had a feeling she would turn out to be fine. The fact that she was King Triton's granddaughter would help too. He had been around as long as her mother had.

They saw that Melody willed the trident to turn into an object no smaller than a charm, which she clipped onto the necklace she wore. "I'm glad I got here in enough time. Everything I was hearing from my granddad made it seem like I might not get here soon enough."

"One could argue that you didn't." Carlos said jokingly and Jane smacked him in the arm playfully. "But what matters is that you did get here."

"Undine is here now." Amy said softly. "That's bad. She was so cruel and ruthless." She looked to the Auradon teens. "She'll stop at nothing to get what she wants. She knows no boundaries or restrictions. All that matters to her is her agendas."

"It doesn't matter, we can deal with her." Mal promised her sister and looked to the team. "Together."

"How did Undine even get off the island?" Evie asked.

"My granddad said it was a spell that was cast that tried to change the world." Melody volunteered. "And that Undine might not have been the only one to have their fates changed."

Mal let out an irritated sigh. "Again our mother doing what she does best; being evil." She placed her hand gently on her twin sister's shoulder. "When she cast that spell to try to eliminate the Auradon Rangers she probably found a way to get some of the villains off the Isle of the Lost."

"Um, my question would be if that's true then who else is out there that we have to worry about?" Audrey wondered.

"Don't suppose you took population counts from the Isle of the Lost?" Carlos questioned, only half seriously.

"No way." Ben said. "We wouldn't send people in there if we didn't have to and technology doesn't work on the isle, not even from the air like satellite technology."

"So the only way to know if there are others like Undine is when they show up to make our lives miserable." Aziz concluded with an eye roll. "Just swell." Ally wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.

Evie looked back at the beach. "Undine is out there, that spider shark thing is still out there, and so are those two sea creatures." The blue haired girl shuddered a bit. "I don't think I can ever look at the beach the same way again."

"That Daedalus is quite a fearsome sight." Melody agreed as she stepped closer to the water. "My mom told me stories about it and the fact that it was supposed to be extinct." She leaned down and ran her hand gently through the cold water.

"Um, excuse me but I think the thing that took down the fearsome creature is even more of a concern." Carlos said to her.

Melody laughed. "No, that one isn't. It's also a legendary creature but it's a friend. A powerful one." She sighed a bit. "My grandfather told me that a long time ago something happened that dried out nearly all of the water on the entire planet. That creature showed up and revitalized the oceans that we now have on the planet."

"Do you know a lot about the sea?" Amy asked her curiously.

"Kind of late, but yes." Melody answered. "See when I was born I wasn't allowed near the ocean though it would take years before I would learn why that was. When that was finally settled and my mom started to tell me everything about what she was and my grandfather started telling me about the ocean's history…well I was like a sponge, wanting to know everything that I could." She explained as she stood up.

"Are you a mermaid?" Ally asked now.

"I wasn't born one, and I'm not a permanent one now." Melody answered. She held up her hand which held the ring. "This is something that my grandfather made for me. As long as I wear this ring I can control whether I want to be a mermaid or not. Sometimes I go swimming as one."

"Really? That sounds so cool." Amy said with a smile.

"How did your grandfather make that ring?" Jane asked now. She had never heard of anything like that before and when one added the fact magic seemed to be officially forbidden in Auradon it left some interesting questions.

Melody shrugged. "I don't know. He just presented it to me one day." She replied.

"We better go back to the castle so that mom and the other rangers know I got my powers back." Ben said to them. "We can talk more on the way."

"And I know exactly what we're going to talk about." Melody interjected. "What other rangers? Where are they? Why aren't they here?" She joined her new team.

"Don't worry about that." Amy said to her with a wide smile. She thought she could get to like this girl. "We'll explain everything on the way."

And so they took turns doing just that. They explained that they were the only team in Auradon but that their powers had come from a wizard named Zordon who resided in another world where the rest of the rangers came from. They told her everything they knew about the rangers of Earth, speaking very highly of the Power Rangers, Zeo Rangers, and Space Rangers. It was Amy who told her that despite everything they said and everything they did to help out the newest rangers in the legacy line that all it seemed all was not as calm in their world as it seemed.

They arrived in the castle and went to the library where they found Belle working with Snow White and Aurora to get her library organized again. Belle embraced her son as well as Mal and Amy. She smiled widely as Ben told her he was a knight again and eagerly examined the Praeleanthor sword when he summoned it.

Snow White was happy to see her step-sister, greeting her with a warm hug. Audrey was happy to see her mother and the two embraced. Aurora gave Jay a warm smile as well and reached out to squeeze his hand. The three women greeted the newest ranger with open arms as well though none of them had really met Ariel or Eric.

As Jane worked to establish the connection to the Earth rangers Amy slipped over to the table to pick up the book she was reading that morning. She was glad to get off her feet, the battle on the beach had been murder as far as she was concerned. She flipped open the book and the made a quite hiss of pain as she got a paper cut across the palm of her right hand from the page, one of the few things she hated about reading.

Meanwhile on nearly the other side of the room Mal felt a bit hungry and picked up an apple. She was about to take a bite when she felt a stinging on her palm. She gritted her teeth and looked down to see a very thin but quite painful cut on her palm that reminded her of a paper cut.

In a bubble Maleficent's head floated in front of Undine. "We failed to get that sword like we had hoped but I was able to get one thing done." The sea witch told the evil fairy with the last remaining shark warrior floating behind her. "I slipped your daughters what you wanted me to give them. This should prove to be very interesting."

"Indeed it shall." Maleficent agreed with a laugh. "Let's see how long my ungrateful little daughters can keep quiet about this."

A/N: I'm curious to see if anyone can correctly tell me what it was that Melody asked to come help them against Daedalus. Let me know what you think.


	70. Dealing with the Leftovers

"As you can see, I reign supreme." Audrey said to Mal as she took an elegant bow beside the newly made bed in the new room that Evie and Miranda were going to share.

Mal gave a slow burst of half claps. "Oh, yeah. You are the absolute queen when it comes to making an impeccable bed." She said with amused laughter as Audrey took another bow. She had thrown together Miranda's bed while Mal had made Evie's.

From the dresser both Amy and Lonnie had to laugh a bit at the purple haired girl and the brunette princess. It made them all feel kind of good though that they could all laugh so comfortably, even with the on and off tension that Amy seemed to have around Audrey.

Of course the rose haired girl could also acknowledge why that tension had been there too. A part of it had been knowing what she did about Ben's status with her when her sister and friends had first come to Auradon and the hostility she had initially shown them. But she also knew that they had worked past it, and the friendly display of bed making between the two was evidence right there. No, the real reason was because Audrey's worst attitude had seemed so similar to Undine at her best and that had scared her. But getting to know Audrey and getting unwittingly reacquainted with Undine reminded her just how far Audrey was from that level.

While the four of them were getting Evie and Miranda moved in Melody, Ally, Jordan and Miranda herself were working on the room next door where Melody would be staying at, but not alone. Two new students were transferring to Auradon Prep. This was no rumor as Mal, Amy, Jordan, Jane and the newly enrolled magical student Melody had heard this from Fairy Godmother herself in their magic class, and the two new students would in fact be joining them in that class. They knew one of them was a girl since she would be staying with Melody.

The other was a boy as he would be staying with Ben, the young king and volunteered for that one. Will, Aziz, Jay and Ben were at the boy's dorm getting that ready. Carlos, Doug and Jane were at the command center working on a new weapon. They still had other problems after all.

With the two beds made Audrey and Mal went to grab a couple more things from the room that Amy and Mal would now share. It was then that Audrey decided to ask Mal about what she had noticed earlier. "What happened to your hand?" She inquired.

Mal paused. She wasn't sure exactly what to tell Audrey. "I don't know, I wasn't paying attention when it happened." She told the brunette princess and her second in command. "I just kind of got a small, nasty cut there." She reached for some of Evie's things. "Like a paper cut but I don't know where."

Audrey had gotten a couple of paper cuts in her life without knowing where, but none big enough for the wrappings the purple haired girl had on. "I'm guessing you got yourself pretty good." She replied.

"Seems like it." Mal agreed, still sounding confused about how that happened. Since she was not facing Audrey the brunette princess didn't see Mal flinch slightly.

Meanwhile Amy's hand brushed the dresser and she flinched. "Are you okay?" Lonnie asked her fellow pink ranger.

"I got a paper cut yesterday on my palm. It's still kind of sensitive to pressure." Amy explained to her.

"Those really are the worst kinds of injuries." Lonnie said with a nod. "There are those who say a paper cut is worse than being shot, but I don't know if anyone has ever put that to the test before."

"I sure wouldn't want to be the one to try that experiment out." Amy noted.

"Can't say I blame you there." Lonnie assured her.

Mal and Audrey came back with some of Evie's stuff just Evie herself came in. "Cool." She said as she looked at the beds. "Great job." She started forward to deal with the things that were most important to her; her clothes. "Amy, this would look so cute on you." She commented to the younger twin.

Amy glanced over. The single shoulder strapped silk top did look kind of nice but it wasn't her color. "It's cute, but I think it would clash with my hair." She noted.

"What doesn't?" Audrey said with a smile. For a moment Amy wasn't sure how she should take that. "Oh, wait. Maybe the cashmere tank I have wouldn't. It might look a little big on you but the right pair of pants would mitigate that one." She added. Amy gave a little mock glare at the fact that Audrey had pointed out she was a smaller than them, but she couldn't go off on her for that when Mal did that to her too, and she had come to realize Audrey was almost as much of a sister as Lonnie or Jane. And in fairness she had offered to let Amy try on something of hers.

"Okay." Amy said with a nod. "That'd be great." She said.

"Oh, wait." Mal said and looked to Audrey. "It's that one you wore to the beach the first time we all went, right?" She asked and the brunette princess nodded. Mal looked to her sister. "Yep, that will look really good on you."

"I think I have a headband you could borrow too." Lonnie said to her.

Amy rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay I get it." She said with a giggle. "We'll try it sometime but I'm not a dress up doll." Lonnie gave her a quick squeeze around the shoulders. "So how is Melody's room coming along?"

"It's pretty much done." Evie answered her as she hung the top that had started the conversation in the first place in the closet. "Melody hasn't gotten a lot of her stuff from her own room yet because she wasn't entirely sure she'd end up enrolling here."

"She might have to go out to replace some of it." Mal said as she set Evie's makeup box on the table in the center. "Miranda might have to as well come to think of it. She didn't get the chance to bring stuff either, and her home isn't around the proverbial corner the way that most of ours are."

"No, it's further away, kind of like Agrabah." Audrey agreed and frowned a little. "How do you think they do it?" She mused and the girls looked at her. "Being so far away. I mean we're in basically a boarding school but nothing is stopping me from going home to my parents if I wanted too." She looked to Lonnie who had to nod in agreement as nothing was stopping her either. She looked to Mal and Amy. "I know the concept of going home is a little weird but tell me you couldn't see yourselves spending a large amount of time in the caste with Ben and his family."

They couldn't. Amy couldn't think of anything else she would rather do with her spare time than to sit in Belle's library and read all of the books contained within it. It had helped also that she had seen a whole history section of the sea in there that she was sure Melody would have liked too. She had never found anyone who she could have literary discussions with and liked that she could be one of those. Mal meanwhile would have preferred to spend time with Ben of course but they could do that anywhere, including the castle.

Evie also knew if she wanted too she could have moved in with her step-sister. They had already discussed spending a weekend together if the circumstances ever allowed it to happen. Audrey was also sure her parents would let Jay come if she asked them. Whether or not he would be willing was another matter but not something she was worried about pursuing at the moment. Carlos wasn't exactly that lucky as he had not found any relatives like Evie had and he had not really bonded closely with anyone outside of the team, though being interested in Jane had potential.

The looks on the twins' faces proved Audrey's point. "But Aziz, Jordan and now Miranda don't have the option of spending a weekend at home with their parents." She made eye contact with each of them as she spoke. "I just wonder sometimes how they do it."

It was Mal who spoke now. "Because they have us. We're their family now too. Alice has accepted Aziz here just as Aladdin and Jasmine accepted Ally there. Miranda and Jordan…well, it's harder to figure that one out. Miranda just got here after all and Jordan is, well she's kind of an enigma. Sometimes she seems to be so glad to be around all of us and sometimes it's like she wonders why she sticks around." Mal replied.

"I think that might be a genie thing." Evie volunteered. "They have all that power and they think it separates them." She hung a couple of dressed protected by plastic in the closet now. "Only being a ranger has made Jordan think that maybe it isn't that simple."

"Does that apply to evil too?" Audrey asked curiously.

After a moment's thought Mal nodded. "I think for some it does." She agreed. "Mom always tried to raise me to be as evil as she was and for a long time it seemed like it was working, Amy notwithstanding." She sat on Evie's bed and Amy came over to sit by her. "I saw Evie as a threat if she ever got past herself, no offense." She added to Evie as the blue haired girl laughed a little and nodded her understanding. "And Carlos as…well, not."

"What does that mean?" Lonnie asked, not sure she understood.

"What Mal means is that look at the three of us. Mal's mom cursed a baby and tried to kill the prince who was going to awaken her. My mom tried to kill Snow White because she was prettier. Jay's dad tried to take over Agrabah, has killed countless people and even sought unimagined power." Evie explained as she leaned against the closet door. "And then you have Carlos, whose mother tried to kill Dalmatians for a fur coat."

"Many places have animal cruelty laws against things like that." Audrey pointed out.

"I know." Evie nodded. "But really it doesn't equal out on the grand scale compared to attempted murderers and despots."

"Okay, she has a point." Lonnie conceded.

"Exactly." Mal agreed. "For the longest time I never even understood why they were there and thought they were kind of just wasting space." She sighed a bit as she thought about the days on the isle. "For the longest time Amy was my one ray of…well, hope of goodness there. It was a long time before the four of us became the friends you saw being drafted into your school."

"That's not precisely true." Amy interrupted. "Remember the class with Ms. Gothell. She asked how far each of us would go to achieve our evil goals." She rolled her eyes a little. "I of course failed that miserably, adding to my mother's crushing disappointment in me. But one of the few lines Mal was not willing to cross was to kill."

Audrey and Lonnie smiled a little at that one. It was nice to hear.

"You guys have it a little easier." Evie noted softly. "When was the last time you two disappointed your parents or truly thought that they didn't love you?" She asked the Auradon princesses.

They didn't even have to think about that one. "Never." They said as if it were rehearsed. Audrey knew even a year ago her mother had not exactly approved of her attitude but she had never confronted her about that. It was a sense though that seemed to have diminished ever since Audrey had become a power ranger.

"That was never our lives." Amy said softly. "And even though Cinderella is coming to realize she has lost her son, there is a part of her that will always love him for what he was. It's something I could never expect from my mother."

Silence reigned for a moment before Ally, Melody, Jordan and Miranda came in. The could feel the grave atmosphere from the conversation. Melody moved over and sat in front of Amy, taking her hand. She squeezed back gently.

"We were…talking a bit about our lives." Evie said as she brushed away a small tear. "How different it is here from the Isle and how different our families are."

"I can only imagine." Miranda said gently. Her grandmother was strong willed, her mother was extremely strong willed and the third generation continued that tradition in spades. But behind all of that they all loved each other. She couldn't imagine it any other way. "I wish I knew what to say."

"There's nothing to say." Mal said simply. "What's done is done, the past is the past." She smiled at the girls there and thought of Will, Jay, Carlos, Jane, Aziz, the closeness they'd made with the Auradon teens families and of course Ben, he was never far from her thoughts. "What matters is what we have here and now. And one thing is clear;" She squeezed her sister's shoulders as she looked at them all, stopping at Evie and Audrey. "It's as strong as steel."

"Right on." Amy agreed with a smile at everyone including Audrey and a kiss on Mal's cheek.

The iPhones chose that moment to go off. Melody seemed shocked as she had not gotten one yet, like Jane she transformed with an item rather than an iPhone. Miranda and Amy weren't entirely used to the various tone. The rest knew it was a monster alert. "We need to get to the command center." Ally said. The girls left the dorm areas.

Getting to the command center was easy enough and the guys were already there. Lonnie wrapped Will in a hug, Audrey wrapped Jay in a hug, and Mal wrapped Ben in a hug. Evie made her way to the top to put a soft hand on Doug's arm. "What's going on?" She asked.

"It's back." Doug told them all even as he looked to Evie. He pressed a button and on the screen was the one who got away, Spider Spear Shark had reemerged from the beach. This time it was full of innocent people who were trying to get away.

With a gasp and a curse he realized that Whitney and Callie were there too. Cinderella had taken the two girls to the beach after school that day. "We have to go." He said.

"We do." Mal agreed. They started out of the command center and took out their iPhones, except for Ben, Jane and Melody who retrieved their items of power. As they left campus toward the beach they transformed.

Whitney and Callie had screamed the instant they saw the thing. It was a mix of a shark and spider, how could they not? Then it had started to leave the ocean and it was freaking people out. It had snapped at Callie's leg and only Whitney pulling her away, both of them tumbling into the sand, stopped that nasty bite.

Some of them tried to distract the creature but were easily tossed aside by the appendages which looked sturdier than it would on a normal spider. It had given Cinderella enough time to pull her daughter and her friend away from immediate harm.

In all honesty it didn't seem to care who got hurt. A slice of the bladed arm left a deep gash in one of the lifeguard's arms. An off duty guard who worked at Aurora's castle still tried to get in the way and received broken ribs for his trouble.

Whitney picked up a glass and tossed it at the monster. It shattered on the face, leaving a small trail of what she could only assume was blood from a cut. It growled at her and started forward. "I'm going to tear you apart for that little girl." He warned.

"Leave her alone." Callie tried to demand and caused it to laugh at her too.

"Yeah, that seems like a good idea to me too." They heard. Whitney laughed in delight as the green ranger, her brother, kicked the thing in the muzzle hard and then slashed it with his recursive sword. Then she saw the other rangers show up too, including an aqua one she had never seen before.

"Did Undine come with?" Amy asked a little worried and a little wearily.

"I don't see her." Melody told the rose ranger.

"We have to worry about what's in front of us." Carlos said. "Because it's ugly and angry and looks ready to try to take out heads off."

"Doug, how long before our weapon is ready?" Jane asked over the helmet intercom.

"Another few minutes for the finishing touches." He replied and the white ranger even thought she could hear him working in the background. "Just try to keep him busy for that long."

Spider Spear Shark lowered its body and raised six of its appendages and fired at them , sending them all sprawling through the sand. Amy felt a sharp pain on her right elbow which was odd since she landed on her left side. Mal meanwhile felt her left ankle give a bit of protest despite landing on her right side.

Moving quickly the Spear Spider Shark started toward the team. Ben was up with the Praeleanthor sword and Will was up with his recursive blade. They moved in and blocked the descending blades from the arms of the shark mutant.

"Legs that should be as flimsy as silk, feel the clamping of everlasting restraint." Mal called out with a flash of green in her eyes. For an instant the monster felt restrained but the spell had one flaw there; the appendages were not flimsy at all and in fact snapped through the attempted restraints.

It was enough of a distraction though that Jay and Lonnie leaped out and struck the monster with their weapons. Audrey and Melody followed through by swinging their long elemental bow and trident against the monster's appendages, causing the thing to tumble over.

"Looks like he's fallen and can't get up." Carlos quipped as they saw the struggle the monster was having trying to stand up again since the appendages couldn't get a firm grip on the sand and his arms ended in swords.

"Now would be a great time for that weapon." Evie said to Jane.

"I know but I don't think it's ready yet." Jane replied.

Then the Spear Spider Shark rotated around to face them and lowered its appendages at them and fired again. Evie moved in with her mirror force shield and collected the energy to reflect it back at the monster. It worked, but the impact got the monster on its feet again.

"Clever move." Aziz had to grant. He was glad the monster didn't seem to have enough intelligence to speak and accept the begrudging compliment.

It started to attack with its appendages again but this time the group scattered to avoid the attack. It then lashed out and struck Mal hard in the chest. She hit the ground hard and had to struggle to recover her breath.

Melody gasped in shock as Amy, who couldn't have been any further from the monster at that moment without not being part of the battle, reacted the same way. She wasn't sure what to make of that.

Any attempts to capitalize on Mal's recovery was aborted, once again by Ben but this time with Audrey backing him up. The both took a swing at the monster but he leapt back to get some bearing and then brought the bladed arms right down on both red ranger and Auradon Knight.

Jay and Lonnie moved in on the monster now even as Ally and Carlos tried to get to the back and flank it. The monster swiped at the black and pink rangers, both of whom managed to block the attack, and then was caught off guard as Carlos's claws struck his back and Ally's crystal cards cut into him in several places.

Spider Spear Shark immediately whirled around, slashing Jay and Lonnie with one of the swords in the process and turned to the two rangers. One blade got Carlos in the chest hard even as its jaws clamped around Ally's waist. She let out a scream of pain.

"Let her go." Aziz demanded as he moved in with his spear. He wasn't sure how to free Ally though without the chance of hurting her in the process. Jordan likewise took aim at him with her lamp cannon but as it twirled slightly she saw the chance that he'd get Ally as well.

Amy stood and bit her lip. She had to try something. "Melody." She said to the aqua ranger, to who she hoped was her friend. She reflected for an instant how nice it would be to have a friend that was truly hers and not a friend who she had met solely because of Mal. So far the daughter of Ariel was the closest one she had, not that it was easy to want what she wanted when normally she was so shy. "I have to try something. Be ready to blast that shark freak whether it works or not." She requested.

For a moment Melody hesitated and then shook her head. "I'll be ready to blast him when your idea does work." She corrected her confidently.

Amy started toward the monster and Ally in his jaws. She already knew she could walk through objects, the evidence of that being shown to everyone when he had slipped through the gladiator's barrier to fight him and give Mal the healing potion. She suspected she could even walk through people too but that had never been put to the test. The twist her was she had to slip by the shark thing, get a hold of Ally and move her into whatever influence she had to make herself able to do that, then get away from the shark monster as she wasn't sure energy would go through her. Especially magical energy like what the trident would generate.

The Spider Spear Shark saw her coming and unleashed a stream of energy at her with its blade. She barely dodged that, though she stumbled a bit. As she wasn't actually hurt though Mal didn't feel it, which was something that Melody did notice out of the corner of her eye as she waited for her time to act.

Amy leapt out, making herself go through the attempt blade strike from the shark. She came into contact with Ally's arm and let herself become solid to get a hold on it and her, then before it could cause any damage she tried to lose her consistency again, thinking it would either work and take Ally with her or it wouldn't at and at least she wouldn't harm Ally with the attempt.

It was to her surprise as much as anyone else's that Ally slipped out of the shark monster's grasp right along with her. Amy got worried though as she realized that she didn't have the energy to try to pull herself and Ally away from the monster, they would still get hit by Melody's attack.

Two things happened at once. Melody followed through with her agreement with Amy no matter how reluctant that was and unleashed a stream of energy at the shark monster from the trident even as Miranda herself used her own time manipulation to get a hold of Amy and Ally and moved them out of the way.

"Next time ye try a crazy stunt like that, it might be a good idea to let me know about it so I'm prepared to save you next time." Miranda said to Amy as she sat them down.

Amy blushed a little at the point. "Yeah, you're right. I'll have to remember that." She admitted.

The team got back together as the attack ended and the Spider Spear Shark was again on its back. "Doug, is it ready yet?" Mal asked now.

"Ready and waiting." Doug said to them with triumph in his voice. Mal, you'll have to be in the back of the formation, everyone else needs to be in a two by two formation."

Each of the were curious, except Jane who knew what this was about since she had helped design it. "Come on everyone, let's make it so." Jane said.

Mal stood in back as Doug had said to do. Then they lined up in pairs; Melody and Amy, Ben and Evie, Audrey and Jay, Ally and Aziz, Jordan and Miranda, Will and Lonnie, Carlos and Jane. "It's time for the Auradon launcher." Jane said and a large object like a bazooka appeared in their hands. It was vaguely reminiscent of the zeo cannon that the Zeo rangers had used on the isle.

The Spider Spear Shark managed to get itself upright by then. With their hands on the launcher they could feel the energy being drawn into the cannon. Mal pulled a little switch in back and let some of that gather before saying, "Auradon launcher charged and ready to go." She glanced up at the small screen and saw it had targeted the monster that was trying to approach them. "Locked and loaded, firing." The launcher released a huge stream of energy that headed straight toward the monster and caused it to explode in huge blaze of glory.

The launcher disappeared even as Jay shouted out, "Yes !" And then swept Audrey up into his arms with an enthusiastic hug. He could hear Audrey laughing in delight.

"Awesome." Melody said with a giggle and Amy laughed too. "That felt so cool."

Jordan realized one thing with that. She could feel echoes of power from the ancient civilization that the Earth rangers had said built the Praeleanthor sword and the other mystery weapon. She was sure that at least that power could be trusted, quite unlike the Maledict blade that Chad used.

"Will." Whitney said and ran over to hug him. He knelt down to pick up his little sister.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"Yes, thanks to you." She looked to the other rangers. "Thanks to all of you." She wasn't quite old enough yet to know that Lonnie and Will were dating but she was smart enough to know they were close in some way and so she saved her broadest smile for the pink ranger.

"That worked great." Evie said to both Jane and Doug. "Thanks so much."

Cinderella promised to get Whitney home and the team powered down and returned to the command center. Melody stopped Miranda and let the others get a little ahead of them. "Something is wrong with Mal and Amy." She said softly.

Miranda thought about trying to say she was wrong but there was no point. "Aye, I've noticed that too. Ever since we met that sea witch." She replied. "I noticed that Mal has wrappings over right hand and heard her tell Audrey it was from a paper cut."

"Amy has a paper cut on her right palm too, from yesterday." Melody said. "And I've noticed Amy reacted to Mal's pain during that initial burst today. They landed on opposite sides of their bodies."

Miranda pointed out the thing that Melody hadn't gotten to point out as yet. "But when Amy stumbled on her way to assist Ally, Mal didn't seem to feel that one." She said. "I think whatever's going on, whatever it was that Undine did it's only related to pain."

"I mean I suppose we could be wrong." Melody allowed reluctantly. "They are twins and they can feel things about each other after all." She shook her head. "But something tells me not that kind of extent."

"Ye haven't heard that when Mal and the others arrived here, Maleficent forced them to forget about Amy." Miranda said to her. "If they were able to feel each other's pain then there is no way that she could have forced Amy from Mal's mind." She shook her head softly. "No, something else is goin' on here and we have to find out what, somehow."

They found Fairy Godmother and Doug waiting for them at the entrance to Auradon Prep. Evie went over and placed her hands on Doug's and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. When she pulled back he was blushing and she giggled, "That was for the extraordinary weapon that we got."

"You know Jane had a hand in that too." Carlos reminded Evie.

Evie laughed. "That she did and I thank her too for that." She said with a smile at Jane. "But if a kiss like that is in order I think it's going to have to come from you." That got giggles from the girls when his face lit up like a Christmas tree.

Fairy Godmother felt like she had to put that one on the back burner. "Children, we're actually here because we wanted you guys to meet a couple people." She looked at those in her magic class. She knew Evie should be there, they all did, including the blue haired girl, but she refused to take an active role in it and she wasn't going to make Evie do so.

At a table nearby sat a boy with short brunette hair and eyes that seemed almost full of fire and energy. He was scribbling in a notebook as if that were the only way to contain that nervous energy. Across from was a girl with long blonde hair and light blue eyes. Her reaction was the opposite of the boys as she sat there with perfect calm as she read a book. Amy's eyes brightened when she saw it was a book she had read many times even on the isle. They both turned to see the approaching crowd and both offered smiles of warm greeting.

"Mal, Amy, Princess Audrey, King Ben, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Princess Lonnie, Jane, Jordan, Ally, Prince Aziz, Will, Princess Miranda and Princess Melody." Fairy Godmother introduced as formally as possible, never in fact having used the royal terms in introductions before. "Meet Prince Alex and Princess Ellie of Arendelle; the son of Princess Anna and the daughter of Queen Elsa."


	71. Connection Gone Wrong

At first upon seeing Ellie Melody thought she might be rooming with a cold fish (no puns intended on either of their mothers) but as they sat down Ellie looked to her. "I hear you're my roommate." She said. "I look forward to getting to know you."

"Me too." Melody said, feeling a little better. Ellie then exchanged friendly smiles with Amy as she sat down.

"Fairy Godmother is right, you definitely don't seem like your mother." Ellie said to her. "You seem much friendlier."

"I've always been an embarrassment to my mom." Amy said a little sadly but cheered up a bit when Ellie smiled at her.

"Funny, I've heard the same thing said occasionally about my cousin or aunt. You should see how angry mom gets when she hears it. Me." She shrugged her shoulder. "I don't like it but that's their problem, not mine. I know what they're really like and I bet you're so much more than your mom is smart enough to see."

Amy knew she should be somewhat upset at her mother being dismissed like that and if it had been Mal maybe she would have been, but Amy wasn't bothered by it. Her relationship with Maleficent was all but nonexistent. "Thank you, it's nice to hear that." She admitted softly.

"So what brings you two to Auradon Prep?" Audrey asked the two of them.

"Well actually to be honest the big reason to come here to school instead of school in Arendelle is because we can't control our powers." Alex said casually.

"Um, come again?" Carlos asked.

"Well I can only assume you know about my aunt's special ice powers." Alex said, again so casually that they might as well have been talking about their dinner options. He leaned back a little bit and Lonnie was surprised he didn't fall off the bench. "And that would sadly include her inability to control the powers."

"We're all kind of aware of it." Ben replied. The various details of what had happened in Arendelle ever since Elsa's coronation were not exactly public knowledge outside of the town but it wasn't a well-kept secret either if one knew where to look.

"Did anyone ever figure out where the ice power came from?" Miranda asked them.

"No clue." Alex said with a shrug.

"I remember hearing that your mother couldn't control her powers." Lonnie said as diplomatically as possible. "Her parents tried to prevent her from using those powers and so she never learned how to control them. Then when she was coroneted her powers got away with her for a while."

"It's basically the truth." Ellie replied with equal diplomatic tones. "It's in fact something that my mother still sometimes struggles to control." She let out a soft sigh. "I've come across the same powers as my mother has." She revealed as she raised her hand and let a few snowflakes fall to the ground. "I have enough control not to hurt anyone on accident, as my mother did with Arendelle. But that's it."

"So you've come here to learn better control over your powers." Mal concluded. She hid the smirk from her face, not so much because the situation itself was funny but because she found it ironic they would come here where magic had been all but outlawed. They only had the magic class because that was being used in their fight against Paradias and his accomplices.

"So that explains you." Will agreed as with a glance at Ellie. He looked to Alex. "But why are you here?"

"Same reason." Alex said with a shrug. He was almost too casual about that for Melody's tastes. Once she had an understanding of the massive power of her grandfather's trident she had grown to respect that power for all the good it could do in the right hands, and the destruction it could cause in the wrong hands.

"What do you mean?" Aziz asked him. "I thought only Queen Elsa had powers, not Princess Anna."

"It's true." Alex agreed simply and then raised his hands up. Flames flared up in the palms. "So imagine both of our parents surprise when I did this." They could easily understand that, fire control was certainly something to be concerned about.

"Since no one here really knows how to gain control over powers like that, the best solution was to send them here and participate in my magic class." Fairy Godmother said.

"I might be able to help you with your powers Alex." Amy shyly said to him. "I have really good control over the four basic elements." She was very uncertain with new people but she loved to try to help.

"That'd be great." Alex said with a casual but sincere smile. "If you can do that then maybe I can figure out how to help you Ellie." He added with a smile at his cousin.

She smiled a small but warm smile. "That would be nice." She agreed. She had come to understand how her mother could be so reserved when her own powers had come in. She figured without the support of her family she might have tried to isolate herself just as her mother tried to do, and would have succeeded in too if it weren't for Aunt Anna.

"I don't mean to be mean here or anything." Jay now said. "But are we sure them rooming with Melody and Ben is a good idea if they can't control their powers completely?" He questioned. Audrey gave him a disapproving look, as did Mal even though she had to admit the concern was a valid one. But it could have been mentioned to Fairy Godmother in private.

"It's okay." Melody said. She looked to Ellie. "If something were to get out of hand I can diffuse it with the trident anyway."

"And I trust that Alex can control his powers." Ben said. "It'll be fine."

Jay nodded. "Okay then." He said, hoping it wasn't a mistake.

The next day Ellie and Alex came into class with no incident bigger than a temporarily frozen bath tub of water that Melody was able to melt away and a melted chocolate bar. Ellie reluctantly accepted an invitation from Melody to sit next to her, with Amy on the other side and Mal beside her twin. Alex took a seat and returned to his doodling. He felt a little unsure since the whole class before him was full of girls.

Fairy Godmother came into the classroom but it was still a bit early. "So what classes do Ben and everyone else take while you guys are in here?" Alex asked the girls. He had noticed on the way here that Ben had broken off to go to another room and that everyone from the group that was not in that room had been waiting for the young king too.

"Oh, uh they have English classes down there." Jane said. "And they all take some form of English classes at this time."

Ellie raised her eyebrows just a bit. She thought Jane had to be a really bad liar. She didn't pursue it though as she figured it wasn't really any of her business.

"Alright, well." Fairy Godmother intervened. "It's a little early but we're all here so we might as well start now." She paced the room a moment in thought. "Amy yesterday you volunteered to work with Alex, why don't you start now?" She suggested.

"Yes ma'am." Amy answered. She moved over to where Alex was and sat down next to him and she began to talk quietly with him.

Fairy Godmother looked to Ellie. "I received word last night from the maintenance staff about the water in the bathtub freezing up. It had an effect on some of the pipes as well though that was taken care of easily enough." She said to the new blonde. "It does that during the winter weather occasionally. But can you tell me what you were thinking of when it happened?"

Ellie thought a moment. "Not really. I remember missing my mother, but that was about all I can recall." She answered.

"Couldn't her powers be tied to her emotions?" Jane suggested. "Often times without a conduit like the magic wand or the trident control over magical powers is usually tied to a person's emotional state."

"Very good point Jane." Fairy Godmother agreed.

"But wouldn't that result in snow fall instead?" Mal asked now. "I mean if we tie sadness into weather then snow is the closest thing to rain and rain is equal to tears." She noticed smoke from Amy's hands and Alex waved his hand gently over the flame as if getting a feel for the fire she was using.

"Not if there were no tears." Jane replied. "If it's a general feeling of sadness it might just be cast onto something else like the tub of water."

The iPhones went off and Amy glanced at Mal. The alarm in her older twin's eyes told her what it was; a monster alarm. She sighed internally. "Mal, Amy, Jane, Melody, Jordan." Fairy Godmother called out. "I believe you guys have a test to go make up because of the time you spent in Agrabah." Mal tried to snicker at the excuse but they got up to leave.

"See you later." Melody said to Ellie. "I'll help you try to get a feel for the connection between your emotions and your powers later."

"We'll work tomorrow too." Amy promised Alex and the five girls left.

The two cousins exchanged curious glances. They both felt as if they were missing something.

The rangers showed up at the command center. Doug and Jane immediately got to work figuring out what had set off the alarms. They found both Undine and a large four legged reptile in armor and a holding a scythe with her. They were headed toward Auradon Prep.

"What is that?" Evie wondered. She glanced to Melody who was technically an undersea expert because of everything she had learned from her grandfather King Triton of Atlantica.

"If I remember right that's the Neptune Tyrant." Melody said. "It's a fairy legendary creature, said to be the executioner of the Neptune Kingdom."

"I've never heard of the Neptune Kingdom." Ben said. Granted he assumed it was an underwater one like Atlantica but he still would have thought they would have heard something about it.

"I'm not surprised. They're isolationists." Melody answered.

"Come again?" Carlos asked.

"They don't like contact with outsiders." Jordan translated.

"My grandfather told me he and my grandmother encountered them long before my first aunt was born. They wanted nothing to do with Atlantica and they told them to warn others to leave them alone." Melody continued to explain. "Apparently the only reason they let my grandparents go unmolested was because they needed someone to deliver their message."

"If that's the case then is one of their executioners with Undine?" Amy wondered. She could only assume sometime in the past they had their anti-contact request ignored, hence their decision to have executioners.

"I can only assume either Undine found a way around that or they've changed their mind, though not for the better apparently." Melody reasoned.

"Either way they're here causing trouble now." Audrey said. "We better put a stop to that."

"Of course." Mal agreed with a small sigh. Of course that was because it was yet another monster attack rather than anything to do with Audrey. "Let's find them and let's get to work." They left the command center and headed out of the school. Ben, Jane and Melody took out their items and transformed as the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

Finding the two opponents was not hard to do. Undine grinned broadly. "So nice to see you again." She said with amused scorn. "Amy, I never did break your legs again, did I?" She asked sweetly. "Remind me to make that happen." She glared at Melody. "And the torments I have planned for you…well let's just say you'll wish I had just killed you."

"You were always big on words Undine." Mal stated to her. "And you did a better job of backing those words up then some others I can think of, but you're still basically nothing."

Melody looked at Amy and couldn't help but ask softly, "Did she really break your legs?" Amy said nothing but her body posture told the aqua ranger what she needed to know and she was not happy about it.

"If ye think you're that good, then why don't we have a rematch ourselves?" Miranda said to Undine as she summoned her swords. She could already see that she had Will, Aziz and even Amy to back her up.

Melody wanted to help but thought those rangers who were about to face Neptune Tyrant needed her expertise to help them. Mal looked to Ben though. "Can you please help Amy with Undine?" She asked him softly.

Ben understood his girlfriend's feelings. "Of course. Go take down that other thing." He said to her. With that Mal lead Audrey, Carlos, Evie, Jay, Ally, Jordan, Lonnie, Melody and Jane toward the executioner of Neptune.

Neptune Tyrant swiped the seemingly massive scythe at the rangers and they all ducked under it except for Jay and Lonnie who timed it to jump off the scythe and bring their weapons down on the monster. The force of the attack might have been better if he didn't have the armor to help protect him.

Undine lashed out and her tentacles slapped Aziz in the chest and head hard. Even transformed it was enough of a stunning force to take him down for the moment. Then with the backlash she slapped Will and Amy hard.

Mal was beginning to get up herself when she was slapped down hard. Audrey looked to her. "Mal, are you okay?" She asked her, growing concerned. She couldn't see the look of grim confirmation on Melody's face.

"Just felt a bit dizzy as I stood up." Mal explained to her. "I'm fine."

Undine moved toward Amy as she flexed her shoulders. "Should I break your legs with my arms or my tentacles?" She asked with a malicious glare. Then she laughed. "My arms I think, it means I get to be closer to your body as you scream in pain."

"Don't be counting your chickens before they hatch Undine." Miranda cautioned her as she flipped in between the sea witch and the rose ranger. She jumped up and kicked her in the face hard, making her recoil backwards. Ben was Amy helping her up.

"That scythe is bigger than we are." Melody noted. "We can't beat that thing as long as he holds that thing."

"You're right." Jay agreed simply. "But how do we disarm something that large of that?"

Jane and Melody glanced at each other. They could only think of one thing. They said it at the same time. "Magic." Now Jane looked to Jordan. "And we're going to need your help too."

"We'll keep the thing distracted for you." Mal said to her. It struck her then how much their group had grown. She would be taking in Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie and Lonnie with her. The original six rangers, considering it didn't take long for Lonnie to become a ranger compared to everyone else including Ben. It had been a long time since they had been like that. "Work whatever spell you need too."

The six rangers moved in to surround Neptune Tyrant. He swung his scythe again, he was big enough and strong enough to swing at all of them but they were fast enough to see it coming and ducked the attack. "If that thing ever connects with us, I think it might just kill us even through our protection." Carlos noted.

"Then let's make sure it doesn't touch us." Audrey said to him. She raised her elemental bow and fired an arrow into his arm. He flinched a little but did not drop the scythe. Personally the red ranger was sure that wouldn't work but still wanted to give it a shot.

Mal moved in with her dragon's eye staff and slammed it into the monster's head. It glared at her and smacked her back hard with its massive elbow. The purple ranger recoiled and she was surprised her jaw didn't break.

Amy suddenly fell back hard and Ben looked to her trying to figure out what had hit her. Miranda noticed that too and lost her focus, which was when Undine smacked her hard and sent her flying into Ben. Will moved in to cover them.

Jordan raised her lamp cannon. Jane tapped the magic wand on one side of the weapon while Melody tapped the trident on the other side of the weapon and with the combined magic Jordan shot at the large reptilian monster with her lamp cannon. The beam struck his hands and he lost his grip on the weapon, the scythe went flying into the water.

The monster turned glanced around trying to figure out which ranger to strike at first.

Will paced Undine and she raised her tentacles and unleashed a stream of inky goo at the green ranger, making him fall back hard. The force of the impact caused him to crash into Aziz. Ben and Miranda were still trying to get up themselves and Undine lashed out at Amy, crashing into her body hard.

Evie gasped as Mal went flying herself and landing hard. "M?" she questioned as she looked around to see what had hit her and wasn't seeing anything, at least not until a massive fist hit her in the chest hard but that was from Neptune Tyrant.

Undine looked down at Amy cruelly. "I won't waste the time on seeing your pretty little face." She said contemptuously. Instead a tentacle wrapped around her waist and she reached out with her hands to grasp Amy's ankles and she gave them both a sharp twist that snapped her legs from the knees down. The rose haired girl let out a loud scream of pain and was working hard not to pass out.

Mal reacted first to the scream but before she could do anything more she felt her legs give way as she got her legs broken in the same manner as Amy had just felt. She didn't scream but she let out a gasp that got everyone's attention before she literally bit her lip to stop herself from screaming.

That really drew attention as no one could figure out who had broken Mal's legs even as it was obvious who had broken Amy's legs. Then Undine let out a wicked cackle. "Oh, it works! Just as Maleficent said it would." She started to lean into Amy. "I wonder what else I can do to you that your sister will feel."

Melody broke away from Jordan and Jane and started toward Undine. She used the trident to knock her off of Amy. By that time Ben and Aziz had recovered and for a moment he was trying to figure out who to go to, Mal or Amy, but when he noticed Mal already had Audrey and Evie trying to get to her he decided to focus on how to help Amy. "Go help the others." Melody told Aziz. She faced off against Undine but Miranda was by her side now too.

Evie was by Mal's side. "M? How did that happen? What's going on?" She asked her. It seemed as if her chosen sister wanted to talk but couldn't work past the pain.

"What's going on?" Jay wanted to know. "No one's been attacking Mal at all when she was getting hurt."

"I don't know what to tell you." Evie said to him. "I don't know what's going on either."

Jane came over and leaned down next to Mal. "I'm surprised she's still conscious with both of her legs broken like that." She said shakily. There was a roar and Neptune Tyrant tried to barrel down on them before getting kicked in the chest hard by Audrey, Lonnie and Carlos.

Audrey turned to them. "This isn't over yet." She reminded them all softly. "I'm concerned about this too but if we don't get rid of this monster Mal might not be the only one left broken on the sands."

Jay took a deep breath and realized his girlfriend was right. He touched Evie's shoulders. "We have to help finish this thing off." He told the blue ranger. He then looked to the white ranger. "Can you do whatever you can to take care of Mal?" he asked.

Jane nodded. "Of course. Go finish this thing off." She answered.

Meanwhile Undine was being paced by both Miranda and Melody. "What did you do to Mal and Amy?" The aqua ranger demanded to know.

"I simply gave them mother's punishment." Undine said with wicked gleam in her eyes. "For being disobedient spoiled brats."

"Do ye have any idea how absolutely pathetic that sounds?" Miranda asked. "How do we reverse it?"

"What makes you think it's reversible?" Undine shot back and then raised her tentacles to fire the inky goo at the two new ranger girls.

Both Miranda and Melody headed toward the sea witch, flipping at the best time to avoid the nasty stream that was headed their way. Miranda landed in front of her and kicked Undine in the stomach hard. Melody rolled up behind the sea witch and tripped her with the end of the trident. She hit the ground hard. She then had two sword edges and a three pronged trident at her throat.

"Okay so what's the plan?" Evie asked Audrey. "How do we defeat this monster?"

"Maybe with some additional help?" Aziz suggested as he came over with Jordan. He could also see Ally coming over to them with Undine seemingly pinned down. Will was staying over there with his recursive sword in case something happened while Ben tended to a Amy in whatever way he could.

Audrey looked to Jordan. "We need to help Mal and Amy." She said to the gold ranger. "Is there something you can mix out here for that?" She asked.

Jordan thought a moment. "Yeah, I think so." She said finally.

"Do that then." Audrey said to the genie girl. "The rest of us will take the tyrant lizard thing out."

"Which brings us to the plan in question." Carlos pointed out. "Especially since I think there's a chance that armor will stop any attack we try to give it as long as it stays whole."

Audrey nodded. "That it does." She agreed and looked to Aziz. "I hate to ask you to take the big risk here but do you think you can distract this thing long enough for us to get a triangle spark going? Maybe even find a way to damage that armor so we don't have to try this again?" She asked the silver ranger.

Aziz nodded. "No worries, I'll take that challenge." He said as he raised his spiral spear.

Since they knew what they were doing Jay stopped Aziz. "Here, borrow my soul scimitar to help keep that thing distracted for the moment." He said.

Aziz nodded. "Thanks man."

"Anytime." Jay replied.

Aziz was already in front of Tyrant Neptune, trying to jab him with the spiral spear in one hand and slash at him with the soul scimitar in the other.

"Lonnie, Ally, Evie, you take the bottom row. Jay and Carlos in the middle and I'm taking the peak." Audrey said. "We'll give that thing all we've got."

The five rangers nodded. "Right." They replied.

With the formation decided the three girls stood shoulder to shoulder. Then Jay and Carlos jumped on top of their shoulders, followed by Audrey on top of the boy's shoulders. It wasn't a positon that any of them really wanted to stand in for too long but was okay for the time they needed to use their attack.

Aziz drew energy into both the spiral spear for a strike and the soul scimitar for a powerful slash and brought both of the energized weapons down on the monster as hard as he could and was gratified to see all of that effort yielded a decent crack in the armor and he just hoped the others could find that mark. Then he rolled out of the way in preparation for the triangle spark.

The six rangers drew their blasters and together shot the beam in the middle that would release the Auradon Triangle Spark, which flew right toward the monster, and rather it was by luck or by design no one could be certain but it struck the flaw in the armor and caused a massive explosion and when the smoke cleared the monster was gone with bits of armor lying about the beach.

"We got it, right?" Evie asked.

"We must have." Carlos said. "We have armor scattered all over the place but other than that there is no evidence it even existed, much like all the others."

"Ye better tell us what we need to know." Miranda said to Undine. "Or else you'll be following in that vile lizard's wake. How do we reverse what ye did to Mal and Amy?"

"What did you even do to them?" Will demanded to know now. The two newest rangers had been the only ones to notice anything was wrong before this last event.

But Undine laughed now. "You'll have to figure that one out on your own and then you'll have to figure out if there is even a cure." She taunted them before suddenly disappearing in a puff of black magic. It left the ranger's coughing for a moment and then they were alone.

Audrey let out a noise of frustration and then looked to Jordan. "Do you have anything to help them?"

Jordan held up to vials, tossing one to Ben and the other to Jane. "Have them drink that. It will mend their legs, it won't be instantaneous but it also has a numbing agent in it so we can get them back to the command center without hurting them further. They'll have to be carried."

Melody knelt down beside Amy and noticed that at some point the pain had become too much for her friend and she had passed out. Before she could worry about removing the helmet the rose haired girl was forced to power down.

Miranda knelt next to Ben. "I'll take Amy, ye best go to your girl." She said to the young king.

Ben hesitated only a moment before gently letting the Highlands ranger take Amy so he could go to Mal.

Mal was able to power down herself but didn't refuse assistance from Evie when she brought the potion over to her and held it steady as the purple haired girl drank. She was relieved to feel the pain subsiding. When Ben came over and she set her head on his lap she let darkness take her.

"She got the potion just before you came over here." Evie said to Ben. "What about Amy?"

"She lost consciousness during the final act." Ben said to her. He glanced over to see Melody slowly getting Amy's body to accept the liquid despite her not being conscious. "Looks like she's got it taken care of."

A few minutes later Will lifted Amy in his arms, and with Mal in Ben's arms they headed toward the command center.

Mal was not conscious of how long time passed before she opened her eyes. She saw her friends at the consoles of the command center. She turned her head to find Amy still out of it next to her, in a small cot next to hers.

"I heard somewhere that twins were well connected, but I didn't think it went to that kind of extreme." She heard Audrey say softly from beside her. Mal turned and gave her a small smile, taking her friend's hand and squeezing it gently.

"We're full of surprises." Mal tried to joke, which earned her a small reproving glance from the brunette princess. Mal could get that, she probably would have given someone that look if she had her position reversed with another.

Then Audrey called out, "Ben, guys. Mal's awake." She slipped out of Mal's grip so that Ben could come over. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead softly. She squeezed Evie's hand tightly.

"We were so worried about you and Amy, M." Evie said to her softly.

"Has Amy gotten up yet?" Mal asked.

"Not yet." Lonnie said to her gently. "We've been keeping an eye on you at all times. You two really have Belle worried by the way."

Mal felt a rush of guilt that she forced down for the moment. They had to worry about the problem at hand right now, the twins could find a way to apologize to Belle if they needed to later on.

"I think it's time ye tell us what's going on here Mal." Miranda said not unkindly.

"I don't know precisely." Mal told her. "It seemed to start when we first encountered Undine and her pet Daedalus on the beach." She took a deep breath. "I was fighting that sea monster in my dragon zord when I started feeling like something would strike me occasionally."

"It wasn't you being struck though I guess." Ally said. "It must have been Amy."

"Is it part of your twin bond?" Aziz asked.

"Not possible." Jordan said. "If they were bonded that deeply Maleficent could never have forced Mal to forget about her when they were brought here to Auradon."

"Wait a second." Jane said as she got up. "Remember when we came back here after the fight, to take care of our wounds." She headed toward a small area to the side where they kept some of the things that needed to be further examined. "Evie and I took these little pine needle shaped barbs out of your arms that Undine shot at you."

"That must have been how Undine injected whatever she did into Mal and Amy's bloodstreams." Melody realized. "They're like quills or something. It was so subtle there was no way we could have expected it."

"Aye, it was only after a day or so that Melody and I started to notice anything unusual at all." Miranda added and then gestured toward Mal's palm. "The unknown paper cut on yer palm matches the one on Amy's."

"Undine gave you some kind of venom that lets you two experience each other's pain." Lonnie finished. "Presumably at Maleficent's request."

Jane took out the quill like needles and handed them to Doug. "Let's see if we can use this, combined with the blood samples we took from Mal and Amy when we came back, to see if we can find out what's causing this and what we can do to cancel it out." She said.


	72. Getting the Cure

When Amy woke up Melody told her what they had all realized now. Something in the quill like objects that Undine had shot her and Mal with released something in them that allowed the twins to feel the others pain. It had started not long after Mal battled Daedalus with her own dragon zord and had been going on for at least a day now.

Melody sat on Amy's right side, which she was glad for. She had Lonnie on her left and that felt nice too but she found herself wishing that Ellie was there too. Something about her, like Melody, resounded to her. Friends of her own and not friends in part because of her relation to Mal.

"Why didn't you say something to us when it became apparent something was wrong?" Fairy Godmother asked Mal and Amy.

"I didn't really realize anything had gone wrong." Amy answered honestly.

"I did, after the paper cut thing." Mal revealed. "I just didn't want that to be a concern when we have so much to worry about." She shrugged a little. "I mean we have Amy and Melody and Will here, and we only need maybe two more people before we can take back the warzord and hopefully take the gray ranger powers from Gregory. That had to be our priority."

"No." Ben said from the purple haired girl's right side as he rubbed Mal's back softly. Evie was sitting on her left. "That isn't important compared to the wellbeing of our friends." He kissed her softly on the cheek.

"Besides look at what happened out there." Audrey said as she sat across from Mal. Her voice was serious but did hold a teasing quality to it. "Holding that secret nearly got you and Amy in big trouble out there."

Mal hesitated and realized she was right. It was very similar to the reasons why it became important for the group to know that Chad was developing a very unhealthy and probably deadly obsession with Audrey. "You're all right. I should have thought about that. I'm sorry." She said.

Audrey patted her hand gently as Evie stroked her hair and Ben rubbed her back lightly. "It's fine Mal." Evie said to her. "We know now and we're going to help you both deal with this."

"I take it you beat that Tyrant Neptune thing and Undine." Amy now speculated.

"We sent that lizard packing." Carlos said with some pride. Then he deflated a little. "Undine got away again though."

"There will be a next time." Will reminded everyone grimly.

"I'm afraid he's right there." Jay agreed.

"I also told my mom about the Neptune Kingdom's part in the attack and she promised to tell my grandfather but honestly I don't know how we can prove that without any evidence." Melody added and shook her head. "Sorry to say the armor pieces aren't enough evidence and the scythe has disappeared."

"So where do we stand on getting rid of whatever it is that hurting Mal when I get hurt?" Amy asked them, feeling guilty about the entire thing.

"Don't." Mal said to her. "You didn't cause this and this isn't your fault. You have nothing to feel bad about here sis."

"For what it's worth it actually works both ways." Evie now said to Amy. "When Mal gets hurt you would feel it too."

Amy nodded in understanding but couldn't help but reflect to herself just which of them seemed to get hurt more.

Audrey saw her expression and thought she understood. She had been coming down on herself pretty hard over the things Chad had done though no one officially really knew about that but Jay. "Hey, I never got to tell you why I really hate grasshoppers." She said to Amy. "Do you want to know now?"

Amy thought she could use the distraction and she was okay with the chance to try to get to know Audrey better. They were team mates after all and a part of her was growing to like the brunette princess despite herself. "Okay." She replied.

"It was in the second grade. Ben was out sick that day and I was on my own, normally Ben and I would walk home together since our castles were pretty close to each other." Audrey started to talk. "Anyway like I said Ben was sick that and so I'm walking home. We have a grassy field to cross to get home and I'm sitting there walking through it. Out of nowhere this grasshopper comes out and jumps almost literally in my face. I'm not expecting it and I give out this loud scream even as I'm falling into the grass, fast enough that I don't control my landing and I hit my head on the ground." She gave a soft laugh at recalling it even though it caused her fear of grasshoppers, perhaps more rationally so than just because she thought some insects like spiders were just creepy or ugly. "Then I see it's a tree behind me and I debate what I should do before just running home."

Amy couldn't help it, she ended up giggling at the story. Like Audrey she found the humor in it even if she also could easily see why it had made the brunette princess hate grasshoppers. "I had that happen with a moth. It was hot and dry and I open a closet a moth bursts out it, making me shriek and fall to the floor too." She said. Her smile faded a little. "Mom was more concerned about the items on the table I hit than about me." She added.

Audrey could believe it but it still shocked her. After the grasshopper incident her mother Aurora had held her as she cried and told her it was okay, that she would be okay. Then she had taken Audrey to the kitchen for an ice cream sandwich.

"I remember that too." Mal said to Amy. "I had to laugh because it was what mom expected of me, and it was a little funny too." She added with a small glare from Amy. "But then I came to your room with a small bag of sugar cookies for us to share and so that I could make you feel better." Amy's glare faded a little as she remembered that one too.

Amy looked to Audrey. "Thanks. It was nice to hear that. To know that I'm not the only one freaked out by bugs." She said.

"I thought you might like it." Audrey said with a small smile. "Anything it takes to cheer you up, especially if it's at the expense of someone you don't like."

Amy frowned a little and took a deep breath. "I don't hate you Audrey." She confessed. "Not now anyway. When I first knew you existed through my visions and when I first met you I did, you reminded me of so many of the girls on the Isle that I grew up with, like Undine only a little less on the scale of intenseness." She moved, with a bit of pain, to place her hand on Audrey's. "But we've fought together and I've heard you talk, see how you are with Mal and the rest of us," Again the smile as she remembered when the beds were being made and Audrey had boasted about her bed making skills compared to Mal's. "I'm getting that you're not at all like Undine and Harriet Hook and all the others. It's just going to take time for those old impulses to fully go away is all."

Audrey turned her hand to take Amy's and squeeze it gently. "I'm okay with that." She assured her. "Take the time you need."

Amy squeezed back a moment but had to let go and lean back as she got dizzy. She ended up with her head on Melody's shoulder. "Are you okay?" Melody asked her.

"Felt dizzy." Amy whispered.

"What about you Mal?" Ben asked.

"I'm okay." Mal said. She hadn't gotten the dizzy spell.

"I'm going to get you guys some strawberry milk." Ally announced and went over to the little food station that Jordan had decided to set up not long after their six battles in one day streak they recently had.

"Aside from the obvious, is whatever Undine injected them with harmful?" Aziz asked Doug now.

Doug shook his head. "Nope. It won't kill them outright if that's what you're asking." He said as he examined it through a microscope that was specially designed to see beyond the outer shell, a design they had gotten thanks to information from Andros. "Though obviously if one were to get stabbed through the heart it would have the same effect on the other."

"Why is it that only Mal and Amy were given this?" Audrey asked. "Not that I want to be feeling Lonnie's pain or anything but we've seen how effective this is, so why not give it to all of us?"

"That's easy." Doug replied. "It's streamlined only to people who share DNA."

Evie nodded. "I see. And since Mal and Amy are the only ones related on the team they were the only viable candidates." She supplied.

"Could it affect me if somehow she had given this to Whitney?" Will asked now. "Or if they were to give it to our parents?"

"It's possible." Doug answered. "But not a guarantee. We share half of our DNA from our mother and half from our father. They share their DNA from their respective parents and so on. Even infecting both parents is only basically a fifty percent chance of success." He looked to Will. "As for using Whitney to get to you, it's a bit more likely since I assume you share the same DNA, but the other factor is that she is younger than you are by…"

"About six years." Will supplied.

"So the difference in age gets factored in too." Doug said. "Only twins like Mal and Amy would be so close in age that it would be a near perfect lock. Add to that the fact they are close. It was the only logical solution."

"So they could give it to Evie and Snow and do the same thing then?" Carlos asked.

"No dummy." Jay said to him. "They're related by marriage, not by blood."

"What Jay said." Evie confirmed. "We're related only by the fact that my blood mother the Evil Queen was married to Snow's birth father, but we don't share the same blood at all. Our birth parents are actually completely different." She actually had to take a moment to appreciate the fact that Snow White would have anything to do with her when those facts were considered.

"Alright so let's hit the final questions here." Mal said. "What is it and how do we neutralize it?"

"It's a neurological compound that is developed from certain plants in a cavern located near the Isle of the Lost." Doug answered the purple haired girl. "It's not something easily made but I bet Undine knew how from her mother. There's another plant there that can neutralize it with the right compound that I can make while you retrieve the plant."

"Then let's go get it." Mal said.

"No." Audrey said. She indicated the rest of their team. "We will go get that plant while you two stay here, out of harm's way."

"You've got to be kidding me." Mal said, not liking the idea of missing action.

"I'm afraid Audrey is quite right in this matter." Fairy Godmother said. "We've already seen what happens if one of you gets drastically hurt. If one of you were to drown or otherwise be killed, so would the other. To say nothing of the distraction it puts on the others to make sure nothing happens to both of you. You need to let them do this on their own."

Amy looked to Mal. "She's right. We have to stay here and trust in our friends." She said to her older sister.

Mal bit her lip and sighed but nodded. She looked to Audrey. "Alright, take everyone and bring this plant back." She said.

"Don't worry Mal, I will." Audrey said. "I want this team to be made whole again." She frowned as something about those words bothered her. "I mean we'll get you guys back in the game, I promise." She looked to the others. "Let's get to work." She announced, making Mal laugh.

The team left Auradon Prep and headed toward the caverns across from the Isle of the Lost. None of them saw Gregory come out from the bushes to head into the school's campus area. He took out his iPhone and said, "It was just as Nerissa said, they're heading out to find that plant and cure Maleficent's brats, who are not with them."

"Then proceed with your mission." Reviveslime said to him.

Gregory smiled wickedly as he thought about coming in here to the school. He was going to make sure his brother got to see Amy, but not before he played a few games with her first. And Mal would finally be eliminated as the thorn in Maleficent's side.

The team arrived at the coast. As Ben pulled out the Praeleanthor sword, Melody enlarged the trident to normal size and Jane pulled out the magic wand. They used their items to transform. The rest of the present team pulled out their iPhones and transformed themselves. "If I remember my geography right we should find the caverns about a mile on the west." Lonnie said. They all followed her directions.

Finding it wasn't hard. It was even a lucky break that the tide was low. The way the sand looked it was easy to tell that the tide ebbed and flowed from this place almost weekly and it would have almost been time for the tide to all but flood the caverns again.

Jane took out her iPhone and transmitted a picture and the scans of the plant they were looking for to their iPhones, except Melody who had yet to receive hers. That was just as well as some of them needed to stay on guard in case this was expected. To that end Miranda, Jay, and Aziz were going to stay on guard with Melody.

"Do we have any idea how far in we'll have to go to find this plant?" Carlos asked a bit nervously. Tight spaces were not his favorite locations in the world.

"I wish I knew." Jane said sympathetically. "Hopefully not far."

"Maybe these are like the areas that are underneath the Badlands." Ben tried to suggest helpfully. "They might be bigger than anyone would assume." No one had even known there were areas underneath the Badlands until they had found Paradias using an altar in one of them to bring Maleficent back to her normal self.

"It's still un underground location." Carlos said wearily.

"All the more reason to get in, find what we need and get out." Audrey said. "So let's head in."

They started into the cavern. They couldn't exactly be subtle about it because each of them made some of splashing sound from the water starting to flow into the cavern.

"No offense Melody." Evie said to the aqua ranger, who if she really thought about the two of them were as much counterparts as Amy and Lonnie or Mal and Miranda. "But sometimes I have to say I hate the water."

Melody shook her head. "Sometimes I do too." She assured the blue haired blue ranger as she thought about some of the rumors that were associated with the depths of the oceans, lakes and rivers.

Gregory possessed an advantage that no one else on Paradias's ship had. He knew where the command center was. He drew his laser, intent on stunning Mal unconscious along with anyone in there. Then he would use the pill Nerissa had developed to disconnect Amy from Mal so that he could kill anyone else in there before he took Amy to a nice isolated place and get to know her better before taking her back to the isle for his brothers. "This is going to be fun Amy, I promise." He said quietly.

He hadn't been paying attention. "What about Amy?" He turned to see a long blonde haired girl and a short brunette guy there.

"Hey, who are you?" The boy asked, somewhere between surprise and maybe a bit of suspicion.

"I'm a friend of Mal and the others. I'm looking to give her and her sister a surprise." Gregory tried to explain away even as he kept his blaster hidden behind his back.

Both of them seemed uncertain about his story. "I don't think Amy really likes surprises." Ellie noted with even more suspicion.

"She'll get to like mine." He said with a smile that made both of them disgusted, Ellie even felt kind of bad about herself for a moment there.

"Dude, I think you better come with us to the head mistress's office." Alex said to him now.

"She's not there." Gregory said with certainty. He was sure she would be at the command center with Mal and Amy.

"Then we should go see assistant head Flynn." Ellie said.

"Really that won't be necessary." Gregory tried to insist even as he got ready to fire his blaster at the two of them.

As Alex focused behind him, trying to heat up the object that he was sure was behind this guys back, Ellie narrowed her eyes at him. "I think it is." She said coldly. She was sure now more than ever that he was no friend of Amy's or anyone else.

He was about ready to shoot them when his hold became unbearable. He dropped his blaster on the ground by instinct and it skidded to a stop. He looked up to two very confused but hostile faces as the children of Anna and Elsa received the confirmation that he was not a friend.

Jane not only had her iPhone configured for the plant they needed but also configured to identify the plant that had caused in the first place. The seemingly utter absence of the former was balanced by the horrific amount of the latter. "We should have found this plant by now." She said. "Something is wrong here."

"Don't suppose that mirror of yours can narrow our search down?" Carlos asked Evie.

"I doubt it." The blue ranger said but then had an idea. "At least if it were being left alone." She took out her handheld magic mirror, currently not a weapon, and said, "Mirror mirror in my hand, show me one of the plants we need." She didn't expect it to work but was surprised when the mirror focused. That surprise turned to dismay when she saw a bunch of the plant gathered together by Paradias's soldiers and Nerissa seemed ready to incinerate them. "Oh no." She gasped.

"Where is it?" Audrey asked.

"Somewhere in the caverns, but it looks like Nerissa is getting ready to destroy them." Evie revealed. "We have to find her quickly."

Jane was glad the magic wand was pretty much one handed. "Let' see if I can cast a locator beam to lead us." She said.

"Why didn't we do that in the first place?" Carlos asked.

"First off if it were the way it should we wouldn't be able to track something that should be around the entire cave." Jane answered him. "Second the spell isn't for the plants, it's to track Nerissa's magic." With that she waved the wand and shot out a burst of light that they quickly started to follow.

It lead them to a cavern area. The noise of the team in the water drew the looks of the soldiers and Nerissa. "You're too late rangers." Nerissa said to them. "These plants are about to die, and your chances of curing your friends will be burnt with them."

Audrey shook her head. "It's never too late." She said and aimed her elemental bow, shooting an arrow at Nerissa. One of the soldiers deflected it with the blade on his arm. The red ranger looked to the rest of the team. "We have to get some of those plants." She said.

They started to charge toward the soldiers, moving desperately to get around them. Individually they weren't much as they could be cut through easily. But their numbers were a far bigger problem.

Nerissa began a magical fire and tossed it straight at the plants they needed for their friends.

Mal had heard the commotion and told Amy to stay there as she went up to check what was going on. She saw what she needed, Alex making Gregory drop the blaster with his powers and Ellie raised her arm, forming an swirl of ice in her hands. "No more games." The future Queen of Arendelle snapped now. "Who are you?"

"I told you I'm a friend of Mal and Amy's." He tried to insist.

"You're no friend of ours Gregory." Mal snapped, her eyes phasing into green for a moment. "What do you think you're doing here?"

"He claimed to be a friend of yours with a surprise for Amy." Ellie informed Mal in a voice befitting that of an ice queen. "We already figured he was lying, but we don't know why."

Mal wasn't sure how to explain this without mentioning the gray ranger powers. "He's a jerk who tried to hurt us." Mal said to them. "And he has something that belongs to us." She looked to Gregory now. "I suggest you hand it over now."

Then they heard Amy come up. She smiled briefly at Ellie. "Hi." She said happily. Then she saw Gregory too. "You." She said with some anger. "What do you want?"

Mal knew Amy had ignored her words, but seeing her so happy to see her friend made it so that the purple haired girl could not be mad at her rose haired twin.

"I came for you. I wanted to get to know you a little before my brother did." Gregory said with a leer at Amy that both she and Mal did not like. "But these two ruined it."

Ellie didn't like his words or his expression and she unleashed a beam of ice at Gregory that he barely heard coming. He moved out of the way and glared at the four of them.

"I think you should give them back their item and leave." Alex said with more harsh emotion in his voice than Ellie had ever heard from him in their lives. "Or you'll learn that fire is worse than ice." He let flames appear in his hands just as Amy had taught him.

Mal's eyes were green as well and even Amy's flashed red despite the implicit threat the rose haired girl known he had directed at her. "I won't just hand it over Mal, you know that." He reminded him. With an annoyed shake of his head he jumped off the balcony and ran off.

The cousins were almost more than willing to pursue them but didn't because of Mal and Amy. They looked terrible. "Is there something we can do to help you?" Alex asked. "You two don't look well."

"We'll be okay, thank you." Mal said with a small smile as she took Amy's hands. "We were just resting our eyes in this classroom, guess it's got a homey vibe to it after being her for remedial goodness 101." Amy still had not had the time to test out of that class.

Ellie reached out and stroked Amy's cheek with just a touch of ice. "You feel so warm." She said worriedly. "Are you coming down with something?"

Mal touched her sister's cheek now. She was indeed slightly warm. She had a sudden fear that she might have gotten an infection. "I'll take her to Jordan, she can take care of it." Mal promised. "We'll see you guys in class tomorrow." With that Mal took Amy's waist and lead her away.

Alex and Ellie exchanged glances of curiosity but ignored every instinct that told them to follow the twins.

"No!" Melody shouted and raised her trident to summon the water around them to protect the plants. She was desperate to get to those plants before the fire Nerissa was using to get past the water. "We have to get there as quickly as possible." She announced.

"So much easier said than done." Audrey said as she tried to cut her way through a few soldiers only to get blocked by several more.

"Melody we can't get any closer." Lonnie said to her. "Is there anything that we can do to bring some to us?"

Melody frowned a bit but then worked to reverse the protective weaves she had over the plants to scoop as many up as possible and tried to draw them in a tidal wave toward them.

"Stop them!" Nerissa called out. The soldiers did indeed try to stop them but Ally unleashed her crystal cards to strike at them, at least distracting them and even managing to destroy some of them.

Nerissa rose on a magical tide of fiery energy to pursue it. Much to their horror when she moved past the rest of the plants they were incinerated. It was either they succeeded here or they lost all hope of saving Mal and Amy.

Melody gave as much of a boost to her magic a possible. It was rapidly getting to Jordan and she used magic to help propel it to her. "Get it out of here." She ordered. "Take it to Mal and Amy." She slashed a couple of soldiers with her trident. "I'll keep them busy."

"Not alone." Jordan said as she handed the plants to Lonnie. "I'm going to help you too."

"I'm with you too." Jane said.

"I'll contribute what I can." Evie added.

"We're not leaving." Audrey insisted.

"You have too." Jordan now said to Audrey. "They need those plants and what the four of us need to do is going to be all but a miracle if we can pull it off." She said.

Ally got it now and she touched Audrey's shoulder. When the red ranger looked to her the crystal ranger said. "They want to try to beat Nerissa with magic, something we can't hope to do."

Audrey sighed, but she could see her point. "Fall back." She ordered the rest of them. All of them shared the same shock as the red ranger did but as she ordered. Audrey let out a hail of arrows that she knew Nerissa would have to swerve to avoid, buying their four team mates some few precious seconds before leaving. That left the four remaining magic users there.

"What's the plan boss?" Jordan asked Melody with just a hint of sarcasm. The truth was since this was Melody's idea the genie girl assumed that she had some kind of plan.

Melody wondered about that for a moment and then had an idea. They really had four different forms of magic at their disposal. Jordan was a genie with obvious genie magic. Jane had fairy magic because of her mother. Evie had access to the powers of a witch due to Grimholde the Evil Queen being her mother rather she wanted to practice or not, and Melody had her own magic powers though she could hardly classify it mermaid magic. She raised her trident. "Channel your magic's into my trident." She said.

"Is that a good idea?" Jane wondered. She wasn't too sure about combining various types of magic. It sure hadn't been covered in their class.

"I don't know." Melody admitted. "But it's the only chance we have to overcome Nerissa's magic." She did wish that Mal and Amy were there to contribute their magic, and wondered briefly if Ellie and Alex would have been useful here too. It didn't matter now.

Jordan placed her hand on the trident handle. Jane placed the tip of the magic wand on the trident handle. Evie bit her lip, feeling very reluctant about it as she had not wanted to try to use the power that she knew was her birthright. She then let out a nervous breath and placed her hand on the trident.

Almost as if the trident could sense their intentions it took all of their magical energies and from the three prongs on the trident it unleashed a huge magical blast that easily overcame the soldiers still present.

Nerissa however raised her hands to block the fiery energy and worked to try to repel it back at the four rangers. The four in turn channeled all of their energies into the attack.

Audrey turned around to the caverns entrance. She was hoping that the four team mates who had wanted to stay behind would be right behind them. "Where are they?" She asked.

"Some of us should go back inside." Will said. "And bring them out."

"He's right Audrey." Jay said. "They should have been out by now and I don't see how they could expect to take Nerissa on their own."

The red ranger hesitated for a moment but realized that they kind of needed Jordan anyway just in case Doug needed something magical. Audrey looked to Lonnie and Will. "Take that back to the command center so Doug can work on the cure. The rest of us are going to go get our friends out." She said.

Then there was a huge explosion from the cavern, it was hard enough to shake the area, "No!" Ally shouted in alarm. Lonnie and Will forgot their orders as they all rushed back to the cavern. As they drew closer it was getting hard to see through the smoke.

"Jordan!" Aziz called out.

"Evie!" Audrey called out.

"Melody!" Miranda called out.

"Jane!" Carlos called out.

"I can't see any signs of them anywhere." Jay said with annoyance.

"Can any of you girls here us?" Ben called out now. "Please let us know you're okay."

They heard some coughing and found Melody heading toward them. Jordan wasn't too far behind her and then Jane and Evie came out, leaning on each other for support.

Carlos over there to take Jane from Evie while Audrey did the same for the blue haired girl. "What happened?" Audrey asked Evie. "Are you all okay?"

"I think so." Evie said. "Melody had the idea to combine out magic to destroy Nerissa."

"Did it work?" Ally asked as she and Aziz came to Jordan's side as Miranda came to Melody's side.

"We're not sure but we didn't see an sign of her as we were leaving, and there is only one door the cavern, assuming that she didn't use magic to escape." Melody said. She touched her arm gently, finding it hurt a little bit from channeling all that magic power. "There's no way she could have had the power to escape magically though."

"Maybe she really is gone then." Lonnie said in some amazement.

"Maybe." Audrey said reluctantly. "But we know what's important right now. Let's get these plants back to the command center."

Some of the plant went to Doug so that he could make the cure for Amy and Mal. Fairy Godmother took the rest so that they could regrow the plant and repopulate it. "I'll send some guards to check it out tomorrow for any signs that Nerissa may have survived and see if that other plant is around." She said.

"Why do we want to save that plant?" Carlos asked. "Look at what Undine did with to Mal and Amy with that."

"That's Undine's fault." Amy said to him. "Not the plants. It was just a tool, no different from the gray gem that Gregory uses against us." Mal personally thought Carlos had a point but could see that Fairy Godmother agreed with that assessment and let it go. "And speaking of Gregory…" She told them what they had caught Ellie and Alex doing.

"That was so cool of them." Melody noted when she was done and then laughed a little. "No pun intended." She added and that got laughs from the rest of the team.

"So are we sure that worked?' Ben asked Doug.

"I can only assume so until the next fight when we can hopefully test it out." Doug answered him. "But if it did work Undine can never use that against them again."

"There's one way to know." Carlos said. With that he reached over and pinched Mal's arm. She let out a gasp, more of annoyance than pain and glared at him. He quickly held up his hands. "It worked, Amy didn't feel it." He pointed out.

"You're right." Mal said with a straight face. "You're right, we now know it worked." She then met Carlos with a fierce glare. "So that means I only have to injure you lightly instead of gravely." With that she got up and started to chase him.

As he ran around the consoles and toward the stairs he called out, "Ben! Jay! Someone help!" Even as he dashed toward the stairs with Mal behind him and the laughter of the rest of the team.


	73. One Last Meal

"I'm glad you two are alright." Belle said to Mal and Amy as she embraced both of the girls that night. "I heard about what happened and was so worried."

Part of Mal still felt a little embarrassed about being hugged, though she did return the embrace. Amy had no such problems with doing so though.

Belle pulled back and gave them a smile, though tears were in her eyes. Ben remembered his mother telling him a couple times she had always wanted to have a daughter too and he wondered why his parents had never tried to make that happen. He could actually remember a conversation he had had with Tommy and Jason the night of their return from the isle while waiting for the girls to show up.

 _"You know it's weird to me that there are so many people in your team and yet only Mal and Will have siblings." Jason had noted. He had been tugging a bit uncomfortably on the neck of the tux and the young king suspected the ranger's didn't attend many sessions like that._

 _"I've always had the impression that the kids on the Isle weren't exactly well loved." Ben said a bit sheepishly. "I don't think many of them had more than one kid because of it. It seems to be like Maleficent wouldn't have even had Amy if she had a choice."_

 _Tommy had looked at him. "Yeah but what about here in Auradon? You don't have a brother or sister, Audrey doesn't have one. None of you do, except for Will's little sister Whitney." They had met the youngest Darling when Ben had introduced Wendy and Cinderella to them, the two mothers' getting close because of their daughter's friendship._

 _"I guess…I guess things were just really busy for our parents or something." Ben had concluded with no other evidence to go by. "Any way, how often do you guys have siblings of your own?" He wondered._

 _"I guess not too often." Tommy had to say. "I mean I have a brother named David but we were separated at birth. You already know of course about Andros and Karone. The red galaxy ranger does have an older brother who is the Magna Defender." He mused._

 _"Don't forget that Ryan and Dana of the Lightspeed Rangers are brother and sister." Jason added. "And Madison and Vida are sisters. Hunter and Blake from Ninja Storm are brothers."_

 _"They're not siblings but Nick, Undonna and Leanbow are a family and hold powers." That amazed Ben a little as so far none of their parents held powers. Not that he wanted to think about any of his isle team mates having parents with ranger powers. "And Jayden and Lauren from Samurai are both red rangers and siblings."_

 _"Don't forget about Emily and her sister Serena." Tommy added. He shrugged. "Still it's a good point. Everyone we named has siblings but became rangers. So far none of them have had siblings who didn't become rangers." He wasn't aware that Chase of Dino Charge had a sister who was not a ranger. They had however seen the glint in Mal's eyes that day and suspected that she wanted Amy to take the rose ranger powers they had recently come across._

 _Jason shrugged a bit. "I guess it really isn't that weird." He amended when he considered the number of rangers there really were out there. "Still out of all the places to do it, somehow I feel as if Auradon would the one to have more instances of cases like Will and Whitney."_

Ben was about to open his mouth to ask his mother why they never had another child when the door opened and Adam came in. "Hello girls." He said to Mal and Amy with a smile as he walked over to Ben and placed his hand on his arm. "Welcome home son."

Belle stood now. "Come on, you three can join us for dinner." She said.

As dinner went on Ben forgot to ask his question. Mal and Amy told them about Alex and Ellie being there, which they had known about as Queen Elsa had contacted Adam to tell him her and Anna's children were coming to the school. They told them how about their powers and how they had used those to help drive Gregory away.

"What was he doing there anyway?" Belle asked as she reached for her glass of water.

Amy hesitated a little and then told her, "He wanted me." Her voice came out soft and even a little bit afraid. As Belle reached over to stroke her hair Mal wondered if she needed Amy and Audrey to have another talk. Audrey had spent a couple months knowing Chad wanted her.

Then Amy perked up a little. "It was so brave, the way that Alex and Ellie stood up to Gregory though." She said with enthusiasm. "I mean yeah they have those powers and we're not even sure how Alex got his, but if Gregory had transformed into the gray ranger I don't know if they could have stood up against him, but they still protected us."

"No one ever really figured out where Queen Elsa's powers came from either." Adam recalled as he cut into his pork chop. "Though I assume Ellie inherited her powers from her mother."

"So they've joined our magic class in hopes to learn how to control their powers." Mal said to them. "Amy has already been put into a position where she's going to be helping Alex control his powers since she can control fire too. It's Ellie that will be a bit harder to figure out I think."

Meanwhile back on campus Evie worked in the chemistry lab to learn a bit more about the plants they had managed to save from Nerissa's attempted extermination. Fairy Godmother wanted to cultivate them and reintroduce them. She also wanted to do the same thing for the plants that had inadvertently caused the mess in the first place. Some had objections to it but not Evie.

She had learned that that particular plant was actually key to a medicine that Auradon used regularly for a nasty flu virus that would often strike the elderly in the summer and was also part of a vitamin used during pregnancy. She wasn't sure what Undine added to make the neurotoxin that she used on Mal and Amy but clearly it wasn't fair to punish the plant for it. She did know though that the command center's computers were breaking down that compound.

She heard the doors open and saw Doug come in with a medium pepperoni and sausage pizza. "Dinner's here." He said with a smile. He set the pizza down and then placed two grape sodas on the table.

"Great, thanks." Evie said as she gently pushed the microscope back and smiled as Doug sat down across from her, opening the pizza box. She stopped him from taking a slice. "A moment to reflect." She said with a smile and then leaned in to smell the pizza, which smelled wonderful. Then she pulled back.

"Are we good now?" Doug asked and Evie nodded. He took a slice and placed it on a paper plate and handed it to her before getting one for himself. "So how's the botany coming?"

"Pretty good." Evie replied after swallowing her first bite. "Both these plants are needed for important things here in Auradon though I'm sure most people don't realize it. Letting either of them become extinct would be a horrible mistake."

Doug opened up the cans of soda before taking a drink from his own. Then he set it down again. "Tomorrow afternoon after magic class I guess Fairy Godmother will go with a few of the other teachers and find a good place for those plants." He said.

"That's good." Evie said with a smile. She watched Doug take a bite of his pizza and then reached over to grab a napkin so she could wipe some excess sauce off of his lips. He looked slightly embarrassed and she giggled a little.

"Evie." Doug started.

"I know, I know." Evie said with a small sigh. "You don't need me wiping sauce off your face."

"Well technical yes, but that wasn't what I was going to say." He reached out and took her hand. "I wanted to say how beautiful you look in the light." That made her blush a little. Without thinking about it she leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips. He responded to her kiss after only a moment of surprise.

Their first kiss was drawn to a sudden halt when the door burst open and Jane and Carlos came in. They both looked slightly embarrassed and apologetic to have interrupted them but the look on Jane's face made them realize this was an emergency. "What's wrong?" Evie asked.

"We have a problem." Jane said as she held up a sample case and went to the microscope.

"Do you think I'm foolish for wanting to do this?" Audrey asked as she walked with Jay in the woods outside of the school hand in hand.

"It's a great idea Audrey." Jay promised her with a light squeeze. "And I get why you don't feel comfortable being absolutely alone these days." He really did, she had called him up twice in as many nights, swearing she was hearing Chad's voice calling out to her. He had done more to hurt her than even she realized. He wished she would talk to some of the other girls about it though as they would probably have an easier time helping her cope with it.

They approached a candlelit area where Lonnie was setting a table for four. Will was by a small campfire putting the finishing touches on a couple of salmon that he was making over the fire. He had said that it was best when the salmon was freshly caught but the double date had been thrown together so quickly there hadn't been time for that.

Jay sat the small basket in the middle of the table. "French bread and butter, courtesy of…well Audrey's mom but you get the idea." He said with a laugh.

Will chuckled. "Who do you think paid for the salmon?" Will questioned them lightly as Jay pulled the chair out for the brunette princess.

"Or gave me the rice?" Lonnie added as she took a small pot from the side of the fire and brought it to the table. She had little soy sauce packets already on the table. She set the rice down. "Not that I don't like the idea of a double date, but I never thought of you as wanting to do something like this." She said to her friend. "Why the change?"

"The lounge is closed tonight and I wanted to have a date where we weren't alone." Audrey explained. Lonnie suddenly wondered if she and Jay were having problems and glanced subtly at Jay and Audrey laughed. "No, we're fine. It's…just I find I prefer being around more people rather than less right now."

Will came over and set the freshly made salmon on the table before pulling out a chair for Lonnie. Once she had sat down the two boys sat down next to their girlfriends. They left the campfire going as it was getting pretty dark, that and the candlelight was all they had to see by. "It smells really good." Audrey said.

"Thanks." Will replied as he started to cut into the salmon. "These are boneless, but if we had done it the way I always did it growing up we'd have to watch out for that." He added.

The cut up salmon was placed on the four plates along with some rice. Lonnie and Jay immediately mixed the salmon and the rice together while Will and Audrey chose to eat the two foods apart. They had gotten halfway through dinner before they heard a scream. It didn't sound human, more like an animal, but the four of them were already up and heading toward the sound.

The noise seemed to startle the figure and they saw a deer making a break away from the area. When the figure turned they saw it was Reviveslime. He looked over at the rangers. "What are you doing here?" He asked, though his voice sounded slurred.

"We could ask you the same thing." Jay said as they too fighting stances. "I figured picking on forest life would even be too low for you slime head."

"I was hungry." Reviveslime said enigmatically. "But perhaps ranger would taste better than venison." With that he leapt out and grabbed a hold of Audrey. She let out a gasp and seemed to flinch for just a moment. The boys lashed out and kicked him in the chest hard, and something felt wrong to them too.

"Are you okay?" Audrey asked Lonnie.

"Yeah, I think so." She answered and then seemed to struggle a bit. "Why are we out here Lonnie?" She asked. It almost seemed to be a struggle for her to remember who she was talking too.

"Guys?" Lonnie inquired as she looked to the two of them.

They didn't seem quite as shaken but still looked a bit uncertain. "What did he do to us?" Jay asked.

"I don't know." Will admitted. "It almost felt like he tried to drain us."

Lonnie helped Audrey to her feet and the brunette princess reached for her iPhone. "It's time to get…" She started to announce but was interrupted by a voice message from Jane. "Everyone get to the command center now, we have an emergency situation."

"More of an emergency than this?" Jay wondered as he looked to Reviveslime. But the slime general looked to them and then leapt into the skies.

"What's going on here?" Lonnie wondered.

A half hour later the entire team was in the command center, most having been at the school already. The longest wait came from Ben, Mal and Amy coming from the castle though the double daters hadn't been too close either.

"So what's the problem?" Ally asked them. She noticed that the command center's center held Evie, Doug, Jane and Carlos.

"Reviveslime is dying." Jane answered simply.

Jordan let out a derisive sound. "And that's a problem why? He's been nothing but a pain in our necks since the day she showed up." She retorted.

"Ye will have to be a bit more detailed than that." Miranda agreed with a small shrug. She didn't have the experience with the slime general that many of the others did but she wasn't sure why this was a big deal to them either.

"It's not the prospect of him dying that's the problem, aside debatably from the scientific aspect of it." Doug told them.

"Come again?" Melody asked.

"Despite the name Reviveslime himself is not slime at all." Evie said, primarily for the benefit of the two newest rangers, three if one wanted to count Amy though she had already heard some of this. "Reviveslime is actually what is called a coalescent organism."

They stared at her blankly.

Jane took over. "A coalescent organism is usually microscopic in size and mimics a life form by coming into contact with something and killing it by absorbing and breaking down that life form. It can even absorb the memories of the host." She explained.

That was new information to everyone and it explained one piece of the puzzle. "That's why you couldn't remember we were on a double date after he grabbed your arm." Lonnie said to Audrey.

"Might as well be magic as far as I know." Miranda commented. She didn't pretend to be a scientist.

They were surprised when Melody interjected, "I've heard of them but most of the ones that even known about don't live that long. That survival rate is only a matter of seconds." She said.

"That's the tragedy from the scientific end." Doug told her. "Because somehow Reviveslime managed to absorb something that gave it a life of its own, even if it has involved harassing and trying to destroy us."

"I'm still lost here." Aziz said.

"Reviveslime is breaking down." Evie said to them. "Whatever it is was that gave it life this long is pretty much gone."

It was Amy who gave voice to the problem. "Reviveslime has to absorb someone or something else again if he wants to continue living." She gasped.

Jane nodded. "That's the problem we have." She confirmed. "We have to find Reviveslime and at least prevent him from absorbing anyone else until that time." She looked around them all. "For as complex as Reviveslime is, for an organism I mean, he's not going to be happy with something random. He'll want to go for a person."

"They why did he try to eat that poor deer?" Audrey asked.

"Probably a delaying tactic, to buy himself more time to find something more appropriate." Doug guessed.

"Okay how do we track him then?" Mal asked. "He could be anywhere on Auradon." She wasn't even entirely sure he couldn't find his way onto the Isle of the Lost.

"I've modified the sensor app to track him, since we've encountered him so many times before." Jane said. The three of them now joined their team mates. "We have to find him before it's too late."

"I'm going to monitor things from here." Doug said. "And let's hope things don't get to hectic." He looked to them all but saved a last and most warming glance for Evie. "Be careful out there."

"We will be." Evie promised with a smile of her own.

"Let's get to work." Mal announced. The team transformed and then continued along, following Jane's lead.

As they moved into the forest they could see where Audrey, Jay, Lonnie and Will had had their date. Will had put out the fires before they had come to the command center but they found owls getting to the rest of the rice and the salmon. "Hope they enjoyed it as much as we did." Will said deadpan, which still drew a laugh from Lonnie.

Evie told Mal and Amy about what had happened in the chemistry room, including her kissing Doug. Amy let out a happy little sound and Mal smirked a bit. "About time." She said.

"But I didn't mean to." Evie said.

"You don't like him?" Mal seemed surprised. "I could have sworn you did."

"I do like him." Evie tried to explain. "It's just…it's just not how I pictured my first kiss is all." She sighed a bit. "I mean I expected something more romantic and me wearing something more flattering than my usual school clothes, and it wasn't meant to be in a chemistry room at school."

"None of that matters." Amy told her simply. "What you wear, what you're doing, where it's at, what you're eating," She had noticed that Evie had mentioned the pizza but hadn't said anything about that being wrong. She personally thought her first kiss would probably be over chicken tenders. "What matters is that you were with the one you wanted to be with."

"She's right E." Mal said with a shrug. "As long as you're with the one you want to be with, all the other details just shouldn't matter."

"I guess you're right." Evie relented. "I was just always this huge romantic who pictured candlelight dinner and elegant gowns and the whole nine yards."

"I don't think life has turned out the way any of us expected it too." Mal said reasonably. "I mean here we are tracking through the forest during the early evening looking for large slime thing to make sure it doesn't absorb someone to stay alive and a threat."

"I have his signal." Jane said. "He seems to be in a clearing not far from here. As far as I can tell he's alone."

"We have to be careful, he can absorb us too." Audrey reminded them with a small shudder. "I mean I don't know if he can while we're transformed or not but I don't think we want to give him that opening if we can help it."

"We don't." Mal confirmed. "So let's be careful. Try to stick to long range attacks, no physical contact."

"That might be easier said than done." Carlos said with a roll of his eyes. Most of the guys had weapons that worked best with physical contact. And they already knew that Reviveslime would try to get in close to them.

"Welcome rangers." Reviveslime said. His voice didn't sound quite as slurred as it had when Audrey, Lonnie, Will and Jay had encountered him earlier. It suggested that he had managed to absorb something and Audrey hoped it wasn't that deer he had already terrified. "It seems to me as if we're heading toward our final confrontation."

"You've got that right." Mal said. "We know you're dying. All we have to do is keep you from absorbing anything else and you're history."

"That's where you're wrong purple ranger." Reviveslime said. "I can absorb something very easily. One of you." he turned to face them with his sword raised. "Or perhaps all of your powers. Wouldn't that be a nice meal? I would bet anything it would allow me to keep this form for a very long time."

"We're not going to let that happen Reviveslime." Ben promised as he raised the Praeleanthor blade.

"I'm sorry to tell you that you don't have much of a choice young king." Reviveslime said and then jumped right at them. Each of the rangers moved back to avoid being touched by Reviveslime. With a flash of his blade he slashed Amy and Miranda hard. As he started to approach them Mal unleashed a stream of energy from her dragon's eye staff and sent him flying backwards.

"Do we even know how long we have to do this?" Carlos asked.

"Jane, can we find a way to figure that out?" Mal asked the white ranger.

"Maybe if I run a cellular analysis." She reasoned. "I can do it here but I need him to stay off of me long enough to do it."

Mal looked to Carlos and Amy. "You stay back here long enough to give Jane cover for her scan. The rest of us will try to make sure you two don't have to be that last line of defense." She said. The two of them nodded and the rest of the rangers got ready to square off against Reviveslime again.

The slime general drew energy into his blade and unleashed it at the rangers. Most of them were struck and sent flying backwards but Will and Miranda managed to avoid it and leapt toward Reviveslime with their weapon extended and slashed him hard. Both had to resist the urge for a follow up kick.

The rest of the team was getting up now and Audrey launched a rain of arrows down on Reviveslime to keep him occupied. She figured anything that caused him to extend energy couldn't be a bad thing.

"Anytime now Jane." Carlos said a bit nervously. He didn't like the way that Reviveslime kept grinning despite the fact he was clearly on borrowed time and outnumbered.

"Almost got it." Jane promised him. She glanced up, feeling nervous herself. She thought something about this seemed almost off. Her iPhone beeped. "We need to keep him distracted for another twenty minutes before he loses his cohesion." She announced.

"Twenty minute sometimes feels like a lifetime on the battle field." Ally noted as she pulled out her crystal cards.

Reviveslime had overheard them and he laughed. "You think I have twenty minutes left to me?" He asked with more confidence than they thought he should have been displaying. "Then it turns out I have more of something than you do."

"And what would that be?" Audrey asked. "Aside from the need for beauty tips."

Reviveslime laughed at them again. "I have about ten minutes more time than you have." He announced and then slammed his sword into the ground hard in front of the ranger team. The ground below them started to shake as if it weren't as solid as they had thought it was.

Then they felt the ground underneath them give way. For a moment it seemed as if it were a bottomless pit but that quickly changed as weird looking blue translucent things, like tentacles or strings, wrapped around their bodies, from their neck all the way to the ankles. It slowly raised them all back up to a grinning Reviveslime.

"As you so eloquently put it Mal, I am dying. Losing the ability to hold myself together." He said as he approached them, sheathing his sword. "I have nothing to lose by using every trick in the book that I can think of."

Jay tried to pull at the objects holding him in place. They certainly didn't seem like tentacles, at least not the ones he was used too, having felt a couple of Undine's on his arms once or twice. And it was too thick and heavy to be string or webbing of any kind they knew of.

Amy tried to use her control over fire to break free of it only to discover that her hands were positioned in a way that she could barely brush the bindings with her fire. Even so she could also tell that she either didn't have enough fire power or something to that effect because it wouldn't have been enough.

"But your powers…I can feed off of those, harness those, for decades to come. And your live as well." He said. "And perhaps when that's done, and all of you have become nothing more than bones." He glanced over at Audrey or Amy. "Or otherwise in positions where you wish you were," It was clear that he knew Chad and the Gaston brothers had their interests too "I'll find a way to get to the world that belongs to your other little ranger friends and harness their energies and life force as well."

"You won't get away with this." Lonnie vowed as she tried in vain to struggle.

"It seems as if I already have." Reviveslime said with a laugh. "None of you have the magic or the strength to break out of that." He looked to Amy. "You've already seen that fire won't get the job done either." He stepped up to Melody now. "I think as the newest ranger, I'll start with you. You won't miss your powers nearly as much as your friends will."

"Leave her alone." Amy tried to demand.

Reviveslime ignored her. "This might hurt after a while. Your powers will protect you for a while but once those are gone nothing will stop me from absorbing you, and I guarantee that will be quite a bit more painful." He said to her.

"We have to help them." Doug said to Fairy Godmother.

"I know." She replied. She handed Doug two small sheets of paper. "We have to do this sooner than we expected."

Doug looked down and couldn't help but frown a bit. "Is this wise?" He had to ask. "It could be as much of a disaster as anything else."

"That chance is there." Fairy Godmother admitted. "Or it could be just what we all need. Get going while I get things ready."


	74. Fire and Ice

Ellie sat by the window reading a book, though she couldn't help but glance outside. It was getting darker and it was getting later and it was really quiet around her. Melody had not come back to their room. When she had checked out the room belonging to Mal and Amy she found it empty. She got the same results when she checked out Evie and Miranda's room. When she had contacted Alex he had told her that Ben had not come in, and that Jay and Carlos were not around. She was trying not to feel like something was wrong, after all she was a practical stranger in a school where so many students had grown up together and knew each other well.

She had never been all that social in her school back in Arendelle, a trait she suspected she might have picked up from her mother. She sometimes wondered how her mother had found someone to marry and have a family with.

It was far different from her aunt Anna and her cousin Alex. Her aunt was one of the most outgoing and spontaneous person she had ever known though Alex was a close second. Except when it came to girls, then he was a bit more like his aunt and herself. Of course the chance that he might accidently incinerate any girl he liked did lead to some uncertainty.

Ellie understood that perfectly. Once her powers had bloomed her mother told her everything that she could. How she had almost injured Anna with her ice powers and later on very nearly killed her by accident with those same powers. Even today her mother struggled to control her own ice powers.

She remembered protesting when her mother had told her she and Alex were being sent to Auradon Prep in hopes it would help them learn to control their abilities. She had argued that if anyone could help her control her powers it would be her, the only other one she knew that could do such the same things.

Her mother seemed to grant her that one, but then had told her, "It's more than about learning to control your powers. It's about the desire to do so." She had reached out and touched her daughter's cheek. Some had said the Queen's hands felt cold all the time because of the power; she could not feel it, possibly because of her own. "You may have the wish to learn that control but to get the desire for it you need to be somewhere that isn't here, where you know it's safe."

That line confused her when she had left Arendelle with Alex but she had a bit of a better understanding of it now. They had met Mal, Amy and her friends. Both of them sparked something with the rose haired girl though she suspected it was a different spark between her and Amy and Alex and Amy. They had all been friendly enough and Ellie had to remind herself that five of them actually were villain kids. She had later gotten to feel more comfortable around Melody.

And then just that afternoon when Ellie and Alex had been going to pick up a few books they were told they would need for their Social Studies classes they had seen the boy who had been trying to sneak through the halls. And he had mentioned Amy. That drew both their attentions.

He had tried to lie to them but to Ellie it was it was as transparent as looking into a clear piece of ice. Alex had also clearly seen it. Mal and Amy's appearance clinched that feeling and she had been disgusted to hear that he thought he could force himself on Amy. That had also brought an emotion to Alex she had never seen in him, anger. On top of that he had something that didn't belong to him, she didn't know what it was but they had been unable to get it back from him before he ran.

"Probably the only smart thing he's done all year." She murmured to herself with a small cold smile. She was startled by a knock at the door and she stood up uncertain. She was pretty sure Melody would not be knocking. She wasn't sure about the other girls. She strolled to the door and opened it.

Doug stood there. "You have to come with me." He said to her grimly. "We need your help." She was surprised to see him here as it was past the time boys could come to the girl's dorms, and even then that was kind of frowned upon. That was what the commons was supposed to be for.

Ellie slipped out of her room. She sure had nothing to fear. "What's going on?" She asked him.

"Follow me downstairs." Doug said and started toward the stairs. "Alex is waiting for us." The mention of her cousin startled her a little bit more but she followed him downstairs.

Alex was in fact waiting, leaning casually against a post and idly summoning fire in between his thumb and middle finger. "So what's going on?" He asked when Doug came down with his blonde haired cousin.

"Follow me." Doug said and they reluctantly fell into step behind him. "As I told you both, we need your help. The others are in trouble."

"Did that Gregory guy come back again?" Alex asked, sounding a bit more anxious at the thought.

"No, something worse." Doug said. Neither could imagine anything worse and they both about to be proven wrong. Just after entering the classroom he turned them with an intensity they hadn't seen before for what that was worth. "What you see here cannot leave this room."

Ellie nodded. "It won't." Alex nodded too. "I promise as well."

Doug exposed the staircase and lead them down the stairs into the command center. They both let out startled gasps. They were even more startled to find Fairy Godmother in the center, and the final shock was seeing the power rangers bound on screen.

"Who are they?" Alex asked.

Ellie shook her head. "Mal, Amy and their friends." She answered for her cousin. She was sure of it.

"You are correct Princess Ellie." Mal said. "Mal, Amy, my daughter Jane and all of their friends are the power rangers." She looked to the screen. "And the knight is our king Ben."

"It looks like they're in trouble." Alex noted softly as he looked at the rose ranger. He knew that was Amy as she tried to burn through the bindings holding them.

"How can we help?" Ellie asked immediately.

"We'll go right now." Alex added with a look of fire in his eyes.

"No you will not." Fairy Godmother said to them sternly and they both turned their eyes to the head mistress. "I will not allow civilians to go out there and risk getting hurt, not even for my daughter." She headed toward one of the consoles. "Will very nearly got hurt defending Lonnie without any powers to protect him."

"You brought us here to watch them die then?" Alex asked indignantly. Ellie placed her hand on his shoulder to calm him, as she had always done in dire circumstances.

"No." Fairy Godmother replied evenly. "When your mother's contacted me it was with the intent of helping you to control your powers. This I can do. But it will take more." She took out two iPhones and started toward them. "Your powers need mental focus, which you can learn and I will be happy to provide. But it needs a physical outlet as well." She placed one in Ellie's hand, which had a symbol of a snowflake. The other was placed into Alex's hands, which had a vague emblem of fire.

"You're making us rangers?" Alex asked.

"No." Fairy Godmother said and he rolled his eyes in frustration before she could elaborate. "These are special powers that will not make you rangers, they will make you defenders of justice though; knights. Just like the King."

"Knights?" Ellie asked. "Isn't that what guys are?"

She looked to the ice princess. "In your case the traditionally accepted name for your position would be a Dame. But that isn't necessarily relevant here, especially considering the team you are on." Fairy Godmother answered with a smile. "This may be obvious but you are the Knight or Dame if you prefer, of ice. Your weapon will be the ice chakrams and they will work off of your inner magic, meaning they will not melt without intense flame. Your access code is 9898." It took Ellie a moment to realize what that was, but she remembered it was like a round throwing disc that might have various designs or variations on it. She wondered what that would be.

She looked to Alex. "You are obviously the Knight of Fire." She said and Alex laughed a little at the given reference. "Your weapons are the flame tonfa's or batons. Your access code is 9921" She said to him.

She took a step up to the center again. "As I said, be aware of the fact that your powers are linked to your abilities to control your emotions. If something happens and you lose too much control this can be dangerous to you as well." She cautioned them.

Ellie and Alex exchanged glances and understood. It was as much of a challenge to themselves as it was meant to help them. But that was fine, Ellie rose to challenges and Alex could easily handle them too. "We're on it." Alex said.

Doug downloaded the coordinates onto their iPhone's. "There you go." He said. "Follow it and quickly before Reviveslime kills the rangers."

The two nodded and ran out.

Amy tried to fade through the tentacles but found she could only get a small way before they adapted to it. Reviveslime noticed and laughed. "Every ability can be countered little girl." The slime general said to her. "Just as you slipped through our gladiator's otherwise solid walls, these bindings were made with transphasic energy that adapts to that sort of power." He then turned back to Melody.

Amy felt a slight bit of annoyance but let it go. Despite the fact she was hoping to completely by pass the bindings, it didn't matter. She had gotten what she wanted. She was able to get her hand on her blaster. She aimed it and fired at Reviveslime, striking him. He took a step back and growled at her.

"Don't you even think about it Reviveslime." Mal warned him with a slight green glow to her eyes.

Reviveslime laughed. "You're nothing girl, don't even try it." With that he started toward Amy. "If you insist on getting in my way then you will be the first to be absorbed." Before Amy could respond he lashed out a beam from his sword to make her blaster fall to the ground.

He was close to approaching Amy when a blast of fire appeared in front of him. He turned to growl at the intruders only to see two lightly armored figures approaching. One that looked a whitish blue and the other a mix of colors like a fire.

"What is this?" Reviveslime questioned as he drew his sword.

"We've already seen that fire doesn't damage those tentacles, but let's see about ice." The one in whitish blue stated. Amy realized it was Ellie and had a good idea who was in the fiery get up. With that Ellie raised her hand and shot out an ice beam straight at the bindings. It encompassed the entire thing and the team slipped through the bindings to land on their feet. They saw that it was already starting to phase through the ice but at that point it didn't matter.

With a literal blaze of his tonfa's he attacked Reviveslime, swinging at him. The general grinned and tried to get a grip on Alex but he quickly slipped back.

"Don't come into contact with him." Mal said to them. "He'll try to absorb your powers and it will kill you." Like Amy she had realized who the two were behind the armor.

Ellie unleashed a huge burst of a blizzard at Reviveslime and froze him. Then Alex swung the tonfa's and shattered Reviveslime.

"No way it's that easy." Carlos noted. No one could deny that. They were right as he started to reform but he didn't say anything to them, just glared at them. It took a moment for them to realize the reformation drained him.

"I think we know what we need to do." Mal said.

Jordan nodded and gave an almost wicked grin that Mal was proud of. "Oh yeah." She said.

Alex and Ellie fired another blast at Reviveslime and forced him backwards with a hard landing.

"Let's bring them together." Mal said. She placed her dragon's eye staff, followed by Audrey placing her elemental bow. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind and the compact unfolded. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle. On either side Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens, Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers and Amy placed her rose lance. They had the Auradon Blaster formed.

Jordan held up her lamp cannon. Inside of spout went Ally's crystal cards. On the top went the magic wand that Jane used. Aziz placed his spiral spear underneath. They had the Lamp Blaster.

Will and Miranda stood side by side with Melody. Miranda extended her grizzly blades. One the left side Will placed his recursive sword on one side while Melody placed the trident on the other side. They didn't really have a name for it but it was still effective.

It seemed as if Reviveslime would have said something but speech had obviously not been reformed with the body.

"You go first Miranda." Mal said.

Miranda gathered the energy into her grizzly blades and shot it out at Reviveslime as he got ready to charge them. It caused him to explode yet again. And he reformed yet again.

Before he could fully reform Jordan fired the Lamp Blaster now and struck the half formed general full force, causing yet another explosion of slime. He again started to reform.

"Our time now." Jay said with laughter. They unleashed the Auradon blaster at him and he exploded in yet another burst of slime. And was forming again.

"Any other ideas?" Alex asked them.

"The Launcher." Melody said.

"Right." She then asked into the helmet intercom, "Can we get Ellie and Alex to help us?"

"They can." Doug answered. "The cannon has several extensions we can add as we get new rangers to help us in these fights."

"Launcher formation guys." Mal announced as she took a step back. Audrey and Jay were in front of her, followed by Evie and Carlos, Jane and Ben, Amy and Melody, Will and Lonnie, Jordan and Miranda, Ally and Aziz, and last was Ellie and Alex. The blaster formed under them and they each channeled their powers into the blaster. Alex and Ellie were shocked at the extra burst they felt that the others recognized came from the Praeleanthor sword. They unleashed the energy right at Reviveslime who again exploded.

The launcher vanished. "Did we finally get him?" Ally asked.

It took a moment and then Evie sighed. "I think Reviveslime is gone for good. He must not have had the energy to reform."

Then a green light descended down and surrounded the sight where Reviveslime had been destroyed and then a huge slime shape object showed up that was as tall as a mountain. It was what was left of Reviveslime.

"How do we stop that?" Alex asked.

"I can summon my bear zord." Miranda said. "But the problem is that I can't take the thing out on my own."

"My dragon zord might be okay." Mal said. "But that still won't be enough."

"We don't have a choice." Audrey decided. "It's time to summon the Auradon Megazord and hope for the best."

Aziz nodded. "We're right with you." He looked to Jordan, Ally and Jane. "Time for the Auradon Battlezord and the Auradon Falcon zord."

"And the horse zord." Ben added. "I think it's more than ready to go after the Praeleanthor boost."

Melody, Will and Amy stepped over next to Ellie and Alex. "Go get him." Melody said. "End this creepy slime ball once and for all."

The Auradon Megazord landed on the ground across from what used to be Reviveslime. Next to it was the Auradon Battlezord. They saw the Auradon dragon zord and the Auradon Falcon zord descend from the sky as the horse zord showed up right behind the zords. The rangers jumped into their zords and placed their iPhones into the appropriate slots.

"You have to be careful." Doug warned them over the intercom helmets. "If the zords are lost here we may never be able to recover them."

"We'll be careful." Mal promised. "The best thing we can do is use as many formations as we can against that slime ball." She declared. "Let's start with the Auradon Champion Megazord." First the dragon zord unleashed a stream of energy at the slime. Then the Auradon Megazord got onto the dragon zord and the two combined. It charged the slime monster and struck it hard.

"Let's make the Auradon Falconbattlezord." Aziz called out. His falcon zord dived toward the Battlezord and the arms and the wings spread to link up the back. As the Champion Megazord angled away and the Auradon Falconbattlezord brought its fists down on the monster hard.

The Auradon Megazord separated as the sword formed. The Megazord moved in and struck the slime monster even as the Horse zord moved in and slammed its hooves right into the monster now.

The Bear zord formed into the Battle bearzord and moved in to attack as the Auradon Megazord combined with the Horse Zord to form the Auradon Defender Megazord. They charged toward it with the shield raised and slammed into the slime monster again.

"Time for our newest formation, wouldn't ye say so Mal?" Miranda asked.

"Yep." Mal agreed. "Time for the Battlebear Megazord." They formed the megazord and gave it a massive claw crush.

"We have to be doing a number even on this thing." Jane said to them from the Auradon Falconbattlezord. "I think we might be able to finish this thing off finally."

"Let's do it." Mal agreed. "A good combination of the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord should do it."

"Just in case I'll give a shot of me own." Miranda said.

"We will too." Aziz added.

Mal nodded. "Okay, let's do it." The reformed the Auradon Champion Megazord and then combined itself under the running horse zord to form the Defender Megazord. With its upper body bowed down, holding the spear, they charged the monster with the Auradon Falconbattlezord right behind them and the Battle Bearzord right next to it.

The three zords struck the slime thing at the same time and it fell back, and a moment later it exploded. Unlike the last times, this time it did not reform back. "We did it." Mal said. "We've put down Reviveslime."

From the throne on the bridge of the ship Paradias watched as the three megazords ended one of generals after long months of attempting to do so. His eyes glowed, annoyed at the fact that Reviveslime was no more, on top of the fact that all signs indicated that Nerissa was gone as well, rather she was dead or otherwise in hiding she was not around to consult.

"They're cutting down our forces." Chad said with annoyance. "One at a time. First Nerissa and now Reviveslime."

"Indeed they are." Paradias said. He looked to Gregory and Chad. "I suggest you two do your best not to get cut down as well, your ends will not be nearly so neat as Reviveslime's was." He glared at the screen again. "They have had a few victories but this war is mine."

The team merged together on the ground. "You guys did it." Amy said as she hugged Mal tightly. "You took down Reviveslime." Mal embraced her sister with a laugh of her own.

"And you guys controlled your powers." Jane said to Ellie and Alex. "Just as mom must have been hoping for when she had me design those iPhones."

"You knew about those?" Aziz asked the white ranger.

"I knew about them in theory of course." Jane said. "I make these specialized iPhones. But I don't think mom intended right this minute to give them out. Not until we could get a better idea of the control you had."

"I guess nothing is more motivating than danger." Alex said with a laugh.

"I guess not." Melody agreed with a smile.

Amy looked over at Alex and Ellie. "Thank you for saving me. Another minute and Reviveslime would have absorbed me." She said softly.

"Anytime." Ellie said with a laugh.

The team powered down and started back to the command center. Ellie looked over at Mal. "So now that we're in the know, I have to know, what is it that Gregory has that belongs to you?" She asked the purple haired girl.

"He doesn't have anything that belongs to me personally." Mal elaborated. "What he does have is the gray ranger powers. He received them back when we thought we could trust him but he betrayed us when the warzord was discovered and delivered it to Paradias and my mother on the proverbial silver platter." She explained.

"Shouldn't that be a gray platter?" Alex asked. "After all, the silver ranger is right here." Amy giggled a bit at that even as others gave eye rolls.

"Can't you just deactivate his powers?" Ellie asked now, obviously used to her cousin's sometimes bizarre and not so funny jokes.

"No." Jane answered now. "Whatever unflattering things we can say about him," She knew there were at least a few; a liar, a thief, cruel, to say the least. "The thing I can give him credit for is a technical knowledge that rivals mine and Carlos's. He somehow was able to isolate his iPhone from our system so we can't track it and we can't shut him down."

"Which in theory could happen to all of ours?" Alex asked.

"In theory." Lonnie said now. "We use these powers for good but if they ever fell into the wrong hands, unless they're like Gregory, we have the option of shorting them out. It was Fairy Godmother's contingency plan."

"That might be a good thing." Ellie mused softly. "When Fairy Godmother gave us these powers she did note the possibility we were getting them too soon. I'd rather lose my powers than harm you guys or anyone else."

"She's right." Alex agreed simply. "Being superheroes isn't good enough of a reason to justify that kind of damage."

"You won't get to that point, I promise." Melody said.

"Melody is right." Amy said too. She threw an arm around Alex, an impulsive move that made her blush a little though he didn't seem to notice. "We'll make sure you have your powers as focused as possible so losing your powers won't become an issue."

They returned to the command center where Doug was just telling Fairy Godmother he was wrong and that they could likely handle their powers. Although she accepted the apology gracefully she still reserved the final judgment until time proved it right or wrong.

"I just wish we could have helped with the zord battle in that situation." Will said as they came in holding Lonnie's hand in his own. "It makes me feel kind of useless not to be able to participate in that when needed."

"That will change." Fairy Godmother promised them all. They all looked to her in surprise. She had an earnest but serious look on her face. "Will, Amy, Melody, Ellie, Alex." She said as she looked at each of them in turn. "Despite the apparent ends of Nerissa and Reviveslime, Paradias still wields and incredible amount of power. With the five of you though we can strip him of some of that power."

Mal perked up a little as she placed her hands on her sister's shoulders reassuringly. "You mean…" She started.

Fairy Godmother nodded as she again looked at the five she had to appoint responsible for this task. "With the rest of our zord's in running condition, it's time for the five you to prepare to take back the warzord. And with luck the gray ranger powers."


	75. Rise of the Samurai

Paradias, Gregory, Chad and Maleficent walked to one of the rooms in the back of the ship. "Perhaps I should have used these sooner, when there weren't quite so many rangers to go around." Paradias reflected. "But I had hoped to avoid this. Recapturing these entities once they have been freed will not be an easy task."

"Who would have ever thought my daughter and her little band of misfits would become so successful?" Maleficent noted with a roll of her eyes. "I mean one fails at being evil, the other can't live up to my legacy and yet they follow the path of 'good' like it was their birthright." She added acidly. "At this point whatever you have planned is no less than what they deserve."

Paradias didn't really say anything but didn't seem to disagree either. They entered the room and found several glass cases. A few of them contained long, sharp and deadly swords. One contained two swords, one of them being noticeably smaller than the other. One was an excessively long blackish sword. One other case held a bow much like Audrey's except this one came with a quiver of arrows, though there didn't seem to be a limit to the arrows in there. The final one case held a long whip that none the less had a sharp edge at the base.

One of Paradias's soldiers that had seemed to be standing guard in the room went over and took out one of the blades and set in on the ground before backing away again. Paradias raised his arms and began to chant in his ancient language, one that Melody might have been able to make an association with if she had been present. Again the green glow of his magic emanated, this time around the sword.

Slowly it rose into the air and hovered for a moment before a red clad hand reached out and took a hold of it. As that occurred the shape of a man in red armor and a cape appeared. He moved the sword in his hand for a moment before turning to Paradias. "Why have you summoned me?" He asked now.

"It is time." Paradias said to him. "Your greatest challenge awaits you and your men Great Shogun." He brought up an image of the group of rangers, including their two Knights and their Dame. "The Power Rangers await your final judgement."

The monster Great Shogun watched the image for a moment as if memorizing their faces. It mattered little to him that their numbers were greater as he was confident their skills were weak. With a look at the soldiers they removed the rest of the cases on the weapons. One by one he approached them.

The first he activated himself was that of a long hilt, much like a broadsword. From that he intoned, "Rise, Grandmaster. It is time to for our next challenge." Much like his own summoning the sword rose into the air and then a hand grabbed it. This one wasn't so armor clad and even appeared to be an old man, but his initial movements with the sword proved that appearances were very deceiving.

Next he approached another of the swords and intoned the same ritual. "Rise Shadow Shien, and take your place among your brothers." As the sword levitated up a being who looked like a man with red hair reached up and grabbed the sword in his hands. He wore light armor and a purple overcoat.

With the Grandmaster and Shadow Shien behind him the Great Shogun turned to the other three swords, the bow and the whip. "Rise forth my brothers. It's time to end the threat of the Auradon Power Rangers." A dark blue armored figure picked up the whip as he formed, a light blue armored figure picked up the bow, a green armored figure picked up the two swords, a black armored figure picked up the long sword, and a yellow armored figure picked up the last sword.

Even Chad with his small reserve of demon power had to admit they looked quite intimidating. He asked in a quiet voice, "What subdued them last time?"

"Some of the gods themselves." Paradias answered simply as he gazed at the seven samurai warrior that were about to engage the rangers in combat.

It was before classes. Amy sat across from Alex, using one hand to eat a small plate of bacon. On the other side Alex was using a hand to eat a chocolate donut. The hands that were not occupied with food were in the middle of the table, Amy had summoned fire to hers and Alex had just waved his hand over it. "Do you feel the steady heat coming from it?" Amy asked him and he nodded. "You have to keep the temperature steady and even. Even when you raise it." She added more heat to her palm to make the fire get a little bigger. "Or when you lower it." She made it barely a spark in her palm, then she dispersed it.

Alex had to laugh a little. "Wow, that was some amazing heat." He said to her with a small laugh. "The control, it's a gradual thing, not a rush, right?" He asked her.

She nodded and smiled. "Yeah. You've got the idea." She answered.

At the next table over Mal hid a snicker as she reached for a strawberry and she looked to Evie and murmured, "The fire isn't the only heat I'm feeling over there." The truth was that Mal was proud that her shy younger sister could make any attempts like what she was seeing right now.

Evie barely repressed a giggle and lightly shoved her chosen sister's shoulders. "Try to behave yourself M." She retorted even as Miranda next to her also laughed just a little at the exchange.

The purple haired girl tried to give the blue haired girl an innocent look. "You know me E." She said.

Miranda laughed again as she reached for her cheese Danish. "Yes, we do. That's we're trying to get ye to behave yourself." She replied and Evie laughed now even as Mal gave a mock petulant pout.

They were waiting for everyone else to show up so they could all have breakfast and try to work out a strategy for luring the warzord into a fight so they could take it back. Alex had already told them Ben would be a few minutes late as he finished up his proposal to the council about exploring the areas underneath the Badlands.

They saw Audrey and Lonnie coming toward them now. It seemed they were having a very serious discussion but Mal rolled her eyes just a little when the words 'school dance' came from Audrey's lips. Not that a school dance wasn't important in its own way.

"Morning." Evie said to them with a small wave.

"Hey." Lonnie said with smile as she sat down.

"Hi." Audrey said with a tired smile of her own. That made them all a little more alert as they knew something was wrong with her, but as it stood at the moment only Jay knew that Audrey was hearing Chad's voice calling out to her.

"Are you okay?" Mal asked her second in command with concern.

"I just haven't been sleeping too well." Audrey said, trying to dismiss the concern. No one was all that convinced.

Mal was a little surprised when it was Amy who spoke. "Audrey, if something is wrong you should tell us. We want to help you." She said to her. Audrey seemed just as surprised to hear that coming from her.

Audrey opened her mouth, "Well, the last few nights I've…" She started to admit to the friends she had there when there was a huge explosion. It wasn't in the school itself, it originated in the woods, but it was so loud that they could hear it from there.

"That's one way to get a wakeup call." Alex noted lightly.

"The command center." Audrey suggested to Mal and she nodded in confirmation. They left their food and bags and ran toward the command center, finding the rest of the team heading that way as well.

"What was that do you think?" Carlos asked as they dashed to the command center.

"A meteor maybe." Ally suggested.

They entered the classroom and had to take turns going down into the command center. "We need to expand this entrance way." Jay said. "It's too small when we all need to get down there for a crisis."

"Noted and logged." Jane replied with a roll of her eyes. They hadn't really planned on having these many people around.

Jane and Carlos made their way to the consoles, finding the problem wasn't that hard though. On screen were six men in armor and one other that also seemed to be part of them none the less.

"Wow." Aziz got out. "Who are those guys?"

"Aside from trouble." Melody added.

"Are those..?" Lonnie asked uncertainly.

Miranda shook her head a bit. "It can't be." She replied.

Fairy Godmother had come down the stairs last, having been the furthest away from the command center in her office. She saw what the rest of the team was seeing. "I'm afraid it is." Fairy Godmother said solemnly as she came down the stairs. "The Shadow Samurai."

"I've never heard of them before." Mal said. It seemed like an odd thing to say but she was one of the children of arguably the most evil villain in their realm after all. It stood to reason at some point she would have heard of something.

"They belong to really old legends." Fairy Godmother told her, reminding them all that despite her youthful looks she was much older than she appeared to be. "A group of samurai that once terrorized the world, probably not long after Sermaya and his kind were…whatever they were."

Jordan nodded. "I've only heard about it from my parents, and even to them it's a legend." She added.

"A persistent legend in my family." Lonnie voiced as well. "Since they were rumored to have originated in my home land." She looked to the screen. "My father often voiced the idea that they were not men but demons or monsters of some kind."

"Paradias's monsters apparently." Audrey noted.

"Um, if that's all true, can we beat them?" Amy asked nervously.

Fairy Godmother hesitated. She didn't want to discourage her daughter and her team, but she didn't like lying to them either. "I honestly don't know." She answered them. "But we all know that you will try."

"We will." Mal agreed. "And we'll have to find a way to make it work."

"I guess we won't get another chance to practice for now." Ellie said.

"This is better." Jay tried to assure her. "On the job training."

They left the command center and headed toward the exit. Doug was there and Evie stopped him. "Get to the command center, we might all need your help. Thanks." She said quickly and kissed him on the cheek before going with the others.

They headed out into the impact area and were disturbed slightly to find them waiting for them. The red armored one stepped forward. "Hello power rangers, I am the Grand Shogun." He said. "I hope you had something good to eat today because you're going to need all the strength you can get."

"And we didn't even get a chance to eat." Carlos noted somewhat ironically.

"We'll show you our strength." Mal promised him. "Let's get to work everyone." Ben formed the Praeleanthor sword, Jane took out the magic wand and Melody formed the trident .They transformed. The reset of the ranger team pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers transformed.

The one not clad completely in armor stepped up now. "I must say that the numbers seem rather uneven here." He said almost conversationally. "It's merely us seven against them." He indicated the group; Mal, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Ben, Jane, Jordan, Ally, Aziz, Will, Amy, Miranda, Melody, Alex and Ellie. "Over two to one odds."

"Something tells me you guys can more than make up for the difference." Jay said not very kindly.

"Undoubtfully you are correct." Grand Shogun now said with a flourish. "Still, Grandmaster has a point. Why don't we turn around and make things a bit more even." With that he snapped his fingers and the ground started to rumble behind them. The rangers turned to see what looked like a huge temple emerge from the ground.

"Now my samurai, attack." Grand Shogun called out. They all moved forward with blazing speed and lashed out at the team, splitting them into smaller groups.

"Something tells me we don't want to end up in that temple." Jane said.

"I tend to agree with ya." Miranda replied.

Unfortunately that proved to be far easier said than done. The Great Shogun himself managed to get by Will and slash him hard into the temple. When he tried to leave he found that he couldn't do so. The black armored samurai wrapped Ally around her waist with the whip and tossed her in next. Aziz made the mistake of going to check on her without realizing he would end up trapped too.

The blue armored samurai let an arrow fly and it was able to strike Jordan right in the shoulder with enough force to hurtle her right into the temple. Alex tried to use his flame tonfa's to fight the one with the glowing green blades and the green armor but wasn't fast enough to outmaneuver him and soon he was tossed into the temple too.

Miranda and Melody found themselves back to back against the Grandmaster and one who they hadn't gotten a name for yet, Shadow Shien. The two of them worked really well together but the monsters experience came through they were able to strike both aqua and Highlands ranger into the temple hard.

The black armored one slashed Jane hard and kicked her as she was falling down into the temple. Just as that one turned around both the Grandmaster and the Great Shogun had forced Ellie in the temple as well.

Ellie tried to unleash a beam of ice but whatever barrier it was that kept the rangers trapped inside also stopped her powers from getting out at her target either. "This isn't looking good." Ellie noted with some dismay.

Shadow Shien turned and got ready to attack Ben when a voice interrupted him, "Deal with the power rangers. I'll deal with the Auradon Knight here." It was Chad with Maledict's blade drawn and ready to go.

"As you wish." Shien told him and turned to return to his teams side. Ben glared for a moment before getting ready to fight Chad.

"We seem to have a score to settle, you and I." Chad said as he paced Ben and transformed. "Once I beat you, I can claim Audrey as my own."

"Audrey doesn't belong to anyone, but if you really want to fight to 'claim' her it's Jay you should be dealing with." Ben pointed out as he swirled the Praeleanthor sword in his hands. "Mal and I belong to each other."

Chad laughed at that. "Jay and Mal have one thing in common; they're nothing but street trash that will be disposed of accordingly." He replied coldly. "You're the only one here that I have to cut through to take what's mine."

"I think you're an idiot." Ben said simply. He didn't want to go into the fact that Will and Lonnie would defend Audrey too if they had too. "You don't have what it takes to even beat me anyway." With that Chad swung the Maledict blade at Ben and he blocked it.

Amy hesitated just a second as she watched Ellie try again to unleash a beam of ice on the field. Beside her was Melody and Alex. She hated to see her three friends trapped like that. Then she felt Mal coming toward her and she turned to the team she still had free.

"Much better." Grand Shogun said with amusement. "Now it's seven on seven. Our numbers are even."

"It's about more than numbers Shogun boy." Mal reminded him. "And we're going to prove it."

Audrey pulled back the string on her elemental bow to bring a hail of arrows down on the samurai but let out a gasp of pain as an arrow slashed right through her right arm, which was where the strength of her archery came from. The blue armored samurai lowered his own bow.

"Are you okay Audrey?" Evie asked her as she came to her side. Even despite the ranger suit it cut through to her skin and left a very nasty gash.

"I'll be okay." Audrey said even as she moved her arm and flinched in pain.

Jay also looked uncertain. "Audrey, that looks really bad." He said worriedly.

Mal was about to say something as well but Audrey stopped them. "They don't care how badly I'm hurt and we can't afford to lose the numbers. I'll have to fight through it." She declared. None of them were certain but they knew they didn't have the time to fight about it. Amy however had to admit she was kind of impressed with the princesses attitude.

The time for talk was over as the samurai's moved in and attacked them. Mal, Jay and Lonnie were able to block the incoming attacks from the Grand Shogun, Shadow Shien and the Grandmaster. The other samurai struck the Amy, Carlos, Evie and the already wounded Audrey hard. They fell to the ground and was followed a moment later by Mal, Jay and Lonnie after the head samurai's deflected their first attacks and struck them hard.

Evie and Amy were already helping Audrey up. She seemed to stumble a bit and Amy caught her. "Audrey." She said softly. "This could kill you at this rate." She wished healing was part of her bag of magic tricks.

Inside the temple Jordan was doing only a little better. The arrow was stuck inside her arm and she had already told them not to pull it out as it could do more harm than good. She was still bleeding and they had nothing to tend to the wound, she didn't have her magic in here.

Neither did Melody as she tried to zap the walls down with her trident. She suspected the only reason Ellie had her powers was because it was inside of her. Of course then she realized so did Jordan and it didn't seem to matter. Again she belatedly wondered where their powers even came from.

Will struck at the barrier now with recursive sword. It resulted in the same thing. "Lonnie." He whispered softly as the samurai struck at them again. Jay worked to defend Audrey as well as himself, much the team's detriment.

"We're going to lose and it's going to be my fault." Audrey said softly.

"No." Mal assured her. "We won't lose and you're not at fault for this."

"What do you mean you're not going to lose?" Grandmaster asked as he leapt at Mal. She moved Audrey behind her and blocked his strike with her dragon's eye staff. "An injured comrade is a weak one, and your friend will bleed out before this fight is over unless we take her out first."

Audrey lashed out and kicked him hard, but the motion forced her to her knees as she felt dizzy again. Evie was by her side. "We need to patch this up." She mused somehow. She was concerned about her friend and wasn't even thinking when she ran her hand just above the wound, making a little hashtag pattern that sealed the wound as if by magic.

Audrey saw it too and was shocked. "You healed me, you used magic." She was kind of shocked as she knew Evie wasn't really into embracing the power her mother had, though as far as anyone knew healing was not part of Grimholde's magical repertoire.

"Thankfully." Jay added as he was at both of their sides. "I was getting really worried."

"That won't take away the blood loss." Lonnie reminded them. "We still need to finish this off quickly."

"No arguments about a quick finish from us." Shadow Shien said to them and with Grandmaster and Grand Shogun's aid they unleashed a powerful burst of energy from their swords that struck the rangers hard.

"Oh my." Fairy Godmother whispered softly. Half of the team was locked up and Doug couldn't figure out how to get by it. The rest of the team was in a bad situation against the samurai monsters. She was again looking at her worse fear; losing the team she'd come to care so much about, her daughter most definitely among them.

Doug was startled by an incoming transmission. "We're being contacted from Earth." He said.

Fairy Godmother hesitated a moment. Then she said. "Put them on." Once again she knew what she had to do ask to try to keep them all safe.

On screen Amber appeared before them. She was clearly on the bridge of the Megaship. "I wanted to make sure that the Praeleanthor sword was working out for Ben." She said to Fairy Godmother. "Karone was concerned about the history between the makers of that sword and the blade Chad uses."

Fairy Godmother in fact knew that Chad had started to attack Ben while the rest of the rangers were dealing with the samurai monsters. She was actually sure that blade of demonic origins was responsible for some of Chad's behavior. "It's working fine." She started.

"I'm glad to hear…" Amber started but heard the explosions as the three head samurais blasted at the ranger team. "Is everything okay over there?" She asked with concern.

Fairy Godmother didn't hesitate. "No." She said. "They're under attack from a group of monsters."

"Do they need help?" Amber asked them. The concern had drawn the aforementioned former pink galaxy ranger who had recently become the white space ranger. When she saw the screen Karone gasped.

"What's wrong?" Amber asked her, forgetting for the moment they were talking to Fairy Godmother across interdimensional comms.

"The samurai." She whispered and then looked to Amber. "Ecliptor told me all about them." She revealed.

"Who?" Fairy Godmother asked.

"When I was Astronema, Ecliptor was my guardian and general." Karone said. It was clear that she had cared for him a lot despite both being evil at the time. "He told me that Dark Specter was looking for the weapons that would summon them. Ages ago they were banished so that they wouldn't fall into evil hands. The prime concern was the Nighloks."

"Nighloks?" Doug asked.

"A type of demon." Karone answered. "They were sealed away by the ancestors of…" She looked down a second. "I know what we need to do." She said and looked to Fairy Godmother. "Tell Mal and the others to hold on. Help is on the way."

Before Fairy Godmother could switch frequencies to her team she thought she heard someone say, "Can we really spare the help right now?" Only for Amber to respond with, "It doesn't matter, the Auradon rangers are one of us Zhane."

Mal let out a small cough. "Amy, are you okay?" She asked her twin sister, who she could see rolling to off her back and onto her side to get up. For just a fleeting moment she wished she was still had that link to her sister so she wouldn't have to ask that.

"I'm fine." Amy promised her sister.

The samurai in the blue armor was in front of Amy now with an arrow pointed at her head. She hesitated. The slight shimmering of the arrow made her feel as if being intangible wouldn't save her here. She thought about using an elemental attack on him but didn't know if that arrow would still manage to get someone else.

In fact they were all now surrounded by the samurais. Grand Shogun came forward and stepped on Audrey's injured arm. Despite the fact the Evie had stopped the bleeding it was still very sore and she had not recovered from the blood loss.

"Audrey." Jay moaned and tried to get up only to be struck by Shadow Shien

"I told you the wounded warrior is the weak one and that that weakness would get you killed." Grand Shogun said. He looked down at the wounded red ranger. "But worry not, perhaps your friends trapped in the temple will avenge all of your deaths."

Ben noticed what was going on and turned around to try to aid the rangers in saving Audrey before the final strike but he had lost focus on the fact that Chad was not giving up. He struck Ben in the back hard, making him hit the ground face first. He coughed as he struggled to turn around.

Ellie and Alex poured all of the magical energy they could summon and hurled it straight at the barrier but with no effect. Ellie found herself screaming in frustration and she swore she heard Will and Alex cursing.

"This is the end, rangers." Grand Shogun said as he started to bring his sword straight down on Audrey…


	76. Clash of the Samurai

Audrey couldn't ignore the pain her arm, which was kind of ironic considering the fact that she had a bigger problem; the fact that Great Shogun's blade was heading right toward her chest.

Mal scrambled desperately to find a spell that would stop it but her mind was drawing a blank.

Amy tried to move to help but despite trying to slip past them, the whip of the black armored samurai tripped her up, like the bindings used by Reviveslime in his last fight, it was transphasic and could slip right through that power. She fell hard and rolled to her knees.

As the sword drew closer to Audrey it was shot out of his grip by a the beam of a laser. He recovered his sword at the expense of his grip on Audrey. She rolled closer to Jay and Evie as the samurai looked in that direction.

Karone stood there lowering her laser. She was flanked by seven other individuals, four girls and four guys. None of the rangers recognized them. "What is this?" Great Shogun demanded to know.

"You were right." One of the blondes, dressed in red, said to Karone. "I recognize them from my studies. These were the samurai that the ancient samurai rangers contained and banished centuries ago."

"Guess we know where they were banished too." The guy in a green shirt and jeans said with a small shrug.

The Grandmaster glared at them. "Who are all of you?" He demanded hotly. "How do you know who we are?"

Shadow Shien glared at the blonde in red and the guy next to her, also in red. "They are from the House of Shiba." He declared acidly. "I can feel it. They descend directly from the samurai red ranger line."

Karone waved casually at the Auradon crew. "Hey guys." She said. "I'd like you to meet some more of your predecessors." She indicated the two that Shadow Shien identified a moment ago. "This is Lauren Shiba and her younger brother Jayden. Both of them are oddly red rangers." She indicated the guy in blue. "This is Kevin the blue samurai ranger, and Mike the green samurai ranger." He of course had already spoken. She then placed a hand on the shoulder of the blonde next to her. "This is Emily the yellow ranger and her older sister Serena the purple ranger." She then indicated the Asian girl. "This is Mia the pink ranger." She then indicated the Hispanic guy. "And this is Antonio, the gold ranger. They're the Samurai Power Rangers."

"This is so neat." Emily couldn't help but whisper to Serena. "The descendants of some of our earliest childhood stories." That drew a bit of a smirk from them at the comment.

"Do you truly think that you can stop us?" Grand Shogun demanded to know. "We could only be contained by your ancestors, not destroyed. What chance do you have?"

"It's time you find out." Jayden said as he looked at his sister and his friends. "It's time." They took out their samurizers and called out, "Go, Go Samurai!" Except for Antonio who called out, "Samurai morph gold power!"

"You guys help the Auradon rangers take out those samurai guys. I'm going to see if I can get that field down." Karone said to them. With that she turned around and transformed into the white space ranger and ran toward temple.

"I'll go and give the king a hand." Antonio said to the others.

Emily looked to Serena. "Are you up for this sis?" She asked her.

Serena nodded. "I'm good Em." She promised with a small smile.

Except for Antonio, who had his Barracuda blade, the rest of the rangers drew their spin sabers and charged toward the samurai monsters. But when they tried to attack the samurai rangers they instead jumped over them and landed beside the Auradon Rangers.

"Don't suppose we can help you out?" Mal said. "We kind of hate getting beaten down and all."

"Sounds good to me." Jayden said.

Serena stood by Mal, Lauren stood by Audrey, Jayden stood by Amy, Kevin stood by Evie, Mike stood by Jay, Emily stood by Carlos and Mia stood by Lonnie. They were ready for battle as the samurai turned to face them down.

The samurai with the whip sword lashed out with it at the pink rangers. Lonnie caught one in her tessen and then brought up the other one to wrap it up in her own weapons. "Hey look, half twinsies." Mia commented as she transformed her spin sword into her war fan and then used it to take out part of the whip. The two girls tossed the broken piece to the side. When he tried to bring the remnants of it around the two girls caught it again, this time between Mia and Lonnie before the Auradon pink ranger cut it again.

Mia reverted it back to the Spin Sword and gave it the turtle disc and unleashed her airway attack, which was quickly joined by Lonnie and her hurricane blast from the tessens she used. The samurai went flying.

Another of the samurai leapt in to attack Carlos and he blocked it with his earthquake claw daggers. Then Emily stepped in and kicked him in the chest hard enough to knock him back. She then swirled around with her spin sword and slashed him. "Let's teach this guy a lesson." Emily said to Carlos.

He nodded. "I'm with you." He assured her.

Emily charged the samurai with her earth slicer as Carlos was beside her with his earthquake claw daggers. The two jumped at the samurai who raised his sword to block the attacks. Carlos back flipped out of the way as Emily got down on one knee and used her other to kick him in the chest.

The yellow samurai ranger reverted to her spin sword and put the ape disc in it. "Let's give this guy a good slashing down Carlos." She said. He nodded. Then the two charged forward, Emily using her Primate Cyclone and Carlos following in with rapid claw slashes of his own. He went flying.

The green armored samurai slashed at Jay with his long blade but was blocked by Mike with his Spin Sword. He tried to maneuver his other blade at Mikey and Jay blocked it with his soul scimitar. The two reversed around and then delivered a double kick to the samurai monster backwards.

The samurai monster brought the blades together and unleashed blast at them, but the two boys rolled out of the way. Mike placed a disk and changed it to his forest spear and jabbed the samurai hard, forcing him to drop the long sword, then Jay moved in and slashed him, making him lose the second sword. Dual slashes from the two sent him flying as well.

The archer of the samurai's started to unleash his seemingly infinite arrows at the two blue rangers. Kevin used his hydro bow, pulling back on the handle to start deflecting some of the arrows as Evie started to move in closer, blocking what she could with her mirror force shield.

As Evie grew closer the samurai started to turn his attacks more toward Evie. That was the opening she and Kevin had been hoping for. He reverted to his spin sword and used the dragon splash attack to hit the samurai and disarm him of his bow. Evie then unleashed her storming mirror force attack on him and sent him flying.

Jayden and Amy paced Shadow Shien, Amy with her rose lance together in her hands as a long weapon and Jayden with his spin sword out. He automatically noticed that this guy was different from the ones that Mia, Emily, Kevin and Mike had had faced with Amy's friends. A look from Amy confirmed that she had sensed it too.

"What are you children waiting for?" Shien taunted them. "Why don't you attack me already?"

"Why is that only you, the Grandmaster and the Great Shogun are the only ones we've ever heard talking?" Amy questioned as she shifted her rose lance around in her hands. She was sometimes surprised she could hold a weapon like that given her small frame, as Mal liked to joke less than 100 pounds soaking wet. "Why don't they ever talk?"

"Some only need to speak when spoken too." Shien replied. It made Amy feel a little sick as her mother said that to her a lot. Sometimes Amy had nightmares that her mother would have had her voice box removed if she could have.

"Everyone's opinion on the team should be given voice." Jayden said now. "Too silence them is to limit your effectiveness."

"Fancy words from a pretender." Shien retorted. Amy wondered what that meant. "Tell me boy, why are there two red rangers among you? Who is the head of your house?"

"You're right that it isn't me." Jayden replied. "But that isn't relevant to how the team operates. What matters is that everyone has their say. None of my team was forced to come here to fight today."

"Nor was anyone here." Amy added. "Your forcing most of our team into that weird temple of yours notwithstanding." She had to shift her hand holds again and she wondered how Jayden had kept his perfectly still. "Can yours say the same thing?"

"Then neither of you understand true leadership." Shadow Shien declared and charged right at Amy, whom he deemed to be the less focused of the two. He moved to bring his sword down on her only to realize the shifting of the weapon made it that much easier for the rose ranger to react as she blocked the sword in the middle of her lance.

Granted he had the strength over her but this time it didn't matter as Jayden moved in between the samurai and the rose ranger and kicked him away from her. He then followed up with a sword slash of his own but he blocked it with his own. Amy moved in from around him and swung her lance around his leg, attempting to trip him up. He was able to see it coming and dodge it only for both Jayden and Amy to attack him from up and down, sending him landing hard before turning again to face them.

"I think we need to make a bit more of an impact." Jayden declared and turned his spin sword into the fire smasher. He moved in and tried to attack him. Shien was able to dodge the attack.

"The heavier the weapon the easier it is for those of us who are light to dodge." Shien taunted him.

"Then we should have the advantage." Jayden replied evenly. That was when Amy moved in. He heard her coming and he moved to swing at her but the rose ranger dodged under the swing, separated her lance into two parts and caught the middle of his sword in between the rose petals of her lances, which were much more durable than one would expect.

Jayden brought the fire smasher down onto the sword and broke it in half. Then with a reversion to the spin sword and the addition of the lion disc Jayden delivered a blazing strike kick to the Shadow Shien, sending him flying.

"You are the true head of your house I take it." Grand Shogun said as he paced Lauren and Audrey. Like his counterpart the Grand Master he had all but written the Auradon red ranger out of the fight too. Though she was no longer in any danger of bleeding out thanks to the sorcery of the Auradon blue ranger she still seemed weak from blood loss. "I will do the honorable thing and make your end swift."

"I appreciate the sentiment." Lauren replied, though Audrey couldn't tell for sure whether or not the female red ranger was being sarcastic or not. "And I'll return to you that same courtesy."

He seemed to find the prospect amusing. He looked to Audrey. "Your end will be swifter than hers though. It's a miracle that you're still standing."

One of the things that Audrey had in common with Amy, though they didn't exactly realize that, was that she too hated being talked down too. "Don't write me off yet Shogun." She warned him. "I might just surprise you."

"Somehow I doubt it." He said and then ran toward the two female red rangers.

"I sure hope he isn't sexist." Audrey commented wryly, knowing there were some male life forms, human or monster, which would have a problem being beaten down by two girls. She actually remembered going to a competition where Lonnie had done just that. "I'd hate to bruise his ego."

Lauren and the Shogun seemed to be evenly matched as they spent a moment with their swords clashed before sparring back and forth with each other. That kind of suited Audrey just fine because she was still feeling off from all the blood loss. Then he lashed out and caught Lauren across the chest hard, making her fall back.

Audrey jumped up at him with her elemental bow and used the top pointy end to bring it down on his back. He turned around with a slashing strike and she ducked to dodge it but felt the world go tipsy on her and fell to her knees after the dodge. He brought his boot up into face hard, making her land on the ground with resounding crash, knocking the breath out of her.

"You have more fight than I expected." Shogun granted. "But it will not save you."

Then Lauren was in front of him, kicking him away from the injured brunette princess. "You're quite strong." The female samurai ranger granted him. "I guess it's time to up my game, as my friends would say." With that she formed the Black Box in her free hand. She placed in her own lion disc onto her spin sword and combined it with the black box. "Engaging Super Samurai mode."

"Wow, that's kind of cool." Audrey said.

Lauren clashed with Great Shogun again and the two were finding it hard to get any sort of advantage in the fight. Audrey was almost sure if they could get that advantage over their opponent Lauren might be able to turn the tide. That when she had an idea. She again picked up her elemental bow and aimed a hail of magnetic arrows at the battle. Just as she suspected as the arrows drew closer to the battle they were drawn to the one who was wearing the most armor, in this case the Great Shogun.

The arrows were striking all at him and that gave Lauren the opportunity she needed, then she had an idea though. "Do your arrows produce elements as well?" She asked Audrey.

"They do." She answered.

Lauren smiled a little under her helmet. "Would I be able to borrow an electric arrow?" She requested now.

The request confused Audrey but she pulled back the string on her bow and formed an electric arrow. She didn't fire it but simply pulled it out and gave it to Lauren. "Here."

"Thank you." Lauren replied. She looked at it a moment. Her idea was kind of a long shot and didn't know if it would work. With the lion disc and another disc, the lightning disc, she or Jayden could combine the energies to use a blazing storm attack. But that also required another samurai ranger's spin sword. She hoped though that the lightning arrow could sub for the second disc and still give the same results.

"Whatever your plan is, you better implement it quickly." Audrey added as Great Shogun was rising from the storm of magnetic arrows.

Lauren nodded and placed the tip of the electrified arrow against her disc. She had this immediate feeling that she couldn't identify, except to say that she was sure this was going to do what she wanted. She ran toward him. "Audrey warned you not to count her out of this fight, and she has now given the key pieces needed for this victory." With that she delivered a blazing storm attack to the Great Shogun that sent him flying.

Mal was a little intrigued. Aside from Amber she had never worked with a purple ranger, having the suspicion that color aside Miranda didn't count and that RJ didn't exactly fit what was thought of with purple rangers and that he hadn't even identified himself as such. She had heard various snippets about how rare they were to have as Amber had said that for years she had been the only purple ranger, never having passed that mantle the way her other team mates had ended up doing over the starting years. She knew nothing about any other purple rangers that might have existed in other ranger teams before now.

She could feel that the purple samurai ranger Serena was strong, but at the same time she seemed to be fighting something. She also seemed to lack the same confidence, as if she had only just come into her powers instead of handling them for years. If her hunches were right she could give the girl that much more credit, for being on the field of battle at a most inopportune time.

"I don't recall anything about an ancient purple ranger." Grandmaster said suspiciously as he paced them. "Perhaps you aren't as important as the others."

"Don't let any shadows of the past cloud your judgement over my worth today." Serena warned him.

"You just don't understand our legacy." Mal told him with confidence. She had a better understanding of it than Grandmaster ever would, just based on everything that she and Amber had discussed. "But you will before this is all over."

Grandmaster brought his sword up to fight. Serena had her spin sword ready and Mal had her dragon's eye staff ready. He charged them and Serena blocked with her sword. Mal was thankful that he was not as armored up as his comrades were and jabbed her staff into his chest hard.

Serena removed her icicle disc and inserted it into the spin sword. "You've been pretty fired up since we showed up." Serena said to him. "Allow me to help you cool down." With that she unleashed her own attack, the heavy blizzard and it slammed hard into the Grandmaster.

Mal leapt out and kicked him hard in the chest. He swung his sword down at her but she was able to block with the dragon's staff. He then shot his knee out into her chin and sent her reeling backwards. Mal looked up with an angry glare. "You're really getting on my nerves." She stated. She could feel her eyes going green for a moment.

"We need more power." Serena said. "I think it's time to show him one of the perks of being a purple ranger." Mal looked at her curiously. It seemed each team's purple ranger could do things no other ranger could; Amber for example had the power of lightning. "Normally only the ranger with the black box can use Super Samurai mode, except for me." With that and only a flick of her spin sword she took on the same appearance as Lauren had, only in purple instead of red.

"Purple power is going to strike again." Mal said with amusement. "Let's finish this off." With that she unleashed meteors that were smaller in size but similar in power to what her dragon zord released. Then Serena moved in and struck him again with her powered up heavy blizzard. He fell back flying.

"Mind if I cut in?" Antonio asked as he slashed Chad with his barracuda blade and then stood beside Ben.

"I sure mind." Chad said with a growl. "You have no place in this; you're not even the rangers that need to pay for the past." Both guys had a feeling that was directed toward the really veteran rangers.

"I for one will take whatever help I can get." Ben said to Antonio. Together the two started to attack Chad, trusting in their friends to finish the samurai off.

Chad used Maledict's blade to block the two attackers and then slammed the shield into Antonio hard. He then turned to Ben and clashed again with his former friend. The shield's connected and Chad forced Ben to drop his, losing his own in the process.

Ben rolled to retrieve his only for Chad to move in and strike the knight in the chest hard. "This is going to be your end now Ben." He promised. "Audrey will be mine." He very vaguely thought he heard something from the gold samurai ranger and he waved it off.

Then as Chad tried to stab Ben he was blocked by Antonio and his barracuda blade. "…is quicker than the eye my friend." He finished. He had used his own skills to quickly bypass the distance between the two of them to stop Chad from ending the young king's life.

Ben recovered the shield and had a firmer grip on the Praeleanthor sword. "Doing anything you're aiming for won't be nearly so easy Chad." He promised.

All of the samurai landed in heavy heaps after their fights with the respective rangers. Most of the weapons were either broken or had a singed quality to them.

Karone had determined earlier on that the temple kept the rest of the team in trapped because of the energy emitted from the weapons. She wasn't exactly a technical expert and had been struggling on disruption methods with no luck when the field fizzled out from the fight and they were free.

"They did it." Will said happily. "Now let's see if we can help everyone one finish this off."

Ally looked to Jordan. "Are you up for it?" She asked the genie girl. She had had an arrow pierced into her arm too from the bow wielding samurai.

Jordan pulled the arrow out and waved her free hand. "Field gone, magic back, ready to roll." She affirmed as she then used her hand to patch up the wound. Together the rest of the rangers joined their team and the samurai rangers.

"I'm going to cut in for Antonio so he can help you guys out." Karone said and ran in the opposite direction.

As soon as she showed up Chad seemed to brighten. "Astronema, princess of darkness." He said. "Traitor to evil. You should pay for what you've done as well."

That caught the white space ranger off guard as there was no way that Chad would really know that. Then she remembered the demon's that made the blade he used and realized they would know who she was. "Your team needs you to help finish those samurai, I'll help Ben." She said.

"Alright then." Antonio agreed and ran off to the others.

"I think Chad would rather be fighting you anyway." Ben remarked as he absorbed what Chad had said.

"Are you okay?" Will asked Lonnie as he placed his hand on her arm.

Lonnie reached up and placed her other hand over Will's. "I'm just fine, thanks." She said. She wished she could say the same for Audrey, who seemed to still be standing only by sheer adrenaline.

"It's time to finish them off." Mal said to her team and then looked at the Samurai rangers. "I take it you're with us."

"You know it." Jayden said. "Totally." Emily agreed. Jayden took his fire smasher and added the double disc to make another and handed it to his older sister. "For you."

"Thank you." Lauren said. Mia, Emily and Serena stood beside her. Mike, Kevin and slightly breathless Antonio was beside him.

"Are you up for this?" Jay asked Audrey, knowing she was still weak from blood loss.

"Yes." Audrey said. "Let's finish this."

The Samurai rangers used the fire smashers to form the cannons like they had used in the past. They held room for four discs each. The girl's placed their discs in the one that Lauren held and the guy's placed their disks in the one that Jayden held. Then they brought the two cannons together and stood side by side; Lauren and Jayden, Mike and Emily, Mia and Kevin, and Serena and Antonio.

With Mal slightly behind them the other rangers took their positions; Jay and Audrey, Evie and Melody, Carlos and Jane, Aziz and Ally, Jordan and Miranda, Will and Lonnie, and Alex and Ellie. With Ben otherwise engaged one section of the Auradon Launcher was retracted and Amy stood by her twin sister.

The samurai were only now recovering and realizing that their weapons were charred or destroyed. "This is impossible." Great Shogun grand out. "To lose to children is absolutely uncomprehendable."

"Better learn to comprehend it." Kevin advised him belatedly. "Because it's for real."

With that the two groups of ranger's unleashed their most devastating beams on the samurai, there was a huge explosion and when the smoke cleared all that was left was the charred weapons.

"Did we do it?" Carlos asked.

"What remains of their essences are trapped in the remains of their weapons." Lauren answered as their cannon was disassembled and the discs returned to their owners. "Still we must collect them and put them somewhere where evil cannot get a hold of them again."

"Is there such a place?" Carlos asked.

Several of the team had already turned to help Ben and Karone but Chad had already started to back up. "This isn't over Ben." He warned his former friend. "If it takes my last breath you will be defeated and Audrey will be mine."

Jay was about ready to go at him just over that but Chad disappeared and Audrey nearly fell. The black ranger quickly changed gears and caught her.

"Is she okay?" Emily asked her.

"She's lost a lot of blood." Jayden said. "You need to get here somewhere safe and let her recover."

Mike, Mia, Jordan and Ellie had collected the charred weapons. "We should get to the command center and let her recover there." Mal said to the two teams. "And maybe Fairy Godmother has an idea on where we can properly banish those things."

"That'd be great." Antonio said. "Because we got nothing. We were kind of hoping we'd be able to destroy the weapons."

As Ben and Karone caught up to the team, Mal threw her arms around Ben and said, "I'm glad you're okay."

Ben laughed. "Are you kidding me Mal. I had the easy fight." He replied.

"And some of you even got to sit it out." Lonnie said with a teasing smile.

"We figured it was about time we let you guys make up for some the slack we've been compensating for." Miranda said with a small laugh and Evie threw her hands up in mock surrender. Together they all started back toward the command center.

"Well so much for that." Gregory sighed as he threw up his hands in exasperation. "Another attempt culled by the appearance of more power rangers."

"They weren't planned for I grant." Paradias said to him. "But this isn't over just yet."


	77. The Final Samurais

Audrey awoke to the last thing she expected to see. Amy was over her, having just wiped a cool washcloth over her forehead. She moaned a little and then Jay was one side of her while Mal was over her sister. "You're awake." Mal said happily.

"You started running a bit of a fever on the way back to the command center." Jay said. "Emily said that the gash you got from that fight must have become infected." He took her hand in his and squeezed it gently.

"Jordan made you a potion though by that point you had passed out." Mal said. "Miranda had to get you to take it without your being conscious like she did for Amy after Undine broke our legs."

Audrey smiled up at them. "Thanks." She said. She tried to sit up and Jay helped her to do so. Amy placed the washcloth in a bowl with water. The others were there and smiled happily to see her awake.

"I can't tell you how worried we were about you." Lonnie said to her as she handed Audrey a small glass of water. "Try that before we get something more concrete into your system."

She could see Evie already making milkshakes with help from the three blonde samurai girls.

"Mia volunteered to help out with that too." Amy noted to her quietly. "But the others seemed pretty adamant that four people were enough to do that." She giggled a little and added, "Something tells me they're not too impressed with her culinary skills."

Audrey smiled a little at Amy as she took a sip of water but felt she couldn't respond to her. She felt kind of out of it.

Now Fairy Godmother was in front of her. "Take it easy for a few minutes Audrey. You're still in shock from the blood loss. Serena will bring over a chocolate shake in a minute for you if you can hold the water down." Again Audrey nodded kind of numbly.

"So any idea where we're supposed to dump these things?" Mike asked as he glanced at the small table that held the charred remnants of the samurai monster's weapons.

"A black hole comes to mind." Emily said and Mike laughed a little bit at that. Serena smiled a little too and then put her hand to her head. "Are you okay?" Emily asked her sister. That drew everyone's attention.

"I'm fine." Serena answered. "Just a bit of a headache."

"Are you alright child? Fairy Godmother asked as Emily took her to one of the chairs. Ally and Melody took their places making shakes.

"I'm…I'm okay. Getting better." Serena replied.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked her. "Or, what was wrong?"

"Serena was originally supposed to the yellow ranger, not me." Emily revealed to the Auradon rangers simply. "But she came down with this disease; we're not even sure what to call it now. She sent me in her place."

"Is it killing you?" Carlos asked her. Mal shot him a look of annoyance, not sure that was a good question to be asking. Amy placed her hand on Mal's arm to stop her; it was an important thing to know for their friends.

"It was." Jayden now said. "For a while now, during most of our time as power rangers."

"You said was though." Jane noted.

Emily nodded. "There are advantages to this." She said as she indicated her surroundings. "Being power rangers, knowing people with so many diverse backgrounds and unique experiences." She looked at Karone. "We owe them for helping Serena."

"We didn't do anything." Karone said to her. "We just got something to help her." She looked to the others. "It was similar to a disease that struck on KO-35, which Andros was able to identify when we finally first met them. We went to retrieve the antidote but we ran into an old enemy of ours who somehow escaped Zordon's wave, named Bladerunner."

"That sounds like a cool name." Aziz noted.

"Maybe, but he's a threat." Karone replied. Mal and Ben exchanged glances as they noted the lack of past tense use. That meant he was still alive today. "A remnant from the Machine Empire. He nearly stopped us from helping her."

A/N: You're not missing anything; Bladerunner is a charrie I created.

"I've been affected by it for years." Serena said to them. "I haven't fully recovered physically from it yet even with the cure." She took a deep breath. "I'd probably be worse off without the purple ranger powers."

"Who designed them for you?" Jane asked.

A moment of silence passed between the rangers before finally Karone spoke again. "You'll find that with a few exceptions, mostly anything Amber held, that purple rangers show up without any real explanation of where the powers came from." She revealed.

"You mean I shouldn't have powers then?" Mal asked curiously.

"That's ridiculous." Fairy Godmother told her. "Zordon helped design your powers just as he helped design the ones that Amber has used." She patted Mal's shoulder softly. "You're meant to have powers."

"Someone means for this to happen." Serena assured her. "I'm far from the first one to find mysterious purple ranger powers since Zordon sacrificed himself." She seemed to have regained her composure and she looked around. "Okay, so back to milkshakes and weapon destruction." She declared.

Everyone knew that it was time to shelve that topic for now. Emily patted her sister's arm gently before taking a vanilla shake over to Audrey. "Try this; it should help you feel better." She said. Audrey nodded in appreciation.

"The problem is that putting them somewhere in Auradon isn't such a good idea." Jayden said. "The fact is that it would be too easy to find them here."

"Is your world any safer?" Jay questioned, perhaps with a little too much of a challenge to it. "Any evil that wasn't here seems to be in your world, and even when it's eliminated it keeps coming."

Karone frowned a bit at the assessment but she sure couldn't deny it. Even though Zordon was thought to have wiped out the evil in the galaxy it was quickly proven not to be true as several things seemed to have survived; Scorpina, Lokar, Gasket and Archerinna, and Bladerunner for starters. That didn't include anything that showed up afterwards from the various aliens like Scorpius and demons like Olympius and other assorted goons like Master Org and Xandred.

"Okay, that might be true." Kevin granted. "But do you have any better ideas?"

"If only we could find some place devoid of life." Mia commented.

"I don't suppose we could find someplace like that with that gateway thing you guys use to travel from your world to ours?" Doug suggested.

"That's a good idea actually." Karone said. She headed toward the consoles. "Let me coordinate with Alpha and see what we can find."

"Once this is resolved we'll have a dinner to thank you for your help." Ben said to them. He saw a look of amusement pass Karone's face as she had been there the last time they had thrown a little dinner. "I mean it this time. Just us at my palace."

Mike laughed a bit. "Dude, you have to be the only people I've ever heard of who can say something like that and have it sound perfectly normal." He noted humorously.

"I think it's kind of cool." Mia noted with a slightly wistful smile. "To grow up as royalty in a huge castle, surrounded by people who think and feel the same way as you."

"But they don't." Jordan replied simply. "Being royal doesn't mean we think the same thing." She gestured to where Mal, Jay and Amy were. "When Ben decreed that some of the villain kids should be given a chance it was met with quite a bit of concern and uncertainty."

"Back when it started I had some problems with it." Audrey added. "Saying that Ben's mom might have married a prince disguised as a beast, but sometimes the evil fairy was the evil fairy."

"No one could necessarily blame you for that." Emily tried to reassure her. "You were right in that regard as that is what Maleficent really was."

"No arguments from either of us." Mal told her.

"And only time confirms for a person whether their suspicions have any basis in reality." Lauren added.

"And in truth you weren't entirely wrong." Jay reminded Audrey. "We did initially come here to get the magic wand and take it to Maleficent before we changed our minds."

"Man it's still kind of weird to think this is real." Kevin remarked. "I mean most of us grew up with some portion of your parents lives as movies." He glanced at Jordan and Aziz. "I mean I loved the Aladdin movie when I was a kid."

"I know right." Mia echoed. "The Little Mermaid was always my favorite." She glanced at Melody. "That would be your mom's story in our world."

"Her tail." Mike echoed and snickered just a bit, which earned him a glare from Mia.

"Does everyone have their favorites?" Amy asked. Since to them the fairy tales were real it was hard to think about them as mere tales.

"Well not everyone." Serena answered. "There are people who think those stories are ridiculous, not realizing of course that for some it's really a history lesson." She smiled a little. "I'm sure you would find some of our history fairly outrageous. But anyway, there are some people who never hear these stories."

"I'm surprised to hear that one." Lonnie admitted. "I mean it seemed like it was always consistent or something."

"We don't have your stories on KO-35." Karone filled in. "I mean we're a human colony but we until Andros joined up with the others a lot of Earth customs were pretty much unknown." She glanced at the isle kids now. "And I don't have to tell you that growing up evil doesn't give you much in the way of an education in fairy tales."

"You got that right." Carlos agreed.

"Similarly, the upbringing Lauren and I had, training to be samurai so that we could beat back Xandred and the Nighlok's didn't exactly leave us much time for fairy tales either." Jayden added. "Though perhaps that would have been reexamined had anyone known of Auradon."

The alarms went off and this time it was the Samurai rangers who jumped as they were not expecting them, they didn't even know what that meant until Doug brought up an image on the screen and said, "Oh, that can't be good."

"Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Mike asked.

"More Samurai." Lauren echoed.

On screen at one of the market places were six more of them. One was wielded a spear, one wielded two clubs, another was actually female and had two small curved blades, one seemed to be a regular looking samurai, one of them had four arms, a sword in each, and the last had a very long and wicked looking sword.

"I thought we defeated all of the samurai." Amy noted. "Where did they come from?"

"The legendary samurai." Lauren answered in shock. "I didn't think they existed."

"This may have been a mistake on our part." Mike replied. "Because they're here looking for trouble."

"Why didn't they show up with the last bunch?" Carlos wondered, not looking forward to another fight with them.

"They wouldn't have shown up unless their other clan members had been defeated." Jayden answered him. "That speaks well for the fact we won the last fight but now we must win this one."

"You'll have to collect their weapons too when you defeat them." Karone said. "That way we can at least banish them all at the same time."

"Are they going to sideline us in a temple too?" Aziz asked with some mirth. He hadn't appreciated that one.

"They may not need to." Lauren answered grimly. "There's a reason they call themselves legendary."

"Then it's time to take these legends down." Mal said. Jayden nodded in agreement.

"I'll stay here to coordinate with Alpha and work with Doug to find a good place to leave these weapons so these guys can't come back." Karone told them.

"Then we better go and stop them." Lauren said but hesitated a moment as she looked to Audrey. "Are you sure you're up for this though?"

Audrey took one last sip of her milkshake and then stood up. "Yeah, I'm ready." She said.

They left the command center and headed for the marketplace. By the time they arrived most everyone had ran in fright. Will was relieved to see his sister was not trying to play the hero roll as she had on the beach with Spider Spear Shark.

"So you were the ones who destroyed our Great Shogun, Grandmaster and shadow warrior." The seemingly lead samurai with the long sword said when the approached. Nothing was said about the other lost samurai. "Return their weapons and we will leave this place, and we might even let you live."

"Like we buy that one." Jay said and Mike laughed a bit in agreement.

"We can't do it." Lauren said to Mal, perhaps a bit needlessly since that was never in the purple ranger's plans. "If we do they might very well be able to restore their fallen comrades."

"Not to worry." Mal said to her. She raised her voice slightly. "Did you honestly think that we would agree to that?"

The lone female samurai spoke now with a small laugh. "No, we didn't. In fact we would have been more surprised if you did." With that the leader himself summoned soldiers to back them up.

"Let's get to work." Mal announced as she pulled out her iPhone. Her team members followed with their iPhones or respective item. The samurai rangers pulled out their samurizers and called out, "Go, go samurai." And "Gold samurai power." After transforming they stood ready to fight. "Rangers together, forever."

Each of the rangers started to move into fight the new samurais. Mal, Serena and Miranda approached the leader. Lauren, Jayden, Audrey and Alex were approached by the four armed samurai. Evie, Kevin and Melody were approached by the one with the clubs. Mia, Amy and Lonnie were approached by the lone female monster. Mike, Will and Jay were approached by the spear carrying samurai and Carlos, Jane and Emily were approached by the last one.

Antonio looked to Ben, Ellie, Jordan, Ally, and Aziz. "Guess that leaves the bling team with the soldiers." He said with some laughter.

"Bling team?" Ellie asked dubiously.

"Yeah." Antonio responded. "Two gold rangers, a silver ranger and a silverish knight, a crystal ranger and in essence a crystal knight." He explained to her.

"Technically she's a dame." Jordan told him and the gold samurai ranger shrugged.

"Alright then." Aziz said. "The bling team will handle the army." That got an eye roll from Ellie but she left it alone. They had no problem bypassing the soldiers as the samurai were already distracted with other targets.

The samurai slashed Carlos hard and he hit the ground with a loud thump. He moved in to try to finish it but Emily blocked it with her spin sword. Jane followed up by trying to attack him but he took a step back and unleashed a swirl of energy that struck the two girls hard, making them fall on either side of Carlos.

"Well that could have gone better." Carlos noted dryly as he stood up.

"At least we're able to try that again." Emily noted as she and Jane stood up. The yellow samurai ranger moved in and tried to attack the samurai. He blocked it but that allowed both Jane and Carlos to come in from underneath him and give him a double upward slash with the magic wand and earthquake claw daggers. He flipped and landed on his feet before advancing quickly and slashing the three of them again. They fell hard but rolled to a quick recovery.

"Any ideas?" Emily asked the two Auradon rangers.

Jane's mind worked as quickly as it always seemed to. "I have an idea, it's kind of a risk." She answered. "Let's combine your powers and mine and direct them into Carlos's earthquake claw daggers. Then he can attack him with all of our combined powers."

"And if he takes me out first?" Carlos asked. He was certainly stronger.

"Hopefully with our powers with yours he wouldn't be." Emily said.

Carlos shoved his doubts to the back of his mind. "Alright, let's do it then." He decided.

With a touch of Jane's magic wand and a touch of Emily's spin sword with the ape disk attached the power was channeled into Carlos's earthquake claw daggers. He ran toward the samurai, this the yellow ranger dodged as he was swung at and then came up with a two part slash attack, the power of earth and magic backing him up. The samurai fell to the ground hard with a loud explosion.

The spear carrying samurai clashed his spear with Jay's soul scimitar. Will and Mike moved in to try to strike with their swords but with a quick whirl, he knocked Aziz aside and then blocked the two sword wielders. He struck with his spear and the two green rangers fell back.

"This guy is certainly strong." Mike noted.

"He'd have to be." Jay replied. "That spear is almost twice as bulky as Aziz's."

The samurai gathered energy into his weapon and then slammed it into the ground, sending a stream of energy at the three rangers and sent them flying backwards. The three started to get up as he charged toward him.

No one could see it through his helmet but Will closed his eyes as he stepped in between his two comrades and the monster. He heard the spear coming and twisted his recursive sword around to block. He tried to thrust the spear into the green Auradon ranger and he blocked and twisted it, forcing the spear out of his hand.

"Wow." Mike said. "Impressive."

"Anbo-jitsu." Will answered with a satisfied smile.

"When you're done teaching Lonnie, you've got to teach me that." Jay agreed.

The two green rangers and the black Auradon ranger moved in together, Mike slashing him down the center while the Auradon rangers got him on either side. Together the three boys turned around as he fell to the ground with a crash.

"You know normally I'd make a comment about girl power here." Mia noted as she, Lonnie and Amy prepared to face down against the female samurai. "But that might actually work against us here."

"How about we go with the power of pink?" Amy suggested with a small smile. It was her favorite color after all. Rose was a great substitute in her opinion since Lonnie was the pink ranger.

"Great idea." Mia agreed.

"So then let's show her the power of pink." Lonnie said.

"A grand show of solidarity girls." The female samurai said mockingly. "But it will take more than lovey dovey princessy stuff to take me down." With that she tossed both of her curved blades. They each rounded out and struck the girls both times, as the three girls hit the ground the blades returned to her.

She then jumped and aimed to bring her blades down on Mia but Amy separated her rose lance into two pieces and blocked the attack. Lonnie moved in then and knocked the blades out of her hands. Mia jumped over them to jump kick her straight in the chest.

Mia used her disc to turn her spin sword into her war fan. "Let's show her a pink breeze Lonnie." She said.

"Great idea." Lonnie said.

"And let the petals go to the wind." Amy added. The two girls used their weapons to cause a hurricane of pink energy to flutter about before directing it to Amy. Using her magic she was able to get some of the rose petals to come off of the lance ends and strike the female samurai.

During the attack she recalled her blades and started to slash her way through the rose petals. She tried to bring her daggers down on Amy but she activated her intangibility and the daggers went through her. The two pink rangers kicked the female samurai away from Amy.

"Maybe we can try her own trick on her." Lonnie suggested. "Toss our weapons right at her."

"It's worth a shot." Mia agreed. The three girls gathered their energies into their weapons and then tossed them. Lonnie's disarmed the female samurai and while Mia's war fan struck her dead center Amy's rose lances curved around and, powered with all four of the elements, struck her twice.

As the girls collected their returning weapons their adversary fell with an explosion. "Oh my pink." Amy said with a laugh.

The samurai with the club moved in to strike at the three blue rangers. Melody and Kevin each turned their weapons to block the attack as Evie unleashed her quaking mirror force to unbalance their adversary.

He recovered quickly enough and brought his clubs down hard on the ground, causing his own quake. Then he rushed forward and slammed his clubs against the three of them hard.

"Got to give them credit." Kevin muttered. "When they land a hit, they make it hard."

"Yeah, lucky us." Evie said with a roll of her eyes. "We have to shut him down."

"I think it would be better to cool him down." Kevin replied and used his disc to turn his spin sword into the hydro bow and unleashed an attack on him.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Evie said and unleashed her storming mirror force on him.

"After a cool down, it's always nice to chill out." Melody said as she used her trident to deliver an icy wind at him too. "Maybe we should have gotten Ellie to really put the freeze on them."

"We got this." Evie said with a laugh. "It's best to let the bling team do its thing."

Kevin ironically gave Evie the same look of doubt that Ellie had given Antonio. That attention though was broken as the samurai broke right through the lair of thin ice. He charged right at them. A quick maneuver from the blue samurai ranger tripped him up. "We need another plan here ladies." He said.

Evie already had an idea. "Do that again but this time, aim at me." She said.

"Are you crazy?" Kevin asked her.

"No she's right." Melody assured him. "Our combined energies together will make more of an impact that our three energies separated."

The club wielding samurai was already getting up. Melody and Kevin directed their water attacks at Evie, trying to keep it as narrow as possible. Evie used tried to collect as much of it as possible before unleashing her new improved mirror force right at him. He tried to block it with his clubs but the pressure caused them to crack right before sending him flying back in what one could call a watery explosion.

"Good thing there are four of us." Alex noted casually. "Because he's got four arms." He looked to Audrey. "Don't see that too much actually, do we?"

Audrey shrugged a bit. "Actually now that you mention it we don't." She said with a touch of shock. She had to admit she expected monsters to be less humanoid looking than most of them were. Of course they had things like Spider Spear Shark.

Jayden and Lauren moved in and tried to attack but he used both of his arms on each side to block their attack and then swirled around, slashing them each twice. The two rolled back near the two Auradon warriors.

"Let's see if we can make him sweat." Alex said and then laughed a little at his own joke. Audrey couldn't help but rolled her eyes but suspected Ellie might do the same thing sometimes too. He unleashed a stream of fire that ended up being like a crescent. It was enough to block him for a minute.

"Are you two okay?" Audrey asked them.

Jayden nodded. "He packs a bit more of a punch with those four arms of his."

"I think it's time we up our game then." Lauren said to Jayden.

"We'll give you two time to change." Alex said.

Audrey nodded. She already suspected that Lauren was going to use the black box as she hadn't seen it change hands since they had arrived. She did wonder what Jayden was going to do though. The two of them moved in, Alex prepping another round of fire. Audrey raised her elemental bow and shot her electrical arrows over the fire and toward him. She could hear him deflecting her arrows but that was okay as she was trying to distract him.

Jayden formed the shark sword and took out the shark disk. Then he combined them to enter shark mode. Lauren meanwhile placed her lion disk into the black box to enter Super Samurai mode. Together the two of them moved in on their four armed samurai. Both of them unleashed a powerful attack and sent him flying. He had two hands on the ground to balance himself.

Audrey moved in with her elemental bow and Alex moved in with his tonfas to strike at him, knowing that he would block the attack. Audrey then moved in and brought her bow in an upwards strike to knock him off of his feet and stumbling backwards.

"It's time to finish this." Jayden said. "Let's show him the power of fire."

Together with a hail of fire arrows, a stream of fireballs from Alex's tonfas and a charge from the two Samurai rangers it brought the four armed one to his knees, the swords flying in all directions.

The leader faced off against the three purple rangers. Miranda had her blades in her hand, twirling the like a master. Mal held her dragon's eye staff at the ready, vaguely aware that she held her weapon like her mother held her staff. Serena had her spin sword waiting patiently for the first move.

"You require numbers to defeat us." He said with contempt. "That is rather dishonorable."

"Excuse me, but it was yer friends who locked half of us in yer temple." Miranda retorted. "That wasn't exactly honorable either."

"Your Grandmaster and Great Shogun weren't really worried about fighting honorably when they very nearly made Audrey bleed to death." Mal added with some anger. "I think you can stow any rants about honor."

He gave a low growl of annoyance and swiped his sword at Mal. She dodged under it and Miranda flipped over him, kicking him in the chest hard. As he stumbled back Serena tried to bring her spin sword down on him and he blocked it, striking her back. He moved quickly and slashed Mal hard too, but when he tried to get the Highlands ranger she blocked it in between her blades.

"Word of advice, don't underestimate the power of purple." Miranda said. "And don't underestimate me." With that she unleashed her bear spirit and it seemed to leap right at him, making him fall back to avoid something that couldn't possibly hurt him that time.

Mal had to admit again that she was impressed by the way Miranda controlled her animal spirit. She highly suspected that it had to do with the time she spent training, something none of them had done. Even Amy with her rapid training had done so in a short time, and that was primarily on her magic and her own mental and emotional barriers, she hadn't known about her animal spirit until her near tumble into the volcano behind the mountain where the Auradon Megazord was.

Serena rose and again displayed her unique ability as the purple samurai ranger, accessing the abilities of the black box without actually having it. She unleashed a blizzard crash attack on him, followed by Mal releasing her own miniature meteor strike attack on him. This was followed by Miranda drawing energy into her blades and giving him a powerful scissors strike. The three purple rangers turned to their friends as the last samurai fell.

As that had been going on the 'bling team' as Antonio had dubbed them had easily disposed of the soldiers. They collected the fallen weapons.

"Karone, I hope you figured out where we're going to dispose of these things." Kevin said into his communicator.

"I know exactly where we're putting these things." Karone promised. "Bring them to the command center and let's end this."


	78. Samurai Farewells

"That planet sure looks inhospitable." Carlos noted as they saw it on the view screen. It was as black as night and it looked to be rather windy, based on all of the dirt swirling around on the ground. "But what makes it so safe?"

"We have to accept the fact that nothing short of throwing these objects," Fairy Godmother indicated the samurai weapons that bore the spirits of the samurai monsters, both legendary and not, that were on the table. "Into a sun or black hole there is no way to guarantee total safety."

"Why not do just that then?" Emily wondered.

"Black holes really are known for being notoriously unsafe Em." Mike said to her with a small laugh as he squeezed her shoulder gently.

"Intense gravitational forces would probably crush the weapons, but if anything goes wrong it would kill whoever was trying to deliver them into the black hole." Karone explained, as much for Emily's benefit as everyone else. "And a sun isn't much safer to approach either."

"Alright, so back to Carlos's question then; what makes this place a good option?" Mal asked.

"The atmosphere is highly corrosive to metal for starters, a fact that Tommy, Kat and the others learned when Master Vile exiled their ninja zords to that planet." Karone answered. "So the weapons won't have any chance to repair themselves though I suspect they're strong enough to not be destroyed completely. Second, this planet is located in the M51 galaxy which is largely left alone since most people won't go near it because Master Vile used to rule that part of the galaxy before Zordon's wave."

"Who is…was Master Vile?" Amy asked now.

"A cruel ruler. He was also the father to Rito Revolto and Rita Repulsa." Karone explained. "His daughter would be purified by Zordon and would become a figure for good that calls herself they Mystic Mother and is responsible for the creation of the Mystic Ranger's powers."

Jay snickered a little. "That's some irony for you." He remarked.

No one thought to ask what happened to Rito.

"Do people have that reaction often?" Aziz asked Karone. "To the places that evil had control over."

"Some do." Karone said and her demeanor seemed to slip a little.

"Do some people react to you differently because of your time as Astronema?" Audrey asked now. She remembered how she treated Mal, Jay, Carlos and Evie when they had shown up in Auradon. She regretted that now but she knew Chad hadn't, and truth was she suspected there were others who still felt the way Chad did.

"Yes." Karone finally responded. "Some do."

The Auradon rangers exchanged glances. They would have been lying if they said that they weren't curious but they didn't want to upset any disturbing memories.

But Karone looked at them, specifically at the five isle kids, and took a deep breath. "Not long after the fights were over, before Terra Venture left in search of another world to colonize, the space rangers and I were trying to help get some of the galaxy back on its feet." She leaned back against the console. "One of the races who's world suffered great damage from me under orders from Dark Specter to subjugate that world wanted me to stand trial for what I'd done."

"That wasn't you though." Lonnie said.

"Wasn't it?" Jordan asked, not unkindly. "I know she was raised that way, but it wasn't like Ben where it was all mind control or anything like that."

"That was their reasoning too." Karone replied. "And for what it's worth I was willing to do it. It was the others who fought for me." She looked to them all. "Not just my brother, or Zhane. Not even just my friends. The others, the former rangers from Tommy and Kat to Jason and Kimberly. They fought for me too. So did the Aquitarian rangers and Trey and the turtles."

"You had a lot of good support." Amy said softly. "It must feel nice to have that kind of loyalty behind you, even if you feel you don't deserve it."

"So they backed off then?" Will assumed.

"Yes." Karone replied. "In the end the fact that the rangers had done so much good for the galaxy even then just had too much of an impact to force the issue, no matter what I said I would do."

"That's really harsh." Emily said. "They shouldn't expect you to answer to Dark Specter's crimes. Darkconda kidnapped you, you didn't ask to be evil."

Karone smiled at them, knowing that kind of attitude was what she received every day from those who followed in their footsteps. She then looked to the isle kids. "That's the price of evil, not being judged for what your parents did but for what you do." She walked over and placed her hands on Mal and Amy' shoulders. She looked to the two boy and Evie. "You five were never truly evil, you never had the chance and that's a good thing. Remember that, with whatever challenges you face."

Amy placed her hand gently on Karone's hand. Mal placed one of her hands on Karone's shoulder. "And you have us to fight for you too, even if you feel you don't deserve that."

"Which you do." Evie added.

Karone smiled fondly at them all. "Thanks. I've worked past a lot of that doubt though, I had to when I became the pink galaxy ranger." She admitted. She knew she hadn't worked past it all and didn't think she ever would. "But right now, let's get rid of these weapons." She said.

"We're just going to leave them on the surface?" Ally wondered.

"No for it's worth I'm going to link your system with the megaship's systems and then Alpha will transport the weapons underground, leaving just enough of a hole to make sure the atmosphere can still contaminate the weapons." Karone answered.

"Then I guess after that we're going home." Mike said.

"Oh, no." Audrey interrupted. "Remember, Ben promised you dinner and I bet he's going to deliver."

"You got that right." Ben said with a small smile. "Audrey, can you and Lonnie take the girls for their dress fittings?" The two princesses nodded. "Will, why don't you and Aziz take the guys for their tux fittings?" They nodded in agreement. He looked to Alex and Ellie. "You two should probably go too so we can get your measurements and make you something too."

"We have some of our own stuff." Alex pointed out.

"But it's probably different from Auradon's." Ellie replied. "We should have something region appropriate." She looked to Ben. "I'll accompany them."

Alex rolled his eyes a little but nodded. "So will I." He said.

The samurai ranger's left the command center with the Auradon princesses and the two boys. Ben strode over to Mal and put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her gently. "I hope you know that if anyone tried to persecute you or your friends, none of us or our families would stand for that." He said.

Mal nodded. "Yeah, I know." She replied and kissed him on the cheek softly. "I think Karone wanted us to know that despite our parents, we really don't have a real idea about the being truly evil." She shrugged a bit. "It's kind of a nice thing to hear."

Ben laughed softly and kissed her cheek again. "All of you have more good in you than ever realized." He assured her.

"Do you really think Alex and Ellie don't have anything good to wear?" Amy asked now, though she didn't want to interrupt her sister and her boyfriend.

"Don't know." Ben answered. "But they might find something they like better. Besides, even if they don't there is still one thing that they need now." Mal laughed in understanding as she remembered that they all had their team insignia on their formal dresses and tuxes now.

"This is so incredible." Emily noted breathily as she looked at the dress options they had available. Mia looked pretty impressed too as she ran her hands over something that Serena thought looked like silk.

Lauren was looking at a couple of dresses but clearly didn't share in the wonder. "They look nice." She allowed. "But it seems so…so strange to me. This just isn't how I grew up at all."

"I think you'll be fine." Serena promised her as she was looking at a few dresses of her own. " She didn't entirely feel that comfortable with it either, though far more so than the red ranger did.

"Didn't you ever read fairy tales when you grew up?" Mia asked as she pressed one of the dresses against herself and looked into the mirror to get an idea of what she looked like. "I mean I always wanted to be a princess and find the prince of my dreams."

Emily laughed a little. She knew that one for fact. She remembered when Daiyu had been kidnapping brides and so both she and Mia had posed as ones to catch her. The female Nighlok had been so focused though on ruining Mia's 'wedding' that she had overlooked her capturing Emily and that had helped stop her plans.

"It all just takes time." Serena replied evenly. "Almost no one ever gets their true love right off the bat." She frowned as she struggled to remember something. "What was it that Amber said…oh right, we can't all be like Cory and Topanga."

"What does that even mean?" Lauren asked.

"It's from an old tv series I think." Serena supplied.

Emily felt the material of one of the dresses. "This feels different." She noted. "I wonder if this a material that is only here on Auradon." She mused.

"Remember what Karone said." Lauren replied. "Whatever we choose we can use whenever we're here but we won't be able to take them to Earth with us." She ran her hands over a dress that felt like velvet. She had never worn a dress in her life though and wasn't sure what would look good.

Mia decided on the dress that she had been looking at in the mirror but also saw her friend's indecision. She walked over and stood beside her. "Come on Lauren, let me help you sort through the intricacies of picking out a great dress."

Audrey and Lonnie had left the girls to get ready for themselves. She had returned to her room but stopped as she came in and glanced out the window. She recalled what Karone had just said in the command center and despite it being basically a lifetime ago she felt shame again at judging Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos for the crimes of their parents.

For just an instant she wondered if Karone could possibly talk sense into Chad but dismissed it. Karone was taught to be evil at a young age and made the decision on her own to turn her back on the dark path. Meanwhile Chad had done the opposite, taught to be good and chose evil of his own accord. There was no way she could see to bring back the guy that she and Ben had been friends with. She never stopped to think about whether or not she could ever be okay with him again even if he did somehow return to the side of good; it was no secret that she had become a dark and dangerous obsession for him.

She remembered almost telling Mal, Amy, Evie, Ben, Alex and Ellie about hearing Chad's voice at night before the samurai crisis presented itself. She wondered still if she should. She marveled at how strong Evie and Amy had become since becoming rangers and she was impressed with how Mal was always so loyal and brave through it all. And yet, somehow she felt that she was becoming weaker, more susceptible to Chad's physical attacks, and possibly mental ones if his voice wasn't just some cruel trick her own mind was playing on her. She wondered if it could be possible to become weaker after being a ranger.

"I don't know if I should tell them." She reflected softly to herself. "I don't want them thinking I've become too weak to be a power ranger." She already knew she had to work hard to get Amy to change her mind. She didn't want to give her any reasons to make it harder that that task already was.

She reached for her make up kit and happened to glance at the mirror and let out a frightened gasp as she saw Chad in the middle of the room staring at her. She turned to face him and found something even more frightening in her mind…she was alone. Chad was not there. She looked back into the mirror and saw the same thing; she was alone in her own room.

She let out slow breath, not sure what was more prevalent; the feeling of relief that he was not standing in her room or the fear she had seen it at all.

Everyone met at Audrey's castle for dinner this time. They had the place to themselves relatively speaking as Aurora and Phillip were out on a date and her grandmother was not home either. Privately that suited Mal just fine as she had a feeling Audrey's grandmother, while not falling on the same extreme as Chad, had still not been as accepting as her granddaughter had learned to be.

Mike, in a simple but elegant black tux with a green button down shirt and green cuffs, had been more than impressed with Emily's dress despite the fact it was relatively simple. Except for the silky feel of the fabric it was almost like a prom dress that she could have found at home.

Mia had gone the opposite route, having a very frilly and layered dress that was all in pink. She made a nice little twirl and took an elegant bow. "What do you think?" She asked the guys.

"I guess you were born to be a princess." Kevin remarked with a small chuckle.

Karone smiled a little too. It was actually kind of ironic to her because at one point she had been a princess, just not the good kind.

From out of nowhere Jayden, in a tux very much like Jason's when he had been there except with the samurai symbol instead, held out his hands and asked, "Walk you to dinner, my lady?"

Mia gave him her arm, "The pleasure would be mine kind sir." She answered.

Mal rolled her eyes. "So over the top." She commented. That got laughs from Evie and Carlos.

"Perhaps you would like an escort to dinner?" Karone now heard. She turned to see Zhane coming in from another side of the castle, looking dashing in a silver tux and a black shirt, emblazoned with the space symbol on the upper left side.

"When did you have that made?" Karone asked in surprised delight. He hadn't been with them the last time the space rangers had been there, when they along with the power rangers and zeo rangers had backed up the Auradon teens in getting the four isle kids back, along with Amy.

"Surprise." Ben said with a smile. "I requested that Zhane come here to be your surprise date.

"So how about it?" Zhane asked her and then smiled. "Unless you'd rather blast me with Jane's magic wand." That drew looks of confusion from them but Karone remembered her first attempt at a date with him, back as Astronema. She had waited, not realizing Ecliptor had sent a monster down and they had to defeat it. She had figured she had been stood up and attacked him a couple of times with her wand before leaving in a huff.

That was then and this was now however. "I'd like that." She said to the silver space ranger and placed her arms around his.

Jay hadn't noticed as he sensed that Audrey seemed distracted. He took her arm gently and pulled her to the side. "Are you okay?" He asked her softly.

She hesitated. Of the team Jay was the only who knew about her hearing Chad's voice in the night, which made for a restless sleep. She found herself afraid to tell him about what she assumed was a hallucination in her bedroom as she was getting ready. "I'm alright." She said, but she couldn't help but lay her head on his chest.

That made Jay all but sure she was not alright.

Amy sensed it too from Audrey but couldn't tell what. One thing she had learned since coming to Auradon Prep was that some people could train themselves to be harder to read. She had learned Ben and Audrey were two of those people. Still, no one could completely prevent her from feeling their emotions and she could feel Audrey was very uncertain.

"Allow me to walk you to dinner Ms. Shiba?" Antonio said with a flashy yet rather elegant bow.

Lauren hesitated a moment as this was all very unfamiliar territory to her but the final offered him arm. "That sounds very nice An…Mr. Garcia." She replied.

The group walked to the dining hall, most arm in arm. Ben of course had Mal around his arm. Doug was with them and nervously took Evie's arm, she seemed to have no problem with it. Jay had Audrey around his arm and she seemed very relieved about that. Carlos had offered his arm and Jane had accepted it. Aziz had Ally on his arm. Alex had offered his arm to Amy and after a moment of surprise she had taken it. Will had Lonnie on his arm. That left the unattached girls and Kevin to bring up the rear.

They all took a seat at the large dining table, which Emily noted with some amazement could have sat at least another three teams of rangers. They each had a relatively simple meal, chicken with mashed potatoes and wild rice though with their own choice of drinks.

"So Ben was telling me you guys had a grand old time." Zhane remarked. "Two groups of samurai trying to kill you guys and everything."

"It was a grand party." Lonnie said deadpan. "But something tells me you guys know all about that one."

"Sadly we do." Emily said. "It's sometimes kind of weird. I mean, we have so many teams of rangers in our world the galaxy never seems to stop bringing about evil." She reached for her glass of sprite. "I mean I know good can't exist without evil, the whole balance thing. But it still feels like we should be making some headway."

"I know what you mean." Carlos replied. "Our team has grown. But it never seems to be quite enough to overwhelm Paradias. For everything we do they seem to recover and sometimes even get one step ahead of us."

It made Amy think of one of their next tasks; taking back the warzord from Gregory and the others. And taking the gray ranger powers back.

"How are things on your side of the tracks?" Jane asked them. "It seems like it's relatively safe over there, and yet you all have your powers."

"There was some problem with a group of aliens called the Armada." Jayden explained. "At the final portion of the battle we all took up our powers again to help out and just haven't given them up since."

Amy could sense that it was only a half-truth. The samurai rangers seemed to have only recently reacquired their powers but she could feel that that that might not have been the case for some of the others, like Karone and Zhane.

"We've been really grateful for your help." Audrey said to them. She glanced at the Samurai rangers. "Amber and the others told you that all of the rangers are honorary citizen of Auradon, right?" She asked.

Emily smiled. "Yeah, she told us." She replied.

"Mia nearly fainted." Kevin said teasingly. The pink samurai ranger gave him a small glare but the truth was she had been ecstatic to learn she was a part of a kingdom, even if she may never be a real princess.

"You've hardly touched your food." Serena noted as she looked at Amy. "Are you feeling okay?" She too hadn't eaten too much but her appetite was still off from being sick for so long.

"That's normal." Mal said as she stroked Amy's hair. "She's never been one to eat a lot, and she can be picky." Amy felt her cheeks flush a little even if it was true and her older sister's voice as full of affection.

"I know that feeling." Serena said as she smiled over at Emily. "Emily has always been a light eater too and it was hard to get her to try new things." She laughed a little. "When Emily left home to take my place as a power ranger she didn't eat shrimp for example. But after she came home she was suddenly eating it."

Amy sensed a bit of unease. She realized it came from Jayden and Lauren. "Are we upsetting you?" She asked the two red samurai rangers.

"No." Jayden said. "We're alright."

"Are you sure?" Ally asked now.

"It's just that they don't know each other all that well for siblings." Mike said nonchalantly despite the looks from Mia and Kevin trying to hush them.

"You didn't?" Amy asked. She couldn't imagine not having ever grown up with Mal. She hated the time she had been separated from Mal, despite that fact that was when her powers had become what they were. Will likewise couldn't imagine life without his sister Whitney either.

"As the oldest I was moved away from Jayden so that I could learn the sealing symbol that we thought we needed to defeat Xandred." Lauren explained. "Meanwhile Jayden was trained to be…well like a decoy. To make the Nighlok's think that he was the one with the sealing power."

Amy felt sad for them. "So you grew up apart." She said softly.

Jayden nodded. "Yeah, we did. We're only now getting to really know each other." He admitted.

"Then thanks even more." Mal said. "For taking the time to help us when you have your family to worry about."

"Your family too." Mia reminded them. "Rangers together, remember."

Karone thought sometimes they forgot that. It was hard to do when you hadn't been a power ranger for that long. And she was sure it was hard for the isle kids to remember since she was willing to bet they couldn't even rely on their parents as they grew up.

Dinner was finished and cheesecake was brought out again, this time with a choice of toppings. Audrey knew Amy would like the strawberry topping while she and Evie would like the chocolate sauce. She was sure that Mal would want a combo of the two. She had learned that Jay just preferred regular cheesecake, which surprised her a little bit.

"This is good." Mia said. "Can I get the recipe before we leave?"

"Sure." Audrey said and got up to make that request to one of the guards to get it from the kitchen.

"Another one for Mia to mess up." Mike said in a whisper to Emily, who elbowed him to keep him quiet.

One of the chefs brought it over to Mia and she thanked him but had to keep in on the table as her dress had no pockets. They talked a little bit about their school as they ate dessert. Soon enough it became late enough that the rangers had to change so they could leave.

"You ever think one of these days someone is going to decide they don't want to leave?" Evie wondered.

"I don't think so." Lonnie answered her. "To them there are certain magical aspects to this world, just as I'm sure we would think that about aspects of their world. But in the end their homes, their families and I many cases their lives are there. I don't think they could give that up."

"I'd love to get a look at the megaship someday." Jane said with a smile. "Just imagine all the things we could learn." Carlos laughed but it was clear he agreed with her completely.

"Can you imagine reading our parents stories from their perspective?" Ben asked as he had his arm around Mal's shoulders. "I wonder what we would learn that we might not learn about in school or from our parents."

"That might be kind of interesting." Mal replied with a small smirk. "Assuming that everything they have is true."

The rangers came down in their original clothes, though they had been laundered during dinner and the team walked them outside. "I'm sure we'll see each other again." Emily said as she gave Amy a hug that the girl returned; she liked the yellow samurai ranger. In some ways they were a lot alike.

"I hope you continue to get well." Mal said as she hugged Serena. She found she liked getting to find and learn about other purple rangers.

"Like my sister said, I'm sure we'll all see each other again." Serena said. "And the next time that happens I'll be even stronger."

They opened the gateway and with waves of farewell the earth rangers returned to their world.

The team started back to the school. Ben stroked Mal's hair as they walked. For that moment all seemed peaceful though they knew it would only be a matter of time before that peace would be shattered.


	79. Another Quest Starts

Audrey woke up with a scream of fright and glanced around her room fearfully. At first it seemed blurry but then she realized it was from the tears building in her eyes. She knew why too but she wiped them away in frustration.

There was a knock on the door and she got and looked outside. She was surprised to find Evie there. "Hi, what are you doing here?" She asked the blue haired girl.

"I was getting some water and I heard something from your room." Evie explained to her as she held up the small bottle of water. "Is everything okay?" She asked.

Audrey shook her head a bit. "It was just a nightmare." She answered.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Evie asked her. "I heard it helps…from someone who wasn't my mom." She added with a small disarming smile.

Audrey gave her a small one in return. "I don't want to keep you awake. We have classes tomorrow." She replied.

"It's alright." Evie said. "I don't mind."

Audrey hesitated a moment. Then she asked, "Do you really think we'll get to classes tomorrow?" She asked as she stepped to the side so Evie could come in. "I mean every time we turn around it's one crisis after another, and we have a few still on the horizon."

"Pending any problems, yeah I think so." Evie said and laughed as she sat one of the chairs. It was very comfortable. She set her water bottle on the table. "Poor Amy still hasn't taken the exam to get out of remedial goodness 101." She remarked with a smile.

Audrey sat across from her, her legs curled under her. "She might shoot me if I said this to her, but after working with her I can safely say that exam has got to be just a formality." She replied. "Even most of us here in Auradon don't always act that polite."

"Don't I know it." Evie said with a small wry grin. The two laughed again, both finding it odd that in a roundabout way they could joke about their early adversarial days in Auradon. It showed just how much things have changed. "So want to tell me what woke you up?" She asked more somberly.

Audrey hesitated again and then said quietly, "I…I think I'm losing my mind."

Evie found that very hard to believe, not after everything the entire group had been through. "There's no way Audrey. Why would you even think that?" She inquired.

"For like a week now I've been hearing Chad's voice, calling me in my sleep." Audrey revealed to her softly. "It's been kind of scary, but then yesterday afternoon…I was getting ready for our dinner with the samurai rangers and I looked in the mirror and thought I saw Chad there but when I turned no one was there."

"He's been playing mind games with you for over a month." Evie reminded her gently, placing one of her hands on Audrey's. "He's been trying to get into your head and it's only natural that as much pressure as he's putting on you that you would start to feel paranoid about him."

"Jay knows about the voice thing." Audrey told her. "I heard the voice once and left my room, it was the night we all stayed in Ben's castle." She looked into the darkness as sighed a bit. "But he doesn't know that I thought I saw him last night, and…" She drifted off.

"And what?" Evie prodded gently.

"What woke me, just now…" She said. "The most proof I have that I'm losing my mind. I woke up because I swore I felt someone touching me." She shuddered after she said it making Evie think it wasn't a friendly touch.

"We have to tell the others." Evie said to her. "If this isn't just your imagination running away with you then we need to determine what it is before something worse happens."

"No." Audrey said. "Not yet. I don't want to panic anyone if I don't have too."

"But Audrey…" Evie started.

"Listen, E…Evie." The brunette princess started and had to stop herself from using the same nickname that she had heard Mal used with the blue haired girl countless times. "We both know from previous experiences that if Chad had been here…been touching me, that me waking up wouldn't have stopped him. It was all in my head."

Evie bit her lip a moment in doubt but made a decision. "Okay, look. Here's the deal. I will keep this from the others, but if this happens again you have to continue to keep me informed about this. If it's getting worse we'll reevaluate it then." She stated and squeezed her hand again. "We all care about you Audrey, and we want to help you."

"Alright, deal." Audrey agreed. "And if I tell anyone else, I'll let you know too."

Evie patted her hand softly and then got up with her water. "I'll see you later today." She said and took headed toward the door. "Remember, if it happens again text me." With that she reluctantly slipped out. After leaving Audrey's room Evie bit her lip, hoping she did the right thing.

At the first hint of sunrise Amy slipped out of bed to grab a quick shower. After that she found what she was waiting for. She left a note for Mal saying she would see her at breakfast and left her room. Then she met Melody outside. "So let's do it." She said happily.

"Right." Melody agreed with a smile. The two headed past the gymnasium and to the pool area. Melody knew she shouldn't do it but she used the trident to give her and Amy a small layer over their bodies that would protect them from getting their school clothes wet while they went for their early morning swim.

"It's not quite as fun as swimming in the ocean, but we have to take what we can get." Amy said happily as she ran dived into the pool with a loud splash.

Melody laughed and dived in after her. Amy rose to the surface and Melody rose a moment later. The two spent a moment splashing each other with water but after that settled down and swam to one of the edges.

"Any problems with the deep end?" Melody asked Amy.

Amy shook her head, her rose colored hair splashing water droplets as she did so. "Not anymore." She answered. "When Mal and I were almost twelve there was this lake we were starting to swim at. I made a mistake and almost drowned but Mal was there to save me." She told her. "After that I made sure I was ready for all the depths."

Melody smiled. "Your sister is definitely cool." She noted. "Makes me wish I had one. It's odd when you think about it too since my mom is the youngest of seven." She shrugged a bit. "Anyway, let's race. Here and back, first to touch this," She patted the wall they were leaning against. "Wins."

"You're on." Amy said. "Might be unfair to me since you part mermaid." She added and they both laughed. "But you're on." And with that the girls started their swim race.

Mal waved as her sister and Melody came joined them for breakfast an hour later. "Even if you hadn't left me a note I would have known where you went anyway." The purple haired girl remarked to her twin as she picked up a strawberry. "I can smell the chlorine from the pool."

"If any of the staff caught you in there without a lifeguard you would probably get in big trouble." Ben offered mildly as he scooped up some hash browns into a plate. He personally thought they could take care of themselves after all the ranger things they'd done.

Alex held up a plate that had some toast, a chocolate donut, a donut with pink frosting and sprinkles and bacon. "Hungry?" He asked Amy with a small smile.

"Starved, thank you." Amy said with a bright smile as she reached for the pink donut. She took a bite of the donut and then set it down. "Okay, let's do some quick review." She said to him. "I'll have to take my test today for remedial goodness 101."

"You'll do fine." Evie said and then laughed. "Just remember; you give a baby a bottle, don't curse it. You turn poison over to the authorities, not paint in on an apple. And you give a dog a bone, not take it to get skinned."

"Really?" Mal said with an amused look.

"Gee, maybe I should write this down." Amy joked deadpan.

"Oh, and remember that you do return lost items and you don't lure forest animals into a slaughterhouse." Carlos added with some laughter.

"But it's okay to take candy from strangers, right?" Amy asked innocently.

"Oh sure." Jay said with a smirk. "As long as it's not gummy based."

"Okay that's enough." Mal said between giggles. "I think we all know Amy has a better idea of these things than we ever did."

"Besides if mom knew that you were giving her answers she'd change the test." Jane added with a smile and wink at Amy, who laughed a little herself.

"You seem tired Audrey." Lonnie observed. "Are you okay?"

"I just didn't sleep very well." She answered her friend. She laid her head against Jay's shoulder and he kissed her head gently. He had no way of knowing he now only knew the half of it but Evie felt a bit of guilt about not letting him know what had changed.

Jay leaned and whispered, "The voice again?"

"Hm-mm." Audrey murmured softly. It almost looked like she was ready to fall asleep right then and there. Evie hadn't found any texts from Audrey that morning and could only assume that nothing else had happened last night. Evie figured that meant that Audrey had never really gone back to sleep last night, which she felt she could understand.

"You've been having sleeping problems a lot recently if I remember right." Jordan remarked with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Do you need me to try and whip something up to take care of that?"

For an instant Audrey thought about but brushed it off. She was sure nothing short of literal unconsciousness could erase these seeming nightmares. "I'll think about it and let you know." She said instead, seemingly trying to make herself wake up.

Amy looked up as she held a flame in front of Alex, where he was working to channel energy into her flame. "You could try some Pepsi or something , the caffeine might help." She suggested.

"Thanks for the idea Amy." Audrey said as she stretched a little. "I might just try that out."

They had finished breakfast quickly after that and started their school day.

The morning was the same as any other school day where an attack didn't come up. As everyone expected Amy passed the Remedial Goodness 101 exam with flying colors and hadn't needed the class. She had a few days though before she had to pick a class to replace it.

Magic class went well and Fairy Godmother complimented Alex on his progress and Amy in her teachings. He seemed pleased while Amy blushed. Fairy Godmother also complimented Ellie as she had gained more control without having a tutor like her cousin had. Elle chalked that up being the dame of ice.

Evie had reluctantly decided to try the class since she had again recently used her magic that time to help heal Audrey from a good shot from the bow using samurai, and had received a text from Jay saying that Audrey had fallen asleep during their research class. She seemed to sleep peacefully at least and it made Evie start to wonder if Audrey's 'delusions' were that after all. She wondered if somehow Chad was finding a non-spiritual way to stalk her. She couldn't say that to Jay though since he didn't know about the last two incidents.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully and they decided to spend some more time in the commons area. Audrey did seem to be more awake and Evie sat next to her. "Jay said you'd fallen asleep. Any problems?"

"None." Audrey answered simply. "Maybe it was because I wasn't alone." She mused.

"When was the last time you had a roommate?" Evie asked her.

"I've never had one." Audrey said. "Maybe it's time I got one then. Especially if it will keep these delusions away."

"Audrey, if your ability to sleep with others around proves anything to me, it's that these might not be delusions after all." Evie replied.

"You mean Chad has actually been calling to me? That he did touch me last night?" The brunette princess asked.

"Well, it's possible anyway." The blue haired girl replied. "Look, I get why you have your doubts. If Chad had been in your room last night, I don't know why he didn't just keep you quiet, but if it was all in your mind it wouldn't matter if you were alone or not."

Audrey frowned as she tried to process it all. It was very confusing and not for the first time she wished Chad would just go away and leave her alone. But that didn't seem like a possibility.

Fairy Godmother approached them with Doug by her side. Jane noticed that she seemed somewhat excited. "What's going on mom?" She asked her.

"We just detected zord signatures." She told the team. "We're going to have to send you all out to get it."

"Missed school again." Carlos said with a laugh.

"Missed school again?" Evie asked incredulously. She happened to love school after all.

"I guess that the ups and downs of the job." Mal said with a smile. She didn't hate school but she didn't have a problem with missing it either. "So where are we going for this zord anyway and what is it?"

"We're not entirely sure what it is." Doug said to them as he sat by Evie and took her hand with the idea it might make her feel better about missing school. "As to where it is, we're going to be taking a trip to your home Melody, your father's home I mean."

"When do we leave?" Melody asked.

"As soon as everyone is ready." Fairy Godmother said.

"We have to pack, but that should only take about thirty minutes." Mal said. Truth was since they had left Auradon Prep three times already very recently they already had stuff set aside in case it ever happened again.

"Well actually, all of us means all of us." Doug said.

"So you're coming with us too then." Evie surmised.

"Yeah." Doug said. "But I mean that we're not going alone."

Amy felt confused as she looked around. They were all present now. No one else had really been in the command center except for the power rangers, their mentor and Doug. "Are the earth rangers joining us?" She asked.

"No." Fairy Godmother replied. "What he means is that many of your parents will be coming with us for this." She explained.

They all exchanged looks of uncertainty. They loved their families of course but the idea of worrying about them that close to the combat zone was more pressure than they really felt comfortable with. "Why is that?" Ben asked in his most even tone.

"It must be some kind of diplomatic thing." Melody mused. "I told my mom about that Tyrant Neptune monster and she was going to tell granddad about it. Maybe trying to present a unified front here in Auradon over any further hostile actions."

"That's the gist of it." Fairy Godmother answered.

"But that doesn't make sense." Will said. "Ben is the king after all."

"He is also the Auradon Knight." Doug pointed out reasonably. "We need to present a united front without necessarily presenting a threatening front. Having the power rangers do that would count as such, but not the other royals."

Amy figured the meant Belle would be going. She was almost happy about that until she remembered that it put her in direct danger.

"Both of your parents will be coming with us." Fairy Godmother said to Ben and he nodded in resignation. She looked to Aziz. "Sultan Aladdin and Queen Jasmine will be joining us as representatives of Agrabah." Aziz found himself exchanging worried looks with Jay and Ally touched her boyfriend's hand gently. "Your mother will be coming with us Audrey." She then looked to Will. "Your mother will be joining us as well; Cinderella has agreed to let Whitney stay with their family for that time frame."

"It's too bad my mother is too far off." Miranda noted. "It would be nice to have her with your parents."

"I agree." Fairy Godmother replied. "That being said; Lonnie your mother will be going with us as well, Ellie your mother will come with us as well. Alex your mother will stay in Arendelle while her sister is here with us." She looked to Evie. "Snow White wishes to come with us as well. However she doesn't need to come for representation. She wants to leave the okay to you."

Evie looked startled. She didn't know what to say. The idea of her step-sister being in danger didn't sit well with her at all. But she to spend some time with her was appealing. She looked to Mal and Ben.

"Do what your heart tells you E." Mal said softly. She looked at Amy and thought about the time they had missed because of their mother's cruelty. But because of the Evil Queen's cruelty they had missed over a decade and a half of time.

"We already have to worry about protecting our families." Ben said to her reassuringly as he placed his hand over Mal's. "One more won't make a difference Evie."

"I'll call her and let her know I want her to come with us right now." Evie declared. She gently patted Audrey's hand and smiled at Ben and Mal. "Thanks Ben, M." With that she moved to the wall to call her step-sister.

Amy smiled happily as well and then leaned over to hug her own sister. Mal laughed a bit and hugged her back.

Evie didn't have to wait for more than one ring, she was sure Snow White had been waiting for her. "Hi." Evie said to her. "Fairy Godmother just told me about what was going on. I think it kind of sucks that I'm missing school again."

She heard Snow White laughing. "You have to be one of the few students I've ever seen who would say that." She replied. Then her voice turned softer. "So I'm guessing you want to try to talk me out of going with you guys."

"The thought had crossed my mind." Evie admitted as she leaned against the wall. "But I think it would be a losing battle and…I want you to come with us. We lost so much time, the idea of trying to make some of that up sounds really good."

"Are you sure?" She asked her younger step-sister seriously. "I don't want to make your job harder than it will likely already be."

"I'm sure." Evie promised her. "I want you to come with us. We'll keep all of you safe."

"Thank you." Snow White said softly. She had had the same worry about how much time the two step-sisters had lost. "I'll call Aurora and let her know. She said she would pick me up on her way."

"See you then." Evie said and then after a second she added, "I love you sis."

That seemed to take her off guard, at least judging by the moment of silence. "I love you too Evie." She replied. "I'll see you soon." With that she hung up. The blue haired girl came back to the table a little misty eyed.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked her.

"Yeah." Evie said. "I just…what you and Mal have had forever, I'm only just getting it now. It's kind of overwhelming sometimes." Both Amy and Mal smiled at her.

"Well that means we have a couple hours before we're going to be leaving then." Jordan said. "We better enjoy it while we can." She wondered where her parents were. She suspected they would have to stay in Agrabah.

"I guess that means we'll be traveling along the coast." Miranda noted. "At least the view should be pretty."

"It's too bad we won't actually be able to visit Atlantica." Amy noted wistfully. "It must be a beautiful city."

"Unfortunately most of the merpeople are skittish when it comes to the people who live on the surface." Melody noted with some dismay. "Some relations of course were established because of my mom but it's hardly an ideal diplomatic situation."

"How are they supposed to get in contact with these people that Tyrant Neptune came from then?" Audrey asked.

"I guess my granddad is going to help with that. Since most of the representatives aren't mermaids they'll have to come to the surface ultimately." Melody replied.

"Maybe it's me but it seems like an awfully big party for a diplomatic confrontation." Jay noted. "I mean I get having different representatives from different places but we have a lot of people from Auradon going."

"To impress the gravity of the situation I would think." Ben said to him. "I mean if that thing had gotten off the beach then it could have caused a lot of destruction."

"I still have to wonder if this diplomatic route will work." Mal voiced now. "I mean for whatever reason Undine has already seemed to strike some kind of deal with them, otherwise they wouldn't have sent their executioner to fight us."

"We still have to try." Lonnie reasoned. "The alternative is probably a sustained conflict and we're already having the problem with Paradias and Maleficent." She took a small breath. "One has to wonder how many conflicts we can possible be involved in before we fail."

"Let's not write any of us off just yet." Mal said. "We still have our allies and we still have each other. We've ultimately won every single conflict we've been involved in."

"Or at least survived it." Carlos added. "Anything that can be walked away from could easily count as a victory."

"Well I just hope this zord hunt goes better than the last one did." Ally said softly. "The last thing we need is for Paradias to have access to two of them."

"Alright children, get your things together." Fairy Godmother said. "We're hoping to reach Melody's place by nightfall. All of your parents and Snow White will be here anytime now." They got up to do just that.

"I'll come with you Audrey." Evie announced to the brunette princess. "Just in case you need an extra pair of hands grabbing all of your stuff." She smiled a small smile at her, indicating it was just really a cover to try to stop any random Chad appearances.

"Alright, if you want." Audrey said with a shrug. "Not the first time I had to manage my tons of clothing and accessories." She added with a smile, keeping up the front.

Jay looked to Mal. "Ever feel like you're missing something?" He asked. He could only assume that everything was okay with his girlfriend since she didn't tell him anything else.

"Sometimes." Mal agreed with a laugh. "Don't worry if it was anything big you know E would tell us."

By the time the team had gotten their stuff together they found that their families had indeed shown up. Belle embraced her son and the two girls. Audrey was happy to see her mother, somehow it was comfort through all of the stuff with Chad. Aladdin and Jasmine embraced their son and Ally, also saying a warm hello to Jay.

Cinderella had come by to pick up Whitney, allowing her to wish her mother and older brother a safe journey. Will only hoped it would be that easy. Mulan fell into easy conversation with Wendy, which was probably just as well since their children were dating.

Last to show up was Queen Elsa herself. She hugged her daughter and her nephew. "I see you took up powers of your own." She noted. "Perhaps a bit earlier than intended, but if it's helping you to gain the control that you need then so much the better."

"Amy has also been helping me to learn to use my power." Alex said as indicated the rose haired girl, making her blush a little. "She's a very good teacher." Ellie had to restrain herself from making any comments since they hadn't really figured out if there was more than friendship between the two.

"We should get going then." Adam announced as he clapped a hand on Ben's shoulder. "We have a good few hour journey ahead of us."

"Yeah, and then after that the real fun begins." Aladdin said with grim laughter.

Mal only hoped that the adults could handle the diplomatic contact because she was sure the zord retrieval wouldn't be nearly as easy as they were all hoping it would be.


	80. Kobayashi Watermaru

Not long into the journey, Audrey ended up with her head in her mother's lap and ended up falling asleep a few minutes later. Aurora found this a little odd since she hadn't done that since she was seven. Of course Aurora knew there were some problems going on with Chad, but she didn't know how bad it had started to get. Her hand moved down to stroke her daughter's hair as she slept.

The only one who knew that was Evie and she was starting to wonder how much longer this should be kept a secret from everyone else. The more she thought about it the more she was certain that what Audrey was experiencing was no delusion, no mental problem. She was getting more and more certain that Chad was getting past all of the security precautions, including their own monster alarms, to get to his obsession.

Amy glanced at Audrey in that position with her mother and felt a bit of jealousy. Her mother would have never let her do that, though she had slept that way several times on Mal when they were younger. Of course Mal was still a good two feet taller than her younger twin sister and could have still done that.

"Is everything okay with Audrey?" Belle asked quietly to Ben, Mal and Amy.

"We're not really sure." Mal admitted. "It doesn't seem like but we haven't heard anything about it."

"I almost feel like something is going on." Amy added. "I just don't know what." Empathy was only about reading emotions, not thoughts. She had also learned that some of those who were really strong minded had a sort of mental wall that made them hard to read when they wanted to keep something a secret. She had learned early on that Ben, Audrey and Lonnie were one of those types. She guessed it was because of their royal backgrounds.

"Maybe being away from Auradon for a few days will help." Jay said. "New scenery and that kind of thing."

"There must be some way to stop Chad for good." Adam mused as he took his wife's hand. Naturally after betraying Auradon to the invaders, to say nothing of his personal and cruel obsession with Audrey, his royal status had been revoked.

"I wish I knew how." Mal replied. "With Maledict's blade he's become tougher than ever."

It occurred then to Jay that was when she started hearing his voice. She wondered if some demonic power was giving him this new and frightening ability. He hoped to talk to Jason, Tommy and the other rangers who had dealt with these demon things when he got the chance.

Not more than thirty minutes later there was a gasp from Snow White as she looked out the window and their stretch limousine ended up pulling to the side. Everyone was out in an instant to find it had been blocked by Undine and a group of Paradias's soldiers.

"What an unexpected surprise." The sea witch said with a laugh. "To think I'd see all of you traveling along the road to my world."

"Trying to lay claim to something that doesn't belong to you." Melody said with annoyance. "So much like your mother."

"Get them." Undine commanded the soldiers.

Mal looked to Ben, Ellie, and Alex. "You guys keep our VIP's safe." She instructed the armor clad fighters. To the rangers she said, "Let's send Undine and these creeps packing." With that Ben, Jane and Melody used their items to transform while the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

Undine watched the battle with the soldiers unfold; waiting for the moment her full plan could take effect. Just as she had instructed they were working to isolate the five isle kids from the rest of the team, though they worked some other patterns so as not to make things too obvious. Audrey, Will and Lonnie were isolated in one section; Jordan, Ally and Aziz in another; Miranda and Melody stuck on their own fighting to gain to one side or another.

She finally got her opportunity as Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Amy were all but back to back fighting soldiers. Undine unleashed a rapid stream of bubbles that struck all around them, but then they began to coalesce and entrapped the five of them within.

"Oh, my gosh. Mal! Amy!" Belle gasped.

"What are you trying to do?" Ben demanded to know.

Undine laughed. "Let's call this a speed challenge." She said. She snapped her fingers and a giant frog like monster appeared, he stood on two legs and had a small rounded aquarium like thing on his head. He twirled two blades in either of his hands. "If the rest of you can defeat Frog Borg quickly enough than your friends go free."

The Auradon team tensed up. "And if we can't?" Jane finally asked.

"Judge for yourself." Undine said and with that the large bubble magically started to let in water. "Then they drown. Can any of them hold their breathes I wonder?" She asked and then laughed.

"Jay, Mal, Evie Amy, Carlos." Audrey gasped in fear.

Melody knew that Amy could swim and she could hold her breath. But she didn't know for how long and on top if it wouldn't matter once the bubble filled with water.

The first problem the five rangers found was that they couldn't summon any of their weapons. The second was squarely a problem for Amy as she could not become intangible and slip through the bubbles. She didn't know why because she was sure these bubbles were not transphasic. But she remembered that Undine knew her quite well rather the rose haired girl liked it or not and may have found her own 'special' way around that.

The bubble started filling with water. A quick glance around showed one of the mysteries of life; there was no evidence of where the water could be coming from.

"Let the challenge begin." Undine said with a wry grin. "Frog Borg, destroy the other rangers."

A/N: Thanks to Dreamer447 for this challenge

"Come on rangers, it's time to hop to it." Frog Borg stated and leapt at them. They all rolled out of the way to surround them.

Lonnie looked to Jordan and Jane, who had landed on her left side. "Isn't there some magical solution around that thing?" She asked the gold ranger who was also a genie and the white ranger. Without Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay they couldn't form the Auradon Blaster. Without the five of them they couldn't form the Auradon Launcher.

Jane shook her head. "Sorry but I have no ideas here." She said. She thought maybe with time and the right equipment she might have been able to find a solution but they didn't have the equipment or the time.

Jordan bit her lip in thought a moment. Then she sighed. "There's nothing I can try that wouldn't leave us one more ranger down. We have to try to finish this thing off before the bubble fills with water."

"Not to put a damper on this already horrid situation, but we still have soldiers to deal with here too." Ally pointed out.

"No, we got these guys." Ben called out to them, wanting so badly to free Mal and the rest of his friends but also wanting to protect his family and the rest of their loved ones. In fact he was sure Mal would tell him to keep Belle and Adam safe. "We'll deal with the soldiers."

"And they won't be alone." Mulan assured the rangers as she found her suitcase and took out a small katana. From the side Jasmine found one of Aladdin's bags and took out two scimitars, one for herself and one for her husband, which she tossed to him. "We're going to help them out."

They were glad for that at least, it was one less concern. And Frog Borg was a big concern, especially as she exchanged his blades for blasters and shot at then jumped up in a twirl, shooting the rangers as he did so.

Audrey rolled with the blow and rose up into a kneeling position and used her elemental blow to launch an electric arrow at Frog Borg. It connected and he fell to the ground, but he landed on four hands and laughed. There was no sign of any effect from the electricity.

"That shouldn't be possible." Aziz said.

Jane glimpsed something on left shoulder blade that looked at least somewhat familiar. "A surge protector. " She said. "It absorbed the electricity."

"I didn't think it worked that way." Melody said.

"Without being able to look at the internal workings of that monster I can't be sure of the details." Jane answered. "But I bet the surge protector is linked up with the nerves of the monster, with its webbed feet on the ground like that it transferred the electricity through its nerves into the ground where it was rendered harmless."

"It won't be that easy to defeat me power rangers." Frog Borg said with a taunting laugh.

"Alright, so we can't fry this thing." Will declared as he summoned his recursive sword. Next to him Miranda summoned her grizzly blades. "So let's try the application of brute force." The two rangers charged the frog monster, the green ranger trying to bring the recursive blade down. Frog Borg jumped up, and then flipped again as the Highlands ranger tried to cleave him with her blades.

"Not very polite rangers." Frog Borg said and then lashed out his tongue, slapping both rangers across the chests and sending them flying.

Doug had a little hand scanner out that he had recently developed with help from Billy when he had been in Auradon and he scanned the little bubble to make one annoying discovery. "Guys, the bubble is magic proof. It can't be taken out that way." He said.

"Glad we didn't waste our time then." Jordan said deadpan as she formed her lamp cannon and fired it at Frog Borg. Instead of trying to dodge he raised his laser and blasted the cannon beam, splitting it into two. He leapt past the gap and then brought his webbed feet hard into the gold ranger's chest.

Audrey glanced up and her eyes widened in horror when she saw the bubble was already waist high for the team, except Amy making it more like stomach high. "We're running out of time quickly." She stated.

Lonnie moved in with her tessen's and Frog Borg merely jumped back to avoid each of her attacks. Aziz moved in from the other side with his spiral spear and tried to strike the monster. He leapt on top of the long weapon, wrapped his tongue around Aziz's neck and then jumped up, shoving him into the pink ranger.

Amy dove to the bottom of the bubble to confirm that there was no way out. She then resurfaced and had to move her hands to stay afloat. "There really is no way out down there." She said.

"Any chance a spell could work from in here?" Carlos asked Mal. He had heard that magic wouldn't work out there from Doug but he hoped maybe it would be different for those inside the quickly water filled bubble.

Mal glanced around. She could think of a few possibilities but she wasn't sure she could cast anything from in here with the water rising as it was. She also had a feeling the magic block didn't go one way. "Something tells me it wouldn't work in here."

Outside Frog Borg blasted at Ally before she could try using her crystal cards and then jumped out of the way as Lonnie again tried to use her tessen's to attack him.

This was frustrating Audrey as she figured out why Undine chose a frog monster that could hop about the area. All the monster had to do was delay the fight until the bubble filled with water and not long after that the five of them would drown. They had to win the fight to stop that, assuming they could even trust Undine's word in the first place which was a really big if to start with.

Elsa was beginning to realize this to too as she watched her daughter, her nephew, and their brave friends fighting. She watched the fight and remembered what Doug had said about no magic being able to get through the bubble. But she also recalled that from what little had even been looked into about it, no one knew where her abilities had come from, nor where her Ellie's had. So as far as anyone knew it wasn't magic, maybe they could do something about it. "Ellie." She called.

Ellie looked to her mother. "I think we can save your friends." She said to her daughter. "But we're going to have to combine our powers to do it."

She seemed confused. "To do what mom?" She asked.

"We're going to use our combined powers to freeze that bubble so that it can be shattered apart." The Queen of Arendelle answered. Ellie looked at her, feeling very uncertain about that. "I know how you feel, it's a risk." She agreed. "But that frog monster is moving around so much there's no way to defeat it before time runs out and that is what Undine is counting on. This might be out only chance."

Ellie knew the score as well as Lonnie did. There strongest weapons required Mal and the others, plain and simple. And if the five of them drowned she wasn't sure how they would be able to fill that void in the team, let alone in their own hearts and minds. But if this failed and if they were responsible…she shook that off. She already knew what Mal would have done. "Let's get to work."

Ellie stood beside her mother and the took her hand. They raised their entwined arms and aimed it straight at the bubble. The two channeled their ice powers together into an ice beam that struck the bubble.

"What are you doing?" Undine demanded. "Don't let them do that." She commanded the soldiers.

To the others it seemed to scream the two were on the right track. The two knights and the three adult fighters resumed their efforts against the soldiers. And now the rangers except for Miranda, Aziz and Melody helped as well. The other three kept Frog Borg distracted.

"Are they trying to freeze us to death?" Carlos asked as he felt the water getting colder. "Maybe give us hypothermia?"

"That's just a pleasant side effect." Mal joked with a roll of her eyes. "I think their real intent is to freeze the bubble and then shatter it."

"Can they do that?" Amy asked. "We can't do anything to get out of here."

"It might work." Evie said. "The ice might cancel out whatever magical effect that Undine has around the bubble."

"How do we stop from freezing to death?" Carlos asked.

"Everyone get closer to me." Amy replied. As her twin sister and three chosen siblings did as she instructed she placed her hands on the water. "I'm going to use my control over fire and water to keep this area warm. It shouldn't interfere with what they're trying to do but it should stop us from feeling the effects of it."

"It'll be like a sauna but with a winter wonderland outside." Evie said jokingly.

"Sauna?" Jay said with a laugh. "Man, I'm dating Audrey and even I don't know what that is."

"Yeah well it takes a bit more for me to relax than simply ramming into people on a tourney field." Evie replied with a mock roll of her eyes.

"I know what that is and I still don't use it." Mal said with a laugh of her own. "But we can have that debate later." They all crowded as close to Amy as possible. Mal placed her hands on Amy's shoulders to lend her any strength that she could.

Undine now tried to move in and stop Ellie and Elsa and Melody got in the way. "I won't let you stop them Undine." Melody swore. "I won't let you kill Amy and my friends."

"You pathetic little fish." Undine snapped and tried to slap Melody with her tentacles but the dual princess blocked with the trident. For just a moment she could almost imagine their mothers in this sort of conflict as well even though that had never happened.

"How much longer can they do this before they exhaust themselves?" Belle wondered.

"I don't know." Ben answered his mother. "I've never seen Ellie have to use her powers for this length of time."

"They've got to be getting to the point where it's frozen through." Doug said. "At least judging from these readings."

The two of them could feel it too as the bubble froze up. As Ben, Alex and most of the rangers kept the soldiers at bay while Aziz and Miranda kept Frog Borg hopping and Melody kept Undine sufficiently occupied. "It's time." Ellie said.

Ben nodded but wasn't sure how to get the bubble to break. Something that large froze up well but solidly. Then he heard a voice that inflected _Use us!_ Coming from the Praeleanthor sword. Without another thought he tossed his sword where it sliced through several of the soldiers before impacting right through the frozen bubble where it shattered into millions of icy pieces, then whirled right around back into the young king's hand.

Amy had heard the voice too, heard the power behind it. She was glad that it was on their side. The five of them landed on their feet, water running off of their bodies from the center the rose ranger had kept warmed up.

"Jay!" Audrey gasped and threw her arms around the black ranger tightly. He felt her shuddering and wondered why a moment before he realized why; she was crying in relieve. "You're okay."

"Feeling a little cold." Jay said as he hugged her back. "But getting warmer by the second."

"You okay little sis?" Mal asked Amy.

Amy nodded. "Yeah. More than okay to help you make some frog legs out of that monster." She replied.

"Not that you'd eat that." Mal couldn't help but poke fun at her sister. Amy shoved her good naturedly. The truth was that none of them would have eaten frog legs though.

"You've ruined everything!" Undine spat at Melody.

Melody couldn't exactly understand why she made that decision. Technically it had been Queen Elsa and Princess Ellie who had done the freezing after all, and no one had played guardian for them to so any more or less than she had. "As much as I'd like to take the credit for it, it was a team effort." She retorted.

Undine gave off a roar and slapped Melody hard in the side of the head. If she hadn't had a helmet it probably would have fractured her skull. She landed hard on the ground. She leapt out at Melody and probably would have landed hard enough to break a few ribs despite everything until Miranda intercepted her pounce with a kick to the sea witch's chest.

The Highlands ranger landed in front of the aqua ranger. "Don't be takin' yer eyes off of the ball there witch." She advised as she twirled her blades, ready to fight. "It might be the last mistake ye ever make."

Lonnie was over by their sides now. "Are you guys okay?" She asked, touching Amy and Evie's shoulders lightly.

"We're okay." Evie said. "Let's take this thing out."

Audrey and Jay released each other. "Just the seven of us?" The red ranger asked.

Mal nodded. "Still enough soldiers to go around. Let's do this the old fashioned way." She glanced at Amy and laughed a little. "Well, more or less."

"Well let's see what you can do then." Frog Borg said and fired his lasers at them.

The girls flinched back and raised their arms as Carlos and Jay put some of those Tourney dodging skills to the fore as they ran past the attack. Carlos leaned down so the black ranger could roll over his back and slash the frog monster. Then Carlos came up with a dual slash, destroying the lasers.

"I got more than that." Frog Borg stated simply.

"So we've seen." Carlos reminded him.

Amy and Audrey leapt at him now; Amy with her rose lance together and Audrey with one of the pointy ends of the elemental bow extended. They both jabbed him in the chest hard. He stumbled backwards and Lonnie followed suit, using her hurricane tessen's to take the blades out of his hands.

"Why don't we take a page from the tourney book ourselves?" Mal suggested to her blue haired chosen sister.

"Let's do it." Evie agreed as she extended her mirror force shield. "Ready when you are M."

Mal released a meteor strike from her dragon's eye staff and Evie willingly collected it into mirror shield before reflecting it right at Frog Borg, sending him reeling back hard. "Time to bring it together." The purple ranger announced.

Mal placed her dragon's eye staff; Audrey's elemental bow going underneath it. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind it and the compact extended around it. Jay's soul scimitar went in the middle and then on either side was placed Lonnie's hurricane tessen's, Carlos's earthquake claw daggers, and Amy's rose lance. They took the Auradon blaster and fired at the Frog Borg, destroying him in a blaze.

Undine saw her monster's destruction and Miranda was preventing her from taking her anger out on the girl whose mother ruined her life. With a growl of anger she dove in the ocean and the few remaining soldiers vanished.

The rangers powered down. Mulan and Wendy caught Ellie and Elsa as they were ready to pass out from exhaustion. Snow White ran over and hugged Evie tightly. "I was so worried for you." She said softly.

Evie hugged her back. "I'm okay sis." She promised. When her step-sister released her Doug hugged her.

Jane was by Carlos. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly as she took his hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said with a laugh. "Even the cold doesn't seem so…so cold now."

Ben picked Mal up by the waist and twirled her around a moment before setting her down into a hug. "Mal, I was so worried about you…all of you." he said as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, rubbing her back gently.

Mal hugged him back, enjoying his warmth after their near fatal ice bath. "Sorry you had to go through that." She said to him gently as she laid her head on his chest. "Of course, sorry we all had to go through that."

Belle leaned down and wrapped Amy in one of her jackets before hugging her. "You look so cold sweetie." She said.

"It kind of was." Amy said. "Even before Ellie and Queen Elsa did that."

Alex leaned down next to her and placed his hand on her shoulders, sending a hint of his own energy into her to warm her up. "Good thing our magical powers aren't really magic after all, huh?" He asked with a smile.

"Yep, good thing." Amy agreed with a small giggle as Belle went over to hug Mal and Ben. She then looked over to Melody, who was being helped by Miranda. "Are you okay Melody?" She asked her friend.

"Sure." Melody answered. "It might be better once the ringing in my right ear stops." The two laughed a little, knowing that soon it would fade. "At least I don't have any broken ribs to show for it." He added.

Adam, Aladdin, Aziz and Will got the limousine taken care of so that they could get back onto their journey to Melody's home kingdom. "Is everyone well enough to continue on?" Adam asked as he looked at everyone with concern.

"It's got be better than hanging out by the coast on our own and hoping Undine doesn't decide to try for some kind of repeat performance." Elsa replied. "I think we should move on."

No one argued with the Queen of Arendelle and they got back into the limo. Audrey stayed close to Jay as if keeping him warm though Jay was sure it was as much to comfort herself as it was him, not that he had any problem with that. Carlos and Jane sat with their hand intertwined. Evie sat in between Snow White and Doug, her head on her step-sister's arm and her hand in Doug's. Amy sat in between Mal and Belle. Her head was nestled under Belle's arm. Ben meanwhile was holding Mal gently against him.

"I heard it speak." Ben told her.

"What?" Mal asked confused.

"The Praeleanthor sword." The young king elaborated. "When we figured out it had to be broken the sword said to 'use us'."

"Us?" Jay questioned.

"Remember that it was made by an ancient civilization." Mal replied. "If there is any sentient part in them like it was in that other weapon that Amber mentioned, then there is more than one…well, personality in it." She squeezed Ben's hand gently. "It, they, whatever wanted you to know that they could help."

"Should we be worried about a semi-sentient sword?" Audrey wondered idly.

"I think it has to do a lot more than let Ben know it's willing and able to help us before we panic about it." Amy answered softly. "I could feel when it spoke to Ben. There was nothing in that tone that worried me."

"I agree with Amy." Mal concluded. "Right now we have bigger things to worry about than semi-sentient sword that so far has our best interests at heart."


	81. Two For One Part 1

They arrived to find Ariel and a contingent of guards meeting them. By then Melody had recovered from Undine's attack and she rushed out to hug her mother. Each of the Queen's greeted each other warmly, as did Snow White. Melody then happily introduced her friends. Her mother didn't bat an eyelash at the reveal of the Isle kids and was even happy to meet Amy, who had quickly bonded with her daughter.

"Was your journey here okay?" Ariel asked Adam and Belle.

"We were attacked by Undine and a monster of hers." Adam answered the red headed former mermaid princess. "The kids were able to defeat it and send Undine running."

"Somehow this seems far worse than the problems with the Heartless a while back." Mulan said to Ariel. Both of them shared a unique position as they were not princesses of heart and they had actually fought against them with the heroes that had come to assist them at that endeavor too.

"It's too bad we didn't have any extra help then." Jasmine noted lightly. Any of the ranger groups would have been nice to have, but Aladdin knew the first thought Jasmine had. He couldn't agree more, he missed his old friend as well.

"Where do we stand on trying to arrange our discussion?" Elsa asked her.

"Daddy is trying to arrange it now." Ariel answered. "Ordinarily they wouldn't even speak to him, or us, but they say they never made any such authorization to attack Auradon."

Snow White took out the piece of armor that had been left on the beach during the conflict with Tyrant Neptune. "For what it's worth we have this as proof." She said. "I know it might not be much, but it's a start."

"Aside from the children's testimonials." Belle added. "But I know showing up with the Auradon Rangers might be considered openly hostile."

"I suggest worrying about it when get that meeting." Adam said. "Right now we can't seem to guarantee that."

Ariel nodded in agreement. "We'll have you all shown to your rooms where you can settle in until we know more. And Melody told me they're here for another purpose. That a zord was supposed to be around here somewhere." She said.

"Yes." Wendy said. "And that is about all they can tell you because that is about all they know too." She laughed nervously. "I suppose one can't say there isn't a lot of room for improvising on the job. Will I be able to call Auradon after we get to our rooms so that I can let my daughter know Will and I have shown up alright?" She wondered.

Ariel nodded. "Of course. Each of you have a phone in your room that you can use anytime." She answered.

Melody stopped and glanced out at the ocean. The castle itself sat on a bluff that overlooked it and the expansive view was quiet gorgeous. "It must have been nice to grow up here." Amy said from beside her. "We never had a view like this on the isle."

"Even though you're surrounded by the water?" Melody asked confused.

Amy nodded. "We were surrounded by water but it wasn't nearly as clear and beautiful as this." She revealed. "I never quite knew if it was intentional or not or who did it but the water around the isle is pretty much filthy." She took a deep breath. "I noticed when we left the isle that after a while the filth can't be seen. I don't know if somehow Auradon purifies the water or something." She looked to her friend. "Or are your people responsible?"

Melody shook her head. "My people don't normally leave the borders of Atlantica's oceans." She revealed. "Though some of the various sea creatures that live in around can and ultimately do, and there a couple of varieties that can purify water." She smiled a little. "Maybe one has taken up residence there."

"Like the one that helped us turn back Undine's Daedalus." Amy reflected.

"Oh, no." Melody replied. "That one wanders the ocean and generally keeps to itself. It's actually so powerful that it calls upon a torrent of rainwater wherever it goes. Unchecked it could cause the worlds landmasses to flood, which is why it keeps underwater."

Amy looked at her confused now. "But there was no rain that day." She remembered.

Melody nodded. "I know. I think it must have either been some effect from Daedalus or from Mal's dragon zord." She answered. "But I don't know for sure which one it was." She looked back to the ocean. "When I was growing up my mother and father built a wall up to protect me from the ocean after Ursula's sister Morgana…well, tried to pull a Maleficent on me." She looked apologetically to her friend but she was only giggling at the comparison. "When it finally was dealt with I took this," She placed her hand over the her Triton's trident, currently being used as her weapon and in charm form, "And dissolved those walls."

"Sometimes I wish I could do that with the isle." Amy said to her softly. "But I think the only ones less enthusiastic to the idea of reunification than people like Audrey's grandmother and Chad are the majority of the isle people themselves."

"Hey come on you two." Mal called out to her twin sister and her friend. "We should go see our rooms." The two girls picked up their bags and followed the purple haired girl into the castle.

Each of them had gotten their own rooms and Evie was already trying to figure out how to get Audrey to room with her so she wouldn't be alone. Will went into Wendy's room long enough to talk to his sister.

The rangers were going to meet in one of the living areas with Doug to discover their next move. Evie caught Audrey on her way. "So, you want me to room with you?" She asked her.

Audrey hesitated. She knew it would be a great idea given what had been happening with Chad but there was a part of her that still felt resistant to the idea of having to be so dependent. "We don't even know if the same thing will happen here." She tried to reason. "Chad doesn't know where I am now."

"If they didn't already over hear us somehow when the plan first came up, they will now that Undine has attacked us." Evie reminded her logically.

The idea absolutely frightened Audrey. She let out a small gasp before forcing her feelings down again. "He can't know." She tried to argue.

Evie grabbed her hand. "He might." She replied. "And we have to be safe about this." She squeezed her hand softly. "Look, why don't we all just have a sleepover." She suggested now. "All of us girls. That way you're not being dependent, you're being a normal teenage girl." The blue haired girl knew that was important to Audrey too, it was important to all of them honestly.

Audrey closed her eyes, still feeling kind of like she was running. But she also enjoyed those kind of things. "Alright." She agreed. "Let's do that."

The two walked in to the living area to find Doug already working on his scanner by the window. Jay was pacing a bit. Mal and Amy were sitting on the couch with Melody and Mal was finding Melody's earlier analogy comparing their mother with Morgana hilarious. The two girls sat across from Melody and the twins and told them about their sleepover plans. It excited Amy and Melody to hear it but Mal was more curious as to what prompted this decision.

The rest of the team soon showed up and the girls made sure everyone was aware of the plans.

"Sometimes I feel like we're missing something with these." Carlos noted. "Like we're being talked about or something."

"Of course you're being talked about." Jordan said enigmatically with a dismissive wave. "I'll let you guys decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing though." Carlos looked kind of worried to hear that while Ben and Will just kind of dismissed any implications. Jay and Aziz were kind of hard to read and Alex and Doug seemed oblivious to any of it.

Lonnie felt kind of bad for them but didn't really want to bore them with what they would. Yes there would be guy talk and talk about feelings, and they would spend time messing with each other's hair and nails. But she also suspected there was something more to it that so far they were not privy too.

"Well we could have our own guy's night." Will suggested. He did have an idea of what girl's did since he had a younger sister after all. "We can play games." He was sure they would end up talking too at some point but they would never make that kind of omission to the girls…at not in public.

"Grand." Mal said. "We all have evening plans. But right now we have the afternoon to get through and we have a zord to find." She leaned forward to get down to business. "Where do we stand on that?"

"I have figured out where the zord is." Doug said solemnly.

"Well that's good." Ally said. "We can go and get it."

"That's not going to be so easy." Doug answered. "I don't even know how we start doing this." He looked each of them in the eye. "It's in the ocean, somewhere here in Atlantica."

"Great, that does narrow it down." Aziz noted sarcastically.

"I think that was Doug's point honey." Ally replied softly.

"Okay so can we narrow down where exactly it is?" Audrey asked now.

"Not from the castle." Doug answered the brunette princess. "We'd have to do it from the water."

"Okay so Melody can grow a tail and spend months underwater at a time, but that doesn't help us out at all." Carlos grunted.

"I wish my powers could help us out somehow." Amy lamented. She wasn't sure her control over water would help out here.

"We could find out what's going on with the negotiations." Melody suggested. "Go with them on the boat and then find a way to leave once the Neptune's show up. But in the meantime we can look around the ocean that way."

"Or we could get into trouble." Jay said jokingly. "Maybe it will show up itself."

"I'd prefer a something we have a little more control over myself." Miranda noted dryly.

The door opened and Melody perked up as Eric stuck his head in. "Daddy." She said happily, running over and hugging him. That made Amy glance up a bit at Mal. They had no idea who their father was, nor did Evie or Carlos. Jay likewise had no idea who his mother was. Their standing parent never spoke of their missing one and they weren't sure why that was.

"Hello Melody." Eric said affectionately as he hugged her. She then introduced her friends and he welcomed them all warmly, not pausing a moment with the isle kids. Melody appreciated that her parents didn't seem to have any residual issues with them over the sins of their parents.

"Thank you for letting us stay here your majesty." Ben said to him.

"The pleasure is ours King Ben." Eric told the young ruler of Auradon with a small bow. "I've come to tell you that Ariel has just heard from Arista. We have a meeting scheduled with the magistrate of Neptune and we have to leave now."

"Who's Arista?" Amy asked.

"She's one my aunts." Melody answered her. "One of my mom's sisters."

"Tell Belle and everyone to please be careful." Mal requested of him. "We want you guys to come back safe."

"And if need be remind them that you have children who are more than willing to take down their empire if they do try to harm you." Jay said seriously. No one argued that and in fact Fairy Godmother had told the earth rangers what was going on and Amber had assured them any number of rangers would be ready to help if they needed it.

Eric gave him a nod. "I'm sure we'll be fine but thank you for your concern." He said. He kissed Melody on the head again and then left the room to round up the other adults.

"Do we want to try to go with them?" Doug asked.

Mal thought about it only a moment before shaking her head. "No." She said. "We need to find another way. I don't want to make this process any more complicated than it's already going to be for them." She leaned back a bit. "Can we ask some of your people for help?" She asked Melody.

"We could try and do that." Melody replied. "I just don't know what we can expect. They don't even know anything like that existed. We could be revealing something new to them and leave us at square one as they make the search for it."

Eric, Ariel, Aladdin, Jasmine, Belle, Adam, Snow White, Mulan, Wendy, Aurora and Elsa met at the piers where Eric took the boat out. They had a retinue of guards with them but little else to avoid the chance of being too intimidating. Never the less Aladdin, Jasmine and Mulan held concealed weapons just in case.

"I have to admit I'd feel a bit better if at least some of the kids had come along with us." Wendy said to them.

Belle nodded. "I agree personally but they came here for their own reasons that are just as important to the safety of Auradon." She replied. "Besides having them there might have caused difficulties for this process." They could tell the queen didn't exactly agree with it but that was the delicate dance of negotiations.

"I'm still not clear what the negotiation is for." Eric voiced. "Isn't that armor evidence enough?"

"With Paradias and Maleficent out there doing what they're doing, nothing is so crystal clear." Else answered simply. "Furthermore if they even make the acknowledgement that something had happened in the first place they could just as easily claim their executioner did so without the royal's knowledge, and even make the declaration he went rogue."

"It's a shame we have no way of knowing rather they're telling the truth about that or not." Jasmine mused. "They could tell us whatever they wanted and we'd either have to believe to keep the peace or call them on it and hope they don't start something over it, and be right about everything on top of it."

"My niece Aquiella will be coming with my father." Ariel replied to them. "Believe it or not she was born with the ability to read emotions, except when it comes to those from the sea, and then she can read minds and communicate mentally."

Belle thought she sounded a lot like Amy but kept it to herself. No one outside of the ranger group knew about that except for Belle herself. "Will she be able to read the magistrate?" She asked the red headed woman. "They are practiced in keeping those kinds of things hidden."

"She might not be able to give us a play by play of his mind, but she can at least read him enough to know if he's trying to lie or deceive us in anyway." Ariel assured her.

"If that's the case then I imagine she'll be telling you or King Triton if we're being deceived through your mind so that you can make the verbal call for all of us." Adam said.

Ariel nodded. "I think that's the plan. I may have been human for a while now but I was born a mermaid. That gives her the extra 'touch' she needs to be able to mentally communicate with me." She said. "And of course my dad has never been anything but a merman."

"We'll be at the meeting place in about two hours." Eric told them. "Everyone better take that time to relax because I'd bet that it's going to be an uphill battle."

A few ideas had been passed between the team but all of them were ultimately rejected. It came down to one simple problem; they just didn't have the information to go by.

It got dark outside and Lonnie rose to check on the time, she hadn't thought they'd been here that long. Then she glanced outside and saw why. "Guys." She said.

Amy came to her side and she gasped herself, "Oh my pink." She got out.

A large creature stood outside, huge chains on its arms and legs. They looked to be lethal weapons and his red eyes glowed menacingly and even let out a growl.

The team ran outside of the castle. The giant monster had not moved. But in a flash of light Paradias appeared with Maleficent, Chad, Gregory, Marcellus, Undine, Jabberwock and several soldiers. "I see you've made it to Atlantica despite Undine's best attempts." Paradias said jovially, as if he were the host and not a party crasher himself. "So much the better I suppose, now the real festivities can begin."

"What is that thing?" Amy asked.

"That, my dear daughter," Maleficent said with some thinly veiled sweet contempt. "Would be one of the most brutal creatures to ever exist upon this world." She gestured up at the grand beast. "Meet the Forbidden Demon."

The group exchanged looks of worry and apprehension. There was only one possible solution here. "Let's get to work." Mal declared. As Ben, Melody and Jane pulled out their items the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and then the entire team transformed.

"We need Auradon Megazord power!" Audrey called out. On one side of her was Evie and Lonnie and on the other side was Carlos and Jay.

Mal called out, "Auradon dragon, I need you!"

"I need you Auradon stallion!" Ben called out now.

"Auradon Battlezord online!" Jane called out in between Jordan and Ally.

"Auradon Falcon time to soar!" Aziz called out.

"Battlebear, on line! Time for warrior mode!" Miranda called out.

It seemed on paper to be six on one fight, which would become three on one if they combined their zords to form the Auradon Champion Defender and the Auradon Falconbattlezord. But Maleficent laughed. "Oh, you do realize that this wasn't going to be such an even fight, right?" The evil fairy asked.

Chad transformed and Gregory used his iPhone to transform. With Marcellus and Undine they vanished only for the warzord to land on the ground. Inside the four of them stood ready to fight.

Will looked to Amy, Ellie, Alex and Melody. "Looks like this is our chance." He said to them. "We have to wait for the chance to take back the warzord." The four of them nodded in agreement.

"Oh, don't think I've left you guys out of the fun." Maleficent said. "Jabberwock, soldiers. Time to finish them off."

"Oh that is one ugly looking bug." Alex said simply as he raised his flame kissed tonfa's and unknowingly took a step forward to protect Amy.

"Alright guys." Mal said, having a slightly different idea. "Ben, combine with the Audrey and everyone to form the Auradon Defender Megazord. Aziz, combine with the girls for the Auradon Falconbattlezord. Miranda, you and I are going to form the Auradon Dragonbear battlezord." She declared.

"On it." The others confirmed.

"What an unexpected turn of events." Paradias commented though it was anyone's guess as to rather he was joking or not.

Maleficent looked on eagerly as the three battlezords got ready to engage the warzord and the Forbidden Demon, and as her pathetic excuse for a daughter and the four zord lacking fighters got ready to fight Jabberwock and the soldiers. "It's time to prepare for the battle of the ages." She said happily.

"Oh my gosh." Ariel gasped as she saw in person for the first time what these fights could look like. Giant monsters and large robots. The darkening sky was almost a new thing for them all but not unheard of.

"Oh, Ben. Mal. Amy." Belle whispered and Adam placed a hand on her shoulder consolingly.

"Is there nothing we can do to help them?" Elsa asked. She too had never seen the magnitudes of these fights up close, the last one with Frog Borg notwithstanding. That would had not involved such a large and brutal looking monster or the zords.

"I'm afraid I don't see how." Snow White said softly. She had begun to worry for her step-sister's safety more and more as things got more intense.

They were surprised when it was Snow White's cell phone that went off. She answered it. "Hello." A moment later she said, "Of course." She put it on speaker phone. "Go ahead Doug, we can all hear you."

"I'm sorry to bother you." He said. "But attack that you've probably seen from your boat has caused energy spikes from the zord we came here to track. We know where to find it."

"How does that help anyone now?" Aladdin asked. "All of them have to be occupied with the fight before them and we're trapped out here in the ocean."

"Can't you get any of the ranger teams from Earth to help out?" Jasmine asked.

"In theory I could ask them to try to retrieve the zord." Doug admitted. "But so far we haven't found any indication that their megazords can come through the gateways as easily as they can. But the new zord is actually located underneath the island where you are headed for your negotiations."

"What?" Wendy gasped.

"You mean…" Belle started.

They were sure Doug reflexively nodded. "That's right. I don't know how it happened but for whatever reason this zord is in the hands of the Neptune Empire." He finished.


	82. Two For One Part 2

Silence reigned on the boat for a moment as they all absorbed what Doug had told them. The very zord that their children had come to find was around the same island where the Neptune Empire had decided to hold their talks. Was this a coincidence? Was there some plan at work here? Did they even know what they had?

To make matters worse there was no way the rangers could even do anything about it. They were all locked into a battle against a huge dangerous looking chained demon creature as well as the warzord. Although Belle knew that Amy, Will, Melody, Alex and Ellie didn't have zords of their own she was sure they weren't able to just stand idle on the ground. Plus it would take too long for them to get here to get the zord, on top of that they weren't supposed to come to avoid any trouble with them.

"We'll just have to get that zord ourselves." Aladdin announced out of nowhere.

"What?" Adam asked as if he hadn't heard the Sultan of Agrabah right the first time.

"Are you kidding?" Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, questioned now. "How are we supposed to get something that our children should be getting?"

"Is that even possible?" Snow White wondered now. She would have loved nothing more than to be able to give her step-sister and her friends a hand.

"If you can get to the zords I might be able to use these energy signatures to come up with a temporary signal to get the zord to others." Doug said from the still open call. His voice was getting harder to hear, no doubt a combination of being further into sea and the storm itself.

"I think it's worth a shot." Jasmine voiced.

"We can't just abandon our primary reason for being here either." Elsa reminded them all. "I want to help my daughter and her friends just as much as anyone else but to abandon this summit would cause just as many problems as anything else."

"Elsa is right." Aladdin said. "But, they aren't expecting all of us."

"No." Adam mused. "They're not." He glanced out at sea again. "They only need to see representatives for all the kingdoms. I can represent Auradon." He looked to Aladdin and Jasmine. "One of you could represent Agrabah." He looked to Ariel and Eric. "One of you can represent your kingdom while King Triton himself represents Atlantica." He looked to Elsa. "And of course you're representing Arendelle."

"But the rest of us could go and find this zord." Wendy supplemented happily.

Jasmine looked to Aladdin. "You go with the party and find the zord." She said to him. "You may be the Sultan but I was raised from a very young age for these matters. You grew up doing stuff like this, and that might be more valuable."

For a moment Aladdin's thoughts went to his long gone companion, the monkey named Abu. Then he placed that sad nostalgia to the back. "You're right, Jasmine." Aladdin said.

Ariel and Eric exchanged looks as they contemplated what to do. Eric was really the rightful leader of the kingdom, the former mermaid had just married into it. But that is also what made her an asset for the meeting as King Triton was also bringing another one of his nieces, Aquiella the daughter of Arista, with him because around water beings she was able to read their minds. Only Ariel shared that with them. Finally Eric shook his head. "Go with them Ariel." He said. "I've heard the stories you told Melody once you could finally tell her about being born a mermaid, you've had lots of adventures. They need you for this."

"But the meeting…"Ariel started.

"Your father will still be there, Aquiella can communicate anything she senses amiss to him." Eric answered her. "But what's more important is to make sure our children come out of that fight alive."

Ariel's thoughts had to go to Melody for only a moment before she nodded in agreement. "I have to make sure daddy and Aquiella know about this first though."

"We all have to." Adam said. "They need to know what's going on too."

"Then it's settled." Belle said. "We're going after this zord."

The warzord's shoulder mounts opened up and shot missiles at the three battlezords. The Auradon Defender Megazord moved in to take the brunt of the impact with the shield in front that could be formed using Evie's mirror force shield.

With a low growl the chained demon pulled back its right hand and unleashed a huge blast right at them. It slammed right into the Auradon Defender Megazord as if it had no shield and slammed them right into the other two battle zords.

"That was a massive surge of energy." Jane said from her place on the far right on the Auradon Falconbattlezord. "We can't take too many of those if we want to win."

"If we can win." Carlos added softly.

On the ground Jabberwock jumped at Alex and Amy. The two rolled out of the way and Alex released a fireball his way that fizzled out upon contact with the armor. "Well I guess I should have seen that coming." He lamented. "It seems to have fire in its belly after all."

"Let's see if I can cool it off then." Ellie said as she took out a couple of soldiers with her chakram and then turned a beam of ice on Jabberwock though it turned to water upon contact. He had no insides save the fire, which super-heated the metal.

Jabberwock slashed at Ellie but the ice dame took a graceful cart wheel backwards and got ready to try to defend herself again. Melody had jumped in the way and struck with her trident before unleashing a beam of energy the weird insectoid monster

Will took out several of the soldiers before hearing a chuckling behind him. "Now how did you become a ranger anyway?" She asked rhetorically. "I mean you're surrounded by heirs to evil, no matter how disgraceful THEY turned out to be."

From the side Melody glared at the evil fairy as she didn't need to see Amy to know her friend had flinched at the insult, no matter how much she didn't want to feel the sting behind her mother's words.

"And then you have kings, and princes, and princesses and potentially powerful magical users." Maleficent droned on, typically oblivious to her daughter's hurt feelings. "I mean you have Bennie-boo, plain Jane, and Sleeping Beauty the second and the warrior princess." She aimed her staff at him. "And then we have you, the son of some peasant girl. Who are you to stand among them anyway?"

Will gave her a harsh glare. "Not only have I proven my worth to the team, but my mother has proven her worth in her life. We don't need the likes of you trying to belittle us." He said. He cut down another couple of soldiers on that got in his way. "But if you insist on it, I can show you just where my place is compared to you."

"No." Amy said as she came and placed her hand on Will's shoulder. "Don't fall for my mother's taunts." She advised her. "She's good at stirring the proverbial pot but we have to be smart enough to rise above it. Remember, you said it yourself. Both of you, and your sister has well, has proven your worth regardless of your backgrounds and upbringings."

Will had to take a deep breath but was able to realize Amy was right. He had even heard Wendy express her doubts to Cinderella once about that as the two women had very similar backgrounds before Cinderella had married Prince Charming. Cinderella had assured her that her background didn't matter that it was who she was now that made her a princess just like them.

"Only one thing can turn this around." Will said to Amy. "We need to take back the warzord." He frowned a bit. "But we can't leave the soldiers to invade the castle."

"We don't have to worry too much about that." Melody said as she turned to the doors. The guards inside the castle had finally gotten their acts together and were starting to combat the soldiers. She would have felt a little better with rangers at the helm, but they would take what they could get.

Arriving on the island they found it empty. That didn't last long as King Triton emerged from the waves along with a girl about Melody's age with long lustrous brown hair that sill had shades of red in it. It fell across her shoulders in soft waves. Her current form as a mermaid did nothing to hide her ample curves. She immediately looked at her aunt as she hugged her grandfather and said, "You're not staying here."

"What is she talking about Ariel?" King Triton asked with a touch of annoyance and concern, something Ariel had heard all of her life. She hoped she didn't sound like that around Melody so much.

"Daddy," Ariel started. "You, Aquiella, Eric, Adam, Elsa and Jasmine will have to meet the Neptune Magistrate on your own." She looked to Belle, Mulan, Wendy, Aladdin, Aurora and Snow White. "We have to infiltrate the island and find something."

"What are you trying to find?" Triton asked.

"A zord." Belle said now. "On this island. We don't know if they know it's here, if they even care about it or anything like that." She stepped forward now as if trying to get the king of Atlantica to understand. "But the rangers; my children and your granddaughter included, need that zord if they want to win that fight." She pointed to the fight going on at the castle.

Elsa raised her eyebrows a bit inquisitively as she wondered when exactly Mal and Amy had become Belle's daughters as well but didn't say anything. That didn't really matter and somehow she suspected that would mean a lot to the wayward daughters of Maleficent.

King Triton nodded. "I understand. Go, find this zord." He said.

"Keep your mind open aunt Ariel." Aquiella said to the red head. "I'll see if I can find anything in their minds that might help you."

"Can you communicate with others from that far away?" Snow White asked in fascination.

"Only with my family." Aquiella answered. "At least as far as I can tell." She looked to Ariel. "But it's still enough to get you any information that I can find."

Ariel nodded. "Okay then. That would be great honey." She said.

Mulan had her short sword stowed away, Aladdin had his scimitar stored away. "I have this, if anyone wants to try to use it." Jasmine said, indicating the other scimitar. She had not been quite as adept as her husband but was skilled enough.

Ariel reached over and took the hilt. She had held swords before, back when she had collected land items as a mermaid, she once had a grotto full of them which had included a statue of her now husband Eric. "The weight feels different, but I think I can use it if I have too." She decided.

"What about you guys?" Adam asked Belle, Aurora, Snow White and Wendy. "You don't have weapons."

"If we're really lucky we won't need any weapons." Aurora pointed out.

"And if you aren't lucky?" Jasmine asked.

"Then we'll find them some improvised weapons." Mulan assured her. "But let's hope that doesn't become necessary."

"You guys should held out then." Aquiella said to them as she moved some of her hair out of her maroon colored eyes. "I can feel them approaching. The best way to avoid explaining your absence from the proceedings is for you to not be here in the first place."

"She's right." Belle agreed. "Let's go." After only a moment of uncertainty they ended up letting Aladdin start the lead away from the boat and the meeting place.

The Forbidden Demon's hands lashed out, the chains now wrapping around the wings of the Auradon Falconbattlezord and pulled it forward. Then it drove its head hard into the face of the zord, making Jordan and Aziz wobble as they struggled to maintain their balance. Ally and Jane fell off though were able to recover their position quickly.

"Get off of us you googly eyed freak." Aziz hissed as he tried to slam both of the zord's fists into the massive monster. It didn't get any results.

The Auradon Dragonbear battlezord moved in to try to help but Chad brought the warzord in front of them. "I think your little friends should learn how to fend for themselves." He declared as he extended the two blades from the warzord's wrists.

"If that's what ye think then ye have another thing coming to ya." Miranda warned him. "They can take care of themselves just fine."

"And so can we." Mal added with anger in her voice. "It's time you learn that one Chad." The dragonbear battlezord swung at the warzord and the two blades were used to block the attack and then the warzord kicked the dragonbear back.

As the guards started to turn the tide on the soldiers the Will got together with the two remaining rangers, their fire knight and their ice dame. "It's time guys." He said and looked up as the warzord clashed with the Auradon Dragonbear battlezord. "Let's take back from Gregory what he stole from us."

"From you." Alex said with a joking prod to his arm and Ellie rolled her eyes at the bad timing.

"Let's get going then." Melody said. The five of them jumped up into the cockpit of the warzord. From there they could see the Auradon Dragonbear battlezord fall to the ground from the force of the impact. They could see The Auradon Falconbattlezord still tied up in the chains of the demon. The Auradon Defender Megazord was moving into attack but had to hesitate as the demon turned around to use their friends as a shield.

Then there was no more time to watch as the two soldiers noticed them and started to get up. Will and Melody moved in with their weapons and dispatched the two soldiers. That of course was easy part. Now they had Chad, Gregory, Undine's and Marcellus's attention.

"Little witch." Undine spat at Melody as she tried to tackle her.

"I think you're confusing our roles here." The aqua ranger retorted as she used her trident to block the incoming tackle and then slammed her knee into Undine's gut and then pushed her backwards.

"Time to take back what you stole from me." Will said to Gregory as he moved in with his recursive sword. He aimed to slash Gregory out but the rogue gray ranger blocked the attack and then swung back at him.

"You were the one who turned his back on us." Gregory noted. "You were in on the plan."

"I was forced into the plan." Will corrected him. "And even then I couldn't do it because I knew it was wrong." He laughed a bit. "I noticed how far your threats toward my family went by the way. Too scared to actually try anything once you realized how many of us there truly were?" He was not just referring to the Auradon Rangers as it was clear the ranger line was much broader than that.

"Hadn't gotten around to it." Gregory replied curtly. "Besides, your sister still needs time to grow into herself the way that Amy has. I have some time before I have to worry about doing her."

"That is just cold." Ellie stated furiously. "And so by the way are you." With that she unleashed an icy beam that struck Gregory right in the chest, forcing him to fall out of the warzord. "He can pay for those other remarks later and return those powers later."

Undine was trying desperately to get a tentacle on Melody. She didn't seem to care where as a one tentacle brushed at her thigh and another groped at her shoulder blade, though somehow Melody could imagine sharp teeth in the suckers on the tentacles that would dig its teeth into her flesh. Amy moved in with one of her rose lance and slashed both of the tentacles off of her friend and together the two girls just barely managed to kick Undine out of the warzord.

Amy suddenly screamed in pain as a magical arc of energy struck her. She fell against a console. Marcellus prepared to unleash another stream at the rose ranger but this time Melody blocked it with the trident and tried to redirect it at him, specifically the glove he wore that used to belong to his father Mozenwrath but he simply reabsorbed the magic.

Alex was now in front of them and he hurled a fireball at the sorcerer. He dodged it and tried to unleash the magical energy at the fire knight but he drew a fire shield to protect him and the two girls. Melody used that opportunity to zap him with the trident. He growled in pain and that stopped the attack long enough for Alex to bring a tonfa into his jaw and knock him out of the zord as well.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked as both he and Melody leaned down on either side of Amy.

Amy nodded. "Yes, I'm fine." She promised as she stood up and recovered her rose lance.

That just left Chad, who drew the Maledict blade and prepared to fight the five of them by himself. Then for an instant Amy felt a dark presence around the warzord, darker than anything Paradias or even her mother could ever imagine, and for a moment she felt as if he were ready to summon something, and she was deathly afraid of what it might be.

But this time Amy would never know as Will, Melody and Ellie struck together. He raised the blade to block the trident strike and the shield to block the chakram attacks but that left him open to Will's recursive sword and it slashed him hard enough to knock him out of the zord as well.

"Time to take control again." Will declared. Melody and Amy stood on either side of him and placed their iPhones into the warzord's slots, though in Melody's case a lot of it was about being uniform than any real purpose since her powers came from the trident and the aqua gem within it. "Auradon Warzord, now back where it belongs." The green ranger said happily.

Maleficent was not happy, to say the least, when the four former controllers of the warzord came tumbling out.

The Forbidden Demon paced the Auradon Defender Megazord with the chained Auradon Falconbattlezord. Then the Auradon Warzord stepped forward, and with the demon not realizing the true owners had taken the battlezord back, it raised the blades on its arms and broke the chains, freeing the zord.

"What just happened?" Ally asked.

"Will, is that you guys?" Jane called out.

"It is." Will responded with a laugh. "We're finally back in control."

The four Auradon zords turned toward the one standing monster left and were prepared to fight.

"It's not going to be that easy, rangers." Paradias promised. Green light enveloped the area and when it faded Chad the dark knight, Gregory the gray ranger, and Jabberwock stood with the Forbidden Demon, ready to fight.

"The odds just got even again." Jay noted with some dismay.

"The numbers may be the same." Audrey agreed. "But I think the odds are still in our favor."

That belief only lasted a few moments before Chad and Gregory combined their weapons and unleashed a stream of energy at the four zords. Then Forbidden Demon pulled both of his arms back and unleashed a powerful strike at them, sending them falling to the ground.

For just a moment Belle had had hopes that maybe it wouldn't matter in that battle if they found this zord in time as they saw the warzord suddenly change sides. She could only assume Amy, Melody, the Arendelle heirs and Will had succeeded. Then she saw the three new fighters grow. She knew intellectually that one of them was Chad.

"I think I found something." Snow White said. They turned to find she had found a brushy area. She had moved some of it aside to reveal a cave. They could hear the sounds of rushing water from inside the cave but at the moment they could not see any evidence of water.

"Do you think this is what we're looking for?" Wendy asked.

Aladdin nodded. "I think it is." He answered. "Besides, the zord isn't going to be on the island. Wherever it is, it's beneath it."

Mulan and Aladdin worked a moment to clear the underbrush away from the cave so they didn't have to trample their way through it. Belle looked to Ariel. "Any chance you know these caves?" She asked the former mermaid princess.

Ariel shook her head. "I doubt it." She answered honestly. "Granted I broke a lot of my father's boundaries growing up but even I knew better than to get close to Neptune territory without a good reason, and I never had it."

"Then we go in blind." Belle said with a shrug. "We'll make it work." She looked back to the shoreline in the distance where she could still see her children and the ranger team fighting for their lives. "We have to make it work."

And on the shores of the island, Aquiella sat in the waves, moving a small sea shell elegantly between her fingers. She saw her grandfather talking with her Uncle Eric and the former king of Auradon about what to expect. She saw Jasmine staring in the forest, probably wishing she had been able to go with her husband and her friends. And she saw the Queen of Arendelle looking toward the cataclysmic battle going on in her cousin's home town.

And then she felt her body tense in automatic response to her mind. "The Neptune's are here." She announced to them.


	83. Two For One Part 3

"They're here." Aquiella repeated. That drew the adult's attention as several scaled creatures on two legs came out of the water. Many of them were clearly guards with the spears. One held a blade of his own and Aquiella remembered that was one of their inquisitors. In front one of them held a staff, the one she assumed was the magistrate.

A chill passed through her for two reasons at that moment. The first was that their minds were so cold, so closed off. She could pick off some thoughts and impressions but it was like picking up solid items in a thick fog. The second was the way many of them were looking at her, making her wish that mermaids wore more clothing.

Adam stepped forward and draped his coat over the young mermaid, for which she was rather thankful for. "Thank you for meeting us here." He said formally. She could feel none of them liked the Neptune delegates all that much, though she could tell the feelings were more than mutual. "I'm King Adam from Auradon," Technically a lie but Ben couldn't be here. "This is Queen Jasmine of Agrabah, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, King Triton of Atlantica, and King Eric of…"

"We know where you are from." The magistrate spoke. Aquiella was chilled to know it was true. Granted, she could see why they knew where Triton and Eric came from but she didn't think they should know where the others came from. Especially those that came from a city in the desert like Agrabah.

"I'm sorry my husband the Sultan of Agrabah couldn't make it." Jasmine now said diplomatically. "He had an emergency arise that had to be attended too."

He waved off the apology. "It is of no consequence, besides I am sure you are authorized to speak for him." The magistrate replied. Aquiella had the distinct impression he did not approve of that, nor did he approve of Elsa for that matter. He had no thoughts regarding her, which was a relief compared to some of the impressions she was getting of what the guard around him thought of her.

Then she caught a fleeting thought about the small retinue that had been sent to the caves to bring the zord under their control. _Aunt Ariel!_ She practically yelled, at least mentally.

The Forbidden Demon lashed out with the chains and slapped it hard into the warzord. Amy had to get a hold of the console edge to keep from losing her balance. She saw the look of concern in Alex's body posture from the back of the zord.

"Come out to play Audrey." Chad taunted as he slammed the Maledict blade into the megazord's chest. "I promise to come down to your level before the fun really begins."

Jay saw her shudder and he called out, "No chance of that you jerk."

Chad laughed. "We'll see how wrong I really am." He gloated. The shield was barely able to block a second strike from the knight's weapon but was unable to stop the kick in the chest that followed.

"Man I wish I could use the Praeleanthor sword right now." Ben commented.

"Me too." Lonnie agreed.

Jabberwock unleashed a stream of fire at the Auradon Falconbattlezord and sent it flying backwards, nearly crashing into the sea. Then it was on top of the battlezord, trying to pry the wings off of it.

"Get off of us you robo cockroach." Aziz growled. He tried to use the zord's fists to dislodge the monstrous general.

Ally couldn't help but wonder if this thing still wanted to destroy her because of its interactions with her mother Alice. If so that would explain why it chose to deal with them.

Gregory clashed with the dragonbear battlezord. The sad fact here was that flesh and blood fighters still tended to be quicker than the zords and he was slowly gaining the edge in the fight.

"He sure trained for these moments, I have to give him that." Miranda said to Mal. She knew from experience since she had trained a long time to be ready to fight as the Highlands ranger. But at least she was fighting for the side of good.

"We have to hang in there." Mal said. "We can find a way to beat these clowns…all four of them, somehow." She was sure her red headed Scots friend heard the doubt in her voice, she sure heard it in her own voice.

They found their way into the caves and easily found the waterways. It took up half of the cave area and it was hard not to be walking in water in some spots, though none of them seemed to really mind it. Wendy was just glad there didn't seem to be anything living in the waters, she kept bracing herself for the feeling of something slimy brushing against her legs.

"Do we have any idea how much further we need to go?" Mulan wondered.

"The water is flowing in the same direction we're going." Aladdin answered her. "If we follow it to its source we I bet we'll find what we're looking for."

"Too bad we can't see how the battle is going." Belle said as she glanced at the stone walls. It was dark enough down there that the stone walls almost seemed smooth, but she knew better. In fact if she squinted her eyes she swore she could see some of the large points jabbing out of the rock.

Ariel stumbled a bit as she felt her niece's loud insistent call. Belle reached out to take her arm gently. "Are you okay?" Belle asked.

"It's Aquiella." She answered. She could only assume by the tone she heard that something was wrong. _I hear her sweetie. What's wrong? Is everything okay?_ She asked her softly.

 _The Neptune's are here Aunt Ariel, but they're doing the same thing you are. They want that zord._ She heard her niece reply to her telepathically. _Please be on guard and be careful._

 _We will Aquiella, I promise._ Ariel assured her. Then she looked to the others. "We might have company. Aquiella saw from one of their minds that they're here for the zord too." She revealed.

"Was this agreement to a meeting just a ruse on their part to acquire the zord?" Elsa wondered.

"They've had this zord here all of this time." Aurora pointed out. "Why choose now to take it?"

"They were the ones who decided the meeting place." Ariel also pointed out. "If they wanted the zord, why bring us here?"

"Because we didn't come alone." Belle answered. "We came here with my children, with all of the power rangers. If they weren't being attacked right now they would be looking for the zord right now."

"Of course." Aladdin agreed. "Calling the meeting here with the stipulation of not wanting any of the accusers here prevents them from taking the zord even if they found it."

Aurora nodded. "They would never take the chance of risking a major problem for the zord." She agreed. She knew even Audrey, who as her mother she had to admit sometimes couldn't see beyond what she wanted, wouldn't want to take that chance.

Belle nodded in agreement. Ben would never allow it and while she was also relatively sure that Mal wouldn't take that risk either she definitely knew that Amy would not take that chance. "Alright so that's why they called the meeting here, but why are they seeking it out now then?" She wondered.

Mulan could only think of one reason. "Orders from Paradias or Maleficent." She concluded. "One zord is good, two is better. And if it's more powerful than the warzord is…"

Belle nodded in understanding. "Let's get a move on then." She said. "I don't want to fight the Neptune's if we don't have too and I don't want them getting the zord. Our best option is to get the zord ourselves."

The group continued on further only to find the cave systems growing wider, the water still going in the same direction and they could hear that roaring and rushing of water that Ariel was sure to bet was a waterfall. It allowed them to spread out a bit as they waited for any sign of movement or indication where the zord would be.

They continued to get to a wider area that lead to a descending waterfall and they could just make out a rounded metal top when they also ran into something else. Several Neptune soldiers. "Oh, just perfect." Belle sighed.

They didn't seem that surprised to see them there. They started toward the group, but their stances didn't seem all that friendly. Mulan made sure she was approached first, and when he tried to jab her with the spear he held she reacted lightning quick, bringing the sword around to chop the spear in half before slamming her elbow into his face, making him fall into the water and down the waterfall.

"Everyone be careful. "Snow White advised, also seeing the maneuver. That also meant that they could do the same thing to any of them. She wasn't sure any of them would survive the fall either.

Another lashed out, this time at Aladdin, but he dodged under the short sword his opponent was using and then came up with his scimitar to disarm him. He then gave him a back kick in the chest and sent him hitting the cave walls, knocking him out.

Belle moved to recover the short sword the warrior had dropped to keep one of them off of her and Aurora but he didn't have the skills that Aladdin and Mulan possessed and wasn't able to disarm him. He moved in again and Wendy slammed her hands into his chest as hard as she could, sending him sprawling down the waterfall.

"Nice one." Aurora said to Wendy, who smiled back.

Ariel actually seemed to be fighting a couple of them with Jasmine's borrowed scimitar and doing a good job at it. Belle wondered if Melody knew her mother could do that. She disarmed one of them of their spear and kicked him hard enough to knock him out against the other wall. She started to clash with the next one and Snow White picked up the spear and hit him in the back of the head with it as if it were a baseball bat. He let out a weird sound that might have been a scream and turned on her. But that was a mistake as Ariel grabbed him by the arm and flipped him over her body, knocking the breath out of him long enough to be carried up by the rushing waters and down the waterfall.

The Neptune guards were almost done. Most of them actually started to panic when Elsa released a burst of icicles to keep them off of Aurora and Snow White and the Arendelle Queen figured out ice was not their friend. But one of them lashed out a bola and it wrapped around Belle's ankles. She lost her footing and fell toward the waterfall.

"No, Belle!" Aurora called out and tried to lash out to get her but missed, also scratching her chin in the process.

Elsa quickly lashed out her powers at a point to the waterfall and freezing it. Belle grabbed onto the icicle shard but couldn't pull herself up.

"We have to get to her before it's too late." Ariel said even as the Neptune soldiers started to regroup at their distraction.

Aquiella very quickly realized two things. The first was that the magistrate and the inquisitor truly did not know anything about their executioner having come to Undine to attack Auradon. That simply proved to her the ruler of the Neptune Kingdom had sent the right people to talk to them, not that the attack wasn't sponsored on some level. The second was this was all distraction and posturing. It wasn't her place to do anything but if she were asked she would tell them to remind them that if they were to ever discover anything otherwise there might be repercussions to consider and be done with it. She wanted it over with, though part of that was the attention she kept receiving from most of them despite Adam's coat covering her upper body.

She placed her hand gently in the waters and took a deep breath, hoping to sense out what was going on with her aunt and the rest of the party in trying to find the zord. She could already see the horrible battle going on at the kingdom and she feared for her cousin's safety though in truth they had not known each other most of their lives and talked only a handful of times. Aquiella had been born only a month after Melody had been, when the walls had been built separating Atlantica from the kingdom. She had only met Melody after Morgana had been stopped.

She tensed as she felt the waters and realized that something had started to go south. She felt Belle struggling to stop from tumbling down the waterfall and that they were having a hard time reaching her as the soldiers tried to regroup.

 _Aunt Ariel and the others need me._ Aquiella said simply to her grandfather. For a moment she wasn't sure he heard her but a slight nod of his head let her know he had. She threw Adam's coat aside, ignoring the even more obvious leers now, and dove into the water. She swam quickly under the waves and into the grotto that would lead to the cave. She could see the metal roundness of the zord, with only some breaks in the middle. She could feel where the waterfall left things off and was slightly disturbed not to see any guards lying there despite what feel of the waves.

She drew the water around her body; being able to control the elements of water was something she had learned from a young age and was the only one of the four elements she could control though with living around it she did it with such ease even Amy would have been impressed at the skill. But she knew she had to do it quickly because once that water was gone she was just a mermaid stranded on the rocks without her aunt and the others.

The water shot her up and she extended her arms to grab Belle around the waist and then landed against the ground hard. Ariel rushed to her niece's side and was glad at least her tail touched the water so this wouldn't kill her.

"Thank you." Belle said to Aquiella. "You saved my life."

Aquiella nodded though her left side hurt from the landing. "You're welcome your majesty." She started to try to get up and noticed they were again trying to attack. She closed her eyes and started to focus, though at this point she was exerting her abilities. Her nose started to bleed even as several starfish levitated out from the waters far below and then were thrown as if they were shurikens and it sent most of them running.

One of them chose not to run and threw his spear right into Aquiella's stomach. She let out a shriek and fell to the ground. Ariel was horrified to see the blood quickly pooling. "No." She gasped.

Aladdin and Mulan double teamed the last one and he fell to the ground in a heap.

"We have to get her help." Ariel said softly.

"There's only one way I know of to get her help." Belle said softly even as Elsa removed her shawl and started to gently wrap Aquiella's stomach to staunch the bleeding. She redialed the phone. When Doug picked up she said, "Time to get this thing moving and fast. We have more to worry about now that a zord."

"I've got it figured out." Doug told her. "Here's what we have to do…"

"I don't know how much more of this we can take Mal." Audrey said to her purple haired friend as Chad slammed his shield hard into the Auradon Defender Megazord, causing them to lose their own shield. She felt tears of frustration and worry brimming in her eyes. She hated losing, but she feared what Chad would do to her even more.

"I know what you mean." Mal assured her as the Gregory disarmed the dragonbear battlezord and then rammed his axe straight into the chest of the zord.

"We're losing power." Mal heard her little sister say in a very scared voice. It was times like this that Mal forgot that they were twins who were the same age who were not the same height and weight. At this point all she thought of was her little sister, trying hard to be brave but feeling scared. "We can't take much more of this."

"Hang on Amy." Melody tried to reassure her friend. Will recognized the tone he used with his sister when she was upset. He thought Melody would have made a great big sister. "We'll get through this, we'll figure something out."

"Any ideas would sure be appreciated about now." Jane said as the chains of the Forbidden Demon slammed into the Auradon Falconbattlezord once again. It sounded really bad when arguably the smartest person of the team was saying that one. "We're down to auxiliary power."

"We're down to less than half of that." Carlos told her.

"We've got to pull it together." Miranda said. "We're the Auradon Power Rangers and we cannae lose here. Auradon and our entire planet our depending on us."

Mal grit her teeth as she remembered TJ telling her and Audrey about the time he and the Turbo Rangers had lost all of their zords and weapon to take out the monster Goldgoyle. She was starting to wonder if she was now facing that situation herself.

Lonnie was remembering something slightly different. Amber telling her that when Rito Revolto had shown up he had, with a lot of help, destroyed the Ninja Megazord and the Tigerzord and how devastated that made them all, especially Kimberly. She could only imagine how Mal would feel if her dragon zord were lost.

Will unleashed a barrage of missiles from the Auradon Warzord but the chains of the Forbidden Demon lashed out and destroyed them prematurely.

Mal felt the tears threaten in her eyes now. "We…we have to move in close. To the demon thing. And…and prepare to initiate power overloads." She choked out.

"What? Mal, we can't." Amy's voice came back shakily.

"She's right, we need another way Mal." Ben agreed as he patted his own console and felt his horse zord within.

"I don't see one Ben." She said. "We have to stop this thing for the sake of our world and the people in it."

"We have to find one." Aziz replied now as he thought of the falcon zord, sentient in the same way as Mal's dragon zord or Ben's horse zord.

"Your dragon…" Audrey started.

Mal swallowed back a lump in her throat. "Will understand." She ended softly.

Forbidden Demon gathered its hands together and unleashed a brutal assault that struck all four zords hard. They hit the earth with a loud shudder. That however brought an end to the debate as Carlos declared, "We have no more power you guys." Audrey and Evie sighed in resignation and Jay slammed his right hand into his left palm.

"We have powers but no control response." Ally said as she too sounded near tears. "We can't fight back now."

"Mal, what do we do?" Amy asked from the downed warzord. As always she had faith in her sister and the purple ranger felt such sadness that she had nothing to offer this time. "Our controls are frozen too."

Mal sighed and looked at Miranda softly. "It's over." She said to the Highlands ranger, possibly the only one she could feel sure she could confide in besides Ben, Evie and Amber. "We've lost."

"We did whatever we could." Miranda replied softly, consolingly. "We have to take whatever type of comfort we can in that."

The three generals started to gather up energy in their weapons as the Forbidden Demon gathered energy up. There was no doubt that the next attack would destroy the zords and injure or even kill the rangers themselves. Mal wished to be by Ben even as she was sure some of the couples who could, like Audrey and Jay or Ally and Aziz, were saying their goodbyes. She was glad at least Amy had her three friends with her in the warzord.

Even as the attack was about to commence there were a massive stream of laser blasts that struck all four monsters. The three generals fell back hard even as the Forbidden Demon looked up to the skies with the rangers to see the last thing they expected.

"Did I hit my head or something?" Carlos wondered.

"If you did I did too bro." Jay said.

"Is that..?" Aziz started.

"A giant clam?" Jordan asked in shock.

It was in fact just that. It was a giant hard shelled clam that had just enclosed the lasers in its outer shell. The Forbidden Demon moved again to attack the four zords but it was in front of them and took the blow with almost no damage done to it.

"No way." Ally said.

Only one thing made sense to them. "Mom." Ben called.

From inside one of the areas Belle replied tiredly, "Hello honey. We found something for you." They did not know about Aquiella yet, she was currently laying with her head on Ariel's lap, the shawl wrapped tightly around her stomach. What they hadn't realized is that Amy could already feel the mermaid girl's pain.

"Oh my…" Jane whispered. "The Auradon Ultrazord. I thought that was a myth, but it figures Zordon would have that somewhere here."

They heard the familiar and in this case very comforting voice of Doug now from there helmet intercoms. "And there is more than enough slots in there for your zords. Take it for a test drive and take out this Forbidden Demon."

"We have no power." Lonnie said softly. "Or no responsive controls."

"We take that chance right now." Mal decided. She didn't want to lose the dragon zord if she had another option, she didn't want to lose any of the zords if she had an option. "Auradon Ultrazord online!"

The clam opened up its mouth again and the four battlezords were surprisingly drawn right into the massive zord; Jane was certain it had to be a tractor beam of some kind. She was impressed and was looking forward to seeing the schematics on it.

Chad and Gregory moved in to attack while the zords seemed vulnerable but like that the clam angled down and their weapons collided harmlessly off the shell of the zord. That was a surprise to them, especially with Chad wielding Maledict's blade.

"It looks like this works independently." Jane announced. "We have more than enough power despite the conditions of our zords."

"We still have four targets to worry about." Ally noted.

"Not a problem." That was from Carlos. "There are more than enough cannons to target them all and still have excess firepower." He laughed a bit impressed. "This baby was built to deal damage."

"Then let's put that firepower to good use." Mal said. "Auradon Ultrazord, lock on and fire!" They could hear that cannons moving and locking onto their targets. They could see the massive firepower that was now being unleashed on the four of them. The three generals automatically shrunk down to avoid the brunt of the attack as they joined Paradias and Maleficent.

There was nothing the Forbidden Demon could do but take the barrage and it was so overwhelming that it destroyed one of the most destructive demons outside of the underworld that had spawned Chad's weapon. And with nothing standing between the high powered zord and the enemy, the five of them vanished.

"Yes!" Jay exclaimed in victory and profound feeling of relief. He felt Audrey wrap her arms around him and he hugged her back, lifting her briefly in his arms. "We did it babe."

"We did it." Audrey echoed happily. "I thought we were going to die there."

Amy hugged Melody and then hugged Alex. She was too shy to admit it but she loved how his arms felt around her.

They left their zords to find the ones who made this possible but stopped as they found the group of adults gathered around a mermaid. "No, Aquiella!" Melody exclaimed as she ran ahead of the others and to her cousin.

"Hi." She said to Melody softly and coughed just a bit. She had blood on her outer hand now. "I…caught a spear with my stomach."

Belle looked up to Mal as Melody felt tears in her eyes. "She saved me, from taking a trip down a large waterfall where the zord was being held." She said to the purple haired girl. "Is there anything we can do for her?"

"We have to do something for her." Melody said to Mal as she took her cousin's hand and the panic increased as she realized her breathing was getting more shallow. "Please."

"A spell." Audrey started.

"A potion." Ally started as well.

"I won't be able to make a potion quick enough." Jordan said to them all gently. "All that blood, something got punctured, probably a lung. I don't have the time to make a mixture."

Amy looked at her scared and upset friend and the girl who had saved Belle's life, a woman who had shown her more care and concern for her than her own mother. "Mal, please."

"I don't have that kind of magic Amy." Mal said to her simply. Her sister looked like she was ready to cry with her friend and Mal glanced around at her friends. They owed this girl and they all knew it. "But maybe we can make it happen."

"How?" Audrey wanted to know. It wasn't a challenge, she was just as desperate to know as Amy and Melody were.

"Melody, I need you to focus." Mal said to the aqua ranger. She looked up and nodded. "Stand up." She did as she asked. "Take out your gems, or in your cases your weapons." She added as she looked to Melody, Jane, and her own prince Ben. They followed her instructions. They followed Mal as they placed their exposed gems around Aquiella and Ariel. "You two keep your hands on your items." She instructed Melody and Jane. They did so.

Mal sat down and gestured for Amy on her right and Evie on her left. Jordan sat down by Evie. "The rest of you just keep your thoughts on me, or on Aquiella." She said to her team mates that were still standing. The four girls took hands and waited for Mal.

"Please here my plea." Mal whispered, not sure if this was really a spell or not. What mattered was that it worked. "This girl helped us well, she doesn't deserve this fate, please restore her post haste." She didn't feel any magic in her body as she normally would and she felt the tears in her eyes, though she thought some of that must be Amy's as her twin was undoubtfully looking at Melody.

Nothing had happened and Ben could no longer see slow rising and falling of the mergirl's chest. "Mal." Ben said softly, meaning to console her as he placed his hands on her shoulders.

Audrey laid her head on Jay's arm and wiped tears from her eyes. Then she gasped, "Look."

They all looked up to see the gems glowing very brightly. "The magic, it channeled to our gems." Jordan voiced. They glowed and energy shot out, enveloping Aquiella. They couldn't all help but gasp, it was so pretty. They could see all their colors; two purples one lighter than the other, red, blue, black, yellow, both a light and a dark pink, gold, silver, white, a very light white like crystal, green, a light blue like ice and a brighter red like fire, even some gray as if to remind them all that just because Gregory was evil, the powers he wielded were not and would one day come back to them just as the warzord had. Amy blinked as she swore she saw orange and wondered where that had come from.

Aquiella let out a gasp. Ariel gasped in delight as she stroked her niece's hair. "Aquiella." She whispered. Melody did too and together the two hugged the girl. "Oh my pink." Melody whispered, not realizing she had borrowed her friend's favorite phrase, not that Amy cared. "You had us so scared."

"I'm so sorry." Aquiella said to them softly. "I'm so sorry Aunt Ariel, Melody."

"You did so well, I'm so proud of you." Ariel said to her niece softly.

They exited their Clam Ultrazord. Melody laid her cousin in the water and Aquiella ran her hand through it. "They left." She said to them all softly. "The Neptune assemblage. They saw the clam zord and left."

"So dad and everyone else are on their way back here?" Ben asked.

"Yes." Aquiella said softly as she felt Ariel gently pour some sea water on her forehead. Not a good thing for normal humans but a nice feeling for a mermaid. "And I bet they're very concerned about all of you."

They waited by the water and about a half hour later they showed up. Adam rushed to Ben and Belle, and after a moment they both came over to Mal and Amy. The two adults embraced Amy even as Ben reached over and kissed Mal on the lips passionately. "You are so incredible." He said to her.

Mal felt herself blush. "Just luck my love, just luck." She said to him.

Jasmine and Aladdin hugged each other tightly and then embraced Aziz and Ally. Jasmine reached over and squeezed Jay's shoulder lightly.

Elsa embraced her daughter and nephew tightly.

By that time Doug and come out and Evie smiled as she stood with him and her older step-sister.

King Triton swam over. "What happened to you Aquiella?" He asked her.

"She took a spear for Belle." Ariel told her father softly as she stroked her niece's hair. "But the powers of Melody and her friends saved her." She wrapped her free arm gently around her daughter. "I am so proud of all of you." She said.

"I'm proud of you mom." Melody said. "You did a huge favor for us and none of you had the powers we do to keep us safe." She squeezed Aquiella's hand softly. "I'm so proud of you Aquiella. You would make such an awesome power ranger." She laughed. "Too bad I can't see you in gray."

Aquiella laughed. "That would clash with my eyes." She said jokingly. She looked to her grandfather. "I'd like to spend some time with Melody and the others." She requested softly.

"We're not leaving until tomorrow afternoon." Melody said to him. "Please let her spend the night with us. We were going to have a girl's night in today anyway, the others wouldn't mind."

King Triton thought only a moment and nodded. "Of course." He said after he looked to Ariel for her approval. "Use the triton to give her legs, as I once did for your mother so long ago." Again Adam's coat was handed over as Melody used the trident to give Aquiella legs, for they knew when that happened she would be nude. "I'll let your mother know where you are." He promised Aquiella and then returned to the ocean.

"Let's get you all inside." Eric said as he came over and stroked Ariel's back lightly. "All of you need to get cleaned up and then we need to get food for all of you." Together they started toward the castle together.

"You don't mind that Aquiella will be here, right?" Melody asked Audrey and Mal.

"No." Mal said simply.

"The more the merrier." Audrey agreed. They both exchanged looks. They felt a lot of gratitude for what she had done today, what she had done made sure they didn't have to make the hard sacrifices that day. "I wish we had a power for her. She'd be a great ranger." The brunette princess said now.

"You're right." Mal agreed simply. "She's already proven she's a great friend." She gently rubbed Audrey's shoulder. "I think we've all proven that to each other, given that chance." She smiled at her.

Audrey smiled back at her only to feel a hand squeeze hers reassuringly. She saw it was Amy. From nearby she saw Evie give her a gentle but pointed look. Audrey took a small breath and made another decision. "Mal, Amy. There's something I need to tell you when we get cleaned up." She told the two sisters.


	84. Bits of Dark Reality

Audrey heard a knock on the door as she was brushing her hair. "Come on in." She said. The brunette princess was sure it had to be Mal and Amy. Sure enough the purple haired girl came in with the rose haired girl came in behind her. Amy seemed rather happy, which since her friend's cousin was okay there was good reason for it.

"Have a good shower?" Mal asked Audrey.

"It feels nice to be clean again." Audrey replied with a smile. "We never even got a chance to clean up from the Frog Borg battle before that demon thing happened." She continued to brush her hair. "And if I feel that way, you guys must have been worse off since you very nearly drowned."

"You can say that again." Mal said as she sat down on a chair. Amy moved over to the mirror. She wasn't too big on her looks but something about her hair just hadn't felt right since the Frog Borg fight.

"Well…" Audrey started and noticed Amy fretting at the mirror next to her. "Would you like some help with that?" She asked the girl.

Amy hesitated for a moment as if she had gotten caught doing something bad. Then she sighed. "Sorry, my hair…feels kind of off for some reason. I don't know why." She revealed shyly. Hair and makeup talks were not something she had with Mal and certainly not with their mother. Evie was the closest she had to that when she bothered.

Audrey sat up and placed her hand gently on her shoulder. "Sit down, let me see what I can do." She instructed. After just a second of uncertainty Amy complied with the princesses words and let her work on it. She had to admit that sometimes it was nice to have girly stuff, which was one thing Mal was not.

"So what's on your mind?" Mal asked amused as she leaned back in the chair. She had to admit a part of her was touched to see Amy and Audrey bonding. She had learned through extensive time that Audrey was a better person than even she gave herself credit for and rather either wanted to admit it or not she was sure the two of them needed each other almost as much as Amy needed Mal.

Audrey hesitated and took a deep breath. "I…it's not easy to say." She said softly, so softly that Mal had to lean forward to hear it. Amy didn't have to worry since she was right there. She could see in the mirror that Audrey seemed to be doing great things with her hair. She could also feel how upset she was.

"Is this about whatever has been keeping you awake at night?" Amy asked her gently.

"Nothing's been keeping me awake at night. It's staying asleep through the night that's been the problem." The brunette princess corrected her. "Since about the time we spent the night in Ben's castle I…I've been hearing voices." She revealed.

Mal wanted to make a joke, she really did. But she knew that wasn't appropriate right now. "What do you mean?" She asked instead. "I mean, I assume you're not talking about like castle personnel in the halls or anything like that."

"No." Audrey said. "You're right that castles have a lot of people working in them during all hours of the day, but I hear it at school too." She sighed a bit. "No, let me rephrase that. I've been hearing him."

Now Amy understood. "Chad." She deduced.

"Yes." Audrey confirmed, stroking Amy's hair for a moment as she was lost in thought. Amy didn't stop her.

Mal cocked her head as she looked at her second in command. "It's not just voices, is it?" She pressed gently.

"For a while it was." Audrey replied. "But when we were getting ready for the dinner to thank the Samurai Rangers and Karone for helping us deal with Paradias's samurai I was getting ready in my room when I thought I saw Chad in my room."

"Oh my pink." Amy gasped. She could fully sympathize with that. She could remember a few time she had caught Gaston Jr. waiting for her in her room. Jay had been there the first two times and he had ran quickly. By the third time it was late at night and she had just gotten out of the shower. She was dreaded to think of what would have happened if her scream hadn't brought Mal to her room. "Did he hurt you?" She asked softly as she turned to face her.

"When I looked back to him there was no one there." Audrey said as she sat down by Amy now. Mal moved over to and leaned down next to her second in command and her twin sister, although judging from the difference in height and weight one would never know they were twins.

"You think you're losing your mind or that he's playing games with you somehow." Mal guessed.

"I wish I knew for sure." Audrey told her. "The night before we came here, I woke up because I thought I felt something…felt him touch me." She shuddered a bit and Amy knew it was not an appropriate kind of touch. "I screamed, and Evie heard me."

"The sleepover tonight." Mal reasoned. "This is for your protection isn't it?" She asked.

"Partly." Audrey admitted and then gave a small smile. "But hey, a good idea is a good idea right?" She asked.

"It is." Amy tried to assure her as she gave her a hug and laid her head on her shoulder.

"Yes it is." Mal agreed. She took her friend's hands in her own. "So know we know. And Evie obviously knows. Who else knows?"

"Jay knows about the voices. But nothing else." Audrey told her softly. "You two know it and that's it."

"Do you want to tell the others?" Amy asked her now.

"I don't know. I think maybe they should know but I don't want them to think I'm losing it and that I should be stripped of my powers." Audrey admitted.

"No one will think that." Mal promised her. "And I have news for you Audrey; you are not crazy, you are not losing your mind." She looked to the window a moment. "I don't know how he's doing it but what Chad is doing to you isn't some delusion, or fake thing. It's real, I know it is."

"If he were in school, or the castle, wouldn't you sense him?" Audrey asked Amy. "I mean his emotions for me are…are very strong." She wasn't sure what kind of emotion it was exactly and she was sure it wasn't healthy but she knew it was strong.

Amy nodded. "Normally I'd say yes. But that Maledict's blade he uses. It's strong, it's old and it's powerful. I don't even think Aquiella could penetrate that." She replied. Just from what Belle had told her on the way into the castle she knew when it came to empathic abilities and water control that their new friend had her beat. The latter was no surprise of course since she was a mermaid but she was curious what made it easier for her to read minds. "With that in mind he could easily bypass our awareness to get to you."

"You have no idea what it's like to feel so…so helpless, so afraid." Audrey said softly.

"I do." Amy replied to her gently. " She barely considered Gregory a personal threat. But she had plenty of experience with Gaston Jr. "He didn't have magical demonic powers or anything like that but Gaston Jr…he looked at me the same way that Chad seems to look at you." She looked down a little as she thought. "The first time I met him when I was five and he was eight he said he wanted to play a game of doctor, but I said no when he tried to take off my clothes. He beat me for it, he might have killed me if Mal hadn't found me."

"And boy was I mad." Mal added. "He was lucky he was faster than me, not to mention I was more worried about Amy. He might not have walked away otherwise."

"From then on Mal tried to protect me, and so did Jay when he could." Amy continued on. "But sometimes it just wasn't enough and he would find me and try to hurt me." She shuddered a bit and Audrey wrapped an arm around her supportively. "I started to find ways to elude him because I knew my friends couldn't always be there for me. But again on the isle it was kind of like a game of cat and mouse, no demon powers to be worried about."

"The problem is like Chad, he got more resourceful too." Amy said softly. "He found had his ways to trap me. Just before they were sent to Auradon I had gotten out of the shower, had nothing but a towel around me and stepped into my room to find him waiting for me. I screamed as he leapt at me, and he had me on the ground, trying to pull of the towel. Mal came in and he bolted, so nothing happened. But the encounter…" She had tears in her eyes and both girls hugged her tightly.

"I'm so sorry." Audrey said to Amy. "The truth is no one as sweet as you should have had to go through that."

"No one should have to go through that." Mal emphasized. "I don't care how sweet they always were or if they're just now learning to be sweet." They all laughed at the subtle dig to Audrey's character when she first met the isle kids. "No one should ever have to go through what Chad puts you through Audrey, or what Gaston Jr. tried to put you through Amy."

"Is that common on the Isle of the Lost?" Audrey asked Mal and Amy.

"More common that we'd ever want to admit." Mal said with a sigh. "Everyone fears my mother and me by extension most of the time, but you've noticed my mother's indifference to Amy and sadly so has most everyone else on the isle. That's why a lot of people think Amy's a good target. There's several reasons that I once told Ben that there isn't really dating where I come from, more like gang activity."

"What about Evie?" Audrey asked now. "Has she ever…been a subject of interest?

"A few times." Mal replied but figured that would be more of a subject she should delve into further with Evie. "Let's just say there's a reason I always told her being evil was about more than just looking the part, and she shouldn't be so worried about drawing that attention."

"I guess that's one reason that Auradon is better." Amy noted.

Audrey laughed a bit but it held little no humor in it. "It's not unheard of in Auradon or any of our societies either." She promised the rose haired girl. "It's just that that kind of stuff isn't heard about on the Isle. We have our share of regular criminals; thieves, murderers…" She couldn't bring herself to say the last one but they knew what she meant; people like Chad and Gregory and the way they viewed and treated girls. "There was this one guy, non-royal, he grew so obsessed with Ally…well, it wasn't pleasant and it's a good thing Lonnie's very observant or it might have been bad."

"How is it that a guy can be so sweet like Ben or Jay," Mal started.

"Or Alex." Amy couldn't help but add and the purple haired girl looked at her twin oddly a moment but laughed.

"Or Alex." She relented with a laugh. "Could be so great and sweet and then you have the other end of the extreme in Chad and Gregory and Gaston Jr?" She wondered. She shook her head. "I mean two of them grew up in Auradon with Ben and they still turned out to be…well, words my mother says I should use more often but I refuse to use." She added with a chuckle.

"I've wondered that myself too." Audrey said. "I mean Ben, Chad and I grew up together. My mom, Belle and Cinderella practically raised us together with the same values. And yet Chad…well, again look at how he's been treating me."

Mal stroked both Amy and Audrey's shoulders. "I think we should tell the others, but ultimately it's your call Audrey." She said softly.

Audrey frowned. "Let's…do it in pieces." She said. "I don't want to worry everyone at once."

"Well now we know." Amy said to her. "We'll figure out the next step together."

"Ben should know." Audrey said automatically. "You shouldn't have to keep secrets from your boyfriend on my behalf…and Jay should be updated on this too, and that's my responsibility."

"We'll tell them after dinner then." Mal said. "And then we'll see what they say. We still have our relaxing night ahead of us." She again stroked Audrey's shoulder. "And we need a better arrangement for school, I don't want you in a room alone until Chad's been dealt with."

"Too bad we can't all just have one big room together." Amy said as the three of them got up to leave the dressing room. "Then it wouldn't be an issue." She shrugged. "But no room at Auradon Prep is big enough for that."

Aquiella nearly fell but kept her balance on the wall. "My gosh, this harder than it looks." She mermaid girl temporarily turned human said with a laugh. "How do you do this Melody?"

Melody laughed with her cousin. "Lots of practice, but I skinned my knees so many times when I was learning to walk so long ago." She answered with a laugh. "You walk like my mom did when she first got her legs." In any other context that conversation would have sounded weird, but not when talking about a mermaid to a mermaid. "At least you won't use a fork to comb your hair though."

"Yeah we've learned a lot about surface life since your mom was our age." Aquiella conceded with a smile. "Though in your case it was sea life you had to learn."

"Thank you again for all you did for my friends and I." Melody said as she came and helped her cousin walk a bit. "I think you made the difference between defeat and victory today, and you certainly seemed to have saved Belle's life. I know Mal, Amy and Ben appreciate that."

"I thought Mal and Amy had a mother already." Aquiella said. She knew their mother was Maleficent and as such doubted it was exactly the most loving home for them, but it still left her curious.

"They do of course." Melody agreed. Most of them hated discussing the Maleficent and the way she treated her daughter's topic. In fact they hated it with all of the isle kids but the twins seemed to keep finding themselves at the forefront of the topic rather they knew it or not. "But both Mal and Amy have taken a liking to her, and she has taken that same liking to them."

"She called them her children in front of grandfather." Aquiella revealed to Melody. "Not that that's a bad thing but I don't think anyone expected that one, even Belle until she said it."

They were walking downstairs and it seemed Aquiella was getting a hold of it, so Melody released her arm but stayed by her side. Losing balance and falling on the floor was one thing, losing balance and taking a tumble down the stairs was another thing entirely. "So what's next for you guys?" Aquiella asked her.

"Probably try to figure out how to take the gray ranger's powers off of Gregory." Melody speculated. "Mal said that if they had known then what they knew now he wouldn't have gotten them, but it was assumed he was what he said he was."

"I hope that doesn't happen too often." Aquiella said softly.

"Just him." Melody promised her. "They've been a bit more careful about that since then. And that was also before Amy was part of the team so they had no way of sensing his intentions." She laughed a bit. "You actually have a couple of things in common with her."

"In what way?" Aquiella wondered.

"Well she has control over the four elements, like you control you water. I mean your control over water is better than hers," Melody started.

"But mine is just water. Hers is all the elements." Aquiella interrupted. "So it stands to reason that while I might be a mistress of water she's still the element queen." The two girls shared a laugh. "And the other?"

"She can read feelings, like you can. She can't read minds, which is something you can do on and off, but she's a really strong empath. Like you." Melody said. "She can also go intangible, but I don't think you can do that."

"Depends on how you look at it." Aquiella said. "I have a similar ability that falls under my control of water. But without that, then no."

"It might be interesting to see what you can do that is comparable as long as water is around." Melody said. "I mean, where did you even learn this stuff? Mom says she's never heard of things like this before."

"I don't know." Aquiella admitted as they could hear the some of the others in the dining room. "I was told by Aunt Attina that the day I was born a meteor passed over Atlantica. She often wonders if that had anything to do with it."

They found that they were the last to arrive except the twins and Audrey. Both Jay and Ben seemed a bit disappointed to see that their girlfriends and Amy were not the ones coming in but they smiled softly at them. "Thank you again for what you did for us." Ben said to the Aquiella.

"You're welcome." Aquiella said. "Where are Mal, Amy and…" She hadn't learned Audrey's name.

"Audrey." Jay supplied. "I don't know."

"They might be talking." Evie supplied. "I heard Audrey say she wanted to talk to the two of them on our way end."

A few minutes later the three of them came downstairs and joined the rest. Audrey hugged Jay tightly as Mal went over and kissed Ben on the lips. Amy waved shyly to Alex and smiled at him, he smiled back at her.

"Ready to eat?" Ben asked Mal as he rubbed her back softly.

"Yes." Mal said to him and gave Evie a look. It was the look that made the blue haired girl know she had been told by Audrey what was going on and that they had to come up with a plan before they lost Audrey. Evie felt better knowing Mal was in the know now.

Audrey hugged Jay against her and he hugged her back, but he knew something was wrong.

They sat down at the dinner table. Melody had long since prepared her parents about Amy's particular appetite and they had settled on a variety of pizza with an emphasis for pepperoni pizza so she would be happy. They had Pepsi, and strawberry soda, and sprite and root beer to choose from.

"So Audrey talked to you two?" Evie asked Mal as they sat down with a couple slices of pizza and cans of Pepsi.

"She did." Mal told her as she opened up her can. "I don't think she's losing her mind Evie." She said before taking a sip of her beverage. She set it on the table. "He's getting past everything somehow just to get to her. His obsession is getting as bad as Gaston Jr. was with Amy."

"Remember when you caught him in her room after she was done showering?" Evie asked with disgust as she opened upper her own can. "I'm surprised you didn't kill him."

"I was so close to it." Mal said with a flash of green in her eyes. "He was so lucky that Amy forbid me from killing him. She was afraid she would lose me if I did." She laughed somewhat dryly. "Can you imagine anyone forbidding me from doing anything?"

Evie laughed a little too. "Only Amy could get away with that." She pointed out.

They turned to see that Jay was talking with Ben. Undoubtfully they were trying to figure out what they were missing with Mal and Audrey. Both of them had decided it was best to wait until after dinner to mention it to them and that Audrey would be the one to tell them while she was there for moral support. That left Audrey sitting by one of the windows but she wasn't alone, Amy had joined her and they were talking quietly.

"I guess one good thing came out of it." Evie said. "Audrey and Amy have grown closer. I know it might not seem like a big thing, but we're all family and we have to learn to like each other so we can coexist together." She reached for one of her pizza slices.

"I know what you mean." Mal said. "Really that and Ben are the main reasons Audrey and I made our peace. And of course Jay liking her. Which is okay, it's worked out well for both of us, all of us I mean."

They watched Will and Lonnie sit down by another window. They could see him talking animatedly and Lonnie laughing occasionally. They surmised he must have been talking about something involving Whitney.

"You're not mad that I knew and didn't tell you, are you?" Evie asked as she took a small bite.

"Of course not E." Mal assured her. "Look I get that I'm not always that easy to talk too, at least compared to you. I'm just glad that you got Audrey to start facing it and to get her to start talking is all." Then she reached over and poked Evie's arm. "Besides, you were just there is all, nothing but luck."

Evie laughed. "Oh, such a nice thing to say to your chosen sister M." She teased. "Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go talk to Doug. So far chemistry and pizza are the only romantic links we have together and I want to build that up." Mal smiled at her and waved as she wandered over to where Doug was.

Mal herself wandered over to the Aquiella and Melody. "So what do you do when you're not helping save us from imminent destruction?" She asked the mermaid visitor.

"I'm in the orchestra at school." Aquiella said to Mal. She didn't seem to care at all who Mal was, just that she was another person she could make friends with. The purple haired girl knew from experience that it wasn't always easy. In fact once she really thought about it unless they were part of the team they still didn't have many friends. "I practice a lot to keep my powers sharp." She laughed a little. "Actually if I were going to Auradon Prep I'd probably be in your magic class."

"Melody told you about that huh?" Mal said with a laugh. "We're all scraping by in that class. Good thing it's not really for a grade, though in some ways it being for our ranger job that might make it even worse than failing a grade."

"I think you guys should be careful." Aquiella revealed in a serious tone of voice. "I don't trust the Neptune Kingdom representatives. They claimed to know nothing about the Neptune Tyrant but it might have been they weren't told so that nothing was given away."

"They did seem to know about the zord huh?" Mal relented.

The mermaid girl nodded. "Yeah. I don't know how much they knew but they weren't oblivious to its presence." She replied. She frowned a bit. "Too bad we didn't meet the queen or king. At least maybe we could have gotten closer to the truth."

"We'll figure it out when we get there." Mal assured her. "We always do. I have to say though I kind of wish that you could help us out. We seem to need all the help we can get."

At that moment Amy was just relating what she had seen to Audrey when they had healed Aquiella. "Do you think maybe there's an orange ranger power out there?" She asked the brunette princess.

"Wouldn't surprise me." Audrey said as she picked off a piece of pepperoni and then ate it. Then she picked up her root beer. "I just wonder if its gem form like the green ranger powers were or if somehow it's in something already like the aqua gem Melody uses." She mused as she took a sip of her drink.

Amy had finished taking a drink from her strawberry soda. "Good point." She agreed. "And where is it? It could be just about anywhere."

"We should say something to Evie, Carlos and Doug about some kind of gem tracker." Audrey suggested. "I mean we have to have enough readings by now to find at least one of them."

Amy giggled. "Yeah, one would think that." She remarked. Audrey laughed with her.

Dinner was winding down and Audrey went over and took Jay's hand. "I need to talk to you." She said softly.

"Alright sure." Jay said as he placed his plate, with two pieces of crust still on it, on one of the tables. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Mal had gone over to Ben and kissed him on the cheek before taking his hand and excusing them from his conversation with Ellie and Alex. Amy meanwhile waved at Melody and then went to talk to Evie.

He got another small shock when he saw that Mal and Ben had come out with them. The two girls lead them over to a bench and sat down with them. To call Mal relaxed was an exaggeration but it was clear whatever they were doing out there had nothing to do with her.

"Jay, remember when I told you that I was hearing Chad's voice." Audrey started.

Even as the former thief nodded the young king interrupted, "Wait. What? When did that start? How long has that been going on now?" he asked her.

"It's been a few weeks." Jay said to him absently. This wasn't news to him though it was certainly still a thorn in his side. "It seemed to start that night we stayed at your castle." He wondered when a statement like that became normal. "What about it Audrey?" He now asked, even though Ben was in shock. Mal squeezed his hand softly, knowing that the worst was yet to come.

"I wish I didn't have to tell you two this now, so that it didn't ruin your night, but…it's gotten worse." Audrey said.

Jay tensed up. "How?" He asked.

"When we were getting ready for the dinner with the Samurai rangers I thought I saw Chad in my room." Audrey told him.

"What? How?" Jay asked.

"I didn't actually." Audrey assured him. "I saw him in the mirror but when I turned to face him he was gone and no one was in the room or in the mirror, except me of course."

"More mind games." Jay said angrily. "He's really getting on my last nerves."

"I don't think its simple mind games Jay." Mal said now, the first thing she had said since they had come out. "Audrey's not losing her mind and there is more to it that we don't understand yet."

"Mind games would be one thing." Audrey said to him. "It's all mental. But, the night before we came here, I woke up with the sense that I was being touched…I mean really touched."

"I'm going to kill him." Jay said simply. "When I see him again I'm going to kill him."

"Audrey you should have said something sooner." Ben said softly. "If this isn't a mind game then he's just toying with you, and sooner or later he might take that up another stage. Really, there's only one more stage to take it too."

"She knows." Mal assured Ben softly. "That's why Evie got her to start opening up about it. So we can figure out ways to try to stop it." Mal hated to admit the fact that she wasn't sure they could stop it if he was that determined. Even killing him seemed to be a far off reality.

"I just don't want to make a big deal about it." Audrey said to them. "We don't even know if he'll want to go that point until we've been defeated. He already knows the two of you want to finish him off and you two can't be the only ones." She squeezed Jay's hand softly. "But I knew it had to start getting around. Sooner or later we'll have to tell the others too."

"We might as well keep it here for now." Ben said. "If it's not happening outside of Auradon and it's not happening when you're with others then you should be safe tonight." He looked to Mal. "Which was probably the idea behind the girl's night. That was a good idea."

"Tell that to Evie." Mal said as she kissed him on the cheek. "It was her idea."

"Enjoy the night." Audrey said to the two boys. "Play your video games and do whatever it is you guys do. We're going to talk and mess with each other's hair and stuff, and we'll worry about it tomorrow when we leave."

"That'll be a lot easier said than done." Jay said to Audrey. He kissed her gently on the lips. "But at least I know you'll be safe tonight with Mal and the other girls." He just hoped he hadn't jinxed anyone, especially the girls by saying that.


	85. Nightmare Parties

Ben and Jay lagged behind Will, Aziz, Alex, and Carlos. "Do we tell them what Audrey told us?" The young king asked the ex-thief.

Jay ran his hands a bit nervously thought his hair. He was actually kind of surprised that Audrey hadn't gotten on him about that, his hair was longer than most of the girl's hair was. "I don't know man." He admitted. "I mean everyone should know, but the truth is what good will that do except make everyone as nervous as we are?"

"We've got time." Ben said. "She should be safe enough tonight, with the other girls and away from Auradon. We can figure out how to deal with this afterwards." Neither boy had thought to ask Audrey or Mal what they were supposed to say to their parents and assorted friends. Aurora had some clue something was wrong with her daughter as far as Chad went but she didn't know how far it had progressed. Though no one said anything about it, it was assumed that meant everyone else knew about it as well but only five of them had realized it had gotten worse.

Jay shook his head. "All I know is we've got to find a way to either protect her fully or put Chad down." He said with a trace of desperation. "There's not much more he can do to her short of actually fulfilling his threats to take her." He looked to Ben. "If only that new sword of yours could stop him."

"I know what you mean." Ben agreed. "But his weapon is just as powerful. With the two weapons we're evenly matched warriors who might as well be continuing an long struggle. Without the weapons we're just two teen boys, and it'd be anyone's guess on who would end up winning."

"You've got be stronger I'm sure." Jay pointed out to him.

Ben nodded. "You might be right, but Chad's already crossed lines I've never even considered as options."

They entered a room that had a large plasma TV screen and a few consoles hooked up. Carlos was already turning on one of them. "You have to see this one guys." He declared. "TJ and Carlos were talking about this one; it's called Mario Kart Double Dash."

As Mal sat braiding Amy's hair, Ally meanwhile had turned on their own console game. Aquiella had been a bit surprised to learn that girl's played video games too, but then again living in the ocean a lot of things were still new to her.

"Most of these titles though aren't from here." Lonnie told the mermaid girl. "We were able to get them from our ranger friends from Earth." She had picked up one of them. "Amber says she likes this one, it's called Smash Brothers Brawl."

"Ooh, what's that?" Amy asked as she pointed to a small yellow mouse looking one. "That one is cute."

Melody looked in the book that came with it. "The game calls it a Pikachu." She told her friend.

"Oh I wish that were real." Amy said as she tried to look at Mal. "That one looks so cuddly."

Mal had to roll her eyes in amusement. "They have video games like that and they're a thriving society." She said with amusement. "How is that possible?"

"Actually I wouldn't entirely discount these." Lonnie advised her purple haired friend. "Karone has told me some of the video games out there have a disturbing tendency to have truth to them. She even said the first hint of the demons that spawned the Maledict blade was from a video game."

"Also, I should just point out that as far as the majority of their world is concerned we're all just stories." Jordan added with a laugh. "Or more accurately our parents are. We probably don't even exist as far as that goes."

"You know Mal, I never really put too much stock into what mom said." Amy said to her sister. "But since this all started there is one thing I remember she said a few times that I'm starting to think she might have been right about."

"What's that?" Mal asked her, curious. She had once put stock in a lot of what her mother said but knew that Amy almost never did. Now after being in Auradon and being good she couldn't imagine what Amy would possibly take away from her life on the isle that would be something she believed in.

"I remember mom telling us that all the stories are true." Amy replied. She also looked at the other girls in the room. "Regardless of how far-fetched, or how gruesome, or how grim they were, they were all true."

"Grandfather says the same thing, or near enough to it." Aquiella said. "A story has to have some basis in reality or it would never have become a story."

"Mom said that to me too." Melody said. "She probably learned that from her dad."

"Your grandfather." Evie filled in. "So yeah, probably."

"Well enough of that." Miranda said. She too had been left with that impression from her mother and grandparents. "We're doing this to have some fun, so let's get focus on that tonight." She reached for the game pamphlet Melody held. "Let's see what character looks good to play."

The six guys paired into two teams. Jay and Ben were the first one, a natural idea since they had been hanging out a lot since learning about Audrey. Will teamed up with Carlos while Aziz teamed with Alex. For what seemed like hours they played Mario Kart Double Dash and quickly learned why it was called that as two players could work on one kart, one player driving while the other used items that were gotten along the way and they could switch places at any time in the race.

After the first few courses they took a break to get something to drink and snack on some chips. "So what's the big secret been tonight guys?" Carlos asked Jay and Ben.

The two exchanged looks. "Something Audrey told us." Jay answered. "We're still trying to figure out how to deal with it."

"Is there a problem?" Will asked them curiously. Out of the four remaining guys Will was arguably the most receptive. It didn't hurt that Lonnie had known something was up too and the two of them had speculated a bit over dinner that night. They had been sure Chad had something to do with it, but they weren't sure about the details.

Aziz stood up to grab another can of Pepsi and then he felt kind of dizzy. He placed his hands on the counter and then heard a large thumping sound behind him. It confused him at first because nothing should have made that loud of a noise alone in there…unless it wasn't one but a group. He turned to find that the other five boys had hit the ground unconscious. "What the hell?" He asked, though his voice came out kind of tinny.

"I didn't want them ruining the fun." Aziz turned to see Marcellus leaning against the doorway casually. "So I knocked them out with a little spell." He snapped his fingers and five Mamluk's appeared in front of him. He pointed to the five boys and laughed a little. "I see my little spell didn't exactly leave you untouched either."

"What do you want?" Aziz asked as he shook his head to force off the effect of whatever he had done. "What did you do to them?"

"Just a little knockout spell." Marcellus answered and the Mamluk's reached for the boys. Aziz started to spring into action but with a casual wave of his gloved hand Aziz fell to the floor. "Don't worry about your little friends. They won't be harmed; I'm just having them bound in case they wake up. I don't want them to ruin the fun."

"What are going on about?" Aziz snapped.

"You know, our father's had quite a few battles in their times." Marcellus explained casually. "But the truth is the biggest advantage your father had that mine could never overcome was his genie." He started into the room. "And I see you don't have your genie either."

Aziz let out a derisive laugh. "Jordan is no one's genie." He retorted. He and Ally had had a conversation about that recently and none of them could ever see her having a master as most genies tended to do. The thought kind of made both of them feel kind of sick. "And I don't need her to beat you anyway."

"Ironic actually." Marcellus said with a small laugh. "Because that is exactly why I'm here." He stood only feet across from Aziz. "You're going to prove that you don't need a genie's powers to beat me. If you fail, you and your friends will pay with their lives." He formed a dark scimitar in his hands.

"You know that the girls aren't that far away." Aziz warned as he reached for his iPhone. "This battle won't go on unnoticed."

"I know." Marcellus replied. "But the girls won't be able to do much themselves."

As their session progressed Mal was sure that Amy would have loved to have a Pikachu of her own if it was a real animal. The purple haired girl spent most of the time munching on strawberries as the others played. It wasn't that she wasn't interested, in a way she was. But she had another problem on her mind. She kept trying to figure out how they could get Chad off of Audrey's trail.

Audrey too couldn't get her mind off of ideas to get rid of Chad. Even Mal, Amy and Evie didn't know how much his actions were scaring her. She feared nothing they would do could keep her safe from Chad. He seemed to be that determined to get to her.

She looked out the window, surprised that night had fallen so quickly. She glanced down at her iPhone to confirm the time. It was amazing how quickly time was going tonight. She thought it might have something to do with the company she kept. Despite being rather popular she never felt that many people were with her when they were around her. The idea of soaking in the rays of the sun came to her mind. Before this Lonnie was the only one she really thought of as a true friend, aside from Ben and Chad back in the day. Now she was surrounded by people she knew were her friends.

She heard what sounded like scratching at the door. She turned as did the other girls. Then she noticed that each of them seemed to fall to the ground. She stumbled herself as she moved to the nearest one, which happened to be Jane, and found that she was breathing but unconscious. "What just happened?" She asked herself.

"I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to make sure we were alone." She heard Chad say and looked up with a gasp of shock and even a little fear. He wasn't transformed but he had the Maledict blade in his right hand. "I wanted to finally show you your place and I didn't want anyone getting in the way."

Audrey rose and was able to grab her iPhone. "You won't be showing me anything Chad." She replied grimly. She was almost sure he still had to have detected the fear in her voice.

If he did he didn't mention it. "I have a lot I look forward to showing you my love." He said and the affectation made her shudder in revulsion. "But please, feel free to try to resist me. It's futile, but welcome."

Audrey input her numbers 4342 into her iPhone and transformed into the red ranger. For a moment she wished she was like a lot of the other red rangers she had read about, one who had access to some kind of battlizer power up. However since she did not she let the thought go. There was nothing she could do about it now.

Chad didn't even bother to transform and for a moment that honestly pissed Audrey off. Here she was doing everything in her power to try to protect herself from him and try to defeat him and he was treating this like a game. Granted, it occurred to her the attitude he had been displaying to about her was little more than that of a toy, but it still angered her. She drew her elemental bow and swung at him. He blocked it with his blade and tried to bring it down on her. She blocked it with her bow but he pushed her away with the strike.

"Ah don't take this so personally Audrey." Chad said with a derisive laugh. "Worry about what I want you to take."

She shuddered. "That is just wrong Chad." The brunette princess stated. "I never knew you had such an ugly one track mind."

"You never knew anything Audrey." Chad said with a dismissive wave as he moved his blade in between his hands idly. "You've always been so self-centered and self-absorbed, never worrying about anything beyond what you wanted. I've always wanted you Audrey."

Audrey thought for just a moment. She knew he was right, she had spent most of her life not looking beyond herself. But she already knew one thing. "That doesn't matter Chad." She said to him softly. "Ben said he loved me, I said I loved him. We were doing what we thought had to be done. Jay says he loves me, and I can only hope that's true." She started to pace him away. "You didn't say that you've always loved me."

"I just did." Chad said angrily.

"No." Audrey shook her head. "You said you've always wanted me. Wanting is not the same thing as loving. Wanting says that you have this belief that I should belong to you, and that's not how a relationship should work."

Chad lashed out at her and she blocked it with her own elemental bow. "I don't know how things went so wrong. I look at your mother, who grew up a peasant, and she's one the kindest people I've ever met. Callie seems to take after her. But you…you've turned out to be even worse than her step-family." Audrey said. "Since there was no apple to fall from the tree in this case, I can't imagine how that happens."

Aziz input his numbers, 6752 and transformed. He raised his spiral spear and charged at Marcellus. He raised the black scimitar and caught the attack. The silver ranger lashed out and kicked the magician in the chest hard. He fell back but didn't stay down.

"You're trying to prove that you're better than me?" Aziz asked. "Or do you somehow have it in your head that if you manage to beat me that means your father is better than mine?" he shook his head. "Either way it seems to me to be like bordering on a losing proposition."

"You're entitled to your opinion there." Marcellus said to him. "I don't care about what my father could or couldn't get done. This is about me. And I already know I'm better than you." He shot a bolt of magic out at him and he dodged to the side.

"Validation." Aziz said with a small nod. "I approve."

"I suggest you don't mock me." Marcellus warned him.

"Hey, I'm not." Aziz assured him. Actually it was partly a lie because he was kind of mocking him but through it all there was one point he could get behind. "This is about you, which is better than the motives I've seen from your little group lately. I mean Chad's doing what he does because he hates the isle kids and he's obsessed with owning Audrey. Gregory seems to want to own Amy, or at least put his brother into a position to own her. Not sure what Undine wants, but she seems to have it out for Melody, I can only assume in a different way than Chad and Gregory would. But you just want to prove your self-worth. It's a bit more noble."

"I suppose your opinion would change if I said I was going to claim Ally when this is over." He saw the tension in the silver ranger's body and he laughed. "Not to worry. I would much prefer a stronger woman than one so weak and feeble like her. When I defeat you I can easily find someone who will appreciate this victory. But anything to get under your skin surely works in my favor."

"Well now that we've established your only a half jerk instead of a complete jerk, we can get move this battle right along." Aziz commented dryly. He moved in and tried to jab Marcellus but he blocked the attack and then shot a bolt of magic at him. He raised his spear to block the attack, which worked but it was shot out of his hand.

The good news was that the shot impaled the Mamluk holding onto Ben. The unconscious young king fell to the ground in a awkward lump but at least had the chance to be free if the chance arose. The bad news was that Aziz was now weaponless.

"Nice shot." Marcellus noted. "Too bad that I can always make more of these." He then shot Aziz hard point blank with a spring of magic. The silver ranger fell back and slammed into the wall hard. For a moment his sight went black on him and by the time he was shaking off the haze he found Marcellus in front of him. He placed the dark scimitar under his chin. "Looks like this game is over. I take your head, and then I take theirs."

"You call me a disappointment to my parents." Chad noted so casually Audrey almost suspected that he didn't even care. "But look at you. You had to become a power ranger before you really changed your tune. You don't think Aurora wished you were more like her, the loving and respectful young lady instead of some selfish, spoiled, self-absorbed little brat?" With the room darkened to almost pitch blackness.

"What's going on?" Audrey asked.

Chad spoke again, and yet this time there seemed to be something more. Something stronger. Something darker. "You speak of things you don't understand little girl. You speak of things that something that you yourself barely comprehend." It all but boomed. She felt herself shaking slightly in terror and had a feeling it had nothing to do with Chad or the words, but something more primal.

Audrey jumped as she heard wailing behind her. She turned to see nothing. Then she heard incoherent whispering all about her. "Feel as if you're losing your mind yet little girl?" The same voice asked her. "This is the true extent of awaits you when I finally claim you." There was booming laughter. "The physical pain I will put your body through will actually pale in comparison to the pain that will be placed on your mind and soul."

With that the lights returned to normal. Chad was in front of her and he swatted her elemental bow aside. Then his blade shot down and slashed her hard from her chest on down. She fell to the floor hard and found that she had been forced to power down. She glanced up to find Chad over her.

"What was that?" She asked, she couldn't stop her voice from trembling. "What did you do to my friends?"

"That was the beginnings of the demon's rise." Chad answered, though now he sounded completely normal. He placed the blade on Audrey's chest, he looked as if he were ready to cut her blouse in half. "Your friends are out, I released a certain mist that put all of them to sleep, the ironic thing is that you can thank the fact they all have gems on them for that. They will not wake until I am gone." His foot moved in between her legs to brush her. "Now then, I think it's time to get to the fun part of this." His blade cut into the very top of her blouse.

Marcellus had brought his dark scimitar halfway down to Aziz's head when there was a loud clanging sound. "What? That's not possible." The magician growled. The silver ranger looked to see that the Praeleanthor sword had blocked the strike…but no one was there to hold the blade.

"Wow, no way." Aziz said to himself. As grateful as he was even he knew that shouldn't have been possible."

 _The Evil is among us._ Aziz was shocked to hear from the Praeleanthor weapon. _Use us to smite these fiends down so that we may attend to our foes and relieve your friends._ With great care he took up Ben's weapon, feeling the power that both Ben and Amy had spoken of. He stood up and tried to slash Marcellus. The man backed up but that was what he had wanted. He threw the sword and it twirled around, decapitating each of the Mamluk's. Their bodies fell to the ground and then dissolved as well. It reflected back, chopping the dark scimitar in half before he caught it.

"Still want to play?" Aziz asked him as he raised the blade, battle ready. The edge of the unique weapon shone in the light.

Marcellus glared at him angrily. "You won, without a genie. Kudos, but this test will only lead to something greater." With that he vanished in a swirl of black sand.

He ran over to the other five guys as they were waking up and he helped untie them. Then he looked to the young king. "I think this belongs to you." He said.

"What happened?" Ben asked as he took back his weapon.

Aziz gave them a very quick rundown of Marcellus's test and then got to the heart of the matter. "That sword said that the evil was here. And that we need to go help our friends."

The boys got up quickly and left the room they had borrowed for their party.

Chad had just stopped to run the blade over the lacy top of Audrey's bra when he felt something sharp slash his arm. He fell back hard to find himself face to face with a girl he didn't know.

Audrey looked up. Aquiella didn't look at her though as she glared at Chad, holding the trident that Melody normally used as a weapon. "Would you like to know where you're twisted little plan went wrong?" She asked the prince sharply.

"No, no it's impossible." Chad stated angrily. "All the rangers should have been down except her." He pointed the blade at Audrey, who was just starting to bring her legs closer against her body and trying to readjust her slightly ruined blouse.

"Ah, but that was your first mistake." Aquiella said to him as she paced him, swirling the trident in her elegant hands. "I am not a power ranger."

"There are so many of you little brats." Chad spat. He couldn't keep track of who was who around them. "But you were unconscious, I saw it."

"A blunder on my part, not yours." Aquiella said sharply. She was more angry at herself for that one. "I fell with my cousin, but sadly I'm not as adept to human legs as she is. I didn't brace myself and knocked myself out." She rubbed her head a bit with her free hand. "Going to leave a bruise tomorrow."

"But you were OUT!" He all but screamed at her.

"That was what roused me." Aquiella shot back. "The loud, booming voice that seems to think it's in command. The wailing like some underwater banshee and the incoherent whispers." She was overplaying that one and she knew it. Her empathic powers had never functioned without some kind of water access, until now. Whatever it was behind that display was strong enough to force her powers to work. She had woken and saw the position Chad had Audrey in and had borrowed the trident. Although the aqua stone on the end was Melody's and couldn't be used by anyone else, the trident itself was as much her birthright as it was Melody's or any of their relatives. And she needed the weapon if she was going to drive him off.

Chad glared hatefully at her. He was tired of everything getting in the way of his taking Audrey. He lashed his blade at her and she deflected it with the trident. She lashed out a surprisingly strong kick considering she had never done anything like that before and it sent him sprawling backwards. She moved in to stab him with the trident but he dodged it, not wanting to take the trident in the gut.

Then the door burst open and the six guys entered. Ben moved in to slash at Chad even as Jay saw the condition Audrey was in. Faced with two opponents right now and more potential Chad vanished.

In this case Chad's word was right though. The instant he vanished the girl's stirred and moaned a little. Even as Mal was checking on her twin sister Ben was over by Mal, leaning down next to her and checking on her.

Aquiella knelt down next to Melody and started to tell her what had happened as she returned the trident and the aqua gem to her cousin.

Will briefly checked on Lonnie but the Asian princess quickly assured him she was alright so they could check on the other girls.

Carlos checked on Jane who did the same thing Lonnie had before the two of them checked on the others.

Aziz went over to check on Ally and Jordan. They both seemed to be okay and he started to tell the two girls what had happened. He had to make sure Ally knew what was going on and something about Marcellus's approach and unnerved him, he thought that Jordan should be aware of what had happened.

Jay approached Audrey. "Are you okay?" He asked her though it seemed to be a formality as he could see half of her blouse was cut up. He reached out to stroke her hair softly and she threw her arms around him and started to cry. He could hear the others starting to approach them.

"Someone want to tell us what happened?" Mal asked as she knelt beside Audrey. Amy reached over and wrapped her arms around Audrey's waist, the only part of the brunette princess that she could get around.

Aquiella explained what she could though Audrey was the one who had the most idea of what happened. She clearly was not ready to speak about it at the moment. Aziz told them what had happened with Marcellus as well.

"I kind of remember reading that Mozenwrath seemed pretty obsessed with power." Jane said. "Logically he might want that from Jordan."

"Over Chad's dead body." The genie girl said huffily.

"Melody, I need to go back to the sea." Aquiella announced. "I have to talk to my mother and grandfather."

Melody nodded. "Okay, let's get outside and I'll return your tail to you." She said.

"No one goes anywhere alone." Mal interrupted. She looked to Will and Lonnie. "Can you guys go with Melody and Aquiella?"

"Of course." Lonnie said and Will also nodded in agreement.

"What do we do now Mal?" Ben asked as he took her hand. "Even splitting up we've hit a huge wall thanks to Marcellus and Chad."

"I don't know what we do in the long run." Mal confessed to Ben. "But right now, I think we should all stay together. I think it's safe to say that any worries about interaction is basically nonexistent."

"I think you're right." Ben agreed as he hugged Mal against him gently. "Man, I can't believe they're still trying to do all of this. We have to find a way to stop them once and for all."

Aquiella lowered herself in the ocean and Melody used the trident to return her tail to her. "Will we see you tomorrow before we leave?" She asked her cousin.

"Count on it." The mermaid girl responded before waving to the three of them and diving into the water.

"When was the last time you saw her before today?" Will asked Melody quietly.

"A few years ago." Melody answered. "I'm hoping it won't be another three years before I see her again." With that the three of them started back into the castle. "I guess we should find something to watch then."

"How are you doing?" Mal asked Audrey as she looked up. She had a few tears still streaming down her face but she had managed to regain control over her emotions.

"We're not going to be able to stop him, are we?" Audrey asked in a resigned voice. In her mind she saw him towering over her, slicing her blouse and brushing her with his foot.

"Oh, we're going to stop him alright." Mal promised. She just wish she knew how.

Jane moved to the side and grabbed her iPhone. She texted her mother to tell her what had happened and ask what they could further do to mitigate the situation.

"We're all staying here tonight." Jay said to Audrey. "I want to say you'll be safe but I don't want to be wrong about that. But we're going to try."

Audrey leaned her head up and kissed Jay on the lips softly. She didn't think the kiss had lasted that long but when she had pulled back Melody, Will and Lonnie had come back into the room. She looked around at her team mates. "So, I guess we should find something to watch." She said.

"I thought we were watching the floor show." Carlos said and then ducked as Jay threw an empty strawberry soda can at him.

"We'll find something." Evie promised as she moved over to the DVD case. She hoped they could at least pass the night without any further problems.


	86. Return Voyage

As early morning sat in, Jordan was by the window looking out toward the sea. Everyone else had fallen asleep. The back of Mal's head was fit snugly up against Ben's outstretched arm even as she had her own arm around her twin sister. Sometime during the night she had seemed to start having a nightmare and Mal had instinctively moved to comfort her. Jordan kind of envied that bond. Amy's head however was against Alex's chest, as if his heartbeat had helped her to fall back asleep. Ellie slept not too far away from them.

Evie and Doug were lying next to each other asleep. They had gotten kind of bored with the movie and had been talking quietly about something involving chemistry.

Audrey had her hand on top of Jay's chest near his heart and her head on his upper arm as she slept. He had an around her waist as if holding her close and trying to protect her all at the same time.

Lonnie had her back to Will, her head on his arm. He was next to her, his free arm around her waist. Her hand was even over his.

Ally and Aziz were on one of the couches, he was holding the British blonde tightly against his body.

A couple of the castle cleaners entered and gasped at what they saw. Right behind them was Belle. Jordan looked at them, annoyed to see the looks on their two faces. Belle didn't seem upset though, but she was worried since this had not been the idea. She feared something had happened. "Nothing happened with anyone." Jordan snapped at the two and then looked to Belle, her voice going softer. "We had a couple of attacks. It did a number on Audrey, and it was kind of bizarre in general."

"Is everyone alright? Where is Aquiella?" Belle asked as she edged her way in. She was glad to see that Ben and the twins seemed to be okay.

"Aquiella went back to the sea." Jordan said, her voice somewhere between disappointment and bitterness. "I guess she couldn't handle being around us."

"I'm sure that's not true." Belle said to her. "There's no way I could believe that after what she did for us yesterday afternoon." She looked around. "What happened to Aziz?" She asked.

"Marcellus orchestrated an attack on him." Jordan answered. "Wanting to prove he was better than his father by beating his father's son." She didn't want to mention his reference to doing that without Aziz having his genie, i.e. herself. Somehow it just seemed to personal. "Chad knocked us out and attacked Audrey. Something about doing it with our gems. Aquiella defended her until the guys showed up and then Chad ran."

"Does that sound like someone who can't handle being around you guys?" Belle asked the genie girl wryly.

Jordan sighed. "No." She conceded. She would never admit how cynical she often came across. "I just don't understand why she left then."

Amy woke up and saw Belle. She smiled softly though she was barely cognizant. "Hi." She said softly.

"Good morning Amy." Belle said as she leaned down to her. "I heard some of you had an interesting adventure."

Amy nodded. "Yeah. It was a nightmare." She said. She shook her head. "I was able to read Aquiella before she left. Chad did something that spooked her, it was related to Maledict's blade."

One of the servants accidently dropped a tray and the team woke with a start. Even as Ben scrambled to protect Mal, the purple haired girl was getting ready to fight. So were Lonnie, Will, Aziz, Miranda and Jay. The others were more cautious but still ready, even Audrey.

The noise also drew in Jasmine, Ariel, Aurora and Snow White. No one seemed to disturbed to see the team in the same room, clearly having slept in the same place. Aurora however saw something in her daughter's eyes and she came over to Audrey.

"Sweetie, what happened?" Aurora asked her softly.

Audrey bit her lip but Jay answered for her. "It was Chad. He found a way to attack her again." He was clearly angry with himself over it, no doubt part of the reason they stayed together after all last night.

"Oh baby." Aurora said and hugged her daughter tightly. Audrey clung to her mother, doing everything she could not to cry again. She knew right now it wouldn't help.

"Is everyone else alright?" Ariel asked.

Aziz stretched a little. "I had a bit of a run in with Marcellus." He told his mom. "He's sure like his dad alright. But I'm okay, thanks to that Praeleanthor sword of Ben's. Came alive to help me get rid of him and come to the girls."

Ariel came over to Melody and touched her arm. She was glad though when her daughter looked at her and didn't seem any worse off. "They're making breakfast." Ariel said to them. "I figured we could eat out on the beach."

"Sounds neat." Mal said as she took Ben's offered hand and placed it on her own arm. "We'll get cleaned up and come right out."

About twenty minutes later they had come out, refreshed and ready. Audrey smiled a bit as the sun hit her face and arms and she took a deep breath of the fresh ocean air. Jay smiled and lifted her by the waist gently. "Try to catch the sun." He said teasingly.

"You are such a dork." Audrey said with a laugh as he set her down on the ground again. She turned around and kissed him on the lips softly.

"Race you to the tables?" Melody asked Amy and Alex.

"Sure." Alex said with a smile.

"You're on." Amy said. Together the three of them started to race to the table. Mal and Ellie couldn't help but laugh a bit at their younger relatives even as the purple haired girl laid her head on Ben's shoulder as they walked to the tables.

"It really is very nice out here." Miranda noted. "I kind of wish Auradon Prep was closer to the sea."

"You might not feel that way if we were here long enough for a storm." Carlos said with a laugh. "Then we might look like drowned rats. And you don't need the help." He added with a snicker as Miranda's hair was very much like her mother's.

"Better than looking like a drowned rat all the time." Jordan said and snickered. She and Miranda exchanged high fives and at Carlos's mock petulant pout they both patted his shoulders reassuringly. "Still, better not pull the drowned rat thing around my dad, my aunt and my uncle."

"Ye have…" Miranda started and then realized what she meant. "Ah, ye mean Sultan Aladdin and Queen Jasmine. Still, why is that? Is it because of how Aladdin grew up?" She asked.

Jordan shook her head. "Nope, it's not about that. But I never figured out what the reason is."

Turned out the Alex won the race. Melody got second and Amy was the last. Not that the rose haired girl expected to win, in fact she rather hated that kind of activity, but she had no problem having fun with her friends. When she reached the table Alex lifted her up by the waist and spun her a moment before sitting her down again. They both laughed.

"I'm glad to see Amy is enjoying herself and making friends." Ben said to Mal as they both sat down. He kissed her hand gently.

Mal felt a small blush on her cheeks. "Me too." She replied. "Evie, Jay and Carlos are her friends too of course, but she met them through me. I'm glad to see her forging her own separate friendships too."

They had just sat down to breakfast when Aquiella surfaced from the water. In the morning light, the water rushing around her, sparkling off her skin and hair, she looked truly beautiful. Melody smiled happily at her. "Come to have breakfast and say goodbye?" She asked, glad to see her cousin one last time.

"Something like that." Aquiella said as she adjust her tail to sit more comfortably. "I did come to see you and have a bite to eat." They were close enough that she could grab a half bagel and some cream cheese. "But actually, I want to ask if I can return with you guys and enroll in Auradon Prep?"

Jordan was able to hide her surprise but that was not what she expected to hear.

"Are Aunt Arista and granddad okay with that?" Melody asked her.

"They've given me permission." Aquiella said. "I don't know how happy mom is but she approves of it professionally."

"It's not easy to let your daughter go off like that." Ariel said matter of factly as she stroked Melody's hair. "But sometimes it's what must be, especially if that is what she wants."

"Why do you want to come with us?" Ally asked her curiously.

"I want to help." Aquiella said simply. She looked to Audrey. "I want to help stop Chad, not just what he's doing to you as cruel as that is on its own but…" She looked to the ocean. "You didn't see it, you didn't hear it, the forces that made that weapon of his has to be stopped and you're going to need everyone you can get."

"I did see it. I did hear it." Audrey said to her and then looked to them. "She's right, we need the help. Chad might not be the only one who can access that stuff." She looked to the mermaid girl. "And you did help me. I…I need all of that that I can get." She conceded softly. Jay kissed her cheek softly as Evie reached over and squeezed her hand softly.

"I want her to come along." Melody said. "Me too." Amy added.

Ben looked at Mal and laughed a little. He had no intention of turning her away and doubted anyone else would either. Still, both Audrey and Amy wanted her along and to Ben that said something since they were still in the early stages of their friendship. "I don't see Fairy Godmother having a problem with it." He said.

Melody laughed and sat in the waves with her cousin. "I'm glad we'll be together." She said as she wrapped her arms around her cousin.

"Me too." Aquiella said as she hugged her back. "But, can I keep my tail until we get ready to leave?" She requested. "Something tells me I may not be like this for a long time."

"Sure." Melody said with a laugh. "No problem."

"So how can you help?" Aziz asked her curiously. "You find any powers we don't know about or are you going to be a command center player like Doug?" He poked his friend good naturedly, who ignored the friendly jibe as he handed Evie a couple pieces of toast.

"I'd like to get powers if I can. The next time they come up." Aquiella said.

"I think all that's left is the gray ranger powers." Audrey said to her. "And I don't see you in gray, no offense."

"Actually that's not true." Jane said now. "Remember a while ago when we were looking to make a new ranger power, we got the perfect gem from the dwarves," She looked to Snow White with a small smile of appreciation. "But after we weren't able to make the an aqua color for now obvious reasons we hadn't been able to get back to it." She looked to Aquiella. "Until now. We manufactured an orange ranger power, and I think we can give it to you when we get back to Auradon Prep."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Belle said as she remembered what she had done when they had retrieved the ultrazord. She had used helped them fight off the Neptune team and she had saved Belle from taking a rather bad tumble off of a waterfall.

Eric went in and got one of his jackets for Aquiella to use as cover once breakfast was over and Melody returned her legs to her. Melody and Ariel took her into the castle and about ten minutes later they came out with Aquiella ready to go. With a last longing look at the ocean the mermaid girl followed her new friends into the limo that would take them back to Auradon.

"Are you sure you want to come with us?" Amy asked as she had seen the way Aquiella had looked to the ocean.

"I'm sure." Aquiella promised her. "I want to do this. It's just not usually easy to say goodbye to the things you love and grew up around." Amy nodded; on a practical level she understood that. On an emotional level except for her sister and their friends, she had never known that feeling.

"When we return to Auradon my mother should have your iPhone and powers waiting for you." Jane said to the mermaid girl as she leaned back against her seat, her shoulder brushing up against Carlos's. "And mom says she wants you to enroll in the magic class."

"Makes sense." Amy said. "And maybe you can help me with my water power, like I help Alex with his fire power."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Aquiella said.

The drive home started out normally enough but they had all though that on the way home too and hence they weren't planning on letting their guard down. Sure enough about halfway to Auradon Amy and Aquiella exchanged glances and the mermaid girl called out, "Stop here." They did as they were asked and the team filed out of the limo.

"Oh come on, I was hoping for a more explosive interest than that." Said a large almost raven like creature in armor. The left wing was coated in the same kind of armor even as the right one appeared to lack the protection. He swirled around the sword. "Who decided to ruin my fun?"

"We would prefer not to have our ride smashed in, thank you very much." Mal said to the bird monster. "Why don't you fly back to your little nest before we put you out to pasture?"

"You put cows out to pasture, not birds." Lonnie pointed out.

"Oh, whatever." Mal replied.

"Yeah, not the point." The bird monster agreed and raised its armored wing and shot laser beams out at the rangers. "I'm not going anywhere anyway."

"Let's get to work." Mal said. Ben, Melody and Jane pulled out their items while the rest of the team pulled out their iPhones and input their numbers. They all transformed. Aquiella had to return to the limo though she still watched the battle. She'd be doing this soon enough after all.

The bird monster flew up and the dove straight at them, Ally in this case. They all dodged the attack only to find themselves surrounded by soldiers. They moved in to attack the team. "Oh, shoot." Carlos gasped as he barely dodged a blade descending toward his head.

Audrey kicked one of the soldiers back and then turned to the bird monster, which was now up in the trees somewhere. They could hear it laughing as it moved through the branches.

Amy watched the direction that the monster seemed to be traveling and unleashed a small earthquake toward the tree that he was heading to. He let out a small squawk as he lost his balance but even as he fell he recovered quickly enough to bring his feet hard into Amy's chest. "Nice try little girl." He said.

Two flaming tonfa's almost struck him but he used his sword to block the attack. He then turned to the fire knight and slammed his beak hard into Alex's chest, sending him flying backwards.

"We have to get rid of these guys and regroup." Jay said. "That way we can take the bird monster down." He slashed his soul scimitar hard enough to knock out two of the soldiers.

"Too bad it's easier said than done." Carlos noted as she dodged under a soldier's attack, then got back onto his feet and then sent it flying with a hard roundhouse kick.

Lonnie jumped over a charging soldier and then planted her feet against a tree before launching herself at the bird monster. She slammed into his body hard and the two fell a bit roughly, the pink ranger taking a bit more of the impact.

Just as the bird monster looked down on the stunned pink ranger Will moved in and slashed him across the unarmored wing hard with his recursive sword. "Whatever you're thinking can just go back in the box." The green ranger stated.

"Whatever do you mean?" The monster asked with seemingly perfect innocence before raising the armored wing and unleashing a blast of energy at the green ranger. He then tried to bring the sword down on him but Miranda was now in front, blocking the strike with her own grizzly blades and then kicked him back.

"I think it's time we turned ye into chicken dinner for the wolves to eat." Miranda said to him. He swung his sword at her and she dodged out of the way and then kicked him in the chest hard. Then Melody was behind her and slashed the monster herself.

Aquiella watched the fight and wondered where the soldiers were coming from. They might be overwhelmed by sheer numbers alone, like a tidal wave…she gasped and looked to the coast, where they had been going along the whole way to Auradon. "Amy!" She called out to the rose ranger. "Please, come here."

She nodded, rolling out of the way of a soldier who was slashing at her already. She made her way to Aquiella. "Is everything okay over here?" She asked, concerned for the adults, especially Belle.

"Everyone is fine." Aquiella replied. "But we need to clear out these soldiers so that you can take out the bird brain."

"Sounds good." Amy said to her. "How do we do that?"

"We combine our powers." Aquiella said to her as she nodded toward the coast. "We bring a tidal wave strong enough to wipe out the soldiers." She looked to the ranger's and the monster. "Hopefully we can take out the monster too; if not you guys can take care of it."

Amy now caught onto the mermaid girl's plan. "You can use your powers to protect the limo and everyone inside it too, while I use my powers to protect the rangers." Aquiella nodded in agreement. "Okay, close the door. Wait for my signal and then we can unleash the wave." With that Amy started back toward the battle.

She touched her sister's arm. "Time for a round up." She said to Mal. She nodded and raised her hand, waving her pointer finger in a small circular motion. They couldn't really respond but they all knew what it meant and started to their location.

A group of them tried to cut off Audrey and she let out a small shriek, almost fearful they were trying to take her to Chad or at least isolate her so he could hurt her.

Ben slashed down two soldiers and then heard, _Use us!_ From inside his head and he knew it was the Praeleanthor sword. He tossed it like a boomerang and smaller blades unfurled as it struck the soldiers trying to cut off his best friend. He then caught the sword on its return, followed by Audrey.

"We definitely have to thank Amber and the others again for that little treasure." Audrey noted.

Ben nodded. "No argument here." He replied.

Jay reached out to Audrey, who hugged the black ranger briefly in assurance, as much for herself as him. She then looked to Mal. "Okay, so what's the plan?" She asked.

"I don't know." Mal told her simply and looked to Amy. "We're all here; it's your show sis."

Amy projected _We're together, let's bring the flood._ She instantly heard Aquiella, _Bubble up Amy._ The rose ranger decided that was actually a good idea and she first summoned a rush of water to envelope them. "Ah, not again." Carlos groused as he thought of the last time they had been enveloped in a bubble, by Undine's Frog Borg.

"No, it's okay." Mal said. "This is all Amy."

Aquiella did the same thing around the limo and then both girls focused on the ocean along the coast. Amy knew she couldn't have done it on her own; she was again impressed by Aquiella's control over water. But she could feel her own magical energy reinforcing the mermaid girl's so that way she didn't overwhelm herself.

The ocean's roar was the first indication something was different. The soldiers and the bird monster turned. With another squawk he took to the skies even as the huge wave splashed over the area and swept the soldiers away and dousing anything in its path except for the bubble protected limo and ranger team.

"Great job little sister." Mal said as she hugged her gently.

Amy shook her head. "It was Aquiella's idea." She said with a smile at Melody. "She deserves most of the credit."

"Hey, that wasn't fair." The bird monster protested as he landed.

Amy let the bubble around them dissolve. "Hey, we just thought we should have a fresh start." Jordan said to him. "And what's better than an ocean fresh one?"

"Let's cook this bird M." Evie said.

Mal nodded. "Time for the Auradon Launcher." She said.

The purple ranger took a step back. The others took positions in front of her and formed the Auradon Launcher. They took hold of the large weapon and channeled their energies into it before unleashing a huge blast of energy at the monster, destroying it.

"Nice to have a simple one after all this time." Aziz said as the weapons vanished. "That demon thing with Chad and the others nearly crushed us if not for the ultrazord's discovery."

"To say nothing about what he and Marcellus almost did to us last night." Audrey added. No one needed to point out the obvious; that what Chad had had in store for Audrey was much worse than anything Marcellus could have planned for Aziz.

The team powered down and Aquiella came of the limo to be greeted by Melody with a happy hug. "You are definitely fit to be one of us." She declared happily.

Jordan laughed. "I was wrong about you." She admitted to the mermaid girl before she could stop herself. "I thought maybe finding out who we were last night might have overwhelmed you, not everyone can handle this." The genie girl placed her hand on her shoulder. "You've already done so much to help us out here. You remind me of what I saw that motivated me to start doing my best here."

"What was that?" Aquiella asked her.

"I saw Ally and Aziz trying to protect the innocent students of the school during an attack." Jordan said. "Before they had powers or knew what was going on. I had just learned what was going on and I had said I would help if need be but I didn't want to get involved…" She laughed a bit. "Seeing them do what they did selflessly and for no better reason than because it was right. I had to change my mind."

"We're all very glad that you changed your mind too." Mal said to Jordan with a smile.

"I know I am." Aziz said with a smile. "You know, our parents are best friends and we grew up together but we never got along. But this," he touched his iPhone. "This is what made us come to get to know and accept each other."

Melody smiled at Aquiella. "And we actually like each other. Imagine what it will do for us." She said with a giggle.

"I don't have to imagine it." Mal said as she hugged her sister. "I already know."

Together they headed toward the limo and got inside. They were relieved to see Belle, Snow White, and everyone else okay. "That wasn't too tough." Doug noted.

"We've had far worse." Evie agreed with a laugh

Ben looked to Belle. "So mom, want to be a power ranger?" He asked jokingly.

She laughed as she wrapped one arm around her son and the other around Amy. "I think I've had enough adventure for a while." She said to them all as she smiled at Mal now. "I think it's best if I just stick to my books for the time being."

"I think it works better that way too, no offense." Mal said to her.

"Man, I never thought I'd say this but I think I'm getting too old to be doing that kind of thing." Jasmine said as she patted her son's hand gently.

"Funny, I thought the same thing too when we went into the land of the black sands." Aladdin replied. "Genie will be so disappointed to hear us say this."

"Well don't think of retirement just yet." Mal said to them. "Seriously, it's probably better that we handle this kind of thing but you never know if there will be a time that you guys might have to step up to give us a hand after all."

"Mal may be right." Miranda agreed with a small laugh. "We may be writing our own stories after all, but it all starts with the legacy that all of our parents and family have left us with."

They could see Auradon Prep only minutes away from there. Jane couldn't wait to see her mother and neither of them could wait to add Aquiella to their team.


	87. Turning Up the Heat Part 1

They had just gotten out of the limo when Aladdin and Jasmine announced they had to go bac to Agrabah. Aziz, Ally and Jordan decided they wanted to take them to the boat that would take them home. Jay said his good byes and was surprised when Jasmine embraced him and Aladdin clapped him on the shoulder comfortingly and told him he was proud that he was fighting alongside his son.

Elsa too to return to Arendelle and Ellie wanted to walk her mother back. Alex asked her to tell his mother he loved her and embraced his aunt.

"You don't want to go with your aunt?" Amy asked Alex curiously.

He shrugged non chalantly. "Let my cousin and my aunt have some time alone." He said. "They don't get it that often." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder affectionately and Amy didn't make any move to take that arm off of her.

Will wanted to go with his mother Wendy to pick up his little sister Whitney and walk them home. He promised to join them at the command center later. He and Lonnie exchanged soft kisses on the lips before he left.

"I do have one task that I need someone to go do." Fairy Godmother said as she approached and hugged Jane in her arms, glad to have her back and in one piece after the incident that gave them the ultrazord at a near great cost. "There's rumor of another gem in the burnt tower."

"The what?" Miranda asked.

"Ah, the burnt tower." Ben said as he held Mal's hand in one of his own. "It was supposed to be a turning point in Auradon's attempts to get those who they thought she be placed on the Isle of the lost."

"What do you mean?" Evie asked him curiously.

"The idea behind the tower was a place where one could turn themselves in willingly and there were supposed to be considerations extended for that move." Ben told them all. "But someone from the Auradon side instead tried to use it as a means to get those who did show up there and try to kill them."

"You mean burn them to death." Jay said with some disgust. "Who's idea was that?

"No, the fire was just an unintended effect, and no one knows whose idea it originally was." He looked to Lonnie. "It was your father who uncovered the treachery and was able save the people though. I think it was part of the reason they reluctantly agreed to go to the isle."

"Was this before or after my mother set her scheme into motion in Wonderland?" Mal asked. Maleficent had somehow gone to Wonderland and desecrated the very fabric of the already bizarre realm to the point where almost everything was darker and more dangerous than ever.

"Probably during." Ben guessed. "Maleficent was not going there quietly after all."

"And somehow a gem has wound up there?" Evie asked a little skeptically.

"Possibly." Fairy Godmother responded.

"Okay then." Mal said with a shrug. "I'll take Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Lonnie and we'll scope out this burnt tower." She decided. "Jane, Doug, Melody, take Aquiella to get her iPhone and her powers."

"I'll come with you guys too." Amy said.

"Me too." Alex added.

"It's not nearly as much fun but I guess I better see what I missed too." Ben said. "After all being the king of Auradon has its responsibilities."

Mal laughed. "Alright you two go ahead and take the fun route. We'll catch up with you guys at the command center, maybe with another gem in tow." She said to her twin sister and Alex.

"I'm actually going to find out what kind of school work I missed." Miranda said. "I'll meet all of ye in the command center later."

So the team split up and started on their way to their destinations. "Dad never told me about that." Lonnie remarked. "I guess maybe it was because he didn't want to paint anymore of a bad picture that the fact the Isle of the Lost exists in the first place does."

"I never heard about it either." Audrey noted. "Mom and Dad never said anything about it. I wonder if it's because they didn't know or if they felt the same way as your dad did." She glanced at Lonnie.

"You weren't the only ones in the dark." Carlos said. "We've never heard about it either, and given the hatred a lot of people on the isle have for the people of Auradon you'd think we'd have heard about it to fuel all of that propaganda."

"We would have never heard about it." Evie replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Think about it, the plot may have been orchestrated by some rogue person in Auradon but they also were saved by people from Auradon, Lonnie's father among them." She rolled her eyes. "They'd hate to admit they would have died if not for the actions of their enemies."

"Also I personally suspect they probably had a modicum of respect for the fact that they tried to do that." Mal added. "I mean, treacherous and deceitful. Describes most of the islanders to a tee."

They found their way to the burnt tower and Carlos checked his iPhone. "Looks like it's in the top floor somewhere." He said. "My guess would be that maybe someone wanted to sneak that onto the isle so they could find a way to use it themselves and dropped it in all the chaos."

"Well, I hope it's more sturdy than it look then." Evie said as she eyed a section of the floor apprehensively.

"Single file guys." Mal said. "No one stray too far from the group."

"Wow, this is so cool." Aquiella said breathily as she came down the steps, having to hold onto the railing as she was not entirely used to human legs yet. "How does all of this work?" She wondered as she glanced around.

"We can get into that later if you want." Jane said to the mermaid girl. She suspected though that she might not be quite able to understand it all. Still, she had no reason to not to try to explain it to her.

Amy and Alex sat down at the table in the corner of the command center. Usually it was pretty hard to find a spot when the entire group was there but in this case it was easy enough to do. Alex leaned back, putting his arms on the bench tops. Amy stumbled a little and ended up with her hands on his side and his head on his arm. "Sorry." She said sheepishly.

"No problem, glad I could support you." Alex said with a light and easy laugh. Amy giggled shyly, taking her hands off of him but cuddled up close to him.

Fairy Godmother took out the iPhone. They could see on the stand the gem that Snow White had given to Evie so they could make a new power, before things started getting hectic and they hadn't found a way to do so. As Jane started to place the gem into the socket of the iPhone Fairy Godmother looked to Aquiella. "Welcome to the team Aquiella." She said with a small bow. "You will work with Will, Amy, Melody, Ellie and Alex to pilot the Auradon Warzord, but on top of that you will be the only one besides the leader of the team at the time to be able to summon the ultrazord."

"So only Mal can summon it then?" Aquiella asked confused.

"Probably Audrey too." Melody filled in. "There have been fights where for various reasons Mal was not able to do be part of it and that fell on Audrey."

"I think we should allow Doug to summon it from here." Jane voiced. "Just in case for some reason Mal or Aquiella aren't able to do so."

"That's a good idea dear." Fairy Godmother acknowledged. "Will you see to it after the new iPhone is ready?"

Jane nodded. "Sure." She finished placing the gem and then reattached the two pieces together. She handed it to Aquiella. "Unlike everyone else's iPhones yours has a second thin coating of water, which should help you work some of your powers in battle." She shrugged a bit. "Probably nothing like the tidal wave from the last battle but you can at least read minds more clearly."

"Can you differentiate between reading mind and emotion?" Amy asked Aquiella.

"Somewhat." Aquiella answered. "Sometimes it's one in the same but sometimes I can filter through to the thoughts."

"Why don't we try you doing that while I work more from the emotional side, since I can't read minds?" Amy suggested and then shrugged. "Except for occasionally Mal's."

"Sounds good." Aquiella agreed.

"Didn't you read memories just before we came to the isle to get all of you?" Jane asked her curiously. She knew technically they had gone for Mal, Jay, Carlos and Evie. None of them had expected Amy but all the same no one could abandon her.

"I thought about that and I think it was someone' s way of making sure I was caught with what happened after mom," She looked down finding it hard to say despite the fact there was little love lost between the rose haired girl and evil fairy queen.

"Who's way of making sure you were caught up?" Fairy Godmother asked gently, knowing that it was best to push Amy away from those fights.

"The gem, or more accurately whatever part of Zordon and the others that seem to tap into these." Amy explained as she gently tapped her finger on the rose gem that was in her iPhone. "Something wanted me to make sure I wasn't completely clueless."

Sometime Jane wondered if they gave Zordon too much credit. Then again, there seemed to be a lot of reason to make those deductions. She assumed in the long run it didn't really matter. "Well whatever the reason it's probably better that it did." Jane said.

"Alright, now let's talk about your weapon." Fairy Godmother said to Aquiella.

They reached the top of the burnt tower. They were half afraid that the floor would give out on them at any moment. "I don't see anything that looks shiny enough to be a gem." Audrey noted. Carlos thought in a way that sounded like the Audrey of old but he had to admit he wasn't seeing anything either.

"If these walls could talk, they might be able to tell us what had happened up here." Evie remarked.

"I bet no one's even been up here since the fire." Jay noted.

"I think it'd be too much of a risk." Lonnie agreed. "If it weren't for the apparent historical significance I'd bet they'd tear this place down a long time ago."

"You think it'd be better off restored?" Mal asked her.

Lonnie thought a moment. "I don't know." She finally admitted. "I mean it's historical but at the same time, it was a very narrow tragedy. Something that I bet they don't really want our generation to know."

"Maybe it's something Ben could ask about." Carlos said. "I mean if it were restored it might be awesome to see. Or tearing it down could…well, they could place something here that would be just as nice."

It was then that they felt the entire building shake; the many parts of the roof came down around them and fire came with it. "What?" Audrey gasped.

The alarm went off and Aquiella jumped. She had never heard it before and it was startling. The others had and Doug was bringing up the cause of it. There were several rains of fire striking the Auradon area, originating from the volcano on the other side of the mountain where the Auradon Megazord rested.

"I thought that thing was basically dormant." Alex noted.

Doug made a few scans. "That's why." Amy shuddered just a bit as she saw the reason; the Infernal Flame monster had returned. In fact she was forced to wonder if had ever really died.

"Infernal Flame." Jane whispered. "He's back, or never left in the first place."

"And he's not alone." Doug said now. "He brought some friends with him, sort to speak." The view screen showed two other monsters. The first one was like some sort of fiery beast, but nothing like they had ever seen before. The second looked very much like Jane remembered Louie Kaboom did except this was not metal, this was fire.

"Those are new to us." Amy said to the Atlantica girls. "Wonder where these guys came from?" She mused and then added. "They could have come from that volcano…"Then she gasped, "Mal."

"I know." Doug said sympathetically. "We just found her and the others. They're inside the now burning burnt tower." He looked at them all. "And he's heading inside the tower."

"We have to go help them." Alex noted.

"Agreed." Jane said. "Just one slight problem; we're going to have get past the big flaming brute to do it."

"Then I guess it's a good thing you guys have the water girls on your side." Doug noted as he glanced at the Atlantica girls and Amy.

"Great for us." Melody noted softly as she looked at the view of the burnt tower. "Bad for them."

"As my sister would say, it's time to get to work." Amy announced. Aquiella remembered how they had transformed and Fairy Godmother had given her the numbers during the weapon talk. She, Melody, Jane, Alex and Amy input their numbers and transformed before leaving the command center.

"Wow." Evie gasped. "Audrey look out!"

The brunette princess looked up to see a small enflamed piece of wood falling toward her and was about to move but Jay was quicker as he swept her out of the way in his arms. "I always knew from day one I had you swept off your feet." He couldn't help but comment with a smile.

"Save the heat." Audrey said with a small laugh. "Right now, I could really go for a cold blast right about now."

"You'll need more than a cold blast princess." They heard as Infernal Flame came crashing down in the middle of the ruined floor. They felt the thing tremble, barely holding together. "You're basically going down to the underworld now ladies and gentlemen."

"Time to get to work guys." Mal said and then hesitated at their surroundings. "As gently as we can at any rate." The six of them pulled out their iPhones and transformed.

"You think that makes you safe?" Infernal Flame questioned as he shot a fireball at Mal. The purple ranger dodged but the attack hit a pillar, which collapsed. It struck the floor where Mal was and she let out a gasp of shock before falling through the floor with the pillar.

"Oh, no! M!" Evie gasped out. "Mal!" Lonnie and Audrey gasped in shock too.

"You're going to pay for that." Jay stated as he drew his soul scimitar and attacked the flame monster. He blocked it and then slammed his fist hard into Jay's chest. He went flying and hit a crumbled wall hard. He was actually pretty lucky it didn't break on him.

Audrey was the closest one now and she rushed to the edge of the hole. "Guys!" She screamed. "I can't see the bottom. I don't see Mal." She took a deep calming breath though it didn't help much. "I think…I think she fell to the bottom."

"We have to go find her." Carlos said.

"You're not out of the woods yet." Infernal Flame reminded them and as if to prove the point shot a stream of fire that blocked the staircase.

"Oh this is so not good." Lonnie remarked.

It got even worse as the entire place somehow magically managed to go dark despite the fires blazing all around them. They heard Audrey scream and Evie tried to grab at her. When the place lit up Audrey was no longer there and Evie barely avoided taking the same fall that Mal did.

"Audrey." Jay breathed. "How did he…" He started and then caught himself. "Chad."

"You're more than welcome to pursue your friends." Infernal Flame said. "You just have to deal with me first."

Alex and the four girls were just starting to think the monster had gotten bored or side tracked until the saw the lumbering beast. At least it looked lumbering until charged right at them with rapid speed. They barely dodged it.

"Alright, so how do I take on a fire beast?" Alex wondered.

"Right about now we're all kind of wondering that." Jane replied.

Melody glanced around. If they had been closer to the ocean it might have been one thing but there was little to no surplus water around for them to make a proper defense. "We're just going to have to do the best we can." The aqua ranger declared.

"Your best will not be good enough rangers." The monster said to them. "It's time for you to meet your doom…fire!" He unleashed a huge stream of flamethrower energy from both his three clawed hands, separating Amy and Alex from Jane and the Atlantica girls.

"Okay, so we call this guy Doomfire." Alex noted. "Seems pretty accurate for him actually."

"I'd rather call him a water hazard." Melody noted.

"We're going to have to figure out how to get by this thing." Jane noted.

Melody shot a blast of energy out of the trident but Doomfire raised his arms to block the attack and then disperse it. He then charged at the four of them with his long arms and swiped. The three girls on one side barely jumped over the strike while Amy was able to dodge it relatively easily since she was pretty short compared to monster. Alex dodged with her but with a bit more effort.

Not to be outdone it shot a fire wall to stop the rangers from continuing on towards the tower. It erupted in a huge stream of fire and Aquiella had to grab a hold of her cousin's arm to avoid the chance of her getting fried.

"You can't just get by me." Doomfire bragged to them. "You're going to have to defeat me to get to your friends."

"Isn't that just great?" Alex said with a small sigh. "We have to take down this big beast first."

"We'll find a way. Somehow." Jane said with more confidence than she felt at the moment.

Ben suspected the Praeleanthor sword was his first indication that something was going wrong, but any question of that became moot when the explosions followed. He had his parents with him as they were finding out what was going on while they had gone to Atlantica but the others had returned to their homes or where in that process.

"Where are the rest of your friends? Mal? Amy?" Belle asked her son with concern as he came to stand by them.

"Amy should have gone to the command center with Aquiella to receive her powers." Ben answered. "Mal was taking the original team up to search the burnt tower for something Fairy Godmother detected."

"She found something in that old place?" Adam asked a bit surprised. "We scoured the place after the unfortunate attempt at mass murder and found nothing." He hesitated. "Of course looking for ranger stuff wasn't on that list."

"And if some of these find are any indication they may have wound up in there after the incident." Ben himself had only been made aware of that day after his coronation, it was still a bit new to him.

"I have to go and make sure Mal and the others are okay." He said to him.

"Be careful." His father said to him resolutely.

The young king nodded and headed out the door. It wasn't long before a large rocket shaped creature that seemed to be nothing but fire and bones nearly struck Ben. He only barely dodged out of the way.

"Hello young king, or should I call you the Auradon Knight?" The monster said after the smoke cleared.

"Guess it was too much to hope you would've blown yourself up." Ben muttered.

"Not so much luck for you when you fight the Volcano Rocket." The monster chided and then launched itself at him again. Ben formed the sword and shield and then transformed. It finished just as the impact struck the young king and he went flying back hard. The monster was intact. "I don't think you've ever been in a fight by yourself boy."

"I'm not by myself." Ben said as he tightened his grip on the Praeleanthor sword. Not only had this weapon proven to have sentience but on top of it he knew Mal and everyone else was behind him in spirit even if they were separated physically. "And I'm strong enough to take you down anyway. If exploding is the best you can do, I'll take you out in no time."

"Sad to say I can do more than that." Volcano Rocket said and then rushed toward him, but then he flew up and brought its spiny tail down only to unleash small but fast fire balls at the Auradon Knight, which even with his shield blocking, it still wasn't enough to completely protect him from the impact of the attacks.

From the ship Paradias sat on his throne watching the three battles on screen. Beside him stood Maleficent who laughed at the sight even though no one knew where Mal was at that moment and Amy was standing up against a huge fire beast.

"This is going out well." Gregory noted. "Several rangers missing and the rest in combat. With any luck the rest of them will follow too late." He fumbled with his own iPhone, wanting to jump into the fight himself but at the moment knew the very item he held was also something they wanted to get a hold of.

"And then the monsters can pick them off one by one." Maleficent said with a laugh. "No Mal, no Amy, no nothing to stand in our way."

"This isn't over yet." Paradias reminded her grimly. "They have an uncanny ability to pull victory from the jaws of defeat." He looked again to the screen. "Only time will truly tell."

Audrey opened her eyes and hated the fact that she was surrounded by pretty much all sides by fire. She thought maybe she could see the stairs in the corner but she didn't recognize the floor she was on. She wondered if this now reburning tower had some kind of secret passages inside of it.

She stood up and headed toward the stairs but stopped as she heard someone walking up it. She summoned her elemental bow and raised it toward the stairs. When she saw movement she fired but it was deflected by a shield.

"Sorry Audrey darling." Chad said with a vicious tone in his voice. "But I wanted some private time alone with you and this is just the best chance I can get. If it's not your former beau, it's your little friend Lonnie. Or it's that freak Mal. Or the Irish lunatic, or it's some under dressed mermaid. And that's just the people around here, let alone any of those Earth ones."

"Because they realize what you won't realize." Audrey said to him. "I don't like you like that, and the truth is I never have." She raised her elemental bow again. "I may not be able to stop you from doing whatever you want with me at this rate but I will resist you with every ounce of strength I possess."

"I'm counting on it little princess." Chad said and kicked a piece of burning concrete at her which she dodged, only to see him coming closer. "Anything I can do to you now will only make the final game that much more satisfying."


	88. Turning Up the Heat Part 2

"I know you're worried about Audrey." Lonnie said to Jay as gently but firmly as she could. "And Mal too, but right now we need to stay focused and beat Infernal Flame before we can find them." She twirled her hurricane tessens in her hands as she wondered just how they were supposed to do that.

"I know, I know." Jay assured her. He was a bit more worried about Audrey because he was sure Chad had something to do with it. If he kept up at this rate he was terrified they would find the brunette princess in a far worse condition than they ever had. He just kept getting too close for his comfort. But he was worried for Mal too, how far had she fallen down? Was she okay? Was she even still alive?

"How do we even beat this thing?" Evie wondered. They couldn't' get in close to him because he could burn them with a touch. Lonnie's hurricane would just cause more fire in the already burning towers and Evie's powers would just cause the same amount of damage, to say nothing about the fact she couldn't reflect them.

"Don't suppose we can treat this thing like a birthday candle cake?" Lonnie suggested jokingly. The Asian princess expected the look of derision from the monster but even through the helmets she felt the look of confusion from her three isle friends. "Okay, didn't register." She noted, wondering which one of them had a birthday coming so they could remedy that.

Infernal Flame rushed toward Lonnie and aimed a downward punch right at her. She dodged out of the way but was not too surprised, though perhaps somewhat disheartened, to see him leaving welts of fire to make the situation even worse.

"Um, hey, are we going to end up suffocating while we're fighting up here? Or being roasted alive?" Jay suddenly wanted to know anxiously.

"We shouldn't roast as long as we don't step directly into the fires." Carlos answered him simply. "Our ranger suits should stand up to any heat that a fire generates. The suits also come with their own filtration systems good for six hours."

"Well that's great." Jay said. "We'll be dead or out of here long before that."

"I'd rather be out of here than dead." Evie pointed out. She then wondered if that were something that Mal and Audrey could say or not.

"I wouldn't hold my breath on that rangers." Infernal Flame said and tossed several fireballs as them, this time they moved rapidly enough that it sent them flying back hard. Carlos let out a loud gasp as he very nearly landed in one of the fires.

"Is there any way we could generate more water?" Aquiella asked. She wanted enough to take out the Doomfire monster that was standing in front of them, with only a huge wall of fire behind them. She thought if the monster was destroyed that would take out the fire.

"I don't know if we have anything this far up that would give us what we need." Jane said softly. She raised the magic wand as if trying to figure out a spell that would help but was drawing a blank. Then Doomfire lashed out and struck Jane, Aquiella and Melody hard, sending them flying, very nearly into the fire wall.

"Is there anything we can do?" Amy asked Alex.

Alex grit his teeth as he watched. He could already feel this monster's fire was stronger than his own; anything he tried would be useless at best and even more harmful at worse. That meant Amy was limited too and if Aquiella needed more water to be effective than Amy was also out of luck right now. "I don't know." He said.

Doomfire launched an attack at them now and Amy grabbed Alex's arm before making them intangible so the attack went right through them. She knew it wouldn't last long though as she pushed them out of the way.

"Alright, let's see how much this will do." Aquiella said as she crossed her arms over her chest and raised her hands to summon her weapons. Two boomerangs appeared in her hand but they did not look wooden, they looked slightly reddish like precious coral. "Let's see what he thinks of my coral boomerangs." She unleashed her weapons.

They sliced through the air at an angle and slashed Doomfire across the back. He let out a roar as he turned to face the three girls. The new orange ranger caught her weapons, glad they weren't made out of wood or else touching the monster would have destroyed them. In fact, she could still feel a bit of the heat the weapons had collected.

"We're going to need a few more tricks like that if we want to be able to stop this thing." Jane said even as she and Melody placed their weapons together to unleash a strong magical burst that came through the trident. Doomfire blocked it but at least couldn't disperse it send it back.

"I do have one idea here." Aquiella said as she raised her boomerangs again. This time she concentrated on the water that was in her iPhone and allowed it to replicate itself along the boomerangs. She then tossed them at the monster, one striking it in the back as the other struck the chest upon the first hits recoil. It seemed to do slightly more damage but certainly not enough to make a difference right now.

"I could try to reinforce the water coating." Amy suggested to Aquiella.

"It's a nice idea love." Aquiella said to her with a soft smile. "But what we need is more water than we're going to find around here."

Ben tried to attack Volcano Rocket but was blocked and then slashed back hard. Before the young king could react the monster placed his foot down hard on Ben's sword holding wrist. He leaned down and picked up the Praeleanthor sword, and then tossed it in the fire.

"No!" Ben called out in shock. He didn't power down but he heard an unidentified man's voice in his head. _You will never find it._ Almost as if he were hearing an echo of the past in that voice, maybe relating to that first weapon that Amber had spoken of.

"You'll be following it Auradon Knight." Volcano Rocket said to him. "It's time for your end."

"Don't be counting yer chickens before they hatch." They heard as the Highlands Ranger kicked the monster off of Ben. "Ye never what might be hiding in those eggs." She slashed the monster with her grizzly blades and send him falling backwards.

"Thanks Miranda." Ben said. For a moment he could imagine Amber doing for her teams what the red headed Irish girl had just done for him. He wondered if that was common for purple rangers. "He tossed my sword into the fire though."

"Something must have gone wrong then." Miranda observed. "Mal told me that when your first sword was destroyed that you lost your powers, and yet here ye are, still armored up and everything."

Ben bit his lip. "You're right." He agreed. "But where is my sword then?"

"Hey, you're not out of the woods yet." Volcano Rocket interjected as he launched right at the two rangers.

"No, but neither are you." Will said as he stepped in between his two friends and the rocket monster. He raised his recursive sword and caught the monster in between the top blades and then shot his arms up, sending the monster sprawling to the ground hard.

"One's good and two is better." Ben said. "Thanks Will."

"We all look out for each other." The green ranger reminded the young king with a nod. "Now let's see what we can do about this monster. We need to get to Alex and the girls before we can get into that tower and rescue Lonnie and the others."

"Stopping one attack doesn't mean you can defeat me." Volcano Rocket said and then unleashed another burst of fire balls from its tail right at the two rangers and the knight, who rolled out of the way.

Miranda let out a gasp as she stood and found herself standing in front of the firewall. She had only been inches away from being burnt. Then she exclaimed, "Well what do ye know?"

"Oh, my head." Mal moaned. She wasn't quite sure when she had lost consciousness. The last thing she remembered was falling a long way down. She had just enough sense to realize it had to have been further down than they thought. "This place must have a couple sub basements." She mused.

She flinched in pain as she saw her leg was trapped under some rubble. She summoned her dragon's eye staff and placed it under the rubble, moving it up to slide her leg out. She knew if that had happened when she wasn't transformed she would now have a broken leg. Even still she felt kind of stiff.

Then she remembered she had one other problem. For the most part all she could see was fire. "I don't have a spell to get me through this." She mumbled. She was able to find an opening she could slip through but she wasn't familiar with the area and she saw no sign of a stairway up. "Doug, can you hear me?" She questioned but was not surprised to find he either could not or her intercom had been damaged in the fall. "Swell."

She moved past more flaming rubble and the gasped slightly as she saw something in the fire, literally. She raised her staff before realizing that should be impossible. Even more impossible was the figure was not human at all. If anything it seemed to be like a floating chandelier. "Great, just what I need. Brain damage." She murmured.

But as the purple ranger moved closer she realized that the figure was not dissipating or doing anything except moving deeper into the fire. She seemed to instinctively follow it, realizing as she did so that she didn't even bother to make sure she wasn't walking into a fiery conflagration in the process. In a few minutes the figure vanished and Mal seemed to regain her senses.

"Okay, what was that about?" She wondered. Then she realized two things. The first was that she saw the stairs that would lead up. Somehow that figure had guided her to the next level. Then she knelt down. "This isn't a gem like ours. What is this?" She asked and then reached for the object, a small glowing star that still felt crystalline. Upon contact it started to glow and she stood up. Mal had the feeling she had to go upstairs and she headed toward the staircase.

Volcano Rocket launched out more fireballs and Ben used his shield to block the attack, and then Will jumped off the young king's shoulders to bring his recursive sword down onto the monster. As the green ranger landed with a crouch Volcano Rocket hit the ground hard.

The boys could find no signs of Miranda. She may have been hurt; she may have been trapped by the fireballs that had separated them from her. They didn't want to consider the fact that she may have become a victim of the fire. In fact Ben was not looking forward to any of the casualty reports from this disaster.

"Running out of steam boys?" Volcano Rocket asked them mockingly. "Let me see if I can help you along with that." Again the monster formed into a rocket but this time brought his hands up and unleashed a large burst of steam at them, blinding them just long enough to impact right at their feet, sending them to the ground hard as the monster landed on his own feet. "I'm still fired up."

"Well that's good because ye don't want to lose steam around us." Miranda said as she leapt her way over the fire with one hand behind her back. "We have more energy that ye can ever seek coming, and I have to warn ye my mother has always called me a spitfire."

"I'm sure the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Will said. "We thought you were dead, glad to be disappointed."

"That's nae the only surprise I have for ye boys." Miranda said and from her back pulled out the Praeleanthor sword. "Looks like something else is capable of surviving the fires."

"The Praeleanthor sword." Ben said happily.

"That's impossible." Volcano Rocket growled angrily.

"Something tells me this can survive the flames of the underworld itself." Miranda said as she gave Ben back his sword. "These fire monsters have nothing on that."

Ben felt a lot better to hold the mythic and seemingly sentient sword in his hand again. "So glad for this." He admitted with a smile. Then he looked to Miranda. "You found it?"

"Hanging around in the fire." Miranda explained. "It cleared a small area around the flame where I landed. My bear spirit cleared the way for me and I grabbed it. As I was coming to your aid it cleared a path for me."

"That shouldn't be." Volcano Rocket protested. "It's just a weapon."

"I'm not sure it is." Will said with some admiration. "But it's enough of a weapon for us to take this freak out and get to Alex and the girls."

"And one step closer to Mal and Lonnie." Ben added with a knowing glance at the green ranger.

Miranda was kind of glad she didn't have to prioritize any one person over the rest of the team, though she understood why those in love felt that way. What mattered is that their ultimate goals still completely meshed. "Then let's do it." She decided.

"I don't think so." Volcano Rocket said as he again reverted to rocket mode.

"You're just way too reliant on that." Will noted. "Let's show him why that's a bad thing." Ben extended the Praeleanthor sword and Will extended his recursive sword. Miranda placed a grizzly claw on each of the boy's weapons and together they unleashed a stream of energy at the volleying monster. When it impacted it sent him straight into the fire and there was a massive explosion that took out some of the surrounding fire.

"Looks like we have our way." Ben said to the two rangers. "Let's go."

"That's one monster down." Gregory with a note of disappointment.

"He was the weakest of the three." Maleficent pointed out dismissively. "Doomfire is more than capable of handling them anyway, especially since the Arendelle 'dame princess' and the other three rangers are still out of the area."

"That may be true." Paradias said. "And so far we have no idea where your elder daughter or the other princess went after being forced out of the top of the tower." None of them had bothered tracking Mal as she had fallen too far for them to think she could be of any good now and whatever Maledict's blade did for Chad had a detrimental effect on technology half the time. He narrowed his eyes at the screen. "But this still has the potential to go either way."

They quickly found Alex and the girls but found that they had something even worse to worry about than Volcano Rocket as Doomfire unleashed a flamethrower at them and struck them all down hard. "Amy! Guys!" Ben called out.

"Nice timing guys." Melody said. "We could use all the help we can get. But that explosion…."

"That was another monster who thought he was a rocket launcher." Will told her. "We took care of him." Then he paused a second. "Nice boomerangs Aquiella." He said.

"Thanks." The mermaid girl responded. "They work rather well and I can even give it a nice coating of water. But not enough to damage Doomfire I'm sorry to say."

"We need more water than any of us could make." Jane said.

"We'd need a rainstorm." Ben noted. "And not just here." He indicated their surroundings. "A lot of Auradon is practically on fire right now. We would need a rain storm strong enough to help the entire land."

"Oh, come on." Melody sighed as she placed her hand on her head. "What is wrong with me? I should have thought about this sooner."

"Thought of what?" Amy asked her now.

Aquiella looked to her cousin. "What?" She asked.

"Undine had Daedalus helping her when she first attacked us." Melody explained to her. "You remember that sea witch, Ursula's daughter?" Aquiella nodded. "I made a request for assistance and got it, and maybe I can ask for it again."

"I kind of remember that." Amy supplied. At that point she had started feeling Mal's pain, and her twin sister felt hers as well, thanks to a specific venom that Maleficent had given the sea witch to infect her daughter with. "It was large enough to tackle that Daedalus thing back into the ocean."

"And maybe I can get it to help us again." Melody said. "Just try to keep Doomfire off my back."

"Easier said than done." Miranda told her. "But we'll certainly try to do it."

"It will be an interesting challenge for me then." Doomfire said happily. "And when I get past them I can tear apart the Aqua ranger with practical ease." He charged right at them, knocking aside Amy and Jane hard. He then unleashed a huge fiery blast that sent Will flying backwards hard.

Miranda moved in and tried to attack only to find that the things claws on its hands were stronger than they looked. She couldn't seem to cut her way through them. "Oh, you are a hard clawed one, aren't ye?" She questioned.

"More than you realize." He said and then unleashed flames from them, which she barely managed to avoid only to get gashed across the chest hard from the monster and that sent her flying, again very nearly into the fire.

Ben raised his Praeleanthor sword. Doomfire struck and he blocked the attack but the sword caught in between two of his large claws. Even the mystic sword couldn't seem to penetrate the claws. "Talk about over armored." Ben noted. "And just on the claws on top of it."

He responded by slashing the Auradon Knight with his free clawed hand hard and sent him stumbling back with a hard landing.

Aquiella added a coat of water to her coral boomerangs and tossed them the Doomfire. This time he saw it coming and knocked them aside hard, though growling a bit at the water coating that still seemed to sting him just a bit.

"I'm getting tired of your little attempts there girl." He snarled and rushed forward. He clamped one of massive hands around Aquiella's waist, and for a moment the mermaid girl was sure that he would snap her in half. With his other hand he deflected the boomerangs that had been heading back to their owner. Then he glanced back toward Melody and with the newest ranger in tow started toward the one ranger he hadn't hurt this time.

Audrey paced Chad worriedly, her elemental bow raised again and ready to strike. Not that she exactly expected it to do much good in this case. Chad might not be able to dodge the arrows but he could block them well enough with his shield.

"I can't wait to see more of you Audrey." Chad said with a leer in his voice. "Not that I haven't had good looks on the beach before, but what I want to see goes beyond even that."

"You're disgusting Chad." Audrey said. "That won't happen." Even Ben had never gotten that far with her. "In fact between you and me I'd rather you not see me at all." With that she unleashed another arrow at him. He blocked with the shield just as she planned, because with the impact there was a large flash and Audrey dove behind some fallen rubble that so far had not caught fire.

Chad blinked his eyes to see nothing in front of him. "Wow, nice move." He said with a small laugh. "Of course I'm still blocking the stairs so you still can't escape. I can certainly wait you out."

Audrey almost wished she could throw her voice but knew most people couldn't do that unless they were ventriloquist's, a talent she thought was a combination of creepy and lame, ironically because of the same reason; the wooden puppet most of them used.

"Come on out my pretty little princess." Chad said tauntingly. "I promise before it's over you'll be enjoying it almost as much as I will."

Audrey felt her stomach churning and had to fight the urge to throw up. She wondered if the former prince would cook up in that suit of metal armor before she would. That might be her only chance. She moved quietly behind a pillar. The good news was it was obstructed by the fire and smoke, which her helmet protected her from smoke inhalation. The bad news was that put her even further away from the stairs.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." Chad said in a sing song voice. He was enjoying this hunt, Audrey knew. Probably not as rewarding as fondling her in her sleep but certainly more challenging.

 _If I remember right he's still pretty close to the stairs._ Audrey mused. Of course he would be though, he had the only key to something she wanted; out of this area and back to her friends so they could find Mal.

Then Chad tossed Maledict's blade and it slashed right through the pillar that Audrey was behind and she couldn't help but let out a little gasp as it carved through only an inch above her head. She quickly rolled out of the way of the falling debris.

Chad was in front of her where he kicked her hard in the chest and then slapped the elemental bow out of her hand where it went flying down the stairs. They both heard the clatter as it descended for a moment and then silence as he placed his foot on her stomach hard. "It's not looking good for you my fair princess." Chad said mockingly as he placed Maledict's blade above her head. "Now what do I have to damage to remove your ranger shell and get to the more delectable parts underneath?"

Audrey tried her best to struggle but wasn't having much luck as she had no room to move around with. "You realize anything you do to me, my friends will make you pay for it." She said to him.

Chad laughed. "Most of your friends are going to be dead soon now if they aren't already." He said to her. "Your other little friends upstairs are playing a game of Russian roulette with Infernal Flame. The rest who haven't chosen the worst time to play escort services are going against Doomfire. And poor Mal is probably out of the game after that little tumble she took." He shrugged. "Not really planned that way but we'll take what we can get. And speaking of taking…" he moved to strike her waist with his blade, hoping it would power her down.

Outside the rain of fire was continuing on, the fact that Volcano Rocket was gone seemed to have no effect. Fairy Godmother feared only stopping Infernal Flame would stop the rain of fire and it seemed as if it would only be a matter of time, and not a great deal of it, before the tower came down from fire damage, along with everyone inside. Worse, the fire surrounding it would likely cause tremendous damage to everyone and everything around it. It would be more than enough to destroy every one of her children that had not left the premises.

Time was rapidly running out.


	89. Turning Up the Heat Part 3

"I think we need to discuss who exactly is out of it here Chad." Mal interrupted as she came up the stairs, Audrey's elemental bow across her shoulder by the string, her dragon's eye staff held in her hand. His strike to her waist had stopped when she had spoken. "I'm standing right here," It was a small exaggeration as she could still feel some pain the leg that had been trapped in the rubble. "And you're trying to force yourself on a girl who has absolutely no interest in you."

"Glad to see you survived." Chad said sarcastically.

Mal kicked a flaming rock away, glad she was transformed or otherwise that might have hurt. "You have no idea how many times I saw that on the Isle of the Lost." The purple ranger said conversationally. That got Audrey's attention too as she spoke little of that life, they all spoke little of it. "Being my mother's daughter I wasn't on the receiving end of that too much, but I saw it a lot with my own twin sister, who as you know is the exact opposite of me in that regard, and I saw it a lot with Evie when she and I became friends."

Chad laughed derisively. "Like it surprises me to know that your sister and Evie are two of the isle's biggest sl…" He started.

"Ah, ah." Mal said with a hint of menace in her voice. "I'm talking right now." She was actually aware that she sounded a bit like Maleficent with that statement. She aimed her staff at Chad and then launched a beam of energy at him, which he easily dodged. That allowed Audrey to roll to her feet and come to Mal.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Audrey said to her softly and added an even softer, "Thank you."

"Anytime." Mal said with a small smile. "You're one of my chosen sisters too after all." She shrugged off the bow and gave it to Audrey, who seemed just a little stunned to hear that admission.

"You can't just think…" Chad started but was interrupted again; this time by a glowing from Mal's hand. "What now?"

"What's that Mal?" Audrey asked.

The purple ranger held up the six sided gem that was in her hand as it floated up into the air a little bit. Then it split in two and the two pieces surrounded the two girls in swirls of bright yellow light. "Mal?" Audrey started. "I don't know." Mal answered.

Mal felt armor assemble all over her body. Claws grew up over the armored hands that reminded her of her dragon zord and then found her visions slightly blocked by the same thin tendrils that extended from the head of her dragon zord when she boarded it and it became like a Chinese dragon. She felt the power thrumming through her body and the power building in the dragon's eye staff. It shined with a mix of purple and black.

Audrey also felt armor assembled all over her body. It glowed with a mixture of red and pinks. She felt earrings slip out of her helmet and was already sure they were detachable and could then regrow in order to become mini weapons. Long elegant silk like ribbons emerged from over her shoulders, but one look at the shiny translucent showed that it wasn't nearly as fragile as one would expect, in fact it looked as firm as Ruby's hair, which she was sure would be a good weapon. She felt the same colored crystals that resembled her earring growing around her waist and then moving all around it like a skirt.

"What?" Chad asked in shock. "What is this?"

Mal shook her head, not entirely sure but Audrey knew because she had just recently had a fleeting thought about this when Chad attacked in the night in Atlantica. "We have battlizers." She said as she looked to Mal. "We both have them."

"So Mal looks like a monster and you look like a gemmed pink princess." Chad said dismissively. "It won't save you." With that he moved to attack…

Aquiella struggled to escape Doomfire's grasp but couldn't. She tried to scream a warning to Melody but his grip on her waist made it too hard to draw in the breath to scream. He was getting ready to close in on the aqua ranger right now.

Crystal cards lashed out and struck him hard. The monster growled in annoyance but it stopped his charge and forced him to drop Aquiella. She landed a bit hard on her feet, not used to catching her balance from any height. Ally was in front of her now. "Are you alright?" She asked, her British voice full of concern.

"Yes, and nice timing, thank you." Aquiella replied.

"Time for a spiral spear strike." Aziz announced, but he didn't attack the monster directly. He instead slammed the weapon into the ground and caused the monster to lose his balance. Jordan drew her lamp cannon and fired a beam of magical energy into him, forcing him back harder.

"Oh my pink, that's great timing." Amy said as she came to the genie girl. "Thank you so much."

"Anytime." Jordan promised.

Doomfire roared and started another charge before it got slammed into hard by a massive ice beam, where the ice Dame and princess of Arendelle Ellie showed up. She didn't let up as she continued her relentless icy assault. He was hot enough not to be taken out by the ice but she was strong enough to keep him more than occupied. "Time for you to cool off Doomfire." She said to him. "Nothing is going to stop us from helping our friends."

Alex laughed a little. "Hey, I think Ellie enjoys this more than she would ever want us to know." He replied.

Amy giggled a little and then she felt a surge of shock and pride. It wasn't from any of her team mates here, it was from further on. Only one person could have that kind of impact on her; Mal. "My sister is really happy about something." She revealed. "Something good must have just happened despite everything."

Without even really thinking about it the tendrils around Mal's armored head lashed out and slapped Chad hard. He didn't drop his weapons but he took several steps back. Mal then unleashed a huge ball of energy that she thought of a dragon pulse straight at Chad. Even trying to block it with his shield didn't help as he was slammed into the pillar that Audrey had tried to hide behind before the tables had turned.

Audrey raised her arms. The small gems on her earrings raised up as did the gems on her waist that acted as a skirt. She then flicked her fingers and the gems shot out and headed straight for the dark knight. He tried to block or knock them aside with his sword but to no avail as they all struck him and hard and fast. He rolled to the ground and rose on one knee to see the gems she had just used had just regenerated.

"Maybe it's time to see how you like being tied up." Mal stated as she levitated, not walked but levitated, toward Chad. The three tendrils on the helmet lashed out, two of them wrapping around his wrist and the last around his ankles, binding him and lifting him up. "Remember when you did that to Audrey? At least you don't have to worry about any of us trying to kiss you or even worse."

"Let me go you little freak." Chad spat at Mal.

Audrey again raised her hands, this time all the way up to above her head. Energy followed the movement up her body until it seemed as if moonlight invaded the area before it struck Chad hard several times. Mal released him as the final attack hit and he rolled to the side, armor smoking.

"Now let's see what you can to Mal." Audrey said.

"That will have to wait." Chad said angrily. "I'm out of here." He vanished without a parting taunt to the brunette princess, proving just pissed he really was at the turn of events.

Both girls looked at each other and nodded. They knew where they needed to go. For once the holes in the newly reburning tower would now pay off as they started to float their way up to the last floor and help their team deal with Infernal Flame.

The ground started to shake and everyone had to avoid losing their balance. "This isn't what we need on top of everything else." Aziz stated.

"No, this is a good thing." Melody said to him. "We're about to end these firestorms, but since we're not near the ocean there had to be another way to do this."

"The underground springs." Jordan said, remembering Evie falling into one a while ago. The good news there was that had resulted in her first face to face meeting with her step-sister Snow White and had also given her the compact addition to her magic mirror to make it the weapon it was today. "How is this going to help us though?"

One thing they noticed was the skies were getting gray, very gray. It seemed to be gradually putting an end to the fire storm that was being unleashed from the volcano but first they had to worry about first was getting rid of Doomfire. Not that he was nearly the threat he had been beforehand, now that Ellie had been releasing her icy barrage against him. Her attacks were starting to melt against him and that made it even worse since that was making it into water.

"Hey, maybe my powers can help yours now and it can make a difference." Amy said to Aquiella.

"That it might." Aquiella agreed as she raised her coral boomerangs. She used her own ability to coat it with water and then Amy touched the boomerangs herself, reinforcing that power.

"Aquiella, help Ellie keep that thing off guard." Aziz said. "We're going to use the lamp blaster to try to finish this guy off." He looked to Ally, Jordan, and Jane who nodded.

"We've got our own power to add to yers." Miranda said to Aziz as she looked to Ben and Will.

"Then Amy, Alex and I will be ready to help pick everyone up if somehow this doesn't work." Melody said. There wasn't much she could say right now; they didn't need either of them for these formations.

With the reinforced boomerangs in hand, Aquiella moved in to help Ellie with the frontal assault on the large Doomfire monster. She slashed at him with her weapons and he growled and tried to return the favor, but she was more aware of what he could now, and having Ellie unleashing a storm on him sure didn't hurt the situation either.

Jordan brought her lamp cannon up front. Ally placed her crystal cards in the spout. Jane placed the magic wand in the top of the lamp while Aziz placed the spiral spear under the lamp for more leverage. Beside them Ben set his Praeleanthor sword upon one of Miranda's grizzly blade as Will placed his recursive sword on the other grizzly blade. Together the two teams unleashed their bursts of energy.

Aquiella rolled out of the way and Ellie reversed her powers to surround herself with a protective layer of ice, further proving her abilities with her powers had only gotten better since she had become the ice dame.

The beams struck the Doomfire and he flew for a moment before toppling into the fire. For an instant they worried that would ruin all of their hard work but then the crash of thunder sounded and was followed moments later by a torrent of rain falling from the sky. Just as the fires started to go out, they saw the explosion of Doomfire.

"Thank you my friend." Melody whispered softly, only Amy and Aquiella even caught it.

"We've got to get up to the top of that tower." Ally stated now.

"We'd never make it in enough time to be of any help, assuming we're not too late as it is." Alex said with a frown. He didn't like it, but it seemed to be the truth.

"Oh, we'll make it." Jordan said. She snapped her fingers and gathered her team mates up in a swirl of golden dust before it skyrocketed them up to the top of the tower, entering in very much the same way as Infernal Flame had entered.

Even now Infernal Flame could feel the fires going out all over Auradon. He could see the torrents of rain coming in from the hole in the roof and gushing down the holes of the tower, almost as if they had a life of their own. Not that it would help the stability of the tower in the long run but for now it would make it safe enough for the rangers to escape.

"We've got to come up with something here." Carlos said. He tried to splash Infernal Flame with some of the water but he was hot enough that it kept the water from doing anything other than fizzling out.

Evie knew they were right and she was trying hard to keep focused on the threat in front of them. But she kept thinking about Mal and Audrey. Mal fell, to who knew where. No one knew where she was or if she was even okay. Audrey didn't fall necessarily but they all knew Chad had to be the reason she was gone and that was just as nerve wracking as what had happened to Mal, maybe even more.

The rest of the team appeared in front of the four rangers. With a gasp of shock, Lonnie ran over and hugged Will. He wrapped an arm around her waist. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

"We could be better. Mal, Audrey…" She started and then shook her head. "We don't know where are they are or if they're okay."

"Don't worry about it." Infernal Flame said to them. "You'll be joining them soon." He unleashed a massive stream of fire energy around them all. Ellie stepped forward to activate an ice shield to protect the team from the impact. "I don't know where this rain came from but it won't stop me from ending you all.

Then Amy gasped, "Mal."

"I told you not to worry about her." Infernal Flame snapped. "You won't have the time for that."

"Trying to get my sister not to worry about me is like getting creatures like you to be polite, as in not going to happen." They saw Mal and Audrey emerge from a hole in the floor, still in their battlizers. "But things have changed Flame boy, and you're not going to walk away from this."

"By the way, who invited the rain?" Audrey asked. "Because I think we need a cake made for that person."

"Wow." Jay said. "You looks so amazing Audrey."

Ben was also impressed. "Mal, you look so awesome. So regal." He said.

"Like your zord." Amy added delightedly.

"It will take more than impressive looks to defeat me." Infernal Flame stated simply.

"Chad has already seen some of what we can do." Audrey noted. She looked to Mal. "But I think we need to see the rest of what you can do Mal." She floated forward a moment and then set her feet on the ground. One would have thought the gems on her waist would add more weight but there was no sign of that. Instead two of them rose off and hurtled right at Infernal Flame.

He slapped the gems out of the way but was shocked to find they did not get damaged at all. Audrey lashed out the silk like ribbons and slapped him hard, then wrapped his wrists and ankles together.

Mal floated forward now but didn't join the red ranger on the ground. She stayed floating as she would expect her dragon zord would have done. She again brought her dragon's eye staff up and unleashed the dragon pulse on the monster. He broke free of Audrey's binds just after the strike and he sent fire streaming at them.

Audrey got in the way and the gems around her waist glowed as a barrier was brought up, absorbing the fire and dispersing it into one of the cascades of water, dispersing it into steam. Then lightning quick Mal rushed forward with her staff and struck him twice with her staff.

"Wow." Jordan said. "Neat."

"Yay for battlizers." Miranda noted. "Very impressive indeed."

Now Audrey stepped forward and raised her elemental bow. Each of her arrows in this mode now were coated with the same gems as what was now serving as earrings and around her waist. She let out loose with a stream of gem tipped arrows at Infernal Flame and struck him hard, miraculously pinning him to one of the pillars that already had the portion affixed to the roof long gone.

Mal then unleashed her own version of her dragon zord's draco meteor attack that struck the flaming creature hard even as he broke free of the arrows and fell to the ground. He didn't look like he could take much more from the two battleized rangers.

As if they could feel it too, Mal landed by Audrey and gave her the dragon's eye staff. "Let' see if this has more impact than the average arrow." She suggested.

Audrey nodded though a bit surprised. She had never fired anything other than an arrow from the elemental bow but somehow she was sure with the battlizer it would work out just fine. She was able to put the staff, which seemed to shrink down a little as if in anticipation, into the string before unleashing the attack. The staff grew to normal size and the dragon's eye gem on the staff glowed as it slammed right into Infernal Flame, destroying the monster just before a tidal wave of rain washed away the embers of the monster.

The battlizers faded and Audrey and Mal returned to normal. Ben went over to the purple ranger's side, where she looked a bit drained. He placed an arm around her shoulders and held her against him. Jay went over to the red ranger's side just as she very nearly collapsed and he lifted her in his arms. The others were right behind them.

"Are you okay Mal?" Amy asked her sister.

Mal reached over and placed her hand on her twin's shoulder. "Just fine sweetie." She promised. "The battlizer thing just takes a lot of you." She looked to Jay. "And that was before I caught Chad trying to break Audrey again."

Mal couldn't hear Jay's response but she was sure they were words that would get him in trouble in Auradon. "The plus side is that she and I beat him down good. He didn't even try to taunt her before leaving in a huff." She replied.

Ben laughed. "He was never very good at getting beaten by someone, and I bet the fact that it was you and Audrey made him take it even worse." He said as he stroked Mal's back.

"Not to interrupt this fine moment, but the tower is probably very unstable here." Jordan reminded them all.

"She's right." Ben said. "Time to go. Let's get back to the command center."

"Let's save ourselves the treacherous descent then." Jordan suggested and again used her magic to return them to the command center. Doug and Evie exchanged a warm hug, and Fairy Godmother hugged her daughter warmly.

Ben set Mal down and Amy sat by her. "I'm going to call my parents and let them know we're all alright." He said to her. The purple haired girl nodded in agreement.

"Jay, why don't you give Aurora and Phillip a call?" Lonnie suggested to him. "Let him know that you and Audrey are alright." He seemed a bit shocked by the idea but set her down to do just that. Lonnie meanwhile was following her own advice and had already pulled out her iPhone to call Mulan.

"Give Snow a call." Doug said gently to Evie as he stroked her hair once gently. "I'm going to help find out the damage from this nightmare." She nodded thankfully and then he went back to the command area. She saw that Ally and Will were following suit as well.

Miranda saw that Ben talked to his mother for a few minutes, and then he nodded and took his iPhone to Mal. She talked to Belle for a couple of minutes before handing the iPhone to Amy, who took it happily.

Jay had called and told Aurora that they were all okay but the battle had drained Audrey. He promised he would bring her by their castle as soon as they could.

"Sorry you didn't get to do too much this time." Ellie said to Alex. "Fire monsters suck for a fire user."

He laughed. "I'm not worried about it Ellie." He promised his cousin. "There will be other fights. And sometimes it's more important to be there than to contribute anything directly." He glanced at Amy, who was giggling at something Belle had said.

They soon discovered that Auradon had taken a lot of structural damage that would take weeks to rebuild, and there were dozens of injuries though so far no casualties had been reported. By that point Audrey was up and had accepted a Pepsi from Jay, her head was now against his shoulder as they listened.

"So this was what was in the tower." Fairy Godmother mused as she looked at the two pieces that Mal had originally found as one. "And it allowed you two to access battlizers."

"It's so unusual." Jane noted. "Red rangers have been the only ones to ever receive battlizers and even then not every single ranger gets one." She remembered reading the first battlizer in fact was used by their friend Andros the red space ranger.

"Except for the fact that red rangers are also the leaders." Miranda pointed out. "With few exceptions, but Mal and Audrey are one of those exceptions. Audrey is the red ranger but Mal is the leader. Maybe it's, like a compromise of some sort."

"I just know it helped save all of us today." Aziz noted. "I mean that was a pain, it's like Infernal Flame knew some of us were going to be out of touch for a while."

"Thankfully it didn't last long." Will added. "Though perhaps longer than we needed it to be."

"Let me see your iPhones please." Jane requested of Mal and Audrey. The two girls nodded, though both Ben and Jay insisted on taking them from their girlfriends and taking them to Jane instead of letting them do it. Audrey was still too exhausted to care and Mal was touched by the offer.

"It'll take a couple of hours but what I'm going to do place these pieces in your iPhones, above the gems." Jane started to explain as she nodded her thanks to the two guys. "That way in battle you can simply press on these gems to activate your battlizer modes."

Jay looked to Audrey. "You looked so elegant in that." He said to the brunette princess. "I think you should see about making that into a formal dress for the next…whatever it is." He started to run his hand through her hair.

Audrey laughed as she thought about it. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea actually." She said to Jay as she leaned into his gentle touch.

"It was very impressive indeed." Ben said as he stroked Mal's cheek softly.

"Thanks for your vote of confidence." Mal said to him as she kissed him on the cheek. "But I don't think the looks suits me well enough for an elegant dress." Amy laughed at the idea.

"Well the look certainly suits ye for battle." Miranda said to Mal. "Talk about a dangerous dragon warrior heading straight into the throes of combat." She added with a laugh.

"I wonder why it is that Mal's took on a form similar to her dragon zord while Audrey's took a form like…I don't know, like a warrior princess or something." Carlos mused.

"There's no way to know for sure." Fairy Godmother said. "Particularly since there is no way to know who would have wound up with these powers."

Audrey laughed a bit and glanced at Ben. "Yeah, if things had worked out the way everyone expected, you'd be the red ranger and wearing the elegant battle dress Bennie-boo." She said in between giggles.

"I think he could pull it off." Mal said right before bursting into hysterical laughter herself.

"Okay you two, we get it." Ben said with a slightly embarrassed laugh. "I'm sure it would be different if it were my power. But clearly despite what we expected someone else knew the red ranger would be a girl rather than a guy."

"So what brought the rain anyway?" Carlos asked now.

"Remember the sea entity that helped us fight Daedalus when Undine used it?" Melody asked him and they all nodded. "That was him again, this time in the underground water ways," She noticed Evie obviously understood that point. "And from under there unleashed a rainstorm. It won't be long before the rainstorm fades as he's already returned to sea."

"That is so cool." Amy breathed. "To have any kind of connection with something as awesome as that."

"The world is full of awesome things like that." Aquiella said to Amy. "If one knows where to look and how to interact with them. If that time ever comes here, Melody and I will be more than happy to help you, though something tells me it wouldn't be too much of a challenge for you."

After the time had passed, Jane gave Audrey and Mal their iPhones back and the group dispersed for the night. Jay told Audrey that Aurora and Phillip were expecting them. Ben meanwhile took Mal and Amy to his own parents place, and Amy insisted on Alex coming with them much to the amusement of her sister and the young king.

"We'll see you in class tomorrow." Evie said to them all. "Have fun."

"They've just become too good at what they've been doing." Chad said angrily.

"It's true." Paradias agreed. "But don't worry; I don't plan on letting them stay good at those abilities much longer." With that his eyes glowed, one side green and the other yellow, the natural colors of his iris's.


	90. The Day the Powers Went Out Part 1

"Thank you for coming with me last night." Audrey said the next morning as she walked beside Jay, his hands wrapped lightly around his arm and her head on his shoulder softly. "You know you didn't have to."

"I promised your mother I would." Jay replied to her as he stroked her hand gently with his free one. "And it was nice to get a home cooked meal." He chuckled just a bit. "You know I'm still not used to the idea of plenty of food to go around."

"It takes time to get used to things, and so much has happened to all of really since we all became power rangers." Audrey said to him. "Maybe even beforehand, since you guys first came here from the Isle of the Lost."

"And you didn't see us dating back then did you?" Jay asked teasingly.

"No, no I didn't." Audrey admitted simply. "Nothing has worked out the way I thought it would have back then but it's all worked out for the better I think." She bit her lip. "Well, for the most part anyway." She added as she thought about Chad's descent into darkness. As foolish as it sounded she still put much of the blame for that on herself.

"Don't feel that way Audrey." They heard Amy say as she came running up to the two of them, Mal and Ben behind her in basically the same positions as the brunette princess and the former thief. "People make their own decisions in life."

Audrey supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that the rose haired twin had read her mind. "I know that." She replied. "It's just so hard not to feel that it's my fault somehow." She looked to Mal and the two girls. "I know that he chose to attack me to get his powers, that he decided he wanted me regardless of what I say about it, and that he chose to embrace demonic powers. It's just hard not to feel that I'm partly responsible for it."

"I do get it." Ben promised Audrey. "Chad was my best friend too, like a brother for years." His face took on a hard appearance. "I can accept the fact he had problems with my proclamation, I can accept the fact he had problems with who I chose to date. But he chose to start harassing and assaulting a woman, let alone one who's been both of our friends, and he chose to turn his back on Auradon for an invading force. That's not something you forgive but those were still his choices, and I know we both tried to get him off that path."

"I think you trying to get him off that path is the reason he first slapped you." Mal reminded Audrey as kindly as she could but knowing it wasn't exactly a cotton ball kind of conversation. "That isn't the kind of guy you should be feeling pity or sadness for." The purple haired girl could see in her friend's expression that the princess knew she was right and yet she couldn't entirely dismiss the feeling. It showed how complex Audrey had grown to become, if she hadn't always been that way.

They joined the rest of their friends on some benches outside to spend some time together as friends before school began.

"Ready for your first day of school Aquiella?" Carlos asked her as he threw a tennis ball for the campus mutt and his technical pet, a small dog named Dude.

"I think I am." Aquiella answered him. "I'm looking forward to this magic class."

"It'll be so cool to work with someone else who knows one of my elements." Amy practically beamed from her place next to Alex and Mal.

"And I bet you'll have a lot to teach her too." Alex added. Both he and Ellie were here because they had limited control over their abilities, and perhaps a bit worse for him because he didn't have any precedence for his fire power whereas at least Ellie had a bit of experience from her mother Queen Elsa of Arendelle. Of course ice was not a basic element so Amy didn't really have any control over that, though Mal suspected in time she might.

"Well there might be water tricks I can teach." Aquiella agreed nonchalantly. "But I think what will be interesting is to see if we can figure out if we can expand your other abilities."

"You mean you want to see if I can become a telepath?" Amy asked her.

"Yes." Aquiella said. "It might be limited, much like mine since I can only do it with a good amount of water nearby. But even a limited capacity is still an extra boost."

"Oh, that would be kind of cool." Amy agreed. "And you're right; any small boost is still an improvement." She was trying very hard to stand still as this discussion was making her kind of excited, and Mal knew how energetic her sister could be with ideas she liked. "And speaking of expanding abilities I think I can teach you how to be intangible too."

"You think?" Miranda asked her.

Amy nodded. "Different principles for her, but if you look at a water bottle the water is essentially invisible and I think we can replicate that effect for Aquiella." She explained.

"I know mom will be interested in how you two do in expanding each other's magical talents." Jane said to the two girls. "Even when magic was common it didn't seem to be so…so interchangeable. Powers might be similar but even then they were still unique."

"I wonder if some of that is because of the ranger powers." Evie contemplated. "I mean all of our powers are connected to this morphing grid on some level that was established by Zordon who knows how long ago."

"That would be an interesting topic to explore." Carlos agreed. "I mean magic seems to be even more rare for the rangers of Earth than it is here. I wonder why that is and what that means for them."

"Well this is the same world where our parents lives are fairy tales." Lonnie pointed out. "Magic may not even be a huge factor for most of them."

"Maybe, but I seem to recall at least one team of rangers whose powers were based largely off of magic, the Mystic Force Rangers." Jane replied. "And I think something was even said that the one who helped with those powers was once the nemesis of the original rangers like Jason…what was it, Rita Repulsa, I think."

Amy gave off a small little laugh as she looked to her twin. "Can you imagine mom being responsible for a group of ranger powers?" She asked with amusement.

Mal snickered herself. "Yeah, right. The only one's she would be responsible for would be the Psycho Rangers 2.0." She replied derisively.

"Actually I think your mother would be more likely to figure out how to cut off the entire world from the morphing grid." Carlos noted absently as he again tossed the tennis ball for Dude to go after. "She much preferred being the most powerful person in the world, even though strictly speaking that might not have been true."

Audrey couldn't help but say it, "Yeah, the most powerful evil fairy in the world lost to my dad, so maybe not that great."

Mal and Amy exchanged a look but ironically they were exchanging looks of agreement. It was always a source of amusement to the older twin that her mother lost to a human man despite being a powerful evil fairy while the younger twin just considered it proof that good really was stronger than evil when a non-magical good being could overcome an evil magical being.

"What does that say anyway?" Lonnie wondered absently. "I mean, so many of our parents were ordinary people who dealt with magic of some sort and yet were able to come out ahead, and we've been using powers to barely stay one step in front of our problems."

"What it says is that times have changed." Miranda replied. "Not to put down anything our parents did but the enemy itself has gotten smarter. They work together now, though perhaps not very well. They've become more ruthless and demanding."

"They can cross lines that we won't, or shouldn't." Will added simply. "They can also do things that we usually won't even think of doing."

The bell rang for classes. The guys volunteered to walk their girlfriends to their classes, and Alex did the same for Amy despite them not being officially a couple. Mal was waiting for it to happen though. She had never really seen a guy capture her sister's interests before, but then again no guy on the isle could ever be like Alex was.

Maleficent paced the bridge. Behind her were Chad and Gregory. Further off on the back was Jabberwock, who was ordering the soldiers for their imminent assault. Paradias watched from his throne.

"Explain to me how we're going to strip Audrey and the others of their powers without stripping us of our powers too." Chad said to Maleficent again.

The evil fairy queen let out an impatient sigh. "Look, you won't even be down there when that happens. You'll slip right by the grid and the demonic powers are unique enough that once you slip through the cracks you won't be effected by it."

"And me?" Gregory asked.

"That was actually the fun part." Marcellus said as he entered the bridge now. "The monster I've created is already putting the last pieces into place around the world. It will cut Aziz, Jay and their little friends off from the morphing grid, making them a shadow of what they were."

"And then the monster I created on top of that will absorb all the magical properties, preventing my daughters and their little witch, genie, fairy, or otherwise magical little friends and magic item toters from using that against us." Maleficent added and then laughed. "Not that any of them have the magical power to stop us anyway."

"An interesting idea." Paradias admitted. "But tell me; what happens when the eventuality hits that Fairy Godmother realizes that they have no power to stop you, either magical or otherwise. She will simply reach out to the Earth rangers, will she not?"

Marcellus laughed. "She can try." He agreed simply. "And they can show up all they want. Then they too will find themselves just as helpless as they will be cut off from the morphing grid themselves. No mere human would ever be able to stop them."

"How will I be prevented from losing my powers?" Gregory asked again.

"Give me the iPhone." Marcellus demanded and the eldest son of Gaston reluctantly did so. Marcellus was a lot like Carlos in that no one expected him to be a technological genius, and yet surprisingly he was. He easily took a part the iPhone and installed an extra chip into it and then reassembled it. "That chip is on a feedback loop in a backdoor of the morphing grid." He explained now. "No one will even know I created that backdoor unless someone were to go into the morphing grid to track it down themselves, something that again no human could do."

"If we can tap into the morphing grid, why don't we do something more destructive?" Chad asked then.

"Because if we do something more destructive than it might draw the attention of the other rangers." Marcellus answered with a roll of his eyes. "We'd lose whatever advantage we have with that connection."

Paradias nodded approvingly. If this were somehow to fail, perhaps they could use that connection to the morphing grid someday. But hopefully that would not be the case. "Begin the attack when you're ready." He said.

"We will first have to get those rangers to transform and attack." Marcellus said. "That way all of their powers will be online to confirm their integration into the blocking system my monster uses and then we can shut them down upon activation."

"Don't worry; I know how we can draw them out." Gregory said. "We begin blocking out the magic of the world."

The evil fairy nodded in approval. "And then we have no more power rangers." Maleficent said gleefully. "Just a group of pathetic little teenagers that we can easily put in their place."

The morning passed and they started their afternoon classes. For the non-magic users it involved researching the origins of the past, particularly where it came to Sermaya and his beastly generals. His lack of appearances were in fact disturbing but each of them knew it would only be a matter of time before they showed again.

The magic users were in their magic classes. Amy was finding it kind of easy to balance out helping Alex to learn his abilities with working with Aquiella. Part of that was that they had made an interesting discovery; though it was mostly done thanks to the mermaid girl they could actually communicate telepathically. It allowed them to talk about their ideas that way even as Amy used her own hands to help channel and manipulate Alex's powers.

After the encounter with Doomfire, Jane had discovered a great way to help Ellie learn to control her powers. She had Jordan set up tests that the future Queen of Arendelle could only pass by using the exact amount of ice pressure.

The task fell to the genie girl because she quite frankly looked bored, as unlike everyone else thanks to her parents she was very magically aware and had never been taught or otherwise told to shy away from her powers.

They had been practicing for almost ten minutes when everything seemed to just…just fizzle out. It started a moment later and then fizzled again. "Mal?" Amy called out with concern. Not that her older twin would know much more than she did but turning to the purple haired girl for help had always felt like second nature to her.

Mal too had realized something was wrong as she had been working on a spell of her own, a simple tracking spell that she intended to try out that night after she had Ben hide something for her. She had been able to feel the magic coursing through her fingers and then nothing. She moved to place her hands on her sister's shoulder and asked, "What's going on? Why is the magic going out like that?"

"I've never had a problem like that." Jordan agreed somewhat irritably as she tried again to conjure her next idea for Ellie. It wasn't working now.

"Why isn't ours working?" Ellie asked as she tried to summon some snowflakes. "I didn't think our abilities were exactly magic."

"Good question." Alex agreed as he tried to summon fire in his hands with no luck. That hand now reached out and took Amy's hand in an attempt to comfort her, though Ellie wondered if he too were seeking comfort as well.

"I think it's time to go to the command center." Fairy Godmother announced. "And run some tests."

"Should we call King Ben and the others?" Jane asked her.

Her mother shook her head. "Not just yet. Let's wait until we have a bit more information go on here." She said.

Fairy Godmother lead them to the command center. Jane picked up a tool to analyze the magic wand, trying to determine if she could transform or not with this condition going on. Amy took another instrument and began to examine the rest of them, being able to easily take scans that could help.

Jordan was also pretty familiar with the controls of the command center and she began to scan for any external sources that could affect their magical abilities.

"Looks like the white gem can still draw energy from the magic wand so I can still transform into the white ranger." Jane revealed with some relief. She went over to help Amy analyze what she was scanning.

"I guess it's a good thing we don't necessarily need our magical powers to be power rangers then." Jordan noted. "Because right now we don't have that option available to us."

"We're going to have to tell the others sooner or later." Amy said to them all gently.

"We're going to have to tell them now." Fairy Godmother stated. "I've just summoned them to the command center."

Evie and the others came into the command center a few minutes later. "Looks like you picked a good day not to come to magic class E." Mal said to her blue haired chosen sister. "Or a really bad day I guess, depending on your point of view."

"What do you mean M?" Evie asked her.

Lonnie was tempted to make a comment about missing someone's birthday but didn't. She already knew the isle kids had no idea what birthdays were and she wanted to ask Jane which one was coming up so they could show them. Now was not the time for those thought though she was sure.

"We're not sure how yet, but our magic powers have been blocked from us." Jane answered them all as she took Evie's proffered mirror and ran a quick scan. She handed it back to her a moment later. "The magic is also gone from it though you should be able to use it as a weapon."

"How did this happen?" Audrey asked them.

"We haven't figured that one out yet." Jordan answered her. "Running scans now but I'm not seeing anything to help us figure it out."

"It has to be a monster of some sort." Jay decided as he put an arm around Audrey's shoulders. She didn't seem to mind it at all. "Who or what else would be capable of this?"

"It would have to be a particularly strong monster." Fairy Godmother reminded him. "But considering we're not sure about Paradias's true strength anything is possible."

The conversation became moot as the alarms went off they saw a monster that looked like a mechanical lizard of sorts, but he had from below the head until the midsection he seemed to have the shape of a black d battery cell. The sensors clearly indicated that was where the magic was going. He wasn't alone either as he had a group of soldiers heading with him.

"That's our magic drainer." Melody said. "Now we just have to shut him down."

"We're going to send him back to the swamp and the recycling bin." Carlos declared.

Mal nodded. "Let's get to work." She declared. The team rushed out of the command center and out of the walls of Auradon Prep. Ben and Melody pulled out their items to transform while the rest of the team pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

Intercepting the monster was easy enough. Ally removed her crystal cards from the spot around her waist and tossed them at the soldiers and the monsters. It really did little more than annoy them but it was enough of a distraction for the other rangers to summon their weapons and get ready to fight.

"We don't appreciate you messing with our magic lizard breath." Jordan snapped at the monster.

"Oh, so you don't like the tricks of Blocker Number M I take it?" The lizard monster asked with a laugh. "You're going to hate what will be coming up soon then, won't you genie girl?"

Aziz drew his spiral spear and moved in to attack Blocker Number M but he caught the attack in between his scaled hands and then tossed him back, running into a couple of soldiers that were not too happy to see him.

"Guess we're going to have to trim the fat before we can get to the meat." Will said as he flipped around his recursive sword and got ready to attack.

Lonnie twirled her hurricane tessen around in her hands. "Yeah, the disgusting green lizard meat." She added with disgust.

Amy still wondered what the monster had been talking about when he said they would hate what was coming up soon. She wasn't sure what could be worse than a creature that could drain magic but whatever it was, she was sure she didn't want to meet it.

They started to deal with the soldiers before realizing that there were more coming. Melody got the trident ready to try to take some takedowns from the back when she noticed something else. A monster very much like the monster that had started to attack Aziz again but this one was silver. "Mal." She called out.

Mal turned to at the aqua ranger's voice and tried to follow it. She could just make out the silver lizard with a d battery cell body. "What is going on here?" She wondered. She wondered if somehow the two monsters would combine and turn their magic against them.

Evie saw it too. "Maybe we should try to keep the two lizard things separate from each other?" She suggested.

"Great idea, if we can get through the soldiers." Audrey replied. "These things are crawling out of the woodwork." She shuddered a bit as only bugs basically did that.

"Like roaches." Amy said with a shudder.

The new lizard monster attacked Ben. He lashed out and the Auradon Knight blocked the attack with the Praeleanthor sword. "Don't think I'll be that easy scale face." Ben warned the monster.

"Oh but you are." The monster said with a gleeful grin. He knocked the hand holding the sword to the side and then slashed him across the chest hard. He then slammed his scaled foot down hard on the arm holding the sword. "That ancient weapon was the only unknown hurdle to our master's plan, and I have the feel for it now."

"Why would ye even need a feel for it?" Miranda demanded to know as she kicked the lizard thing off the young king. "What are ye freaks planning and what kind of lame name should we be callin' ye anyway?"

"Lame?" The monster questioned. "Block Number P sure doesn't appreciate that little jibe." His large fists lashed out and connected with Miranda hard.

"Are you ready to finish up the cycle brother?" Block Number M questioned.

"Ready when you are brother." Block Number P replied.

"Blocker M blocks magic." Ellie murmured. "Blocker…oh no." She shouted out. "We have to destroy that thing monster now."

"That's not possible." Aziz pointed out simply.

Mal thought quickly. "There might be one way but we have to be quick." She looked to Audrey. "We need our battlizers now." She looked to Evie. "Lead the others with the Auradon Launcher. We're going to need our best to do what Ellie says before they complete whatever cycle they're planning."

Audrey nodded. "Let's do it then." She said.

"You heard her." Evie said to the others, though they had never tried the Auradon Launcher without Mal or Audrey before. "Let's do it."

Evie took Mal's place at the back of the cannon, though technically making her the head of the team. Then it was Lonnie and Will, Alex and Amy, Carlos and Jane, Melody and Aquiella, Aziz and Ally, and last was Jordan and Miranda. They summoned the Auradon Launcher.

Mal and Audrey took out their iPhones and pressed the little half sun gems on their screens. Mal transformed into what she dubbed her crystal dragon battlizer and Audrey transformed into what she dubbed her gem princess battlizer.

As the rest of the team fired, Audrey gathered energy from her body and those gems as Mal gathered energy to unleash her draco meteor attack. But before they could unleash their attacks there was a snap of electricity and the Block Number P seemed to grow larger and they all felt their powers just fizzle out, the magic users recognized the feeling. Ben just managed to catch Mal as she fell, while Jay caught Audrey as she fell.

"What just happened?" Lonnie asked.

"If it's like our magic problem." Mal said worriedly. She took out her iPhone again and input her numbers, but nothing happened. "Oh no."

"Our powers." Amy started softly. "Are they..?"

"They're gone." They heard Maleficent say as she appeared with Chad and Gregory. "You all played right into my hands. The power rangers of Auradon are no more." The soldiers continued on toward them.

Will, Jay, Aziz, and Miranda kicked several of them back and they fell back against some of the others. "We have to get back to the command center." Evie said to them. "Maybe Fairy Godmother has some idea."

"I hope so." Jane said. "Because I have no idea what just happened."

"Then I hope everyone is quick." Aziz pointed out. "Because they're not going to let us go easily." The soldiers were already starting toward them.

"Destroy them." Maleficent commanded the soldiers. "Destroy them all."

"Except Audrey." Chad added with an authority in his voice they had never heard before, a dark authority. "The princess is mine."

"Time to go." Jordan said as they all ran off back to Auradon Prep, the soldiers behind them. They had run for close to twenty minutes and were getting exhausted before they had a small grace in the form of the Auradon guards who had been dispatched to defend the castle and the critical areas, like Auradon Prep itself. They knew though that it was a stop gap measure.

"What happened to our powers?" Mal wanted to know as soon as they came in. They found in that time that Doug had shown up there and was working. The good news was they were confident Doug had answers for them, the bad news was they knew they weren't going to like them.

"Your magical powers and ranger powers are being channeled out of your bodies and into the monsters." Doug told them. "Which in turn are being channeled…well, I haven't figured out where yet. But destroying the monsters won't solve the problem this time."

Carlos gave an incredulous laugh. "Destroy the monsters? Without our powers?" He asked. "That's a joke right?"

"It wasn't supposed to be." Doug answered. "But I can see why all of you would think that."

"There's no way we can destroy those things without our powers." Mal snapped.

"Hey, this isn't Doug's fault M." Evie said gently but firmly as she stepped to put an arm around Doug.

"She's right Mal." Amy said softly. "Don't be mean to him."

Mal sighed. "I know, you're right E. Amy." She looked to Doug. "Sorry to snap at you." She sighed a bit. "But it doesn't change what I said, we can't stop these monsters without our powers."

"Sorry to say even I'm not sure how we can fight these things the way we are." Miranda said. "We're taking two monsters and a bunch of soldiers, and something tells me that Chad and Gregory aren't powerless like we are."

"Why don't we ask the Earth rangers for help?" Audrey asked now. "You know they'd do it and we really need it."

"Because it sucks to have to turn to them every time something goes wrong." Jordan suggested with snappily before sighing. "No sorry, you're right Audrey. I just hate doing that to them, I feel like we're not carrying our weight, we're the biggest team to our knowledge and we keep getting into trouble."

"We're all a family, all in this together." Mal said to Jordan. "Amber told me that with the Psycho Rangers. Besides, they said they would be there whenever we needed them. They know better than even those of us who were here from the start what we're up against and that it might be necessary."

"Those are all very good points." Fairy Godmother said. "However, we have determined we cannot call upon the other rangers anyway."

"What?" Lonnie asked.

"You see, your power drain isn't local." Doug said. "Somehow it's draining from the morphing grid in itself." He looked to them all. "Asking the rangers to come here will only result in having their powers drained themselves."

"We can't do that to them." Ally said with a sigh. "We're on our own.

Alarms went off and they all looked toward the view screen. The soldiers were getting past the Auradon guards and were starting to get into the school itself. "We may not have powers and we may get hurt or worse out there, but we have to do our best to defend Auradon and its people." Ben said to the others.

Mal nodded. "Our king is right." She agreed, only now for the first time that any of them could remember had the purple haired girl ever addressed that fact. "We have to do our duty, our best as power rangers." She looked to them all. "We don't have a choice. We have to get to work." No one argued with the young king and his girlfriend, their leader, and they all got up and headed up the stairs.

"There has to be something we can do." Doug said to Fairy Godmother.

There was only one thing she could think of. She contacted the Earth Rangers anyway. Unsurprisingly it was Amber who answered. Fairy Godmother solemnly told her what was going on. After she finished she said softly, "I think our time is done. We can't resist Paradias, Maleficent and all of their forces without our powers or our magic. We can't ask you to come here and suffer the same fate."

"You're wrong." Amber said to her. "If we thought it would make a difference we'd be there no matter what." She took a deep breath. "But we can send you help anyway."

"Your powers…" Fairy Godmother said.

"The help I plan on sending you won't need magical powers, which we really don't have anyway. They won't need ranger powers, they've been helping us with nothing but their weapons, strength and intelligence for a long time. They became part of the team not long before me in fact."

Fairy Godmother seemed impressed to hear this, and the truth was she was desperate anyway. "That would be a good thing."

"I'll ask them." Amber said. "I'm sure they'll go…oh, and if you want to plan a victory celebration for them, I'd advise lots and lots of pizza." She said with a small laugh. She thought the Auradon group would get to love them as much as the other rangers had once they got past the most obvious fact. "I bet anything help will be on the way."

Doug looked at Fairy Godmother. "Who do you think she's going to call?" He asked. She only shrugged, unsure.


	91. The Day the Powers Went Out Part 2

A/N: Been a big fan of the Ninja Turtles from the beginning here. This crossover will largely include Nickelodeon's 2012 Turtles, along with Venus DeMilo, hence acknowledging the crossover that officially brought them together in Power Rangers in Space. I however have envisioned them working together just since (ironically) the monster Shell Shock. I may also reference the '87 show and the Archie comics based off of that show. All of that I do not own. However I will have two OC's in here that I do own from my own **New Ninja Turtles Adventures** stories, which will also have certain references and I will also be connecting one of the turtles with one of the franchises already in here. Feel free to check out that story thread if you would like. Now then, on with the show…

So far the soldiers were the only ones to make it onto Auradon Prep's campus. Mal knew that would change in a hurry and the truth is she didn't know what they were going to do about them, let alone when one of the two monsters made it onto campus. She could only assume they would have no more than those two power and magic stealing lizards to worry about.

"I think our best bet is to find a way to seal off the entrance to the school." Ben suggested to Mal.

"Somehow I don't see that as stopping measure." Carlos pointed out as several of them were already scaling the walls of the school.

Mal knew Carlos was right but really couldn't find any reason to doubt it otherwise. "Ben, Aziz, Jay. See if you can find a way to block the entrance. It might not buy us much time but we can use any advantage we can get." She decided.

The school grounds where they were at now was chaos as many students were trying to hide or run. Several others were trying to organize the evacuation for what that was worth. Mal could see Ruby, the daughter of Rapunzel and Flynn, using her hair as almost a whip to strike at the soldiers. She wasn't sure she had much room to talk right now as they were out here with nothing but fists and feet to help them.

There was one thing they hadn't counted on. Ben went over to help a fallen young girl and he moved to block as if he had a sword before forgetting he didn't have one. Then the Praeleanthor sword appeared in his hand and allowed him to block. It was only then that Melody realized that he needed the sword to transform and wasn't effected by the power block, and there was no evidence that this sword was summoned by magic. She wished she could say the same thing about the trident.

"Hey, that's neat." Amy said happily. "Ben can still use his weapon."

"Oh, come on." Carlos muttered. "How did we not think of that?" He looked to Will and Alex. "We need to see if we can find some version of our own weapons, even if they're, well even if they're only mundane versions." The two boys nodded in agreement and then they ran off.

Ellie tried to use her ice powers against some of the soldiers to get no results. "How did they cut Alex and I off?" She wondered. There was no evidence that their fire and ice powers respectively were magically based, though there wasn't proof it wasn't either.

Mal and Audrey were back to back trying to fight back the soldiers but despite all their experiences they hadn't realized how much of their physical strength came from the use of their powers. "This is looking pretty hopeless." Audrey said softly. What scared her even more was that Chad would be along eventually and this time she had no way of resisting him.

"It's not over yet." Mal said. "We'll find a way to win."

Amy screamed as a soldier slashed her in the leg with its blade. It didn't seem to have cut too deep but it was enough to make her lose her balance. Aquiella and Melody kicked the soldier back and helped Amy to lean on them as they tried to regroup.

"I don't know how we're supposed to block this entrance." Aziz said. "We don't even have anything large enough to tip over it." He slammed his fist hard into one of the soldiers, who recoiled a bit. "Man, I miss my powers."

"Guys!" Carlos, who had two small daggers on his belt, yelled out. They turned as he, Will and Alex came out with stuff. Will had a sword over his shoulder that was a replica of his own recursive blade as he used it for his own martial arts practice. He tossed Mal a bo staff and Audrey a bow and arrow.

Carlos tossed a bag over to Jay who pulled out a scimitar for himself and two pieces that could be connected into a spear for Aziz. Ben didn't need a weapon.

Alex tossed two tessen to Lonnie and two small swords to Miranda. He took a trident off of his shoulder for Melody. He had two tonfa's on his own belt. The problem was some weapons like Jane's , Jordan's, Ally's and even his cousin's weren't so easy to find even mundane replacements for.

"Mal!" Audrey gasped as she pointed to the wall. The purple haired looked up to see an anomaly. Gregory stood there holding his iPhone. He then input his numbers and transformed into the gray ranger. "Wait, how did he do that?"

"Good question." Evie agreed. "A chip or some app maybe. He's been blocked off from our system so he could have done anything to it."

He summoned his axe and jumped down. Will got ready to meet him with his recursive sword. "You just keep getting in my way." Gregory said. "This time I'll cut your down." He then laughed. "Maybe I'll give Lonnie the comfort she'll need after that, and maybe your sister too."

"You'd have to kill me before I let that happen." Will said with a growl in his voice.

Gregory charged toward him but got tripped up. He rolled to his feet again and found himself facing off with Lonnie too. "You could never give me any kind of comfort you creep. And I will die before you hurt Whitney." She warned him. Then Will was on him and he blocked the attack with his axe. He rolled back as Lonnie tried to bring the tessens down on him.

One soldier landed right in front of the two mermaids supporting Amy, where they were hoping to get her to Jordan to check on the gash in her leg. He raised his blade and as Aquiella got ready to futilely defend, long blonde hair lashed out around his bladed arm and then was pulled back where he slammed into the ground hard. "Go, get out of here." Ruby instructed them.

"Thank you." Melody said as Aquiella and Amy smiled at her gratefully.

There was a loud screeching sound and they all looked up to see a large bat monster now land on the wall. "Finally, some back up." Gregory said happily. "Echoleon, subdue these people."

The bat monster Echoleon let out a loud screech and everyone recoiled in pain, falling to the ground. Even as Ally placed her hands over her ears she could feel a little bit of liquid. She looked to see it was blood. As bad as that was, she knew it could be worse.

Then they were picked up and their arms bound by the soldiers. Gregory landed in front of them. "All of my enemies are bound before me at last." He did noticed that since she had been fighting them Ruby had been bound too though she was kept slightly further away from the rest of the actual ranger team. "You don't have powers, you don't have any friends coming to your aid." He paced with his axe drawn. "What do you do now?"

"We still resist you." Aziz said. "With everything we have."

Gregory laughed. "Really?" He asked. He looked to them all. "I hear when you visited the isle that one of my brothers wanted time with you." He now focused on Ally. "Must have been Jr. He always did like blondes, Amy notwithstanding."

"And he got beaten down if I recall correctly." Ally said a bit smugly as she remembered that the original red ranger Jason did in fact stop him from hurting her.

"So tell me, what will stop me if I decide to take you right now?" Gregory asked menacingly as he stepped in front of Ally.

"Leave her alone." Audrey demanded.

Gregory looked at the brunette princess and laughed. "You already have someone laying claim to you sleeping beauty the second." He said to Audrey with a laugh. "But the wonderland girl is still on the market."

"People like you and Chad and Undine are pathetic." Mal stated angrily though Audrey wasn't sure where the daughter of the sea witch came in on that one. "Thinking you can claim other people as your own simply by forcing yourself on them." She started to struggle.

"And how will you feel when you are all forced to watch?" Gregory asked as he gave Mal and Aziz a vicious glare and then placed the tip of his axe just above Ally's top. "Knowing you can do nothing as I take what I want." He had just started to cut his axe down Ally's top when there was a loud thumping sound. He turned to find Echoleon squirming on the ground with a few of the soldiers. The gray ranger looked up.

The ranger team looked up and were admittedly just as surprised at what they saw as Gregory had to have been.

On the walls were eleven figures. Five of them seemed to be human enough, all teenagers. One was a slim girl with short black hair though with blonde dyed in the black. One was a slim red head in a yellow shirt, tights and blue jean shorts holding a tessen. One was a beautiful blonde girl who held two batons in her hands and wore a red tee and white jeans. The last girl looked a bit oddly dressed in what almost seemed like a one piece blue swimsuit wearing a helmet, though a strand of blonde hair slipped out of it, she held a weird looking scepter in one hand. The last human and the only male, gave a gap toothed grin before pulling down a white hockey mask and pulling out a baseball bat.

The six other figures though were the real surprises. Though the isle kids had to struggle a moment to identify their species since wildlife was sparse on the isle they all were able to realize they were giant man sized turtles, four of them male and two of them female, all in different color eye masks and with bandages wrapped around their shoulders, hands, knees and ankles. One had a blue mask around his eyes and two katana's on his back. Another had a purple mask and when he smiled he had a gap toothed grin of his own; he held a staff. The third wore red and a lightning shaped dent on his left plastron, he held one sai in hand while the other was in his belt. The fourth turtle wore orange and had two nunchuck in his belt. The first female turtle wore a lighter shade of blue mask like almost like an aqua color though the bandana was braided out a bit more than all the others, she had no visible weapons on her. The last female turtle wore white and had two small scythes in her belt that Lonnie recognized as bunrei's.

"What is this?" Gregory questioned. He wondered if these were somehow sent from Maleficent and they had the attitude he heard the Psycho Rangers had possessed or what if it was something else. Maybe something Sermaya had sent, or even a new faction in Auradon.

"I could ask you the same thing axe boy." The red masked turtle said to him with a very distinct accent to both Jay, Carlos and Lonnie. He was one of the figures who had been in the dream or vision or whatever that had occurred when their weapons were upgraded. "What is it you think you're doing to her?"

"Claiming her as mine." Gregory stated.

"Dude, that is just so wrong." The orange masked turtle stated. "What is wrong with you?"

"And you know something is wrong with you when he's the one who asks that question." The red masked turtle added with grim sarcasm.

The blonde glanced down on the ground where the Praeleanthor sword lay after Ben lost the hold on his weapon because of Echoleon. "Wow." She said breathlessly. "That weapon." She looked to Leo and Raph. "I know that thing, my father wanted to find it."

"You want it, take it." Gregory said with a dismissive wave. "I have my own things to attend too." He turned again toward Ally.

Lightning fast the young woman with the short hair jumped off the wall, hit the ground on her feet soundlessly and then moved in, kicking Gregory in the chest and sending him rolling away from Ally. "I don't think you quite understand what's going on her genius." She said coldly. "We're here to send you running back to your boss."

"Yeah, to Mallysent." The orange one said.

"That's Maleficent Mikey." The white masked turtle said to him. "Evil Fairy Queen, put Princess Aurora to sleep."

"Oh yeah." He said sheepishly.

"Time to act turtle team." The blue masked turtle said. "Take them out." The team jumped off the roof though the boy in the hockey mask and the girl with the scepter didn't land quite as gracefully as the others.

The team was tossed on the ground as the new adversaries moved in to engage the soldiers. One swung at the purple masked turtle and he blocked it with his staff, knocked it aside and then activated a switch on the side to turn his staff into his naginata and got the soldier in the head with his weapon, and watched as he dissipated away. "Neat." He said.

The turtle that had been addressed as Mikey leapt out with, "Booyakasha!" And kicked the three soldiers who had just dropped the two mermaid girls and Amy. He then turned his nunchuck into his kusarigama chain and swung it around to clock several more soldiers. He then cut the three of them free with the grappling hook part of his weapon. "Where were you ladies headed?" He asked them as he noticed the gash on the rose colored girl's leg.

"To her." Melody said as she indicated Jordan. The genie girl herself along with Miranda had just been liberated by the light blue masked female turtle. "She might be able to take care of the wound even without her magic."

The blue masked turtle landed in front of the two soldiers that had dropped both Mal and Audrey and cut them down. He then sheathed one katana as he freed the two girls. "Mal, Audrey." He said. "My name is Leonardo and Amber said you could use our help."

"Nice timing." Mal said as she fought past the surprise. Giant talking turtles were not unique, even all things considered. Still, they had clearly shown to help out and the five humans that had come with them sure didn't seem worried about the difference in their physical looks. "Glad you and your…friends…family…" She stuttered just a bit.

"Those are my brothers. That's Raphael," Leo pointed to the red masked turtle who Audrey noticed made it his business to land in front of the soldiers holding Aziz and Jay and cut them down to size with his sais.

"Thanks dude." Aziz said as he stood up.

"No problem man." Raph said and then shook his head. "Kid, you definitely look like your father." He said with impressively.

"Yeah, thanks." Jay echoed with some shock.

Raph saw the look in his eye. "You got a problem?" He demanded to know.

Jay shook his head. "Not at all dude." He said. "It's just…I'll have to tell you when this is over."

He indicated the orange masked turtle that had scooped up Amy in his arms as it was easier for him to hold her than for Melody and Aquiella to do it as they started toward Jordan. "That's my youngest brother Michelangelo."

He indicated his purple masked brother who slapped several more soldiers with his naginata as he worked to start freeing Evie, Carlos and Lonnie. "That's Donatello." He then indicated the first female turtle with the light blue bandana that round house kicked two soldiers backwards to free Will and Miranda. "That's my sister Venus."

"What's your other sisters name?" Audrey asked as she reached for her dropped bow and arrow to lend a hand in the fight. Mal was leaning forward to grab her staff. "The white masked one."

"What?" Leo asked and then blushed a bit. "Oh, no. Aaliyah isn't my sister. She's my girlfriend." He answered. That drew confusion from the two girls and he explained, "See a long time ago my brothers, Venus and I were exposed to something that made us what we are now after contact with our father. But Aaliyah was born a human girl who was only mutated into her current form about six months ago."

Audrey was almost sure she had figured out the strange family thing despite Aaliyah not being related until he pointed to the short black haired girl who had just flipped over Gregory to kick Echoleon in the face as he rose before he could give off another screech. "That's our older sister Karai." He said to them.

"Okay, now I'm confused." Mal agreed.

"We can worry about the specifics later." Leo promised her. "Right now we need to get these guys off of your campus."

"Goongala!" The hockey masked fighter called out as he dropped several pucks with cherry bombs duck taped on them and then shot them at the soldiers. They struck and the soldiers flinched from the impact. Alex and Ellie shot out their feet and snap kicked them in the stomachs hard. "Hey Red, how're you doing over there?" He called.

"I'm just doing just fine Casey." She promised as she dodged two soldiers and then used the wall to come down on one of them hard. He started to get up and she placed her hand gently on the side of her head before the soldier went flying.

The red head then knelt in front of Ruby, for just a moment having to hide her surprise. Seeing her was like seeing the child of a celebrity after all. She knew all of the fairy tales; Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin, Rapunzel. Now she and her friends were helping their children to fight evil. She freed her and said, "Go, get the other students to safety. We'll handle things here."

"Okay." Ruby said reluctantly. She didn't like the idea of leaving the others behind but had to trust in them while so many others were still in danger. She got up to continue the process of clearing out the students.

"Wow, how'd you do that Red?" Carlos asked.

"That was a telepathic ability." Evie said. "But I thought magic powers didn't work here. Even Alex and Ellie can't access their abilities."

"That's because my abilities aren't magical in nature." She answered though there seemed to be a bit of something in her voice that they couldn't identify. "They're an intended scientific side effect that occurred from genetic manipulation by an alien race. Oh, and my name isn't Red, it's April O'Neil." She was pleased though to see that the two of them seemed to understand the idea behind what she said, even though they didn't know everything.

The blonde used her batons to take out a soldier and she knelt down to free Ally. As she did so Gregory grabbed her arm and turned her around before delivering a hard kick to her chest. She fell to the ground hard. "One pretty blonde is the same as another." Gregory said a bit lustfully. "And it looks like you have a bit more curves to enjoy too."

Raphael landed in front of her before he could move any further and he looked pissed. "I know you're not threatening Jennifer, you know, my girlfriend." He said dangerously. For a moment the statement did seem to shock both Ally and Gregory, but whereas the gray ranger didn't really care what was going on all Ally had to do was look at the love and relief in the blonde's eyes to know it was true.

Finally Gregory laughed. "Why would she even be interested in a freak like you?" He questioned.

"Because even though I don't look like a normal guy, I know how to treat a girl." Raph said to him with his sais raised. "Whereas you might be some kind of prince here or something but between what you attacking my girlfriend and what you were trying to do to her, clearly you don't know how to treat a girl."

Gregory swung his axe at the red masked turtle and he dodged it. He tried to lash out with a kick and he blocked it. "You know you remind me of her stalker." Raph said to him almost conversationally. "Except since it doesn't look like you're going to turn into a large bull or anything, I think I've got the edge." He blocked the axe with his sais and flipped him over his back as Jennifer stood up and finished freeing Ally though she flinched briefly at the mention of Hector, one of her father's minions who had become so obsessed with her that he had turned himself into a mutant shapeshifter to try to take her away from Raphael and her other friends.

Ally looked to Jennifer. "Please, I know this is kind of the wrong place for this, but he has something of ours. We need to get it back. This might be our only chance." She pleaded to the lovely blonde in her soft British voice.

"What is it?" Jennifer asked her gently.

"Those powers shouldn't be his." Ally said. "I don't even know how they're working here as you know. But it might help us to solve that and take it back."

Jennifer and Amy had one thing in common; they had empathic abilities. The blonde knew she was telling the truth. "Raph." She called out. He looked to her. The two had been dating long enough that what the other wanted was often easy to figure out. "Please, make it happen."

"Will do." The red masked turtle promised. He turned as Gregory rose and he knocked the axe away with by hooking his sais around it and pulling it away. Then he kicked Gregory hard into the walls hard and the iPhone disconnected from his waist. It slid away to the red masked turtle as he was forced to power down. "Mission done." Raph stated as he picked up the iPhone.

"No." Gregory growled. He stood up as if he meant to attack Raph and take it back but then Aziz was in front of him as was the hockey masked boy. He knew he couldn't take all out. "Echoleon, stop them."

The bat monster got ready to attack again but Karai kicked the bat monster in the head. "Oh Leo, we're going to need a bit more power here if we want to put this monster on ice." She called out to her blue masked brother.

"Go help." Mal said as by now most of her team had recovered the mundane versions of their weapons and were doing their best to help deal with the soldiers. They didn't have years of ninja training that the turtles did but they quickly found another pattern; if they attacked the soldiers after April used her powers it was easy to take them out.

"Hey Jennifer, your telekinetic powers should work here too." April called out to her blonde friend.

"You have powers?" Ally asked.

"Yes." Jennifer answered. "Like her my powers aren't magical, they're…" She hesitated a moment before finishing her explanation. "They're demonic." That drew a few brief looks, including from Ben who knew about some demonic stuff because of the Praeleanthor sword.

"Then help us get rid of these soldiers." Mal said to Jennifer, undeterred by the information. She was the heir to Maleficent at one point after all. "And let your brother's take care of the monster."

"Actually, she's dating the red masked turtle." Ally supplied to the purple haired girl.

"Huh." Mal sighed. "I guess I really don't know how their dynamics works."

"Alright fearless." Raph called out to Leo. "How do we stop this monster when we don't have powers ourselves?" They had always assisted the rangers in combat whenever possible but without other items they had no way of destroying monsters themselves.

"Not sure yet." Leo replied. "I'm still working on an idea here."

"Hey, I have a totally cold idea." The girl in the cape stated.

"I think your mean cool Renet." Mikey supplied helpfully.

"What's your idea?" Evie asked her, trying to get them back on track.

"Well, magic doesn't work here and powers don't work here, but tech does right?" She asked.

"Um." Evie bit her lip in thought. "Well we don't really know but presumably yes."

"Then," Renet took her scepter and tapped it on the ground, making the rangers think it had to be more than just a weird looking scepter. "I think it's time for you six turtles to go cyber." She nudged over what looked to Evie like morphers.

Raph picked it up and thought a moment, trying to decipher what he called Renet speak. "I got nothing." He finally announced. "Donnie, what the shell does that mean?"

As Evie leaned over to look at Mikey's, the purple masked turtle looked down at his. "Hmm, well it looks like a simple device. Attaches to our wrists and..." He started.

"And looks like this small button on the side will activate it." Evie interrupted. "This looks similar to the small robots that repair our zords."

Donnie caught on and said brightly, "Nanites. These things contain nanites that when that button is activated should give us some kind of boost to our powers."

"But I thought that powers do not work here right now." Venus reminded them in her soft spoken voice as she looked at her own device. She too had some difficulties here as she could not use her own abilities similar enough to magic to cause her some problems.

"See, these aren't powers." Donnie said to her. "They will simply give us a coat of armor that will amplify our own abilities and make us powerful enough to take out that monster."

Leo and Raph looked at each other a little uncertainly but then placed the devices on their wrists. The other four followed and they did as Donnie and Evie had said. All six turtles stood there decked out in armor. All they could see were there eyes.

Leo was in armor with a white helmet and chest, gray on the upper legs and upper arms, and blue on the lower legs and the lower arms and hands. He also had little gray wing like objects on his shell.

Raph almost seemed to be like the American flag, decked out in spots of red on the side of the head, the knees and the elbows while the bulk of the armor was also white though with blue on the arms and the legs.

Donnie had yellow on his face plate and plastron, the bottom was gray while his feet and arms were in green. His knees and lower arms were in purple.

Mikey's looked very much like Donnie's except for he had purple where the green was on Donnie and had orange where the purple was on Donnie.

Venus was in an aqua color armor on her plastron and lower legs while her arms and upper legs were in a very light gray. From just underneath her helmet the ends of her braided bandanas poked out.

Aaliyah had yellow on her chest, her lower arms and her legs while she wore white on her upper arms and legs. She had blue on her knees and the armor of the wrists.

"Oh my pink." Amy said. "It looks so amazing, and shiny."

"Okay, that is sweet." Evie agreed.

"Dude, we're totally Cyber Samurai Turtles." Mikey said with a laugh. "We've gone all Borg."

"Save it guys." Leo said. "Time to take out Echoleon and get these goons off of Auradon Prep property."

"Wow, this is more than just enhancement." Donnie said as he quickly scrolled through the schematics. "We have palm lasers, we have jet propulsion, and we have plasma weapons."

"Where were these babies several years ago?" Raph wondered.

Echoleon let out a piercing shriek that brought the ranger team down to their knees again, as well as Karai, April, Jennifer, Casey, Renet and even Gregory. "Hey look, sonic refraction." Mikey added. "He can't stun us." The monster seemed to realize that too.

"Let's try these palm lasers then." Aaliyah said and unleashed a stream of energy at Echoleon. He fell back with a shriek only to find Raph jet packing toward him.

"Take it bat boy." Raph snapped as his shoulder collided hard with him.

"Time to take out Wingnut 2.0." Mikey declared as he drew out his plasma nunchuck's and wrapped them around Echoleon.

"There is no Wingnut 1.0." Donnie said to his youngest brother sharply as he struck the bat monster with his plasma staff. "I told you, we are still not giving Mr. O'Neill a mutant name."

"I do not really think this is a good time for this." Venus said as she found that she could channel a minimum amount of chi through her cyber samurai suit and unleashed it, striking Echoleon.

By now the ranger team had recovered, along with the turtles seemingly human allies and were starting to drive off the soldiers. Gregory tried to sneak out only to find Karai in front of him. "Something tells me it's better off if you don't make it back to your master." The cunning kunoichi said before lashing out and kicking him in the jaw hard enough to knock him out. She then looked to a couple of approaching guards. "Think you can keep the frog prince here properly restrained until he can be better taken care of." They exchanged looks of annoyance with each other, not liking her attitude at all.

Mal also noticed it but something about it delighted her to no end. Just as she did on their first drive to Auradon she leaned over to Evie and said, "She's nasty. I like her." Mal was delighted to see either the soldiers had all been defeated or retreated from the fight. Only the monster was left and suspected it wouldn't be for long.

Echoleon knelt and then launched into the sky, but noticed that in only a matter of moments he had six turtles in armor jetting after him. He turned to try to deliver another sonic boom but the six turtle warriors evaded it and surrounded him.

"I've always wanted to try one of these group combinations." Raph said to his siblings and Aaliyah.

"Like real life superheroes." Mikey said happily.

Aaliyah giggled just a little. She had quickly gotten to think of them as superheroes, and sometimes found it a surprise that she could hang out on their level.

"Take aim guys." Leo instructed and the six of them raised their laser gauntlets and unleashed their energy on Echoleon, striking at all side and causing him to explode in the sky, almost as a beacon to the power stealing monsters and Maleficent that resistance was far from over and that they would find a way to win every time.

"Take that Wingnut 2.0! Booyakasha!" Mikey proclaimed.

"Mikey." Don and Raph said warningly.

The six turtles landed back in the commons of Auradon and powered down their armor. "And that's showing the evil forces of Auradon the mighty wrath of the turtles of justice!" Leo proclaimed victoriously.

Mal snickered and questioned, "Turtles of Justice?" She asked.

"Mighty wrath?" Audrey laughed.

"Yeah, ignore him." Raph told the two girls as he shoved Leo in the arm. "He's just a big dork."

"I know the kind." Jay promised as he got Carlos around the neck and ran his knuckle over his head.

Jennifer rushed over and threw her arms around Raphael, who swept her into his arms. It made Ben think of the way he hugged Mal and made him realize just how human the turtles really were. A moment later April hugged Donnie and planted a kiss on his cheek softly.

"You did really great guys." Renet said as she came over and took Mikey's hand subtly, the way that Alex would do with Amy. "So pixel."

"I think you mean perfect." Karai corrected her with a smirk. She looked to the others. "Time travelers."

"Hey." Raph said as he looked up at Mal. "Your friend told my girlfriend this belongs to you guys." He tossed her the iPhone containing the active gray ranger powers.

"You did it." Mal said a bit shocked. "Thank you, thank you so much Raphael."

"But this isn't over." Ben started.

Leo shook his head as he took Aaliyah's hand in his own. "No. Getting them out of Auradon Prep was just the start." He agreed as he looked at his own siblings and friends and then at the Auradon Rangers. "This isn't over until we stop the monsters that blocked off your magic and your ranger powers."

"Come on." Evie said. "Let's take you to the command center. We can let Amber and the rangers know you got here okay and figure out our next step in this."

"Sounds great." Donnie said. "I can't wait to see your command center. I hope it's as great as the original command center and the power chamber was."

"How far does your association with the other rangers go?" Audrey wondered.

"Pretty far." Leo said.

"Some further than that apparently." Aziz noted as he looked at Raph. "You'll have to tell me how you know I look like my father."

"I'll tell you." Raph promised as he squeezed Jennifer's shoulders lightly with his arm. "In fact, I'm hoping before we leave I get to talk to your parents again." He looked to Jennifer. "I never told you about that, so this will be new for you too…"


	92. The Day the Powers Went Out Part 3

Doug and Fairy Godmother were certainly surprised to see the six turtle team that showed up with everyone else but they had already seen what they could do, and Amber herself had sent them. The first thing Mal did was give the gray iPhone to Doug. "Somehow that thing worked despite my mother's power drain. We need to find out how." She said to him.

"Mal, how did you get that away from Gregory without your powers?" Fairy Godmother questioned with some amazement.

"You can save the amazement on my part." Mal said to their headmistress. "I didn't do it, Raphael did." She pointed to the red masked turtle.

"It was my pleasure." Raph said a bit happily. "He threatens my girl; I take away the powers that don't belong to him in the first place." He placed an arm around Jennifer, who smiled up at him happily. That actually seemed to surprise Doug a little to see that.

"It's so weird to think all of the fairy tales I grew up hearing about and reading were really true, and then some." April said with some amazement in her voice as she looked around the command center. "And this place is so cool."

"Totally." Donnie agreed as he stepped up to the command center stage. "This looks so much like the original command center bros."

"Doug, let Donnie help you." Evie advised. "He's like the genius of their group I think."

"Nah, that is so me." Mikey tried to gloat.

"Don't listen to him." Raph said dismissively. "That table over there is smarter than Mikey."

"Oh, that is cold." Jay said, voice full of amusement.

Doug motioned for Donnie to help him take a look at the iPhone, plus it would give them a good idea of how their particular powers would work.

"So how did you guys come to be anyway?" Evie now asked as she looked at the turtles. "How does this family of yours work?" She knew they were still trying to figure out how the dynamics of their family worked.

"And how do you know my father?" Aziz asked Raph.

"You know Aladdin?" Fairy Godmother now asked with surprise.

"And Jasmine." Raph added. "It's all a long story."

"But one that they deserve to hear." Leo filled in for his oldest younger brother. "If Amber and the rangers trust them, then we will trust them. Just as Zordon trusted Master Splinter and ourselves so long ago."

"Splinter." Audrey echoed. "Is that the name of the father your mentioned?"

Amy looked to the blue masked turtle and she had a sudden vision. She could see a rat man in a kimono running toward something. Behind him was a man in metal who reached out and she saw two small points extend out of his chest as if he had been stabbed.

"Yes." Leo said. "His name was Hamato Yoshi originally but we nicknamed him Splinter when the four of us were younger."

"Is he still alive?" Amy asked softly as she recalled the horrible vision she saw. Mal looked at her twin and wondered what she had just seen.

"Of course he is." Mikey said happily. "Nothing could ever take sensei down."

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Fairy Godmother suggested to Leo.

Leonardo nodded. "Of course, ma'am. Sorry." He replied with a small nod of apology. Mal saw Raph roll his eyes and snickered a little. "Originally our father Hamato Yoshi was part of a ninja clan called the Hamato clan. He grew up with a man named Oroku Saki, who was the last of the Foot Clan but was adopted at a young age. As they grew up they both fell in love with a woman named Tang Shen. She got together with Hamato Yoshi."

"Guessing Saki didn't like that." Audrey said as she thought of herself, Chad, and Jay.

"He wasn't happy at all." Leo agreed. "But through that connection came the birth of a daughter, Miwa."

"So you have three sisters then?" Carlos asked as he looked between Karai and Venus and then to Leo. "Dude, you have a big family."

"Not quite that big." Karai said to him. "When Oroku Saki found out the truth he attacked his rival, but accidently killed Tang Shen instead as the fire consumed their house. Before he slunk away to leave them behind he kidnapped that baby girl to raise as his own…and he changed her name from Miwa to Karai."

"That baby was you." Miranda concluded. The kunoichi nodded.

"Hamato Yoshi survived and moved to New York where he adopted five baby turtles." Leo continued on. "But as he left the pet shop he ran into several beings that thought he had heard too much and tried to kill him, in the process he stepped on a rat's tail. He fought back, and in the process got covered by stuff they had. The result was his mutation into a humanoid rat and my brothers and Venus being mutated into humanoid turtles, though he lost track of her and was found by another man, a master of chi, who raised her as his own daughter."

"But wait, there are six turtles here." Jordan said.

"We'll get to that." Leo promised her. "So while Venus was raised by the chi master Chung Il, we were raised by Master Splinter in the ways of ninjitsu. For fifteen years we pretty much stayed underground, learning and honing our skills."

"Pretty much?" Mal asked, knowing there had to be a lot more exceptions to that rule than they probably wanted to admit.

"Raph." Leo said to his red masked brother.

"I was out on my own in the sewers one day." Raph said to them all now. "And something weird happened. Still not sure how to describe it even to this day, that's not area of expertise." He looked to Aziz. "Whatever happened swept me into Agrabah where I met your father and helped me to deal with Jafar, which is also where I met your mother too at the end."

"What was that like?" Jennifer asked her boyfriend now. She was familiar with the tale and had certainly seen the movie, but to be there was something she would have loved to experience.

Raph laughed. "Kind of freaky sometimes. Riding that magic carpet out of the Cave of Wonders to try to avoid the lava." He shook his head, not aware that Will could easily attest to that experience too. "Meeting the Genie, weird blue guy in harem pants and Mikey's sense of humor."

"Hey, that man happens to be my father." Jordan informed him.

Raph laughed a bit. "Wow, never would have guessed. Good for him then." He replied.

"What did you do when my dad wished to be a prince?" Aziz asked him.

"Let's just say it's a good thing that most princes have royal guards, and that being around a genie means no one really knows who you are." Raph answered him. "Unfortunately Jafar could see through it and had Razoul and some of the guards try to lock me up when he tried to assassinate him, and then we got banished to the arctic after Jafar got a hold of the lamp."

"And then you helped our parents beat Jafar after you, Aladdin and Carpet came back." Jordan surmised.

Raph nodded. "Yep. Grew to dislike magic as a general rule after that fact." He said with a laugh. "After Jafar made himself into a genie, trapping himself in that lamp, Genie gave me a lift home before he went off to see the world."

"Wow." Jennifer said. "You actually helped with that? You got to ride a magic carpet?" She seemed very fascinated with it.

"Maybe someday you two can take a carpet ride." Aziz said. "I bet my dad would let you."

"So you know who I am then?" Jay asked Raph.

The red masked turtle nodded. "Yeah, the son of Jafar. We going to have a problem here?" He asked.

Jay shook his head. "Nah. I get it. It's in the past." He indicated his team, placing a hand on Audrey's shoulders. "This is my life now dude." The two exchanged nods of understanding. "Besides, I do owe you. You've already helped me."

"Um, I think we all get credit for that man." Casey pointed out.

"Not what happened up there." Jay replied. He looked to Raph. "You were there when Zordon upgraded my weapon. I doubt you were aware of it and I don't how that works, but you were there."

"You and your brother Mikey were also there when Carlos and I had our weapons upgraded by Zordon." Lonnie said now. "I recognize your voices, and your bickering."

"You guys knew Zordon?" Jane asked them now.

"We did." Leo answered. "We were sad to hear he was dead, but only Andros was there for it."

"We started working with the rangers not long after our fifteenth birthday and we first went to the surface where we met April, our first human friend." Leo explained. "We started to learn the mysteries of our creation."

"What was that?" Doug asked, fascinated despite the situation. Luckily Donnie knew the story already and was working on the iPhone mystery.

"An alien substance created by a race called the Kraang." April said to them. "They want to terraform Earth for their own purposes. They messed with my families genetics for decades for that reason and my powers are a result of that tampering."

"And this Oroku Saki, whatever happened to him?" Audrey asked now.

"He rebuilt his clan and turned it into a criminal organization." Leo said. "When we got into a fight with the Kraang one of our shuriken, throwing stars, were left behind with the Hamato symbol and he came after us. He now calls himself the Shredder."

 _Was it Shredder that stabbed their master Splinter?_ Amy couldn't help but wonder sadly. She wondered why they didn't seem to know anything about it. Unless she was seeing the future.

"We've been fighting a war between the Shredder and the Foot Clan, along with a new gang recently." Raph said to them all. "That gang is led by Jennifer's father. He wanted to engineer his own mutants to fight against us."

"Is that when you were…changed?" Evie asked Aaliyah.

The white masked turtle nodded. "Yes. The common term is mutated I think. He abducted me from a martial arts tournament and mutated me into what you see now. He also mutated a girl off the streets named Candy into an Axolotl."

"Axey what?" Alex asked.

"I've never heard of that either." Evie said.

"An animal that exists in our world, like a salamander that never gets the ability to breathe outside of water. They live only in one place in a place called Mexico." Donnie informed them all in between iPhone checks.

"So you're part of the Foot Clan then?" Jay asked Karai.

"I was." Karai answered. "I was raised to believe Splinter and his disciples were my enemies, that he had killed my mother. But I eventually found out the truth and left the Foot Clan to live with my father and my family."

Somehow they could tell there was more to that story than that but was sure Karai was not one to want to reveal the details if she didn't have too. They decided to let the kunoichi keep her story for the time being.

"Not to interrupt, I know there are still some questions that need to be addressed," Donnie said as he looked up. "But is this part of the typical iPhone lineup?" He held up the exclusion chip that Gregory had made just before Maleficent's monsters had attacked.

Jane reached out and gently took it from the purple masked turtle. "No, it's not." She answered. She walked over to another console to do another scan of her own.

Jennifer looked to Ben. "Your majesty, may I please see your sword a minute?" She requested softly.

Ben was surprised at how soft spoken and vulnerable the blonde seemed to be. She reminded the young king a lot of Amy now that he thought about it. "Sure, of course." He answered and handed her the Praeleanthor sword.

It was almost a surprise she could even hold the sword in her hands. She turned it a little bit. "It doesn't react against me." She noted softly, seemingly relieved.

"Why would it?" Mal questioned. "You're not the enemy and you're not a demon."

"But you said your powers were demonic in origin." Ally recalled.

"My father experimented on me, giving me demon blood." She told them all softly. "When I realized he was evil I ran away from home, in California. Made it all the way across the United States before nearly being caught, where I met the Turtles and their friends."

"My father followed, though not just for me. He wanted to start a gang war against the Foot Clan and two other clans, the Triangles and the Golden Stars. But his allegiance is more than that. He serves a demonic source of power." Jennifer explained. "And he wanted me to be a weapon for them."

"You don't think the same demons that your father is allied with is the same ones that made Maledicts blade, do you?" Carlos asked.

"No way." Mal said. "That would be just way too coincidental."

"Actually I'm sorry to tell you that they are the same demons." Renet said to them, sounding much more serious that she had since they met her. This was the same girl who mistook the term cool for cold after all. "They've been fighting to retake Earth for years, though I don't know why all of a sudden their interested in Auradon, unless they've decided not to put all of their eggs in one nest."

"I think you mean basket." April now provided. "They don't want all of their eggs in one basket."

"That make sense actually." Ben agreed. "If they think they're encountering too much resistance on Earth they might try for here, though they'll find just as much resistance there too."

"They probably didn't expect to be facing that much elsewhere, or to think that the two worlds could be related to each other." Renet said.

"Who are you anyway?" Jordan asked. "I mean, you just act so…so contrary sometimes."

"Oh, my name is Renet. I'm the apprentice time mistress to Time lord Simultaneous." She said with a small bow. "And I've started to do what I can to help the turtle warriors of legends with their problems if I can."

No one else seemed to be exactly impressed, although Jordan was hard to read she understood what Renet meant. Her father had spent some time working with Lord Simultaneous before he had been sealed away in the lamp that Aladdin would later find. That made her respect this girl far more than she wanted to admit.

"So where's your friend then?" Evie asked Aaliyah. "The girl you said became an axolotl."

"Candy joined another group of mutant heroes called the Mighty Mutanimals." Aaliyah explained to her. They launched into quick explanations about Slash; the former turtle pet of Raph's who became mutated and briefly lost his mind before going good again. Leatherhead; the mutant alligator mutated in Dimension X, home of the Kraang and a good friend of Mikey's. Tyler Rockwell, a scientist mutated into a monkey that had developed psychic powers and often rivaled Donnie. Pidgeon Pete; a mutated pigeon. Mondo Gecko; a mutated skateboarder originally named Jason who Mikey and Casey befriended and Muckman; a garbage mutant that had been accidently created by two of Shredder's minions.

It amazed Mal to realize that as she learned more about the turtles and all their friends that she was forgetting that they were mutated animals because she was starting to see the caring, human side of them. It was a feeling all of the Auradon team could identify with, proving that real friendship could go beyond the outer shell.

Jane was working to produce chips like Gregory's so they could start to restore their powers though she feared they couldn't make enough of them to restore them all. She was glad then that the turtles and their allies were here to help. And she found she genuinely liked them, especially Donnie and April who seemed to be very intelligent and learned quickly.

"So you've worked with the rangers for a long time then." Amy said softly. "You've been around them all."

"We've met them all." Leo confirmed. "But our closest times were with the Power Rangers, The Zeo Rangers, the Turbo Rangers and the Space Rangers."

"Except for our brainwashed attempt to steal the megaship." Venus noted. "You see, back when Karone was Astronema she brainwashed us and tried to get us to steal their ship and bring it to her, thereby stripping the rangers of their most powerful weapon the Astro Megazord."

"Yeah, it's a good thing we learned the truth of who she was later on and that she redeemed herself." Raph noted. "Otherwise there would have been trouble."

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Jay agreed as he thought about Will. Though he was their good friend and did have genuine feelings for Lonnie he had also come within a hair's breadth of stealing the Auradon Warzord with Gregory. It was something that took them a little bit of time to work around, especially Lonnie. Mal hadn't given up on him though, she felt she couldn't after their scheme to try to steal Fairy Godmother's wand came to light with a near success. "But those of us who choose to truly redeem ourselves have the right to try."

"And Karone's done a good job of that too." Casey replied.

"We've heard you guys have had some close calls here." Leo said diplomatically. "It can be tough sometimes."

"Yeah, what about it?" Jay couldn't help but ask testily. Audrey placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him.

"Jay, calm down." Mal said. "I'm sure Leo didn't mean anything by that."

"Not at all." Leo said. "You've kept a hold of Auradon. Believe it or not, that's a big plus. We lost New York a while back."

"What is New York?" Amy asked him.

"It's the city where we live in our world." April explained to her. "The Kraang perfected the mutagen and invaded. They started transforming everything and everyone, including my father." She looked sad at that. "It wasn't the first time he had been mutated either."

Evie noticed the turtles exchanging guilty looks and wondered if they had had something to do with it. "So the Kraang invaded?" The blue haired girl prodded.

"For the second time." Raph added darkly. "The first time they invaded they brought forth a huge object called the Technodrome and were abducting people. We barely stopped it and…and we thought we lost Leo in the process." Jennifer rubbed his arm gently.

"The second time," Leo said. "They used a Kraang spy named Kraang Subprime to find out lair so they could deliver our father to Shredder. We split up and I got ambushed by the Shredder and his henchman. They left me in a coma for three months."

"We thought we lost Master Splinter when Shredder tossed him into a storm drain." Mikey added sadly. Amy bit her lip as she thought again of her vision; she now assumed the man stabbing Splinter was their arch enemy the Shredder, but she wondered what would lead to that.

"And we had to flee New York, go up to my grandparent's farm." April added with a small shake of her head. "We had to leave my father, Master Splinter behind. We had to leave Casey's father and sister behind. We had to leave Karai behind."

"What?" Lonnie asked now. "Why is that?"

"Because Shredder, the man I thought was my father, tried to lure my family into a trap that would make the turtles mindless automatons, but it was screwed up and I became a mutant snake instead." Karai now answered. "I was staying away from everyone as I was losing my mind." She sighed. "One of his henchmen restored my mind but used a worm on me that controlled my mind, intending to do that to the city. That production never got that far and," She looked to April and Jennifer. "They then brought me back."

"I take it you guys took back the city though." Miranda guessed.

"We did." Leo replied. "We've seen signs that the Kraang are still around but not as active after failing to invade. Now we're dealing with the Foot and the demons, along with their human allies."

"But when we found out what was happening, we had to come lend a hand." Leo said. "The rangers tried to help us take back New York before one of their enemies ruined everything for them too."

"They still have enemies?" Lonnie asked in shock.

Leo and Raph seemed to exchange glances, as if they knew something the rangers did not. Mikey seemed oblivious as he started to say, "Yeah of course. I'm surprised you don't already know what we're talking about considering that as a pink ranger you…" Then Casey hit him in the side to shut him up.

Mal was almost sure they were missing something but wanted to assume it wasn't anything they needed to worry about if they weren't told about it.

"Hey, I've got it." Doug announced to them. "I figured out what's going on with those monsters."

"You mean the drainers, yeah we got that figured out." Mikey said dismissively.

The others ignored Mikey, which was a relatively common thing. "What's going on with them?" Jennifer asked him.

"They take the powers, regardless of magical or ranger, and they channel them through the ground and into other points in Auradon." Doug explained as he brought one of them up in the all too present Badlands. "That way even destroying the monster doesn't free the energy. We have to destroy these 'routers' and then destroy the monsters."

"How do we restore your powers though once the routers and monsters are destroyed?" Casey asked him.

"Destroying the monster should dissipate the field that Maleficent's monster has over Auradon." Doug said. "The challenge comes at actually destroying the monster without powers, at least that was her intent before you guys showed up and Renet gave you the cyber samurai armor."

"Which is totally cool by the way." Carlos added happily. "I wish we could get something like that."

Renet knew it was best not to tell them that the cyber samurai armor was made by Donatello in the very far future, after the death of their current friends and the polar ice caps had melted, causing global warming around the Earth. "Let's just say it's not exactly something that can easily be popped out of nowhere. In fact once this is done I'll have to return the cyber armor back to where it belongs." She said.

"Bummer." Mikey drawled.

"Well we'll make the best of them now." Leo declared. He looked to his purple masked brother and Jane. "Where do we stand on getting those chips into the other iPhones?" He asked them.

"So far we've replicated a few chips. I've put them in Mal's, Audrey's and Evie's iPhones." Jane said to him. "It takes about two minutes to do it each time, plus another two for replication."

"Can it work for all of us?" Mal asked now.

Donnie shook his head. "I don't think so. It should do it for most of you with the iPhones, but I know that Melody and Jane use items with the gems in them to transform and there's no way to make that accommodation." He looked to Ben. "Same thing with you your majesty. Since you transform with your shield and sword, and a sword that any of us barely understand at that, there's no way to get around needing to lower the field the monster has over Auradon."

"If mom knew about the chip being in the gray ranger iPhone and if she knows that Gregory isn't coming back," Amy started and Karai snickered just a little at how she had stopped him from escaping. "Then she might have some kind of plan to prepare for it."

"It's possible." Mal agreed with her twin sister. "But it's a chance we're just going to have to take."

"How long until she decides to retaliate for our defense of the school anyway?" April asked. "I mean she has to know her bat monster was killed and most of her soldiers defeated."

"It'll happen sooner rather than later." Will said.

A little more time passed. They managed to get the chips into Carlos, Lonnie, Jay, Amy and Will's iPhone when the alarms went off again. "The two monsters are on the move toward Auradon Prep." Doug announced now. "And they have Jabberwock with them."

"That sounds familiar." Jennifer murmured and then made the connection. "Alice in Wonderland."

"I'm sorry to say it's become much worse than the creature that is in any of the books you know of." Ally told her.

"We have seven rangers and all of you." Fairy Godmother announced as she took the working iPhones and handing them to the teens and then looked to the six turtles and their friends. "This is the last stand here. If we can win, we can return everything to normal. If we fail, then Paradias and Maleficent win."

"We need to confront the monsters, Jabberwock and the soldiers." Mal decided as she looked at her team mates and the turtle team. "If we have to the six of you can use your cyber samurai armor and fly to the router things, Doug can guide you."

"We'll see what we can do about getting everyone else up and going to provide back up or go after the routers themselves." Jane said. "Everyone has to be careful though, we are all looking at a pretty bad hand here."

"Then it's time to play the cards we're dealt and see what happens." Leo said to his team. "There's no time for hesitation." He twirled his katana's as he quoted Captain Ryan from one of his favorite shows Space Heroes, which drew groans from April, Donnie and Raph.

"Around here we use the expression let's get to work." Lonnie provided.

Mal and Leo exchanged looks and then they both nodded and announced, "Let's get to work."


	93. The Day the Powers Went Out Part 4

Block Number P, Block Number M, and Jabberwock were approaching Auradon Prep with plenty of soldiers behind them. The remaining soldiers from the first fight had indeed reported not only the attempt at resistance that Mal and the others had put up but just as importantly the reptilian interlopers and their human friends. Maleficent had not been happy to discover that even her plan to block out fighters from the Earth realm fell flat because they had fighters that weren't dependent on ranger powers. In addition to that one of the reptilian creatures had stripped their forces of the gray ranger.

"When we see these freaks we tear them apart." Declared Block Number P. "They don't get the chance to mess with us the way they did Echoleon." He added, referring to the bat monster that was meant to subdue the insurgents that had been expected at Auradon Prep.

"And here they come now." Block Number M observed. "Along with some of the former rangers." He saw Mal, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Will and Amy with them. "I guess they're eager to end their lives now." Jabberwock seemed to release a sigh of annoyance that someone was not there, the monsters guessed Ally.

"You made a mistake coming here, battery boys." Casey stated as he took out a baseball bat. "We destroy you we take out most of your operation."

"You think a baseball bat can take us out boy?" Block Number M asked him.

"I think Wingnut 2.0 might dispute that with you, you know if he was still around." Mikey replied.

"There is no Wingnut 1.0." Donnie said to his youngest brother angrily.

"Guys, can we focus?" Leo snapped at his two youngest siblings. He drew his two katana blades. "Right now we have other problems to worry about."

"And why did you kids come out here?" Block Number P demanded. "You have no powers to fight us with."

Mal smirked. "Are you clueless or just ignorant?" The purple haired girl questioned them. "Didn't you know what Gregory was doing?" She looked to her team mates and they pulled out their iPhones. "If not then I guess it's time you find out what he was up to."

"Get them." Block Number P ordered. The soldiers surged forward.

The six turtles intercepted the soldiers, with Casey right behind them. April and Jennifer had their weapons ready as April said to them, "I think it's time to show them what Gregory screw up did."

The seven teens entered their numbers and transformed into Auradon Rangers, much to the surprise of Block Number P who had assumed they were stripped of their powers. "How is that possible?" He demanded to know.

"Gregory had a chip inside of his iPhone that allowed him to transform despite your abilities." Carlos said to him. "And now thanks to Donnie and Doug, so do we."

Block Number P unleashed a rainbow stream of energy that Amy thought looked suspiciously like their own energies right at the team. Audrey reached over to take Jennifer's arm even as Lonnie reached over to take April's arm and the team scattered to avoid the attack.

"Dude, that wasn't cool." Mikey said as he slapped a soldier aside with one of his nunchuck before leaping up and kicking the monster in the chest hard. The monster fell back but the body felt like solid steel and the orange masked turtle let out a little yelp of, "Ow."

Casey swung and took out two soldiers before connecting with something solid and hard. He looked up and let out a gulp at the sight of the Jabberwock with his steel abdomen. "Heh, nice racket you make." He said. Jabberwock tried to shoot fire at him and the hockey masked vigilante dodged out of the way.

Karai moved in swiftly behind the general and jumped up to deliver a hard kick to the side of the monster's head. It staggered only a little before looking back at her. "And I thought Chrome Dome was armored up." She mused. He tried to bring his upper appendages down on the kunoichi but she rolled out of the way swiftly.

Audrey formed her elemental bow and found herself extremely grateful that she could do that too. She missed the surge of energy that went through her body when she transformed. Summoning a rain of arrows she unleashed them and brought them down around the soldiers and the two Power Blocker monsters.

As if knowing what his girlfriend was thinking Jay laughed out loud, "Man I have so missed this." He declared before starting to swing out at the soldiers that were in the way of the two monsters that they needed to get rid of to restore magic and fully restore their powers.

"Alright then." Block Number M said with annoyance in his voice. "Let's see what all of you think about this one." With that statement and a wave of his hands he sent out a wave of magical energy that struck them all, sending them back hard. For just a moment Jennifer thought her arm might have broken but she felt the pain lessen as she stood up.

"What was that?" Casey demanded.

"That was magic." Evie replied. "He hit us with a magical wave."

"Guess this world blows your whole 'magic can't exist' theory right out the window, huh Donnie?" Mikey asked as he stood up.

"Tell that to the average citizen of Auradon." Mal said as she recalled how rare magic seemed to be. She actually remembered Jane mentioning that Fairy Godmother didn't call their magic classes that in official school dossiers because it was basically retired. In fact Paradias was the only reason that magic classes were going on in the first place. And proverbially speaking of, the purple ranger activated her helmet intercom. "Jane, where do we stand on getting the others out here?" She asked. "The monsters made sure they had decent backup, even if they weren't expecting us to duplicate Gregory's chip."

"I'm working on it." Jane answered her. "That magical burst that that monster unleashed just fried some of our circuits. We're doing what we can to replace them but you guys might be on your own out there."

"Swell." Carlos groused. "What now Mal?"

"Leo, I think it's time to stop worrying about them and worry about the receptors." Mal called out to him.

Leo nodded. "Alright." He agreed. "April, Karai, Casey, Jennifer, Renet. Stay here and give the rangers a hand with the soldiers and the monsters." He looked to Aaliyah and Mikey. "You two come with me, we're going to the Badlands to take out the first receptor." He looked to Venus, Donnie and Raph. "You guys take out the other receptor."

"Where is the other receptor anyway?" Raph demanded to know.

"Evie, I managed to track it before the circuits were fried." Doug said to the blue haired girl over her intercom. "It's at the beach, where we first fought Undine and that Daedalus thing."

"I hope he doesn't decided to make a return then." Evie mused. The only thing that drove that away the first time was a large sea creature that Melody insisted was on their side that time, as well as being responsible for the rainstorm that helped them take out the fires that had recently struck thanks to Infernal Flame and his volcano creatures. "Donnie, it's at the beach. Fly south past the forests and you should be able to find it. Once the circuits are up Doug will guide you further if you need it." She said to the purple masked turtle.

Leo and Donnie nodded. "You heard her Donnie." The blue masked turtle said. "So as Mal said, let's get to work." The six turtles activated their cyber samurai armor and then started to take off. Some of the soldiers tried to see what they could do stop them but a combination of psychic energies from April and Jennifer instead sent those soldiers hurtling into others, like a bowling ball hitting bowling pins.

"That would have been awesome under other circumstances." Mikey said with a laugh.

"Just get going shell brain." Raph said to him. The six turtles flew off.

"And that leaves us with the dubious honor of fighting the monsters." Audrey said. "At least we're almost the way we should be."

Block Number P surged forward and rammed his fists into Lonnie and Amy's chest and the two girls fell backwards hard. He moved in to try and follow up but Will was in front of him with his recursive sword. He raised it to block the monsters fists and then kicked him back away from the girls.

Block Number M moved in and tried to unleash a flurry of magic arrows at Audrey as he said, "Seems like this should be appropriate for you red ranger." Just as the arrows were fired at her Evie was in front of her and unleashed her dark mirror force attack from her weapon to stop the arrows.

Mal stepped up with her dragon's eye staff, with Jay and his soul scimitar right beside her, and the two of them lashed out their weapons hard into the monster, sending him falling back too.

"Hey, back off." Karai instructed as Jabberwock again tried to drive his fists down on her. "Who made you the executioner anyway?" Casey dropped some hockey pucks with cherry bombs taped on them and with a cry of "Goongala!" shot them right at the general. They collided and exploded against his armor but with little effect.

"I think you need a better weapon there." Carlos said a bit mockingly right before Jabberwock unleashed a stream of fire that the hockey masked vigilante barely pulled the yellow ranger away from right before impact.

"Might want to save your taunts for later little dude." Casey noted.

"Wait, little." He started.

"Both of you, save it." April said to the two boys. "We have other problems to worry about here than your egos." She used her tessen to block a sword attack from one of the soldiers before blasting it back with her telekinetic powers into one that was getting dangerously close to Renet.

"She's right." Lonnie agreed. "Focus on the monsters. They haven't lost focus on us." She too raised her hurricane tessens. Amy had her rose lance out and into two pieces as they moved into to help Will against Block Number P.

Donnie was willing to bet the circuits were still being repaired in the command center but luckily it didn't matter because Evie's directions were dead on and soon Donnie, Raph and Venus found themselves at the beach. "So is this thing going to be just sticking around waiting for us or what Donnie?" Raph asked.

"Probably not." Donnie replied. He had a bit of time to review the schematics on their cyber samurai suits and concluded that he must have designed them, albeit sometime in the future. He wasn't sure he wanted more information than that. He did however find sensors on them, which would make it easier. "Venus, help me start scanning the beachfront for this thing. Raph, keep an eye out and make sure we don't end up being ambushed ourselves."

"Got it." Raph said.

"Starting scans now." Venus said as she cycled to the scanners and began to scan the area.

So far Raph hadn't seen to many things that could fly, but he was kind of hoping for some aerial combat. The bat thing wasn't enough as far as he was concerned. So far though all seemed rather quiet.

"I think I've got it." Venus announced to her brothers. "It's located on a bluff to the west."

Donnie did a double check and found she was right. It seemed to be on its own, which was good. He recalled hearing about a torii that was facing the Isle of the Lost and hearing about Raph's brief adventure through one not long ago he had no desire to encounter a demon from that. "It looks like it's unguarded but we better be careful." He said.

The three armored turtles flew closer to their target. It seemed to be a medium sized obelisk. There was no indication if this was the one that restrained powers or magic and there didn't seem to be any indication rather it was active or not, but they already knew they couldn't take the chance.

"Let me just blast this thing then." Raph said as he raised his gauntleted hands.

"Hang on Raph." Donnie said. "We don't know which one this is or what kind of defenses it has."

"That is not true Donatello." Venus said now as she edged herself closer to the obelisk and extended her hands, retracting her gauntlets in the process. "I can feel the magic coming off of this in waves. This is the receptor for Block Number M."

"Again, let me just blast the thing then." Raph repeated.

"I don't see any defenses on this thing." Donnie noted. "It would work."

"No." Venus said. "If you attempt to destroy it, it will defend itself with whatever it takes." She looked to her brothers. "I believe though I can bypass the magical defenses and disable it."

They heard noises from behind them to find soldiers had just appeared, as if waiting for them to realize they needed another alternative than confrontation to stop it. "Looks like we won't be bored after all." Raph said with a grin that his siblings couldn't see. "I guess we get to keep them away then Donnie."

"Joy." Donnie deadpanned less enthusiastically than his older brother.

"Dudes, this is not what I call fun." Mikey commented as Aaliyah and the two brothers angled to avoid the sand that would otherwise strike their eyes as they came into the Badlands. "Is this why they call this place the Badlands?"

"Probably." Aaliyah said. "It reminds me of the deserts in Arizona for example, inhospitable to pretty much every form of life unless they can adapt like digging under the sands when it gets too hot or too cold or something like this happens."

"It's a good thing that this protects us then." Leo said. "We don't have to stop to wait this out before finding the receptor." He was just barely able to make it out and a surprisingly stable sand dune. "What is under this sand?" The blue masked turtle wondered. "There is no way that something like the receptor should stand like that."

"I asked Jordan that at the command center while you and Mal were making plans." Aaliyah said to her boyfriend. "Apparently there are unexplored cavern areas under the Badlands. It must be thick enough to keep them stable."

"Imagine the treasures that are under these sands." Mikey said.

"Imagine the dangers." Leo countered.

"This is wrong." Aaliyah now told them.

"What do you mean?" Mikey asked. "The sandstorm bites but it's unguarded. We just blast it and go. No living thing could be comfortable here without armor like this." He tapped his armor covered plastron for emphasis.

"Is there something else Aaliyah?" Leo asked his girlfriend. He had learned to trust her instincts and in truth something seemed off to her as well.

"Mikey is right, nothing living could be comfortable around here." Aaliyah swore she caught movement in the sands. "But," She blasted at the area and a Mamluk rose from the sand. "I don't think those Arabian looking zombies care."

On the heels of that one Mamluk were dozens of other creatures of its kind. As if that weren't bad enough, the receptor started to sink. "We have to get rid of these walking dead things quickly, before we lose that receptor." Mikey said.

"Agreed." Leo said. "Turtles attack." The three of them raised their gauntleted gloves and started to blast at the Mamluk's.

"That's the last circuit." Jordan said as she scooted out from under a console. "We're back in business."

"Great. Thanks for the help." Jane said as she closed up one of the panels. "Let's start the duplication process." She looked to Doug. "How's the fight going?"

"Mal and the other rangers, along with the turtle's allies, are fighting Jabberwock, the power drainers, and the soldiers. It looks like a stand still." Doug said to them all. "On the other hand, Donnie's team has ran into soldiers and he says that the receptor will defend itself with magic. Venus is working to get past it. Leo's team has a horde of Mamluk's to deal with and their working on borrowed time as the receptor is sinking into the sands."

"Wouldn't it just sink into the caves?" Ben asked. "We could try to find it later."

"In uncharted cavernous territory with who knows what else is down there." Aziz added. "We need to try to cut that off at the pass man."

"Then we're going to have to play back up." Melody said. "Choose two people to get their chips in now so we can help the turtles out."

"Who should be the ones then?" Jordan asked.

"One of those is near the ocean." Ellie pointed out with a shrug as if it were obvious. "I'd say one of the chips should go to one of the mermaids. And since Melody's power comes from the trident, something we can't do the work around with, which leaves Aquiella."

"Ellie is right." Fairy Godmother agreed. "Her powers should be restored next."

"But she won't have access to magic." Doug reminded them.

"I don't need magic." Aquiella declared. "I just need to ask for the right help." She looked to her cousin and Melody nodded in agreement.

"What about Leo and the others?" Jane now wondered. "What's the best way to handle assistance in the Badlands?"

The response didn't come quite as quickly but then Jordan looked to Jane. "Alex." She stated. "The sands may not care about fire much but I bet those Mamluk's burn rather well."

"Alright then." Jane agreed. "Aquiella, Alex. We're going to get your powers back."

"Getting there in time might be a challenge." Alex noted lightly. "How do we handle that?"

"I know how we can get you there Aquiella." Fairy Godmother said. "We have waterways a couple of floors down from here. It leads to the ocean. As a mermaid you'll make it there faster than you will any other way."

"But doesn't she need to turn into one first?" Aziz questioned.

"Easy enough." Melody said and Aquiella nodded in agreement. "We have these." She held up her hand where both girls wore a ring. "They're moon rings. They let us mentally hold our legs. If we take off the ring we revert to being a mermaid."

Ally nodded. "I understand that, but once the ring is removed Aquiella will not be able to become human again until magic is restored." She said.

"It won't be an issue." Aquiella promised. "If Venus hasn't figured it out by the time we get there then we'll deal with it the old fashioned way. We can handle whatever it throws."

"Okay, how do we get Alex out there then?" Ellie wondered.

"Wait a second." Jane said. "I think I have an idea, but I'm going to have to contact Mal and run it by her."

Amy swung her rose lance at Block Number P. He caught her lance in his hands only for her to use that leverage to jump up and kick the monster in the face, which was not nearly protected as the battery casing like object that was around the monster's chest and torso.

Lonnie swept in with her hurricane tessen's and slashed the monster across the chest hard, leaving some damage but not nearly as much as she would have liked.

Audrey leapt off of Will's shoulder and came down with her elemental bow to slash the monster only to get the same result that Lonnie did. "Talk about a hard case." The brunette princess murmured.

Carlos and Jay moved in and together they struck Block Number M, getting the same small damage that Audrey and Lonnie had but still with very little effect. He moved in to ram his fists into the boy's chest and they dodged under it.

Mal moved in and swung her staff. He blocked the attack. She tried to hit again with the other side but he blocked that one too. She set her staff down and kicked him in the chin, sending him stumbling back but to little effect.

"I think we need to try something else here." Evie said to them.

"Do you think we have enough power for you and Audrey to use your battlizers?" Carlos asked Mal.

"I don't know." The purple haired purple ranger admitted. She looked to Audrey. "But I think we can try to find out."

The brunette princess nodded. "We have nothing to lose." She agreed. Together the two girls took out their iPhone's and pressed the little half sun button on the top of their iPhones, just under their gems. They weren't too surprised but were a little dismayed to see nothing happen. "I guess we don't have the power." Audrey stated softly. "Just great."

"You could try putting your weapons together." Will suggested.

"I'd be worried that we're not at full power and our weapons wouldn't be fully powered up either." Evie pointed out.

"Sounds like what we need is for the turtles to take out the receptor containing your powers." April said. "I just wish I knew how that was going."

"Doug, I hate to nag but how are the turtles doing?" Mal asked him.

"They've gotten some holdups." Doug answered simply. "That should come as no surprise I suspect. But we have an idea. Aquiella's powers are going to be restored to her and she's going to take the water ways to the ocean to help out. She said something about the sea creature that helped stopped Daedalus. We think that's the magic one."

"Doug, we kind of need the power one destroyed if we want to put down these monsters." Evie replied.

"That one is in the Badlands." Doug told her. "Leo, Mikey and Aaliyah have been ambushed by a horde of Mamluk's. We're going to restore Alex's power to burn them down but we need Renet to help us."

"How is she supposed to do that?" Jay asked.

"We're hoping she has some kind of time trick." Doug answered.

"I'll have Amy bring her back to the command center." Mal assured Doug. She looked to her twin sister, but it was as if the rose ranger had read her mind and she nodded in understanding before heading toward Renet.

It was just as well when Amy came up to her and said, "Doug has an idea but he needs you at the command center." Because the apprentice time mistress felt just a bit useless. Sure she could fight and she did have her own energy knuckles, but the soldiers were swarming and the Block monsters were too well armored for it to matter. She nodded and followed the rose ranger.

"Should they be insulted that the monsters don't seem to care that they're leaving?" Carlos wondered as he and Jay paced Block Number M.

"Not really caring what they think man." Jay confided to his friend. He then moved in to attack Block Number M only to get blocked. Carlos moved in and slashed the monster with his earthquake claw daggers but again with minimal effect.

Renet and Amy stumbled into the command center. Jordan just caught the apprentice time mistress before she hit the wall and Ellie caught ahold of Amy just before she was about to run into the table. "Calm down you two." Jordan said. "We need help, but not at the expense of your health."

"Sorry." Amy said.

"Yeah, my bat." Renet added.

"I think you mean bad." Aziz said with a small shrug of his shoulders. He thought that was like the fourth time they had to correct Renet on current time slang.

Amy saw Jane handing Aquiella her iPhone. "Remember that receptor has to be taken out for you to restore your legs again. It's best if we can stop that thing without a problem so give Venus every opportunity." She said.

"Will do." Aquiella said. She gave a small smile to Amy and then said to Fairy Godmother. "Let's get going then."

"I'll walk you to the waterway too." Melody said to her cousin and she nodded in understanding.

Before they could leave Amy stepped up and hugged her two mermaid friends. "Please be careful Aquiella." Amy said to her. "Come back to us."

"You can all count on it." Aquiella promised as she stroked her hair. Then the two mermaids followed Fairy Godmother out.

"So what do you want me to do?" Renet asked Doug.

"The waterway will take Aquiella to the beach quickly to help out." Doug told her. "But we have no quick way of getting Alex to the Badlands to help there. We were hoping you would have an idea."

Renet thought a moment and then lifted her scepter. "This isn't really a weapon, it's a time scepter that I can use to travel through time. I think if I can route a few doors I can get him there to the Badlands in a heartbeat." She revealed.

"Sounds good." Alex replied. Amy stepped forward and took his hand, almost worried about the idea. Then she realized it wasn't the idea itself but the result; Alex would be going to the Badlands alone and that scared her. He seemed to know what she was feeling and squeezed her hand reassuringly. "It'll be fine Amy." He said softly. "I'll get there okay, help the turtles and be back in time to watch you, your sister and the others beat those two metal garbage cans down."

Jane now handed him his iPhone and Renet stepped up. She opened up a door, which was about normal size but glowed white. It was almost like what Amy imagined the Iconian gateway the rangers used would look like. Alex gave Amy a small kiss on the cheek, stroked her hair and as he stepped through the portal to the Badlands he heard, "Don't get lost." Amy said softly. "Come back to m…us."


	94. The day the Powers Went Out Part 5

Aquiella slipped off her moon ring and then let herself fall into the flow of the waterways under Auradon. At least this was natural to her, far more natural than walking was to her even if she had adapted quickly. The rapids itself took a moment to get used to as the ocean was not usually this tumult, and If it was her mother often told her to stay in.

She thought it would take longer but sooner than she expected she heard Raph call out, "Hey Venus, how's it going over there? We're not slowing down over here." She could hear the blasts from the gauntlets of their borrowed cyber samurai armor.

"It is almost down." Venus said to her brothers. "Then we can destroy the receptor preventing magic from being used in Auradon." She was sure that the soldiers were all but swarming the three turtles, though the brothers must have been doing their best to keep their sister safe.

Now came the hard part for Aquiella. She had to angle herself into the ocean and make sure that she didn't land in such a way that would hurt her. She saw the angle coming and braced her arms against her body for the landing.

April and Jennifer used their telekinetic abilities to toss the soldiers around so that Casey, Karai and the rest of the team could do their best to take them out. It was made harder by Block Number M, Block Number P and Jabberwock also in the way.

Jabberwock tried to intercept Evie but Will got in the way. He slashed with his recursive sword and knocked him backwards, glad that his weapon was coated with the vorpal dust all of their weapons needed in order to damage this monster of Wonderland.

The two Block monsters stood side to side and again released a powerful burst of energy of both types. It struck the seven rangers and their four human allies hard, sending them sprawling to the ground and rolling back up. Jennifer felt throbbing in her right side, when she looked down though she was okay and she figured it was just the stab wound from her first night in New York nagging her.

"Those guys hit harder together then they do on their own." Carlos said.

"Okay, we can't use our battleizers." Audrey said to Mal. "I think we should try combining our weapons .Even if we defeat one of them it's better than both of them."

"Even weakening them would be a good thing." Carlos added.

The soldiers were already trying to swarm them again. "Don't these freaks know when to quit?" Casey wondered as he slap shot one of them with his hockey stick.

"Will, help them keep these soldiers off of us then." Mal said and she looked to her five team mates. Amy was still at the command center, the purple haired girl could feel her twin's worry for Alex being sent into the Badlands. "We'll try the Auradon Blaster."

Mal brought out her dragon's eye staff, Audrey placing her elemental bow underneath it. Evie placed her mirror shield behind it, the compacts folding outward. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle on top and that was followed by Lonnie's hurricane tessens and Carlos's earthquake claw daggers. They aimed the weapon at the monsters.

"Dude, that is so metal." Casey declared happily. "Hopefully it puts a dent in those demented batteries."

April dodged under one of the soldiers and then kicked it in the back of the legs, bringing her own tessens down onto the head where it vanished. "I hope it does too, I don't know how much longer we can do this and we still have to get those receptors destroyed." She said.

The six rangers unleashed a blast at the two monsters and it struck them back a little, but it clearly lacked the normal power of the blaster because of the power drain. The two again combined their energies and reflected the blast at the six of them, striking them back and forcing their blaster to revert back to their pieces.

"Man, half power just isn't cutting it, at least against these two." Jay said with annoyance.

"Maybe we should try the neon armor?" Carlos said.

"I don't even think we can access it." Lonnie told them. "And even if we could it would be a watered down version like the rest of our powers."

The two monsters jumped at the rangers and the six of them scattered to avoid being landed on. Mal tried to hit one of them, she wasn't sure which one it was, with her dragon's eye staff but he caught and tossed her hard, right into Karai.

Jabberwock unleashed a burst of fire and struck the rangers hard, sending them flying backwards. Lonnie was almost sure that would have broken her left arm and possibly a rib or two if not for the protection of the powers.

More soldiers were spawning out of nowhere and the they realized they were starting to become surrounded yet again, and this time there were no turtles in Cyber Samurai armor to help clear the field.

"You know this might sound kind of childish, but honestly I always hated zombies." Aaliyah revealed to her boyfriend and Mikey as she landed in the sand and blasted at a few of the Mamluk's. "My sister Adelita and I made the mistake of watching a zombie move with a couple other kids and we never got over it, even though that was over a decade ago."

"Totally get it." Mikey told her as he tried to fly over to the receptor that blocked powers only to get a Mamluk launched at him. He struck it in the face to stop it but it was enough to throw off his aim. They also seemed to have no compunction about stepping on each other to protect the receptor. "Be glad you haven't seen the Squirrlanoids. Total creeps."

"They do remind me of those aliens from the movie." Leo said to them and then rolled his eyes. "You know, called Alien." He landed on the sand and started to punch his way through some of the Mamluk's. "At least these things don't seem to inclined to try to take a chunk out of us."

"Not that they could." Mikey added as he knocked his metal hand against his metal protected head. Then he shook his head. "Ooh, echo dude." Leo sighed at that.

They saw the familiar glow of the time door and Alex came out of it. The Mamluk's all glanced at him and he shook his head. "I hate showing up late to a party." The prince of Arendelle noted dryly as he pulled out his iPhone. "Let's see if I can heat things up." He pulled out his iPhone and input his number 9921 and transformed into the Fire Knight.

"Wow, wonder if he can make his own micro wave pizzas." Mikey mused.

"Oh, now is not the time for that Mikey." Leo said to his youngest brother.

"Unless that cyber armor protects you from the fire you might want to take to the skies." Alex advised the three armored turtles. The three of them hesitated only a second before lifting themselves into the sky while still firing on the Mamluk's. "Whereas down here on the sands I'm going to see what I can do turn the heat up here." His innate fire powers were still down just as much as any other magic users but he had fire power as a knight and he hoped it was enough to take out the Mamluk's.

"This is either going to be so epic or so bad." Mikey noted, eager to see what it would be.

Alex summoned his tonfa's and drew as much fire energy as he could from his powers into his weapons before unleashing a rounded fire storm that traveled among the sands and engulfing the undead minions, who didn't let out a single sound or shriek and in fact still tried to approach the fire knight and the armored turtles as they otherwise burned to nothing.

"Glad these things don't smell like burning undead." Mikey said.

"How do you know what that smells like?" Alex asked him.

"He doesn't, he just thinks he does based on his comics." Leo answered dismissively. "Now we have to destroy that receptor so that we restore the powers to your friends."

"Hold up a sec." Alex said to Leo. "Venus discovered some magical guards on their receptor."

Leo understood. "We need to make sure that we don't have the same problem here." He said.

Aaliyah used her cyber samurai equipment to conduct a scan on the receptor. "Sensors don't detect anything protecting it." She said to Leo. "I think they expected the Mamluk's and the harsh environment to be enough protection."

"And without you guys and your armor it might have been enough." Alex said to them. Granted he had cleared out the Mamluk's but none of them would have made it out to the Badlands if not for the turtles showing up to help them. "So let's take this thing out."

With the combined powers of their gauntlet lasers and Alex's fire power the receptor never stood a chance. It blew to pieces.

"Come on fire prince." Mikey said to Alex. "Let me give you a lift back to the school."

"Sounds good." Alex agreed.

"I believe I have gotten past the magical defenses." Venus said to her brothers.

"Yeah, great." Raph called out as he blasted two of the soldiers only to have a third try to jump him. He caught the soldier and tossed it away. "Then finish it off."

Venus aimed her gauntlet hands at the receptor and prepared to fire when several soldiers materialized and jumped up, latching onto her legs and her shell, the weight of them pulling her down. "Donatello! Raphael!" She called out.

The two turtles turned only for a second as their sister called out to them and it was long enough for the soldiers to grasp the two brothers and start pulling them down as well. They then heard Maleficent's voice. "Nice try reptiles, but futile. You've failed."

Thunder crashed and lightning flashed in the sky. Donnie sadly thought it was appropriate to symbolize their defeat. Then it started to rain heavily and they saw a sea creature rise from the sea. The three turtles let out gasps of shock even as they heard Maleficent let out a cry of annoyance. Then they saw on the top of its head was Aquiella.

"Time to wash away the last thing holding my friends and even this world at knifepoint." The mermaid stated. "Let the water flow." The sea creature she was on unleashed a huge water spout from the top of its head, just behind Aquiella, and the huge burst of water struck the magical receptor, heavily damaging it on impact. The other good thing was that it struck the soldiers and flushed them away.

The three turtles took that opportunity to use their gauntlet hands to blow the magical receptor into multiple small pieces. They saw the sea creature slide close enough to the precipice for Aquiella to land on the ground. She placed her moon ring on her fingers her legs didn't return.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Raph asked her.

"It'll take a bit of time before the magic kicks in and brings back my legs." Aquiella said to them.

Venus lifted the mermaid girl into her arms. "Then I will fly you back to Auradon with us." She said to her. Aquiella nodded and the three turtles took off.

"Evie, it's done!" The blue haired blue ranger heard Doug say excitedly over the intercom set. "The turtles have destroyed the receptors!"

"Great." Evie replied. "Do we have our full range of powers back? Is our team up to par?" She wondered as she saw Block Number M try to drive his fists down on Lonnie only for Will to block with his recursive sword. She had to give the green ranger credit; he really was very strong. "We're not doing so good out here."

"We're playing it safe and getting these chips into the rest of the iPhones and we'll have to figure out what to do for Ben and Melody later." Doug said to her. "As for the rest of your powers, give it a few minutes more and then give it all you've got."

"Thanks, sweetie." Evie said absently, though she could actually see Doug blushing in her mind. "Guys, we have to give it a few minutes but then we can try this again." She said to them.

"Well that's just dandy." Jay said a little sarcastically as he dodged an attack from Block Number P. On the other side Mal struck him with her dragon's eye staff to little effect. "Because a few minutes might just be all that we have left to give."

"Don't forget we still have more company over here." April said as she slashed down a soldier and then dodged under the blade attack of another, only for Jennifer to slam her batons as hard as she could against either side of its head. It was enough to cause it to dissipate as well.

"Worry about the monsters." Karai said to the rangers as she dodged under one of the soldiers bulky forms, at least compared to her small and lithe frame, before turning and jumping up to carve her tonta halfway through the soldier and making it dissipate. "We get rid of those battery freaks and the soldiers will go back to their masters with their tails between their legs."

"They don't have tails." Carlos pointed out as he dodged a soldier of his own and then kicked it in the face.

"She's talking proverbially." Mal reminded her friend as she back flipped out of the way of Block Number P's attempt to lash at her now that Jay was out of range for the moment.

"What about this clown?" Casey asked as he roller bladed past the fireball onslaught that Jabberwock was trying to bombard the vigilante with.

Karai hesitated as she glanced over at her boyfriend. "Um, he might be a different matter." The kunoichi reluctantly conceded.

"We can overwhelm him with numbers if we just get rid of everything else." Audrey replied as she dodged under Block Number M only to come up with the edge of her elemental bow against a soldier, almost losing her balance when it abruptly vanished. "Sometimes I wish these things would just stay on the ground." She mused.

Block Number P tried to bring his fists down on Evie but Mal blocked it with her dragon's eye staff and then kicked him away from her first chosen sister. He tried to ram Mal but she slammed the gemmed end of the staff into the monster and sent him flying backwards further than they had been able to do to date. "What is this?" He demanded to know.

"It might be the effect of the receptor's destruction." Evie said to her friend. "We're gaining back our powers."

She could almost see the wicked smile that crossed the purple haired purple ranger's face. "And they're losing their powers." She finished. As if to confirm that Block Number P unleashed a stream of energy at them. Evie blocked it and reflected it with her mirror force shield and it struck him back again, just the way it should.

"Now that's music to my ears." Audrey agreed as she raised her elemental bow and unleashed a hail of arrows down on several of the soldiers to help clear them out.

"Our powers seem to be coming back." Will noted happily. "But what about magic?"

"We'll test that out later." Mal said to him. She didn't know of any spells right off that would help them here and furthermore the monster's destructions were more important. They could still draw upon the energies even if they were no longer being stored.

"Hey, I think it's time to try that blaster thing again." Casey said to them even as he flipped over a fire ball from Jabberwock.

"Good idea." Mal agreed.

"Let us help you out with that." April said as she moved closer to Jennifer. She took the blonde's hand and together they focused their telekinetic abilities to fling Block Number M into Block Number P. They crashed together with a satisfying screeching sound.

Mal placed her dragon's eye staff first, followed by Audrey's elemental bow underneath it. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind it and the compact extended out. Jay's soul scimitar went in the middle and then on either side was Lonnie's hurricane tessens and Carlos's earthquake claw daggers. They brought the Auradon blaster level with the two monsters and then fired at the two monsters, which exploded in a burst of fire.

"I never thought I'd miss that sight." Jay said happily.

"And that was so metal." Casey said with laughter. As Karai figured the soldiers vanished. Jabberwock did not though and unleashed a stream of fiery energy at them all. Mal leaned over to protect Jennifer, Jay leaned over to protect Karai, and Evie leaned over to protect April even as the attack sent them all flying.

"We have to get rid of this freak now somehow." Karai said with some annoyance. "Why didn't he leave anyway?"

"Oh, no." Audrey gasped in shock. "That might be why." They followed her gaze to see that there were still parts of the Block monsters. They reassembled themselves into one monster. "Nice try Rangers." They could hear both of the monsters voices. "We're not out of tricks yet."

"I'd say you're out of luck though." They heard from the skies. They looked up to see Aquiella bring her boomerangs now coated with water, signifying she was gradually getting control over her magic again, on the monsters hard. The orange ranger rolled out of the way even as Jabberwock and the new monster were bombarded with multiple energy burst from the gauntlets of the six cyber armored turtles and streams of fire from Alex.

"This is your last stand Block Number P/M." Mikey said to him. "You're almost done son."

"Block Number P/M?" Venus asked her orange masked brother.

"You know, he's based off of the two Block Numbers. They were called P and M. He combined into one." He tried to explain.

"We get it." Raph said to his youngest brother irritably. "It's still not good."

"Cyber turtles, let's deal with Jabberwock so the rangers can finish that monster." Leo ordered his brothers, sister and girlfriend.

"They can't do that." Carlos said. "They don't have the proper material."

"Actually they do." Doug told him from the intercom. "Whoever designed these things knew what they were doing. Vorpal energy is in their power streams and their armor has a light coating on them." Renet smiled. Only she knew how long the alliances between the turtles, the power rangers, and their other friends would really last.

"So do we try the Auradon blaster again?" Carlos asked Mal.

Mal shook her head. "No." She answered and then looked to Will. "Take the others in and keep Block Number P/M distracted." She had no idea why she was using Mikey's name for it, maybe because soon it wouldn't matter if she had her way. "Audrey, you and I are going to try our battleizer armor again."

"I like that idea." Audrey said.

"Why don't we see if our powers are working again?" Lonnie said to Will. "The five of us can try to activate our neon armor."

"Good idea Lonnie." Will said to her. The green, pink, blue, black and yellow rangers took a deep breath and moved to activate the armor. They braced themselves for the worst but were more than happy to accept the fact that it worked and they were now in their neon armor.

"Ooh, shiny." April couldn't help but say. She could feel the power radiating off of them.

The five rangers moved rapidly and with their weapons out Jay and Carlos slashed the Block Number P/M and they stumbled back. Lonnie and Will used their weapons to jump out and attack from the side, sending them sprawling to the ground. When he rose Evie unleashed her storming mirror force attack on him.

"Ready?" Mal asked the brunette princess.

"Let's do it." She responded to the purple haired girl.

The two girls took out their iPhones and pressed the half sun icons on top of their screens. They were both immensely happy to feel the power that flowed through their bodies as their battelizers became active. Armor assembled all over her body as the claws grew up over the armored hands and thin tendrils that extended from her helmet like a Chinese dragon. "Now that is wicked." Karai stated.

Audrey glowed with a mixture of red and pinks as the earrings slipped out of her helmet. Long elegant silk like ribbons emerged from over her shoulders. The same colored crystals that resembled her earring grew around her waist and then moving all around it like a skirt. "Wow, that's so pretty." Jennifer said in awe.

With the speed of a dragon, Mal was on the move as she rammed the clawed hands right into Block Number P/M. She delivered multiple quick slashes against his armored body though this time the claw impacts were more than just minor scratches.

Audrey took out the earrings and tossed them. They proved to be small but lethal as they slashed the monster multiple times and he flew hard several feet from where he had been originally.

"It's time to send this guy back to the scrap heap." Mal said as she raised her dragon's eye staff.

"I couldn't agree with you more." Audrey replied as the crystalline pieces around her waist detached and levitated up. She also gathered up energy that surrounded her. Beside her Mal raised her staff high. Together they unleashed a combination of the draco meteor and the attack Audrey was thinking of as a moonblast. Together the two attacks struck the combo monster in a fiery explosion. This time there were no pieces left to reassemble.

Jabberwock had seen that and knew that it was a lost cause now. With that he took off into the skies. Raph was about to try pursue him when Leo stopped him. "It's over Raphael." He said with his best voice of authority. "We've won." The six turtles instead descended to the ground with the rangers and their friends.

As soon as the armor reverted Jennifer ran over and hugged her boyfriend against her tightly. April went over and hugged Donnie, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek that made Mal think the two of them might have been together as well. Together they returned to the command center.

"You're okay." Amy said happily as she and Aquiella exchanged hugs. Then she hugged Alex as Melody hugged her cousin. He seemed a bit startled but had no problem with hugging Amy back. Ellie smiled as she ruffled her own cousin's hair gently.

Renet hugged Mikey tightly and then looked at the six turtles. "Sorry guys, but it's time to return the cyber samurai armor back to where it belongs." She said regretfully.

"Man, that's a bummer." Mikey noted as he slipped off the piece that allowed them to summon the armor. The others followed suit.

"I suspect that we will be seeing these again though." Venus replied. She had already put two and two together; at some point Donatello would make these for the six of them to use. It also did answer an unspoken question; Aaliyah's mutation had given her the long life usually enjoyed by turtles.

Once the six pieces were placed on the table Renet used her time scepter to return them to where they needed to be.

Amy made her way to Mal and hugged her. "I'm glad you're okay Mal." She looked at the other six rangers that had been out on the field. "I'm glad that you're all okay."

Ben came up behind Mal and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her on the top of the head. "You did great out there." He said to them all even as his touch was meant for his girlfriend.

Evie threw an arm around Doug's arm as she leaned down next to him. "How's it coming?" She asked him.

Doug kept his eyes on the iPhone's as he struggled to minimize how much he was blushing. "Jane and I have almost all the other iPhones chipped in case Maleficent or someone else tries this again." He said to her. "We'll have to figure out an alternative for Ben, Jane and Melody since their power sources aren't linked to the iPhones."

"Awesome." Evie said as she lightly kissed his cheek.

They heard a grumbling and realized it was Mikey's stomach. "Man, this was sure a lot of work." The orange masked turtle said. "I sure could go for some pizza right about now."

Fairy Godmother laughed lightly. "It's ironic that you say that." She said to him. "Amber mentioned something about that when she said you would be coming to help us. As soon as the iPhones are up to date we'll be heading into the forest for a thank you meal."

"It's the least we could do for those who help us out." Ben said. "Especially those who are honorary citizens of Auradon."

"Us? Really?" Jennifer asked in shock. She had of course heard that the ranger's had been considered honorary citizens of Auradon but she wasn't sure it would extend to them, especially since the turtles weren't exactly well known even in their own worlds.

"Really." Audrey said with a small giggle. "There is more to family than just blood at and all. It's something that has become abundantly clear since becoming power rangers."

"It's probably better we don't have anything too formal though." Leo said with a small smile. "I'm not sure turtles look good in tuxes and dresses."

Karai gave a snicker. "You'd never catch me in a dress anyway." She reminded her oldest younger brother simply.

"Let me give you two a hand." Donnie said to Jane and Doug as he stepped up to the command center consoles. "The sooner that's done the sooner we can move onto an actual light portion to this visit."

"And we all know to enjoy those when we can." Mal said as she leaned back against her boyfriend. "Because they really are few and far in between."


	95. Pizza Party

Raph brought his sais up to block the scimitar that descended toward his head. He then pushed it to the side and delivered a kick to his midsection. His cloaked opponent stumbled backwards but as the red masked turtle tried to follow up his opponent further flipped out of the way before delivering a kick to Raph.

The red masked turtle stumbled backwards from the strike. The opponent moved to jab him with the scimitar but Raph moved to the side. Twirling one of his sais point up, he hooked his sais onto the hilt of the scimitar, kneeled down under the weapon and then tossed his opponent. He hit the ground hard and then had Raph over him with his sai pointed at his throat. "Old age may have slowed you down." He said neutrally.

The man removed the cloak and laughed a little. "You may be right Raph." Aladdin agreed as his old friend sheathed his weapons and allowed his turtle friend to help him up. "Either that or being Sultan has taken the edge off." He added with a laugh.

The two of them looked around at the clearing they had in the forest. Raphael's very human girlfriend sat across from Queen Jasmine as the two girls talked. The lithe young blonde was more than eager to learn more about Raphael's past.

Donnie, Jane, Carlos and Doug were talking about something technological that Raph knew was over his head and was sure Aladdin thought the same thing. He might have been clever but he wasn't a book techy genius.

Leo held one of his katana as he lead Will and Jay through some katas with their own bladed weapons, the Praeleanthor sword and the soul scimitar respectively.

Mikey had conned Jordan into letting him help with the pizza, at least as much as he could since Jordan was using magic to make the pizzas. It was a great relief to see that for what it was worth magic had indeed returned to Auradon upon the protection of Block Number M.

April paced Lonnie as the two of them measured each other up. Though both the red head and the Asian princess knew that Mia the pink samurai ranger too used a weapon similar to theirs neither had had the chance to square off against her. They were taking the chance to do that now. April had the ninja training courtesy of Master Splinter on top of experience, while Lonnie just on the job training sort to speak.

April was the first to strike by throwing one of her tessen. Lonnie's were in fact a bit larger than the red head's and she deflected the throw away. She moved in to attack April but she jumped over the Asian princess to recover her own tessen. She moved into attack but Lonnie blocked the strike and then tried to flip April. Being a trained kunoichi she used the flip and rolled with it, rising to her knees.

"That was neat." Lonnie said with a small laugh.

"Thanks." April said. "You're pretty good. I usually don't get this kind of practice from someone with the same weapon."

"She's really good with those." Jasmine said to Jennifer as they glanced at the two girls in combat.

"She is." Jennifer agreed. "You know, originally Master Splinter was going to pass them onto Karai when she was old enough until he thought she died in that fire at their home in Japan." She sighed a bit. "He gave them to April, saying that he believed that Miwa would be as good as April was."

"Is there problems between Splinter and Karai?" Jasmine asked.

Jennifer shook her head. "Not really. It's just taken time for Karai to disregard all the lessons Shredder gave her in her life. She still doesn't really go by the name Miwa though, something Master Splinter has accepted, though I think reluctantly." She answered. They both turned to see the former foot kunoichi herself was reading a book by one of the trees. Perhaps somewhat ironically Amy was sitting not too far away reading a book she had borrowed from Belle.

Ben was laying against another tree with Mal behind him, her head on his chest. She was staring down at the dragon's eye jewel on her staff as he stroked her hair softly. "I'm so glad that we finished those two off." Mal said to Ben. "I may not use magic quite as often as people would expect, but I do miss the feeling of it."

"What's it like?" Ben asked as he gave a small twirl of her hair in his rhythm.

As much as she might hate to admit it the little movement made her giggle as a shiver of delight went up her back. "It's like...it's kind of like the tingly feeling you get when you sit on a body part too long and it's getting circulation again but without the numbness associated with it." She replied though in truth she struggled to describe it because there was no one hundred percent way to describe it to someone who wasn't a magic user.

"Is it better than this?" Ben inquired jokingly as he kissed the top of her head and pressed his leg up against hers.

"No." Mal answered honestly as she smiled and leaned up to look at him, where they shared a kiss on the lips. "But it's still a great feeling. Right behind how you make me feel and how it feels to have a sister like Amy."

Ben pulled back just a little to look into her eyes. Then he kissed her softly on her lips again. "I kind of you about that." He admitted softly.

"The magic?" Mal asked in some shock. Then she waved if off. "Oh, don't worry about that. It's nice but magic isn't the biggest deal in the world." She said to him as she shifted her body to look directly at him now.

"No, not that." Ben replied to her. "The sibling bond. What you have with Amy is amazing." He stroked her cheek softly. "What I see with the turtles, it's pretty amazing. Mikey annoys them all and yet they all care about him so much."

"Are you saying Amy is as annoying as Mikey?" Mal teased Ben as she poked him in the chest lightly and winked at him. She knew that he was not saying that but she had to get her wicked spikes where she could.

"No." Ben said as he laughed lightly. "I just…I love my parents a lot, you know that." Mal nodded knowingly. The truth was she thought she loved Belle more than she loved her own mother, perhaps understandably. At least Belle cared about her and Amy. "But to have a sibling, someone more my age who could understand me in a way that I can only seem to find sometimes with my friends."

"You and Audrey are like brother and sister." Mal pointed out simply. She felt no negative emotion to that, it was better as far as she was concerned. She kind of saw Audrey that way too, though they were both too opposite to be as close as Amy and Mal were.

Ben nodded. "Yeah." He agreed. "But it's not the same." He squeezed her hands softly. "Audrey has always wanted a little sister though, someone who could share her interests in fashion and stuff." Mal knew that made sense. Growing up Mal had wished Amy had shown some interest in evil so they had more in common.

"And what have you always wanted?" Mal asked him. There was no teasing quality to her voice as the purple haired girl could feel this was a real serious conversation, something that she thought they never had the opportunity to have with all of the dangers they faced.

"Just a sibling." Ben said with a shrug. "Rather a brother or a sister isn't important to me."

Mal reached out and stroked his cheek now. "Oh, Ben." She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. "I wish I knew what to do for that."

Ben smiled. "It's fine Mal." He said after pulling away. "I know you can't do anything about it, it's just nice to…to have a real talk now and again."

"Hey people, pizza is on!" Mikey called out. They all looked to see Jordan had formed a large picnic table for them all to eat at. They all sheathed their weapons or returned them to the morphing grid as they began to the table. It still seemed just a bit odd to see three human girls sitting close to the three turtles but at the same time it seemed so natural.

"You'll never see something like that often." Mikey said jokingly as Raph took a plate and placed a couple pieces of pepperoni pizza on it to give to Jennifer. Upon hearing the comment however he did take a moment to toss an empty water bottle at his youngest brother.

Mal laughed. "Yeah, you can definitely feel the love." She joked sweetly to Ben.

"I have noticed that in general the love between brothers is different than the love between sisters, or brothers and sisters." Venus said to Mal and Ben. "They do not act that way with me, probably because I am not the same as they are."

"I guess we should know about that." Mal said with small laughter as she saw Jay and Carlos wrestling past each other to be the first to get a piece of the meat lover's pizza. That became moot when Miranda easily walked by them to add one slice to her plate.

"So can you two eat pizza without making it charcoal or an ice cube?" Karai asked Alex and Ellie teasingly as she handed them each a plate. Ellie gave a slightly annoyed glare at the question while Alex just laughed and said, "I like my crust extra crispy." Behind him Amy giggled at his comment.

"I can eat pizza or anything else just fine, thank you." Ellie said in a very forced diplomatic way. The question did kind of strike her the wrong way. "I however can also do this." She reached for a bottle water and very nearly make the water outside turn to ice. She tossed it to Karai and she opened it to find the water further in the bottle still liquid. "It makes for a nice drink." She added.

The kunoichi took a small sip and nodded approvingly. "Nice." She said simply.

"Hey, can you do that with soda?" Mikey asked excitedly.

"Mikey, she's not a refrigeration unit." Donnie said to his brother with a small eye roll. Ellie laughed just a little and did the same trick for Mikey before tossing it to him. The purple masked turtle looked to her. "You must have amazing control of your powers." He noted.

"Not especially." Ellie said. "My control is actually very limited right now. But since water bottles and soda cans are pretty small objects it's easy enough to do."

"Magic class is paying off well I see." Fairy Godmother said as she took some salad, one of the few food options they had that wasn't some form of pizza.

"I'm actually surprised that we don't see more magic use here in Auradon." April noted as she reached over for some cheese pizza. "I mean this is the origin of all magical fairy tales and everything."

"It's a bit complicated." Fairy Godmother started.

"It is, huh?" Raph questioned dubiously as he looked to Aladdin and Jasmine, hooking up a slice of pizza in the blade of one of his sais. "Kind of weird in a world with genies and evil fairies and what not."

"Hey, bros." Mikey said suddenly. "How about a Statue of Liberty play?" He asked.

"We've got the room for it." Donnie said enthusiastically.

"What is a statue of liberty play?" Audrey asked now. She remembered it being vaguely mentioned by the Space Rangers the first time they had been at the castle for a banquet.

"It's a trick play that is used in a sport called Football." Casey explained to her. "It's named after a landmark in our home of New York called the Statue of Liberty. Don't you all play football here?" He asked.

"Maybe somewhere." Aziz said to him. "Here we play a game called Tourney." He laughed a little. "Actually I think you'd like it Jones."

"Yeah, you get to hit people." Jay added with a laugh.

"Dude, I am so in." Casey replied.

Their respective girlfriends were the only reason the turtles ended up not doing the play there in the field. "So how are you guys going to protect Ben, Jane and Melody from any more attempts like what we just stopped?" Leo asked.

"We're going to work a spell into the gems." Mal answered. "It'll be self-containing so even if somehow they block magic again the spell should hold."

"I hate to say this, but the idea itself was rather effective." Donnie admitted as he picked up a slice of his own pizza. "I'm surprised Lord Zedd or some of the other villains never tried to implement that."

Mal couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Great, leave it up to my mother to be the one evil enough to actually use an idea like that." She said with annoyance in her voice.

Jennifer couldn't help but wonder why it was that Mal would refer to Maleficent as her mother but Amy, when she even acknowledged talk about the evil fairy, never referred to her as her mother. She was sure part of it was because their relationship was strained since Amy didn't seem like the long live evil type. Then again, neither was she and yet she had stuck by her father for most of her life until he started becoming a gang leader and raising demons.

"You don't much care for your mother, do you?" Karai asked Amy, ever the blunt one. Sometimes even more so than Raph.

Amy had to avoid choking on the pepperoni pizza she was eating, even taking a quick drink of her strawberry soda. In that time she saw April give the unperturbed kunoichi a glare and even try to reprimand her for the question. Mal didn't seem all the pleased about the question being asked either. "I, I don't know." Amy finally replied, surprising them all. "I mean she is my mom and all, but…she never really acted like it."

"Amy never fit in on the Isle of the Lost." Jay said, ignoring the slight look of annoyance now being directed at him from Mal. "She was always more like a good kid than a bad kid, so Maleficent all but shunned her. Mal was the one who took care of her most of her life."

"In between doing her best to be the mean and nasty child that Maleficent wanted her to be." Evie added. Mal sighed softly, knowing she would never get her friends to stop talking. And in some ways that was a good thing she supposed. "But even then I don't think she ever appreciated that Mal tried hard to live up to her expectations."

"I understand how you feel." Jennifer said softly to Amy. "After my mom died my dad…well, I don't know if he became cruel then or if he just showed his true colors then, but either way it was never the same between us. By the time I ran away it didn't feel like I was leaving any family behind." She hesitated only a moment before adding, "In the short time I've known him, Master Splinter has been more of a father to me."

Amy smiled just a little. "I know what you mean." She said. "Mal was the closest thing I seemed to have to a mom, though of course she's my twin sister. Ben's mom Belle has seemed to me more like a mom than my own mom was."

"Well that would be because you simply refused to learn the right things." They heard from all around them right before Maleficent appeared with dozens of soldiers. Everyone started to rise to their feet and Maleficent waved her staff, green beams of energy rising from the ground to clamp them all by their wrists and ankles. "No, don't bother getting up." She said to them.

"What do you want now mother?" Mal demanded.

"You know, the usual things a person wants in their lives." Maleficent answered casually. "Their children's undying loyalties, power beyond all measure." She leaned down and picked up the Praeleanthor sword. "Oh, if only we could find a way to corrupt this weapon." She tossed it to one of the soldiers. "Take that, we'll hand it over to Doctor Malcolm and he can cast this thing into the underworld for all I care."

"You have someone else working for you and Paradias now?" Ben demanded.

"How are you in contact with them?" Leo now asked. The turtle team knew exactly who Maleficent was referring too. The scientist Doctor Malcolm and a military sergeant was working with some horned looking man named Null and Jennifer's father to raise the demons to Earth.

"Oh don't be naïve." Maleficent said to the blue masked turtle. "You and your little Earth rangers have your contacts here in the form of my 'precious' daughters and their little teams, why would you not think we wouldn't have our contacts there?"

Renet was glad that the time scepter had fallen into a larger patch of grass. That was one item that Maleficent didn't need. Not that it mattered much since she had heard what Ben had said. "It doesn't hurt matters for you guys that Paradias isn't from around here either, I bet."

"What do you mean?" Audrey now asked the apprentice time mistress.

"Paradias is from the same universe as we and the rest of the rangers are." Renet revealed. "He came from our world to yours to invade Auradon." She glared at Maleficent now, or what passed for a glare from her. "But history doesn't always often record the more personal aspects; like why he would do that?"

Maleficent clearly either did not know she was a time mistress or didn't care. "Why he wants to help us take over this land is hardly my concern. What matters is that he is willing to." She retorted.

"We will stop you." Mal promised her mother. "So again what do you want?"

Maleficent leaned over and smelled some of the pizza, making a disgusted face. "How do you eat this stuff?" She questioned and then turned back to them. "It's time to come home Mal." She now replied. "Time to return to your mother and learn the ways of evil."

Mal almost burst out laughing even as she felt Ben tense next to her. "You have got to be kidding me." She replied. "What in the last few months have I done that would possibly make you think that I would leave my friends and give up being a power ranger to return to being your evil child?"

"You know, like all parents I've made my mistakes when it comes to raising my children." Maleficent said conversationally. She glanced at the bound Sultan and Queen of Agrabah. "Surely you two know what I'm talking about. Things you would have done differently with Aziz if you had the chance." She snapped her fingers. "Maybe you would have taught him not to get involved in other people's business, lest it cost him his life."

"Something tells me the last thing they should do is take child raising tips from you." Raph said to the evil fairy with a glare even as he struggled in vain to break free of the magical chains. He was already cursing himself for being caught unaware.

Maleficent looked down at Amy with contempt. "I should never have let you wander on your own, picking up your own little morals and beliefs. There are other ways to get children to accept their parent's lessons." Amy tried to glare up at her mother but found as usual she was a little afraid of her.

"If you touch one hair on her head." Audrey started, which surprised the rose haired girl just a moment though perhaps it shouldn't have.

Maleficent glanced at Audrey. "Speaking of parents who made one mistake after another." She commented rudely. "But Chad keeps saying he wants to make you see reason." The brunette princess couldn't help but flinch at the comment. "You'll be about the only one who survives what's coming, though you may wish you hadn't."

"Would you get to the point already?" Mal asked exasperated. She wished she knew what spell her mother had used to bind them so that she could break it and send her away.

"And you." Maleficent said angrily. "You tried so hard to be like me, and yet some little shred of…of decency," She decided with an angry growl. "Kept you from being who you were meant to be. And rather than help you to see past it I made the mistake of letting you work it out for yourself."

"There was nothing else you could have done anyway." Mal pointed out.

"There is always something you can do if you're willing to be ruthless enough." Maleficent said, sounding entirely reasonable. "Always some angle to pursue." With that she reached over and cracked her knuckle across Amy's face hard.

"How dare you?!" Mal yelled as her eyes glowed green. For a fraction of a second she felt the restraints slipping away until her mother faced her with equally burning green eyes. After a moment of staring Mal found herself in the humiliating position of having lost again.

"Amy!" Melody gasped and wanted to go to her friend, who's lip was now split. She felt Aquiella struggling next to her, both to no avail. Both girls knew their mothers would never hit them.

Alex tried to channel his fire into the restraints holding him but found they had to be enchanted with something as it dissipated upon contact. Alex likewise knew his mother Anna and or his Aunt Elsa would never hit him or Ellie.

Jennifer and April glanced at each other and then combined their telekinetic energies to launch a heavy log right at the evil fairy. Maleficent turned as the energy built and used her wand to blast it apart. "Ah, the two telekinetics." She mused. "You know Paradias would love nothing more than to dissect you two. One granted power by the Kraang and one granted power by Maledict himself."

"Just wait until we're free." April threatened Maleficent. "I'll show you what my powers can really do to you."

The evil fairy queen laughed. "You do have a temper on you girl, I'll give you that." She said with amusement. She looked then at her purple haired child, who was still proverbially shooting daggers at her for hitting Amy. "Imagine how different things could have been if I had shown you how weak your little twin made you." She said. "Every time you did something I didn't approve of, she would pay the price."

"Don't you dare touch her again." Mal said to her mother. "Or I will find a way out of these chains and then find a way to take you down."

Maleficent laughed. "You always did have a short temper Mal." She said, though she sounded as if she approved of that. "You just could never focus it the way you needed to." She then looked to Amy, who glared with hatred at Maleficent through tears. "You've been nothing more than a tool and it's time for you to be treated as such." She said to Amy and started to approach her.

Several shurikens flew from the forest and connected with several of the soldiers, including the one holding the Praeleanthor sword. They disappeared soundlessly but the sword hitting the ground did not do so noiselessly. "That is enough." A stern voice said from the forest as the speaker started to emerge.

"Father." Karai said.

"Master Splinter." Mikey said.

Maleficent didn't seem that impressed. "A giant rat?" She asked. "Is this really the last resort of the desperate?" She looked to some of the soldiers. "Kill it."

One soldier tried to bring his blade down on Splinter but he dodged it effortlessly and slammed his staff into the creature's face, defeating it. Another tried to come in from behind the rat master only to be tripped up by the tail and have a leg slammed into the chest, defeating that one.

Splinter then leapt over the charging form of another and then looked to his bound children and their friends. He tossed his walking stick and it slammed into Mal's bindings, disrupting them enough for her to pull herself free.

"You throw away your weapon?" Maleficent asked, unaware her eldest daughter was free. "Fool. And I thought a ninja never threw away their weapon. Now you're defenseless."

"A ninja is never defenseless." Splinter replied even as he blocked the attack of another soldier and then delivered a devastating attack to the throat that would have killed a person. He then jumped over the two that tried to stab him and brought his feet down hard, also taking them out. Jay thought it was rather impressive. "And as for being a fool."

"Mother!" Mal shouted out angrily. She looked to her daughter, vaguely surprised to see she had gotten free. "You can try to attack Auradon, you'll fail. You can try to intimidate me, but you taught me too well for that to work. But don't you ever hit my sister again!" With that she pulled out her iPhone and input her number 6319 and transformed into the purple ranger.

"So devoted to the little brat aren't you?" Maleficent questioned with disgust. "It makes you weaker than I ever thought. Even worse than you falling for prince Bennie over there."

"Love doesn't make anyone weak. It makes them strong." Mal retorted. "But I've come to realize how little you recognize that concept. I'm starting to think you've never loved anyone except yourself." Part of her wanted to think otherwise as she had seen her mother shrink to a small lizard during the coronation and had hoped that small part had been for her and Amy, but now she just wasn't sure she could believe that.

"So you've tried to say already." Maleficent said sounding bored. Mal tried to move to attack her mother but several soldiers got in the way. The purple ranger summoned her dragon's eye staff and started to fight her way through them.

But by the soldiers attacking Mal she made one mistake. "You call yourself a parent and yet look at how you treat your own daughters." Splinter said disapprovingly.

Maleficent looked at Splinter with annoyance. "What would you know of parenting rat?" She questioned.

The ninja rat master had no desire to tell her that he had raised Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey their whole lives, or that he had practically become a father to Jennifer, and even to an extent April and Aaliyah. That even after all of the time apart he still felt a paternal bond with Karai. "More than you could ever understand." Splinter said instead.

"Well isn't that just good for you?" Maleficent asked rhetorically and shot at him with her wand. One moment though he was there, the next he was not. She was only just able to dodge the kick aimed at her midsection and she was all but face to face with Splinter. "Impossible." She growled.

"With the right training, nothing is impossible." Splinter replied simply.

Maleficent swung at him and he blocked it, then took a hold of her staff and jammed it right into her shoulder hard before lashing out with his tail and tripping her up. An attempt to bring his fist down on the evil fairy fell flat as she rolled out of the way.

"Your father is so cool." Lonnie had to admit. She had never seen anyone move that fast, the closest she had ever seen like that was Mulan.

"Totally awesome." Mikey replied proudly.

Maleficent's exhausting combat with Splinter started to weaken the magic of the bindings and Jordan used her own magic to dissipate it. Her first instinct was to go in and help Mal but stopped herself from doing so. Instead she unleashed her own magic to free Amy, Melody and Aquiella. The three girls fell to the ground, the two mermaid girls already going to check on Amy. She then turned and unleashed another wave of energy freeing Audrey, Leo and Aaliyah.

Audrey automatically took our her iPhone and transformed, going to help Mal fight the soldiers.

Maleficent lashed out and struck Splinter hard in the side of the head with her staff and he fell to the ground. "Foolish rat." She spat. "You're still defenseless."

"Master Splinter!" Ben called out. "My sword."

Almost as if waiting for that invitation the Praeleanthor sword suddenly levitated off the ground and flew right into the hands of the ninja rat master. He twirled it expertly and then swung at the evil fairy. She blocked it but he moved to the side and slammed her in the chest hard. She let out a growl of frustration and tried to attack with her staff only to have it chopped in half by the rat master wielding the ancient blade.

"Yes." Casey said triumphantly as the bindings fell apart as a result of Maleficent's wand being destroyed. They all reached to recover their weapons or to transform. The evil fairy noticed that and let out another growl of annoyance.

"You've ruined it." Maleficent said with a glare. "You and your kind just can't stay out of affairs that don't concern you. It's disgusting." With that she and the soldiers vanished.

Mal powered down instantly and made her way to her sister. "Amy." She said softly and wrapped her arms around her sister. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine." Amy said softly. Mal was almost sure on some level she was lying. She took a cool cloth offered by Ellie to take care of her twins split lip. Physically it was clear she would be fine but Mal could almost feel turmoil inside of her sister. Granted she had never had a good relationship with her mother somehow this seemed to be crossing a line neither of them thought would ever be crossed.

"I can't believe the nerve of that b…witch." April said, correcting herself automatically as she didn't want to risk upsetting anyone. The red watched as both Melody and Aquiella sat by Amy, Alex coming up from behind and placing his hands on her shoulders softly.

"I believe this is yours, young king." Splinter said as he presented the Praeleanthor sword to Ben. "Thank you for allowing me to wield it."

"Thank you for helping us." Ben said. "And for training those who helped us ourselves."

"Master Splinter." Jane said as she came over to him. "I hope you can stay for a little while. I think my mother would like to talk to you." She glanced over at Fairy Godmother who was now checking on Amy, the rose haired girl still trying to insist she was okay. She personally thought that the only one she would open up to would be Belle. "Particularly about Zordon."

Splinter nodded as if he understood. He had had many great conversations with the sage who had started the legacy of the Power Rangers. "I believe that to be a good idea." He said to her. "We should return to our home this evening."

"You're always welcome here though Master Splinter." Ben said to him. "You and all of your students."

The next few hours passed as they hung out, though Amy seemed to be a bit more glum. Mal and Ben quickly agreed they needed to see Belle the next day. Splinter spoke at great length with Fairy Godmother about Zordon, which as Jane predicted seemed to make her mother happy. Finally though as the sun started to set the New York gang gathered together to leave.

"Thank you again for all of your help." Ben said. He handed Mikey the leftover pizza. "Please, feel free to take that. You'll probably finish it before we will."

"Awesome, thanks man…I mean your highness." Mikey said.

Jennifer went over and wrapped her arms around Amy gently. In a way Mal was surprised that she let the blonde girl do so, but then again they seemed so similar that the purple haired girl decided maybe she shouldn't be surprised. They might have more in common than Mal even knew.

"I hope to see you again bro." Raph said to Aladdin as the two high fived each other.

"You're welcome to come to Agrabah at any time." Aladdin said to him. "Your brothers, your girlfriend, your friends. If you trust them then I trust them."

"Goodbye Raphael." Jasmine said and hugged Raph. She then hugged Jennifer. "Goodbye Jennifer. You two take care of yourselves."

"When we get married I'll make sure to invite you two to the wedding." Jennifer said to them and then giggled softly when she saw Raph blush. They both knew marriage was a long way off, if it were even going to happen.

"Remember that if you need help, do not hesitate to contact any of us." Splinter said to them.

"The same thing with you guys." Amy was the one to say, surprising everyone a little though she wasn't wrong. Of course she hadn't told them about the vision she had of Shredder stabbing Splinter from behind. "If you ever need anything that we can help you with, please don't hesitate to ask."

"Farewell Auradon Rangers." Renet said as she opened up a time door with her time scepter. "We'll see you in time." She of all people knew this wouldn't be the last time any of them would need the others. They and all of the rangers had too many enemies for that. In fact, she knew if they had powers even six months earlier they would have been asked to help with the fight against the Armada.

"Don't you get us lost in time again." Raph said to Renet as they all stepped through the time portal, the only other way to get to Auradon that they knew of beside the Iconian gateways. Whatever response the apprentice time mistress gave them was lost as the door disappeared.

"Come on." Mal said as she wrapped an arm around Amy gently. "It's time to go home too."

"We can repair this." Paradias said as he looked down at Maleficent's wand.

"Good." She said angrily. "In the meantime I will find a way to make those rangers pay."


	96. Prelude to a Storm

Ben and Mal were steps behind Amy and Alex as the four of them walked toward the young king's home. Both of them knew that the younger twin should see Belle after the disturbing encounter with Maleficent, where she struck Amy in an attempt to manipulate Mal. It still made the purple haired girl's blood boil.

Ben reached over and squeezed her hand gently. "I know Mal." He said to her softly. He could only imagine what it was like. Not only did he not have a sibling of his own but he couldn't imagine his parents striking him. Not that he had ever done anything to even pretend it was warranted but still, he couldn't imagine it.

"How can you?" Mal asked a bit snappishly. "You don't know what it's like to want to protect your sibling." She then sighed. "I'm sorry, Ben. I'm just so wound up about it."

"I know honey." Ben said reassuringly. "I'd bet anything that mom already knows we're coming."

"I bet." Mal agreed. After the pizza party the girls had hung out for a little while longer. She had seen Audrey call her mother Aurora just to say hello, and to tell her how grateful she was to have her as a mother. She had tried to do it away from the group but they all knew. No one could blame her either, Lonnie had done the same thing with Mulan and Ally had done the same thing with Alice. Jane likewise had been notably absent as she spent some time with her own mother, who loved her dearly despite some of their issues. Ellie had also done the same thing, with a promise to bring everyone to Arendelle for a visit as soon as she could.

"Alex called his mom yesterday." Ben revealed. "I think he was kind of shaken up by what happened yesterday. Will called his mother and Whitney too. She's been spending a lot of time with Callie." She was Chad's younger sister and the daughter of Cinderella, both of whom had been put into a rather uncomfortable position with Chad choosing to embrace an evil that even most on the Isle of the Lost seemed to have not seen. She had overheard a comment about being curious about the young woman who could enrapture her sister's son.

"You know, this might sound wrong coming from us but I feel like a parent should always be…" Mal hesitated like she was searching for foreign words. In a way, her experience with Belle notwithstanding, she was. "A parent should always try to be right, and fair, and there for their children."

"I think you're right." Ben said to her as he rubbed the palm of her hand a little. "I mean they are still people and make mistakes but as a rule I agree with you." He took a deep breath. "It seems like none of yours were that."

"Sometimes Evie's mom tried with her. I don't know if it came through where it counted though." Mal replied as she smiled a bit at the subtle but loving contact. "But you're right; Amy, Jay, Carlos and I. We got…well we didn't get that, or at least it feels as if we didn't." She gave off a small but humorless laugh. "Lonnie once assumed that even villains loved their kids. In some way I guess they all do, but it's not what it is here. What I see with you and your parents or Aziz and his parents. Even with Splinter and the turtles."

"Sometimes I feel bad that Carlos doesn't really have any attachments in Auradon outside of our group." Ben told him. Unless one wanted to count Dude, the school mascot and his all but official pet. But even then he could still be considered a member of the group. "Even Jay can lean on Aziz and his parents."

"Evie has Snow White too." Mal added. "In fact she was going to see her today as well."

They reached the castle and even if Ben had not been with them Mal and Amy were well known enough not to draw suspicion for their presence. At least no more than the regard some of them got for being the daughters of Maleficent, a stigma that seemed to follow them all to a degree even though Mal showed a very good side and Amy had proven not to even be Isle worthy.

One of the castle servants showed them to the a small arboretum where Belle was already waiting with chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate cake with strawberry soda and Pepsi. She gave Ben a hug and then gestured for Amy to sit by her on the couch. Ben sat on a chair with Mal in his lap and Alex seemed to be admiring the plants.

"So Ben told me you all had some unusual allies to help you stop Paradias and Maleficent's plans this time." Belle said as she took the pitcher of strawberry soda and poured a glass for Amy and Mal. Ben poured himself a glass of Pepsi.

"That we did." Mal agreed with a small laugh. "But they're definitely a good example of appearances being deceiving." She added as she reached for a chocolate covered strawberry. "They were nicer to my chosen siblings and I more so than some of the people in Auradon have been." She wasn't necessarily referring to Audrey as she had very much improved since the coronation. Her thoughts went not only to Chad but even some of the other students looked at them dubiously. She had more than once overheard Ben, Lonnie, or even Audrey getting on students about that.

"They also knew Amber and the other rangers too." Amy added as she was offered the glass of strawberry soda. "Thank you."

"You're welcome honey." Belle said with a small smile. She looked to Ben. "You told me they knew about the demons that made Chad's sword." She reminded him.

Ben nodded. "Yes." He confirmed. "Something was said about a demon named Maledict as well, meaning the sword had to have been named after him."

"I guess it makes sense that the turtles have seen these demons too." Alex noted as he his hand lightly brushed a pink colored rose. "I mean you said the space rangers had to journey to the demonic depths to retrieve the Praeleanthor sword."

"They also mentioned two people in their own worlds working with the demons, and a man who might be one as well." Mal added and she bit her lip trying to remember their names. "Malcolm, some sergeant and…Mull…no, that isn't right."

"Null." Amy filled in for her twin sister.

"I've never heard those names before." Belle mused. "They must not be in our history. Or they went by something different if they were ever here."

"Venus thought that maybe the demons had never been here before." Ben supplied as he took a piece of chocolate cake on a plate. "That maybe their numerous defeats at the hands of the rangers and the turtles, and maybe who knows what else, prompted them to start considering other alternatives."

Belle hesitated a moment. This was not exactly a normal question. "Your…your sword hasn't told you anything?" She asked.

Ben shook his head. "Nope." He said. "It either doesn't know or isn't talking." He then realized what he said and laughed. "Man, that is a weird statement." He mused.

"I suppose no weirder than anything else we've ever discussed as of late." Mal said. She never thought topics of fighting aliens, power ups for their ranger powers, discussions about sentient weapons, or talking turtles would ever be something she would have to worry about.

Belle was not entirely sure how to broach the subject that she knew Ben had brought the girls, particularly Amy, here for. She looked to the rose haired girl. "How is your lip?" She asked her.

"It still hurts a little." Amy said shyly, and then almost in a whisper added, "I…I never did think much was beyond our mom, but somehow hitting me like that, for no reason, never crossed my mind." Belle reached over and stroked her hair softly.

"You should have seen Mal though your majesty." Alex said to Belle. "Once she got free she was a combination of avenging angel and righteous fury." He had to laugh a little. "It was an awesome sight to behold. Maleficent was probably lucky the soldiers were there to run interference."

"Hey, you're talking about my girlfriend there." Ben said to him good naturedly. In reality he couldn't have agreed with Alex's statement more. "Of course Master Splinter gave her a good beat down instead. He had his own avenging fury right there."

Evie was traveling to Snow White's place. Privately she never understood why her sister chose to live as far as she did, when she could have had a castle in Auradon just like Belle and Aurora and Cinderella and the other princesses. Of course when her earliest dream was to marry a prince and live in a castle of her very own (with a mother in law wing at one point) it was hard to think otherwise.

She had intended to come out alone but was instead hanging out with Miranda as she had chosen to spend some time exploring the woods of Auradon. The blue haired girl didn't mind so much, she had never spent any one on one time with the Scottish girl and found it was kind of nice.

"So did you call your mom like everyone else did?" Evie asked her. "I mean, time difference and all that must be hard to account for."

"Aye, sometimes it is." Miranda agreed. "But yes, I got through to her. No offense, but I bet it seemed silly to you and your isle friends."

Evie shook her head. "No offense taken, I can see why you would think that." She herself had a semi-decent relationship with her mother, especially in comparison to her chosen siblings. Still, she now knew it could have been much better. "And no it doesn't seem silly. You see something like what Maleficent did to Amy and it makes you grateful for what you do have. It's even better when you're willing to admit that to the people who need to hear that."

Miranda cocked her head curiously. "Are ye speaking from experience?" She asked.

Evie sighed a bit. "I don't know." She admitted. "Sometimes I do miss my mother. She wasn't as cold as Maleficent. She wasn't as uncaring as Cruella. Still, it was always touch and go. I mean when she didn't get her way it was quite different from when she did. The truth is she'd talk about poisoning Snow White or some other evil deeds she did and it scared me."

"I can imagine why." Miranda said. "I mean it must be scary to hear that kind of stuff."

"It was." Evie agreed. "But it's not just that. Sometimes on the isle I would lay awake at night and wonder what my mother could do to me if I ever pissed her off, and believe me there are times I did despite my best attempts not too." She hesitated only a moment and added more softly, "And here in Auradon I sometimes have to try not to let myself wonder what she could to me because I know choosing good had to have pissed her off, just like it did with Maleficent. Like I said to Mal once, my mom is not a barrel of laughs when she doesn't get her way, just ask Snow White."

"Jafar and Cruella too I would imagine." Miranda said too. She couldn't really imagine what kind of threat Cruella could pose to them though.

They heard the rustling of the forest and barely paid it any attention as it was quite common for animals and such to be wandering around the forest at any given time. It was also logical to reason it could be some other people walking through the forest to reach their own destination as well. This time though, logic failed. A large white creature rushed at the two girls, they were both barely able to dodge.

"What was that?" Evie asked.

"Sorry there, didn't mean to hit you." They heard from a large creature. It seemed to be a four legged creature that vaguely resembled a dragon. It had a white horn on its head like unicorn but was far from cute as the entire body seemed to be made out of the bones of humanoid skeletons. Some might have been human while others were too long or too tall or too oblong to be human. It was still a very disturbing sight. "Actually I meant to gore one of you." It added with a laugh.

"You are one ugly looking creature." Evie noted with disgust.

"Why thank you little girl." The monster said happily. "You can call me Kokki, at least for as long as you're still alive."

Evie and Miranda pulled out their iPhones, entered 7351 and 8011 respectively, and transformed into the blue and Highlands ranger. "We should probably be callin' for back up here." Miranda said to Evie as she formed her bear claw blades. "You do that while I keep this thing distracted."

Evie activated her helmet intercom, "Doug? Jane? Fairy Godmother?" She called. "Can anyone hear me?"

It took a moment but then Doug's voice came back over the intercom. "I read you Evie." He said to her. "What's going on?"

"We ran into this weird monster that calls itself Kokki." She told him. "We need some back up here."

"I'll get some sent your way." Doug promised her. "Just hold on."

Evie saw Miranda slash him with her blades. He took a step back and tried to gore her friend, but the Highlands ranger was just able to twist to the side to avoid that horn. It didn't stop him from slamming his rather massive shoulder into her chest hard. "Easier said than done." She mused as she formed her mirror force shield.

"Oh, I brought this back." Amy said suddenly as she took our the book she had borrowed from Belle. "It was really good, I liked it." She said with a small smile.

"I'm glad." Belle said to her with her own smile. "It has two other parts to it. Before you leave you can take the second part with you." She didn't really trust too many people to borrow from her library but Amy was one of those.

"That'd be great, thank you." Amy said sweetly.

Their iPhones went off and they all instantly answered it. They saw a brief video of the Kokki monster that Evie had taken a moment to capture and then Doug said, "Evie and Miranda need some help battling this thing. Audrey, Jay, Carlos and Lonnie are already on their way. They're the only ones so far who I've been able to get so far."

"Ben and I are on the way now too." Mal said to Doug. "Stand by for now. Let's see if we can beat this thing with just us first, but when you raise the others have them waiting just in case." She looked to her sister and Alex. "That goes for you two too. Wait for us here, we'll be back." With that she and Ben ran toward the castle doors.

"Is it really a good idea to do that?" Ben asked Mal.

"I don't want to show our entire hand to one monster if we don't have too." She told her boyfriend simply. "Besides, maybe this will give your mom the time she needs to really talk to Amy. I think she hates to show weakness in front of us, even me."

As soon as they were out of the castle Mal took out her iPhone and input her numbers 6319 as Ben formed the Praeleanthor sword and shield and combined them. As he became the Auradon Knight she transformed into the purple ranger.

It was an unlikely hope but Evie unleashed a quaking mirror force attack on Kokki, hoping it would be easy enough just to shatter the bone structured creature. It hit him and even left a few minor cracks in the bones but it wasn't enough to destroy him. "Nice try." He said before sending out several very human looking skulls at Evie that struck with a burst of energy upon impact, sending her rolling.

Miranda moved in to engage Kokki and this time he let two long bones, arm bones if she had to guess though it couldn't possibly belong to a normal human, extend from his hands and as he rose to his hind legs he swung at her. She dodged the first strike and tried to respond to the attack. He blocked it with one of the bones and she realized that they were still clearly very strong. "What are ye anyway?" She asked.

"Something far beyond what any of you limited people could hope to understand." Kokki answered. He then moved with a speed that seemed almost wrong from a slow looking lizard like thing in bone and slammed the other bone right into the center of Miranda's back. She rolled hard, pretty sure that if she weren't transformed she would have something broken right now.

"Is this all there is to the power rangers?" Kokki asked. "Paradias said you all were tough."

"You haven't seen anything yet." Evie promised. "We're only getting started."

Kokki started to walk toward the two rangers but was interrupted by a hail of arrows that stuck him several times. He rolled to the ground, dropping the bone clubs he was using to fight. Audrey and Carlos were then by the two girl's side even as Jay and Lonnie stood ready to fight him.

"Look more rangers to play with." Kokki said enthusiastically. "I'm going to enjoy tearing all of you apart."

"That is one nasty looking beast." Audrey noted.

"I said the exact same thing." Evie said.

Kokki moved in with his massive clawed hands and tried to take a chunk out of Lonnie's arm but she moved quickly enough to block the attack with her tessens. Jay moved in and slashed the monster away from the pink ranger. "That thing has a tough hide." Jay noted.

"It makes sense sadly." Miranda said to him. "That exterior isn't just for show. I think he's really made from the bones of other creatures."

Kokki recalled his bone clubs and struck out again. This time Lonnie tried to block his attack only to find he was stronger than she was. He disarmed her and gored her right in the chest. She fell back hard, against Miranda, and started to cough hard as she tried to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" Audrey asked her even as Kokki tried to gore Jay. He deflected the attempt with his scimitar and kicked the monster hard on his bone white chest.

"Yeah." Lonnie got out and then coughed again. "If…if I weren't transformed, I don't think I'd be alive…right now." The Asian princess was still trying to catch her breath.

"I've got your back man." Carlos said as he jumped up and tried to bring his earthquake claw daggers down on the monster. The small sharp claws got caught in what seemed to be a small ribcage and Kokki dropped the bone club in his right hand in order to grab Carlos and toss him hard into Jay.

"Thanks anyway." Jay managed to get out as they landed on the ground hard.

"Hey ugly, coming in." Mal announced as she rammed the edge of her staff that held the dragon's eye gem right into his head. He stumbled back and Ben followed up with two slashes to his chest from the Praeleanthor sword. For whatever reason that seemed to have just a little more effect even though Ben suspected he had nothing to do with the demons that had caused the mystery ancient civilization to make this weapon.

"Everyone okay?" Ben asked as he got ready to defend the rangers if Kokki were to strike now.

"I've had better landings." Carlos told him.

"Yeah, and he's been through some falls." Jay tried to joke though clearly no one was in the mood for that. "Well, it was worth a shot." He added.

"I've managed to catch my breath since that attack." Lonnie said as she recovered her staff. "His gore attack really hurts, I'd hate to see him get to a civilian."

"Then we won't let him." Mal said to the others. "The others should be on standby but let's see if we can finish this guy off on our own."

"You could bring in all your friends and still not be able to defeat me." Kokki said confidently. Mal personally thought he was showing too much confidence, which in itself could be a weakness if they could exploit that.

"Well they say that sticks and stones break bones." Carlos said. "Maybe we should try that out."

"That's kind of ridiculous dude." Jay pointed out. "It's just a rhyme."

"It's a rhyme." Mal said to them. "But maybe not a bad idea guys. But we're going to need a little more bang for our buck, sort to speak." She looked to her team. "And since we're all fully powered we should be able to activate the neon armor without a problem."

"Great idea." Lonnie agreed. "Increased speed and strength…not to mention it might ease some of the pain from that gore." The seven rangers activated their neon armor and stood before him with a shiny neon glow.

Kokki laughed. "Do you really think that you can stop me with that new glow of yours?" He asked. "I can still see right through you to break you down."

"We'll see about that." Mal said. "Spread out and take him down."

One minute he had a view on them and the next they were out of sight. He caught a glimpse of pink and laughed a bit as he remembered goring Lonnie. He only wished he had done that to one of the two female rangers while they were unmorphed. Then he felt a hard kick to his back followed by an upward slash from s single blade, he assumed the black ranger.

"Not so easy to see now, are we?" He heard the yellow ranger taunt. He tried to follow the sound of the voice only to receive an arrow to the side of the chest that sent him flying. He was sure that had to be from the red ranger.

"Come out and play little rangers." Kokki taunted with a laugh though it didn't sound nearly as amused as it had a moment before. He caught a flash of purple and then Mal slammed her dragon's eye staff into his chest and then quickly turned to trip up the monster, making him fall flat on his back.

"I hope this thing has a hard time getting up." Evie noted.

Kokki twirled around and started to shoot out the same exploding skulls that he had tossed at Miranda and Evie earlier but none of them seemed to connect.

"Time to stop playing around." Mal said. "Ben, Miranda, if you two would be so kind as to provide a distraction to this thing then we'll put it together and end this game."

"Ye got it Mal." Miranda said as Ben added, "We're on it." Together the two warriors moved in just as Kokki struggled to his feet. The two slashed him across the chest and then kicked him back. Kokki shot out one of his bone clubs only to connect with the metal of Ben's shield.

"Auradon blaster time?" Carlos guessed. Mal shook her head and the rest of the team nodded.

First Mal placed her dragon's eye staff, followed by Audrey's elemental bow. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind it and the compact expanded outward. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle and then on either side Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens and Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers. They raised the blaster and aimed at the monster.

Ben drew power into the Praeleanthor sword and slashed Kokki hard, causing a crack to form in the bones of his chest. Miranda followed up by driving her grizzly blades into the cracks and pulling hard. She tried to crush her head in between the bones but she dropped down and cracked the bones even further. Both rolled to the side.

With their friends clear the six rangers unleashed a blast of energy straight at him, aiming specifically for his cracked chest cavity. It struck and held for a moment before breaking apart, and the monster went with it moments later in an explosion.

"So much for him." Jay said. "Overconfident to a fault."

As Audrey activated her helmet intercom to tell Doug all was fine and they could stand down from alert status, Mal and Ben bid a quick goodbye to return to his castle.

Evie was also close enough that Miranda said she would go back with Audrey, Jay, Lonnie and Carlos back to Auradon.

Amy had gone to the library and placed the book back into its place on the bookshelf and took out the second book. She opened up the book to read the book jacket when she heard footsteps approaching. "Find it okay sweetie?" Belle asked.

"Yes ma'am." Amy replied even though she stayed where she was looking at the book jacket.

Belle came up behind her and placed her hands gently on Amy's shoulders. "Are you okay sweetie?" She now asked more softly.

Amy didn't know exactly how to respond to that. "Mom and I never really got along. I pretty much knew what her opinion of me was already." She replied.

Belle gently turned Amy to face her. "But it doesn't make it any easier. She is still your mother and all children expect their parents to love them." She stroked her cheek softly, the one that Maleficent had struck in an attempt to manipulate Mal. "No matter what you may or may not have expected, I would think it would still register painfully."

Amy bit her lip. "It kind of does." She said so quietly that Belle had to strain to make sure she heard the rose haired girl right. "To…to have disdain for someone, isn't that different from actually striking them? From hating them?" She wondered.

"Sometimes they're one in the same." Belle answered softly. "And sometimes they're not." She wished she could say that Maleficent didn't hate Amy or Mal, but she found she honestly could not say that to her. She felt it would be a lie. Privately Belle thought that perhaps Maleficent didn't really hate either of her daughters, but only because it was an emotion that she couldn't bother to feel for them when all she cared about was power and causing misery.

"I guess…I guess I just don't understand it. Understand her." Amy said. "I shouldn't want to but…"

"But she's your mother. You want to, even though it seems impossible." Belle finished for her gently. "I know, sweetie. I know."

Amy looked up at Belle, seeing the look of concern and love in her face, something she had only seen from Mal, and that was different to her somehow. She felt tears brimming in her eyes and impulsively she threw her arms around Belle, who hugged the girl back and murmured softly to her.

It was those last words, and that emotional embrace, that Ben and Mal caught the tail end of. Ben put his arm around Mal's shoulders and she laid her head softly against his shoulder. She was glad that Amy had found someone else she could trust so fully, even though the circumstances leading to it were horrible.

Ally, Aziz, Jordan, Aquiella, Melody and Ellie sat at the table in the command center listening to Miranda talk about the fight. Next to them Will sat with Lonnie in his lap, his arms around her waist. "Man, sounds like we missed a nice fight." Aziz said almost regretfully.

"There will be others I'm sure." Jordan said to him.

"At least for once it wasn't something that required all of our efforts." Ally said. "Not that I don't enjoy being a ranger but I worry one of these days we're going to encounter a monster where all of our efforts, and all of our friends, just won't be enough."

"Well let's not forget we have one untapped resource." Doug said to them as he held up the gray iPhone. "It's been synched back up to our system and it's ready to go."

"I still say that you could take it." Aziz said to him. "You could be the gray ranger."

Doug shrugged it off. "I probably could." He agreed. "But it's not what I want. I'm perfectly fine here helping you guys out of the jams you seem to get yourself into." He laughed a bit. "Sometimes you just need the outside perspective."

"We'll find someone." Will said. "It seems as long as we know they're trustworthy there are no shortage of candidates."

Evie entered the small house Snow White often stayed at, placing her key back in her pocket. Sometimes it still amazed her that she and her step-sister could get along so well considering there was plenty of reason to have bad blood exist between the two. It was a reminder that despite the fact she might have had a better relationship with her mother than her chosen siblings could say about their parents, it was still far from perfect.

She stepped further into the house and was about to call out for her step-sister when she heard crying in the kitchen. She slowly moved over to find her sitting at the table, alone. She held a single red rose in her hands. "Snow?" She asked worriedly.

Snow White practically jumped out of her chair. "Evie. I didn't hear you come in." She said as she tried to dry her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Evie asked her as she came into the kitchen. "Did something happen?"

"A long time ago." Snow White said to her softly. "It's no big deal."

"It happened a long time ago and you're still crying over it." Evie reprimanded gently. "Clearly it's something that's a very big deal. Please talk to me." She added imploringly.

Snow White set the rose down and pulled two water bottles from the fridge. Evie sat next to her and waited as she set the bottles down before sitting herself and looking at the red rose. The blue haired girl was about to prod again when Snow White said, "I suppose really you have the right to know about this anyway. It just happened so long ago, and I didn't want to upset you over something that is far beyond your control."

"What happened?" Evie asked her again, just as gently but more insistently. "Please. Just tell me."

And so Snow White told her what happened. When it was over Evie had her own revelation and she took her hand gently. "Believe it or not, I think we actually can fix this." She said to her. "But I'm going to need my friends to do this." She texted her team asking them to meet in the command center and then she and Snow left.


	97. Grey Stormfront

Just as Evie had requested all of her friends were waiting for her in the command center when she came in with Snow White. They all seemed a little surprised to see her bring her step-sister in. While it was basically unspoken knowledge that each of the ranger's parents and siblings knew about the command center so far only Belle and Adam had ever been there, excluding of course Fairy Godmother who had helped build and run the place.

Amy was the one who noticed Snow White was holding a red rose in her hand. She didn't know if that was significant or not but she had never seen her holding one before. She kept quiet about it though as she sat between her twin sister and Alex, who seemed relieved to see her mood had lightened since she and Belle and come out of the library that afternoon.

"Do you guys remember when we used to brag about our parents actions to see who was the evilest of them all?" Evie asked her isle siblings as she paced a bit.

Jay laughed. "Boy do I ever." He said though his voice didn't exactly hold nostalgia. Times had changed greatly for the five of them since coming to Auradon. "Of course it was really bad for you and Carlos, I mean how could a dog napper and a beauty obsessed queen compare with an evil fairy that cursed a baby or an evil sorcerer who tried to take over a kingdom, became an all-powerful genie and nearly take over Agrabah anyway." He looked to Mal, perhaps a little smugly given as the two had always been very competitive. "And by the way, the fact that he was such a threat one of the ninja turtles had to be there to help should be worth extra points."

Mal rolled her eyes in amusement. "Oh please. My mom is the one who commands those Heartless things we fought on the isle." She reminded him. "And she's the one who's been a thorn in our side since then. She forced us to bring all of the turtles and their allies here." She raised her arms in a show of victory, though perhaps a pyrrhic one. "I rest my case."

"I thought you guys were supposed to be changing your ways here." Audrey said jokingly as she gave Mal a mock glare and poked Jay in the ribs. "Bragging about your parents continued crimes, not really helping here."

"Hate to say it, but she might have a point." Ben agreed with a small laugh as he gently stroked Mal's back.

"Hey guys." Evie interrupted impatiently. "Can we get back on topic here?" She asked.

"I thought we were on topic." Carlos said.

Amy and Aquiella exchanged glances with each other. They could already feel this wasn't about out doing each other. "What's wrong Evie?" Amy asked her now. "What happened?"

"I have a sister." Evie started.

"Yeah, we figured that out a while ago." Jay tried to joke as he indicated Snow White. But Amy's posture caught Mal onto the fact that something was wrong and she shushed him quickly.

Evie rolled her eyes but had to admit silently she kind of walked into that one. "I mean Snow and I have another sister." She emphasized.

"Wait, what?" Audrey asked. She looked to Ben and Lonnie, who looked just as mystified. They had lived in Auradon their entire lives. Most of their parents had a pretty close bond with the others and yet they had never heard this before.

"I haven't seen her in a long time." Snow White told them all. "The last time I saw her was just before the poison apple." That of course was a well-known event. "My older sister Rose Red wanted to find a way to stop our step-mother from trying to kill me…well us I think, since even if she had killed me she would have been the next in line for what the mirror would call the fairest of them all."

"How come we've never met her then?" Carlos asked.

"She disappeared during that quest." Snow White answered softly. "It was actually twenty years ago today."

"I'm sorry." Audrey said softly. "That's horrible."

"I don't get it." Carlos admitted. When they all looked at him in shock he amended his statement. "I mean I get the sister being gone thing and that is horrible. I mean what does that have to do with us now?"

"What can we do to help?" Aquiella now asked Evie.

"I remember my mom talking about the evil things she had done, as if she hoped to inspire me with them." Evie said now and her isle siblings nodded in understanding as they had all heard stories like that from their parents, which would later become grounds for their mock competitions. "One of those stories involved capturing a girl and exiling her to another small island."

"I've never heard of any place like that." Fairy Godmother said to them.

"I have." Aquiella said. "Not quite in those terms but…"

"Schadel Island." Melody finished for her. "It's a small island pretty far from Atlantica. Mom talked about it, she heard stories from our grandfather about it. It's one of the few places even my mother wasn't brave enough to go to."

"Is Rose Red there?" Amy asked Evie and Snow White.

Evie nodded. "I think so." She answered. "Mom spoke about hiring a bounty hunter to abduct a girl that was in her way and take her there. She didn't mention anyone by name but so I thought nothing of it at the time. But it occurred to me this was just after my mother hired the huntsman to kill Snow White, even though he couldn't do it." She looked around at them again. "And even worse, I can now make another connection from our time with the power rangers. That bounty hunter's name was Darkonda."

"Wow." Lonnie said. "You mean the same person who made Snow think her sister had died is the same person who kidnapped Karone from her home and essentially allowed for Astronema to be born?" Evie nodded.

"What else do we know about this island?" Miranda asked.

"If Rose Red was exiled there, it stands to reason that others had been banished at some point too." Fairy Godmother announced. "But it can't just be an island, like the Isle of the Lost was." She looked to the two mermaid girls. "Did your mothers or grandfather ever say why it was forbidden?"

"It's not just a place of exile." Melody said. "Pirates use it for their lairs sometimes. There's a group of insectoid creatures that live there, they're said to be carnivores. And they are just as okay with mermaid as they are human. And then there's Paragon."

"Paragon?" Ally asked.

"What? It's there?" Mal asked. "Wow." She looked stunned to hear it. She looked around at the others. Carlos and Jay certainly seemed to understand, and Evie looked somber. Even Amy clearly felt something about it despite how much stock she put into what Maleficent said.

"Someone care to fill us in here?" Ben asked, and then looked at Mal. "Sweetie?"

Mal was in too much shock to realize what her boyfriend had called her. "Paragon was supposed to be ancient evil, though no one knows how intelligent it truly is, if it is at all. It's also said to be powerful and unbeatable. No wonder people like Grimholde chose to exile people to that island." She frowned slightly. "The odds of survival, they're very low."

"And the insectoid things worshipped the Paragon the last time anyone was alive to tell the tale of being there." Amy added softly. "They hunt food for it. Sacrifices." She hadn't necessarily wanted to say that but it was the truth. Snow White let out a small gasp.

"Then that means she might really be long dead." Jordan pointed out, hating to be the one to say it but knowing they needed to realize that it may really be a wasted errand.

Mal also knew Jordan was right. She took a deep breath, reached over and squeezed Ben's hand softly. As she stood she stroked Amy's hair lightly. Then she came to stand in front of Evie and took the blue haired girls hands into hers before looking to the others. "It doesn't matter what kind of errand this is. We owe it to Evie, and to Snow, to try. But I can't make anyone do this either, not with what's at stake." She took a deep breath. "I am going with Evie to Schadel Island to try to find Rose Red. Anyone else who wants to come should feel free to, or not. We won't hold it against you."

The purple haired girl was not surprised at all to see that when all was said and done they were all stepping up to go with Evie to find Rose Red. "I'm coming too." Snow White announced, her eyes showing she wasn't going to back down.

"I'll get a boat arranged for us." Ben said. "So we can get this rescue mission on the road."

Arranging a boat was easy enough and they sailed over to Schadel Island. The journey was relatively quick which was good because the tension of what they were walking into was very palpable. They found a small sand bar to park the boat that could be hidden behind some of the brush and to play it safe Jordan cast a couple of spells to keep it protected and obstructed.

"Any idea where we start looking?" Ally asked quietly. She was hoping somehow to get in, find their answers one way or the other and get out without attracting the attention of the insectoid creatures or this Paragon that even had the formely evil isle kids freaked out.

"Actually I do have an idea on how we can start out." Jordan said. She looked to Snow White. "She's your sister, you share the same blood. We should be able to use a tracking spell to lead us to her." She didn't' want to add that it would lead them regardless, even if it was just a body.

"I hope you're not expecting blood." Evie said. It came out light but it was clear that she was not okay with letting her step-sister bleed for this.

But Jordan merely rolled her eyes. "I'm a genie Evie, not a shaman." She said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "I just need something that would belong to her." She looked to Snow White. "Is that even possible? I know we didn't exactly plan this one out in advance."

Snow White removed a red and white clip from her hair that Evie had in fact noticed her wearing several times, but never knew if it there was significance behind it aside from looking kind of cute. "My sister and I made these just before everything happened." She told them, not wanting to make Evie feel bad with the details that she knew all too well thanks to her mother. "Last I knew she wore one in her hair too."

Jordan took it from Snow White. "This should do it." She said to her and gave a small smile. "Don't worry, I won't lose it. I know how important this is to you, one way or another." Letting the sit in the palm of her hand, she held it out gently and called an Arabic spell. It started to glow and she said, "Follow me."

They followed the genie girl. Amy didn't want to complain but she quickly found this was a long and trying trek through a steamy and semi-dark jungle, which was a good combination of things she disliked. She shrieked just a little when she saw a spider the size of an adult's head on a tree trunk. She took some consolation in the fact that Audrey and Ally reacted the same way. "I just hope that's the only bugs we see on this trip." Evie said as a small shiver went up her spine.

"Arachnid technically." Carlos pointed out.

"Still kind of gross." Jane replied. Sometimes it was hard for her to keep the objectivity she tried to maintain in situations she found scary like this one.

They continued to follow Jordan's lead and they saw the glow dissipate. There was nothing around them at first until Lonnie let out a gasp of horror and knelt down. She picked up a lock of hair, one side had some blood in it as if had been pulled out roughly, and it held an identical clip.

"Rose." Snow White whispered.

Jay glanced at it. "The blood is fresh." He said to them.

Evie grasped at the straw that Jay was offering. "Which means she was just taken." She stated. "We can probably still save her."

Miranda just barely made out a sharp rustling sound followed by the sling of a weapon. "Everyone down." She ordered. The rest of the team did as she said, Evie making sure to take Snow White with her. Mal had a grip on Amy's shoulders to protect her. Jay had done the same thing with Audrey and Aziz had done the same thing with Ally.

A throwing axe angled around right where everyone had been. If they hadn't ducked down at that moment they all would have lost their heads, a fact Ally knew the Red Queen would have enjoyed immensely. It angled back into the forest and guy about their ages stepped out of the forest with the axe in hand.

Each of the girls had to privately admit he was nice looking. His hair was down to his shoulders which made some sense since hair stylists weren't exactly a common thing there. He certainly looked to be strong, and he also looked pissed. "What have you done with her?" He asked.

"Done with whom?" Jordan asked.

"Look, we don't know who you're looking for. We just got here and we're trying to find someone ourselves." Ellie said to him in her most diplomatic tone, something she had learned to convey pretty well consider her mother was the queen of Arendelle.

It seemed like he almost wanted to believe them except for one little problem. He pointed the axe at Lonnie. "How dare you guys hurt my mother." He stated angrily.

"Your mother?" Snow White repeated, seeming shocked.

"Hey wait a second here." Evie said. "That…"

The axe was thrown again but this time Ellie knocked it off course with a beam of ice from her hands. It was kind of interesting to see it go back to him rather than hit the ground, but that again meant he was armed.

"Just a minute. You don't understand…" Alex tried to say but was cut off by another rustling sound. This time they found large insectoid like things bursting from the trees. Their carapaces were a dark blue and their mandibles clicked in seeming excitement as they surrounded them.

"I knew it." The boy said. He was about to say something else when he received a shock. One of them reached for Snow White, as if they knew who she was, and Evie kicked it in the chest hard. It fell back but was starting to rise and glare at her. "Why are they attacking you?"

"We tried to tell you we're not with these freaks." Mal said to him annoyed. "We're looking for a girl named Rose Red." She gestured to Snow White. "Her older sister."

"Yeah, if you'd bothered to listen." Aziz started but interrupted himself as he delivered an uppercut to one of the creatures that had reached for Ally. "Back off." He growled at it.

"This is getting us nowhere fast." Audrey said as she picked up a branch to hit one of them in the head as hard as she could. She sure didn't want her skin to come in contact with these things. "Do you think we can change here?"

Mal had to agree that Audrey was right. Fighting like this was almost like a losing battle. "Only one way to find out." She declared. She looked to Ben, Alex and Ellie. "Keep Snow White around you guys. And let's get to work." Jane pulled out the magic wand, Ben summoned his shield and the Praeleanthor sword, and Melody enlarged the trident to real size and they transformed. The rest of the team pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed as well.

"Wow, didn't see that coming." The boy said, sounding somewhat impressed. "Maybe I picked a fight with the wrong people after all." When it was done he found two purple rangers, a red ranger, a blue ranger, a black ranger, a yellow ranger, two pink rangers though one was darker than the other, a gold ranger, a silver ranger, a clear ranger he thought was like crystal, a green ranger, an aqua ranger, an orange ranger and three in armor; one silver and heavy looking, the other two in red or blue and lighter looking.

"We tried to warn you." Jay said to him simply.

The insectoids hesitated for only an instant and then a few of them attacked. Jay summoned his soul scimitar and cut one of them down; Aziz summoned his spiral spear and cut the second one down, while Miranda used her grizzly blades to take out the last one.

"They might be smarter than they look." Carlos noted. "Which isn't saying much."

Audrey drew her elemental bow and summoned fire arrows, which she unleashed around the insectoid creatures. That caused them all to click incessantly for a moment and then withdraw into the forest.

"I hope that's the last we see of them." Amy said softly.

"Somehow I doubt it honey." Mal said. "They have to be the ones who took Rose Red. They have to be the ones we have to get through before Paragon gets a hold of her."

"Paragon?" The guy asked.

"That would be the big creature that probably owns this island." Alex said to him. "Never seen him really, but some of us have heard about him." It occurred to Mal that for all the stories they had spoken of, none of their parents had been able to really describe this Paragon.

"Speaking of roaming and island and randomly attacking people, just who are you anyway?" Jordan, still as the gold ranger, asked him snappishly. Having an axe tossed at her head was not exactly what she considered an ideal greeting.

"My name is Grant." He said to them all. "Grant Gray." He placed the axe in a holster on his leg. "I'm sorry for the attack. I saw that," he pointed to the torn hair that Lonnie had held onto. "And thought you had abducted my mother."

"This place almost seems as bad as the Isle of the Lost." Evie noted wearily. Right now she didn't want to get into the fact that if he was really Rose Red's son, then he was her and Snow White's nephew. It was even stranger to her since he looked a little older than she did.

"The Isle of the Lost did have some kind of, of order." Mal reflected. "Maybe not much in the way of, but some kind of society is there, as some of us know all too well." She glanced around the forest. "This place; not so much."

"We're here to help rescue Rose Red." Snow White said to him. "To bring my sister home." She reached out and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. "And that makes you my nephew. I want you to come home with us too."

"After we rescue your mother." Ally added with rare strength in her voice. She would never forget the risks she took when she had gone to Wonderland to rescue her own mother Alice from the Red Queen, and she was grateful that the rangers had come with her.

"Doesn't that…" Carlos started only to get elbowed by Evie.

"There are people on this island who seemed to have formed some kind of alliance with the insectoids." Grant explained to them. "Usually for protection but often enough for power. But after seeing this display, something tells me power isn't something you need to worry about."

"I could use just a little bit more." Jordan said as she glanced around. "My spell just fizzled out. I don't know what to do now to find Rose Red."

"That's easy enough." Grant said to her. "I know where their hive village is." He took out his axe again. "Come on, follow me." He began to cut through some of the burdensome undergrowth. The rangers followed him making sure to keep Snow White, the unprotected civilian, in the middle of the group.

There was no conversations as they made their way but it wasn't long, perhaps twenty minutes or so, before he lead them to their destination. It seemed like a normal village, though several of the structures looked more like honeycomb walls than the walls they were used too. They could certainly see more than enough of the insectoid creatures. And they looked to be arming themselves, as if they were expecting company. Which Mal supposed in manner of speaking they were.

Amy couldn't help staring at how many of these insectoids there seemed to be. They were the size of an average person, which actually made them taller than her, and seemingly legion. "Oh my pink." She whispered in terror and revulsion.

"Guys, I think I see Rose Red." Will whispered. They looked to him and he pointed to a large area near the top that made Miranda think of an altar. She was strapped down, in a torn red shirt and torn white pants, one of the pant legs almost entirely missing.

"I guess good tailor service is kind of hard to find out here." Audrey mused softly.

"And I doubt boutique shops are that common either." Lonnie added.

"Paragon doesn't eat people in the traditional sense." Grant said to them all softly. "What he does is drain them of their, I guess the best term would be life essence." He glanced with disgust at the insectoid things. "They take care of the bodies."

"That's gross." Amy noted as she shivered.

"What's the plan M?" Evie asked her chosen isle sister. She sure didn't want to see anyone die like that, and the fact they were talking about her step-sister made it worse.

"We attack." Mal said, which surprised them all just a little. They thought she would have a bit more strategy than that. "Look, we want to be out of here before Paragon shows up." She reminded them and then elaborated. "Audrey, you and I will activate our battlizers, take out the guards on the altar and then get Rose Red back here. Evie, you stay here with Grant and keep the horde away with your long range abilities as well as protect Snow White. The rest of you, just do your best to keep these things at bay."

"Glad I have this then." Grant said as he brought the axe up.

"How does it come back anyway?" Melody asked him.

"It's enchanted, duh." Jordan said to the mermaid girl.

"Okay guys." Mal interrupted. "I don't know how much time we have, so let's do it." She and Audrey pulled out their iPhones and pressed the half sun jewels to activate their battlizers. That drew the attention of the insectoids and they started to surge toward them.

"See you at the top." Audrey said to them as she and Mal took off. She was glad she could fly above the swarm as she hated bugs almost as much as Amy did. She in fact noticed the rose ranger had drawn her blaster but stayed between Alex and Melody.

In fact right now all of the team had their blasters drawn except for Alex, Ellie, Evie, Melody and Aquiella. The two mermaid girls could use their weapons long ranger while the two Arendelle heirs could use their natural born, but amplified, powers. Evie was ready for when they swarm inevitably forced her friends to switch to close range weapons.

It seemed like no time at all before one of them reached for Lonnie. She couldn't help but give off a shriek as she holstered her blaster and struck it with one of her batons. "Man, these things just feel wrong." She said.

"Well they are giant insects." Ally tried to reason as she too holstered her blaster and took out her crystal cards, unleashing the deck on several of the approaching creatures. The cards made nice little nicks that might have been nothing more than annoying but was enough for Ellie to unleash an icy beam on them that sent them flying back.

One of them grabbed Jordan by the neck and lifted her up. She kicked it hard in the carapace as she brought her fists down on his arm, barely breaking free. She then slammed the end of her lamp cannon right into its throat and sent it rolling.

Grant tossed his axe and cut through a few of them. He caught it on the rebound only to hear a startled scream from behind him. He turned to see several of the insectoids emerge from the forest toward Snow White.

"Get away from her!" Evie tried to shout even as one clamped its hands on her shoulders. She slammed the mirror, compact side up, into its mandibled face and then turned around to blast it with her weapon. Two more were now in her way. "Snow!" She yelled out.

Aquiella slashed back two of them with her coral boomerangs and then tossed one of them to slam right into the carapace of an insectoid that was getting too close to Amy despite the rose ranger using her rose lances to keep them at bay. She noticed that the insectoid swarm had divided many of them up well enough that only Grant was close enough to Snow White.

"We have to get through somehow." Melody said to her cousin. "We have to make sure that they don't grab her."

Aquiella watched Alex slam his fire tonfa's into the carapace of two of the insectoids. They didn't seem to feel the effects of the fire that much. One of them latched onto Ellie but Miranda brought an elbow down hard onto its head and then slashed it away.

Mal unleashed a draco meteor on the guards at the altar as Audrey landed, rather gracefully the purple ranger had to admit, by Rose Red. "We're going to get you out of here, I promise." The red ranger said to the bound woman as she took off one of the gems surrounding her waist and began to cut through it.

"Who are you?" She asked the brunette princess.

"My name is Audrey, I'm the daughter of Aurora and Phillip." She answered. "We're here with your son Grant and your younger sister Snow White so we can take you home." She was working on the bindings on her wrists right now. "She talked to your step-sister Evie and they pieced together that you were here."

Rose Red had no idea who the younger step-sister was. And right now it didn't matter. "Get my hands free and I'll get the rope off my chest while you cut my legs free." She said.

"That was the plan." Audrey replied.

Mal meanwhile had her dragon's eye staff out. She could already see the insectoid swarm breaking off so that many could ascend the altar and stop them from freeing Rose Red. She slammed her staff into the face of the first on hard and knocked it off. It was quickly replaced by another one that she tripped up and sent sprawling, taking another with it. More of them mindlessly awaited taking that place.

"There's only one thing we can do." Aquiella said to Melody. "We have to let Grant take the gray ranger powers to defend Snow White." At her look of uncertainty she added, "I know, we barely know the guy. But we know Evie, and we trust her."

Melody sighed. "Alright." She relented. She used her trident to draw the gray iPhone, she wasn't even sure who was keeping it at the moment though she thought it might have been Jane, who was in the process of slashing an insectoid with the long pointed end of the wand.

"Amy, I need to borrow you a moment." Aquiella said. Words didn't always have to pass between the two water wielding empaths to know what the other was thinking. Especially since Aquiella's control of water was so powerful. Without question the rose ranger reached out a hand to the orange ranger.

The gray iPhone appeared in Grant's free hand and he heard one of the girl's voices in his mind, he didn't know them well enough to know which one though it was actually Amy's. _Take the iPhone and do what we did, put in the numbers 8990._ That had actually been part of Gregory's school ID number but had obviously been rescinded when he betrayed the team. As he turned and slammed the blunt end of the axe against the nearest insectoid reaching for Snow White, which if they were all to believed was his aunt, he input the numbers and transformed.

The sudden transformation startled Mal for a moment. "What? Who just did that?" She made the mistake of turning her head to see the gray ranger standing in Grant's place. It was obvious what had happened and she could only assume this was the right thing to do. But the mistake came because one of them grabbed Mal's staff and tried to toss her off the altar.

"Mal!" Audrey, the only ranger close enough to see what was happening, gasped. She let loose a bunch of the gems surrounding her waist to attack the insectoids still coming up the stairs. She finished cutting Rose Red's wrists and then she heard a rumbling. "Um, now what?" She asked.

Rose Red gasped a bit. "I'll free myself. You need to provide a distraction." She said.

Audrey was about to ask against what when a shadow descended. She looked up, and up, and up. Now covering the entire mountain was a large black creature. The closest thing she could equate this monster to was a huge lion but it wasn't covered in fur, more like black scales. Its hind legs bent more like that of an insect than a mammal and it seemed to have a large black, scaly half ring protruding from either side of its back. She didn't know what it was exactly but she knew what to call it. "Paragon." She whispered in shock, and even some fear.

"Oh, my…" Mal started before she realized the position she was in. She rocketed up and slammed her staff into the face of the insectoid who had dangled her over the altar edge only a moment ago. She then landed by Audrey's side.

"Oh my pink!" Amy gasped in pure shock and some horror herself as all the rangers and Snow White saw the creature now standing on the entire side of the mountain glaring down at them.

The insectoids were backing up and Evie looked to Grant. "Here's a little hint. When the scary things get scared, it's a really bad sign." She said to him. "Though if it helps any, gray kind of suits you."

Grant shook his head in shock. "I can count on one fist the number of people who have escaped this thing." He said softly.

"Don't you mean one hand?" Carlos asked in his own state of terror.

"Not when the answer is zero." Grant revealed.

"This thing can't be so bad." Jay tried to say encouragingly. He wasn't sure he was feeling it.

Rose Red managed to free herself, motivated by the sudden terror brought on by the sight of the 'lord' of the island. She was now behind Mal and Audrey. "Can you guys defeat that thing?" She asked them.

Audrey and Mal both unleashed their strongest battlizer attacks, the draco meteor and the moonblast respectively, only to find the thing barely scratched by it. "Um, I don't even think we can hurt this thing." Mal said with a slight shake of her head. She wondered why this thing kept to itself on Schadel Island when this thing was clearly durable enough to take out the entire army of Auradon and what passed for an army on the Isle of the Lost.

Paragon let out a huge roar and raised its paws, only then did Audrey notice they didn't end in paws though but were instead large scaly black hands. It gathered up a massive amount of energy and unleashed it straight at the altar. Both Mal and Audrey moved to protect Rose Red from the brunt of the impact, but it was still strong enough to send the three girls flying off the altar and straight toward the ground.

Ben rushed to catch Mal, Jay rushed to catch Audrey, and Grant pushed through the other rangers to catch his mother. They barely succeeded in doing just that. "Are you okay mom?" Grant asked her.

"I'll be okay, if we survive this." Rose Red responded with a small smile at her younger sister. "Snow, it's been…"

She nodded in understanding. That family had a lot to talk about.

"Oh my pink." Amy gasped again as she ran to Mal and hugged her tightly. "I was so afraid for a moment there that it was going to kill you."

Mal stroked her back lightly. She didn't want to remind Amy it still could do so. "We have to get out of here, right now." She said to them all. "Before it does finish the job."

As they rose Paragon gathered up the same energy and slung it at them again. This time the aim was off, but instead of hurting any of them it cut through a good portion of the forest behind them. "Yeah," Jordan agreed. "It's time go."

Paragon jumped off the mountain side and landed not too far from them. With a growl it looked ready to advance on them.

Ben took down an insectoid and then heard _Use us_ from the Praeleanthor sword. The Auradon Knight didn't even hesitate. He tossed the Praeleanthor sword as hard as he could right at the huge creature. It struck him in what they could only assume was the chest near the heart and it let out a huge roar of pain. The sword returned to Ben as the team ran as fast as they could, Grant and Evie supporting Rose Red as they ran.

They very quickly could hear the massive steps of the huge beast as it headed straight for them. Luckily the boat had stayed right where it was and they all got in and as quickly as possible. They already heard Paragon heading toward them. Both Mal and Audrey turned and unleashed another round of draco meteors and moonblasts at Paragon.

"Somehow that seemed less effective." Carlos noted as he saw Ben starting up the boat. He was still worried that they wouldn't get away fast enough.

"I was afraid of that." Mal said to them. "I noticed when my dragon zord does that it gets weaker each time. I guess I'm not immune to it."

Amy reached over and took Aquiella's hand. Then Melody did the same. Her trident glowed even as Aquiella summoned up all the water power she could muster. Thankfully between her own immense water powers, the power of Triton's trident and the strong powers of the rose haired rose ranger they were able to summon up a huge tidal wave that, thanks to the girl's magic, completely passed through the boat and Auradon team, it slammed into Paragon with huge impact.

The boat sped off. Ally noticed that Paragon was already standing up from the tidal wave impact. It powered up another blast and hurled it at the boat but thankfully fell flat. Then they were gone, only then realizing how fast all of their hearts had been beating.

Rose Red sat next to her younger sister and the two embraced. "I thought you were dead." Snow White said to her softly.

"I was kind of waiting for that." Rose Red replied. She shivered just a bit and Snow White wondered what her sister had endured over the years. "You met my son Grant."

Snow White smiled. "We did."

"Hey Snow." Jordan called out and when she looked at the genie girl she tossed her the hair clip. "Managed to hold onto that despite everything, just as I promised."

Lonnie handed the clip, and the still torn out hair, to Rose Red. "I did too. I bet you wouldn't mind having this back." She said.

"Thank you." Rose Red said as she took the hair clip. The wind blew away the strands of hair that was being held by the clip.

"This is Evie." Snow White introduced now. "She's the daughter of our step-mother." Rose Red's face seemed to show one of half shock and half disgust. "Don't worry." She hastened to add. "Evie is nothing like our step-mother. She's very nice and sweet. Without her we would have never known where to find you."

Evie knelt down in front of Rose. "I…I can't really…" She stammered, not really sure what to say to her. It had been hard enough to find a way to talk to Snow White, and now trying to talk to her oldest step-sister Rose Red seemed even harder.

Rose Red reached out and hugged the blue haired girl. "Thank you for coming for us." She said.

"Wait." Grant said as he looked to Evie. "You're my mom's step-sister…that makes me your step-nephew…but you're a little younger than I am…" He seemed to be having a hard time processing it.

Evie laughed. "I know how you feel." She told him. "That baffles me too." She shook her head. "But it is what it is." She reached over and squeezed Grant's hand. "Welcome to the team."

"I hope you're not mad." Amy said to Mal. "Aquiella and I thought that it was our only option."

Mal smiled at her twin sister. "I'm not mad Amy." She promised. "And I trust your judgement."

And on the horizon they could see the shores of Auradon. Behind them they hoped never to see Paragon again, the monster that they feared they could never defeat if it ever came down to it. "Welcome home Rose Red." Snow White said softly to her older sister as the two again embraced.


	98. The Largest Storm Part 1

Bringing Rose Red home again, and bringing Grant to Auradon, wasn't all fun. Snow White had to take Rose Red to Belle and Adam so they could get her checked out. She had been trapped on Schadel Island for years and they had to make sure she was okay, and they had to do the same thing for Grant.

The second thing was the unfortunate report they had to give to Fairy Godmother about Paragon. It wasn't much of a report but the fact that nothing the rangers could throw at it could do more than mild damage to it was disturbing enough. It seemed their only saving grace was that Paragon had had a lot of time, centuries if the stories Maleficent, Jafar and Grimholde the Evil Queen had told their children were true, and it didn't seem interested in venturing off of its island.

"I don't even think Paradias could take that thing out." Jane said to her mother. "We should just be glad that it doesn't seem to care about expanding its territories." She looked at the blurry and not all together proportional image they had of Paragon. "Where did that thing even come from?" She wondered.

"I kind of hope we never have to find out." Carlos said to her with a shrug. "I mean no offense but if that thing isn't unique then we'd have a whole host of problems, I mean more so that one would already be."

Jane laughed as she lightly placed her hand on his arm. "I guess you're right." She conceded, oblivious to the slight blush in his cheeks at her touch. Mal and Evie however were not and exchanged knowing glances; the blue haired girl had to work hard not to giggle as well.

"Well I just hope that we can trust Grant." Fairy Godmother noted now. The fact was that Gregory's betrayal was still rather fresh in everyone's mind, and though it was unspoken the fact that Will too was a hairsbreadth away from betraying them as well also rang a bit. Granted in the long run it really was only one incident but it was enough. "I have however received word that at least he spoke the truth, tests to confirm him to be Rose Red's son."

"I wonder who his father is though." Alex mused. Granted it wasn't a big secret that not everyone was aware of the identity of both of their parents. The five isle kids only knew about one of their respective parents. It was less common in Auradon but Will spoke little of his father and no one had said anything about Ellie's father either, for example. Mal also knew that, given the nature of the Schadel Island, that it might not have been a welcome topic.

Evie's iPhone buzzed and she looked at the text she got, then at her friends. "Rose Red and Grant are leaving. She's going to stay with Snow White for a little bit until she can figure out her next move. She talked Grant into enrolling in Auradon Prep." She revealed to them all.

"Come on then guys." Ben said as he stood up, helping Mal to her feet as well. "Let's go help him get enrolled and settled in then. Show him some team unity."

Mal couldn't help but laugh a bit at the young king's words, but she understood the meaning behind them. She hadn't thought it would ever be possible but in his own way Grant was as much or even more a stranger to Auradon than she and her chosen siblings had been. "Yeah, that's a good idea. We have to show him that he's not alone here." She agreed.

"I'm still having a hard time processing that Grant is your step-nephew." Aziz admitted to Evie as they all started to leave the command center. "Even though he's only like a year older than you are."

Evie shook her head a little. "Yeah, I know what you mean." She promised him.

Carlos shook his head. "He could be your boyfriend in a different time." He said absently. He chose to ignore that look of annoyance on Evie's face.

"I think someone might disagree with that one." Amy reminded him as she thought of Doug, who right now was in an extra chemistry class.

"Anyway," Evie said quickly to change the semi-awkward subject and to get her mind off of her potential boyfriend. "He's going to meet us in the commons area. We can get him registered and then show Grant the command center too."

Meanwhile above Auradon Paradias's ship remained in orbit. He sat on the throne of the ship and looked down at Maleficent, and just behind her was the Dark Auradon Knight Chad, the sorcerer Marcellus and Jabberwock, his only surviving generals. Gregory had been captured by Auradon forces after losing the gray ranger powers to the ninja turtle Raphael while both Nerissa and Reviveslime had been destroyed. He smiled grimly though, at least his dead generals would still serve one last purpose. He looked to Maleficent. "Did you find somewhere?" He asked her.

"I did." Maleficent answered him.

Paradias nodded. "Good. Then it is time for the final phase of my plan. If all goes well, then the rangers, except Audrey of course," He corrected himself as he looked at Chad, who had developed a very unhealthy with the brunette princess, "Will be destroyed and Auradon will belong to us."

"And if not then I'll make sure my brat daughters and their little friends suffer." Maleficent said to him. She looked to the three remaining generals. Despite the fact Undine was affiliated with them she was not officially a general in their army, at least not yet. "It's time to move out." She said to them. The four of them left the bridge.

Paradias looked at the soldiers still operating the ship. "I will be going to the surface myself with Shunoros. And we will bring about the end of Auradon as those fools know it." He said.

Grant turned as the rest of the ranger team approached him. He was aware that technically they were his team mates, probably were his friends, and that Evie was in fact, and it was just as weird to him as it was to the blue haired girl, his step-aunt. But none of it was familiar and this wasn't home, at least not yet. The ominous black storm cloud gathering above didn't help to ease his tensions.

"Let's get you to the registration office." Ben said as he came up to him, placing his hand reassuringly on his shoulder. "It'll be quick and painless, I promise. Then we'll get you assigned to a room and we can worry about classes a little later."

"Then we can show ye the command center." Miranda said to him. "It's actually a rather impressive sight. Not something you see all that often anywhere."

"I'm sure it looks good." Grant said uneasily. Technology was even more uncomfortable to him than the fact he was surrounded by a large crowd of people. He had grown up around only about a dozen or so people and the only one he was ever sure he could trust was his mother.

There was a large crack of thunder and he heard Amy gasp just a bit as she reached for Alex's hand. He held her hand and tried to reassure her softly. Mal thought it was kind of cute, and she was glad her sister felt she could seek comfort from someone else besides her.

"That sounded too close for comfort." Aquiella noted uneasily. It occurred to Mal to wonder what it was a severe storm felt like to aquatic life in the oceans and seas. However it felt, it seemed as if their orange ranger didn't seem to appreciate it.

Jordan frowned too. "I, I feel like this isn't natural." The genie girl told them all. "I feel like there' some kind of magic behind this. Probably dark, either from Paradias or Maleficent."

"Not what we wanted to hear." Carlos noted simply.

Their iPhones went off and they activated their iPhones to hear Fairy Godmother. "The school is being surrounded by soldiers. I don't know what they're doing here now or what they want but we have to get rid of them." She told them.

"Registration will have to wait." Mal said to them all. "Let's get to work." They headed toward the entrance to Auradon Prep. They saw Ruby and another student doing their best to stop them from entering, even as several of them were climbing the walls. Jay, Will, Aziz and Miranda headed toward the front to knock them back even as Ellie and Alex used their own elemental power to line the wall tops with fire and ice.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked Mal as she saw the purple haired girl.

"We're being invaded." Mal replied simply. Now was not the time to remember that Ruby was not in the know. "I don't know what they want."

Thunder resounded and they saw in the background Paradias appear. He seemed to glare at each of the rangers. "The time has come for you all to perish. Auradon will belong to me." He gloated eagerly.

The team assembled near the entrance to the school. Normally it was an open area, no gate or anything whatsoever. Now Ellie raised her arms and created what looked like a two doored gate on either side of the walls, though made of ice and not metal. "Get ready to close that behind us Ruby." The princess of Arendelle said to the long haired blonde. "We're going to see what we can do to end this." Mal nodded approvingly.

"Please be careful everyone." Ruby said uncertainly. As the ranger team stepped out into the area beyond Ruby lassoed one end with her long hair while grasping the other end with her hands and, ignoring the cold, reluctantly did as she had been requested.

"I must applaud you." Paradias said to them all. "Coming to meet your ends head on and eyes open. Your bravery is certainly commendable."

Even as the soldiers moved to allow the team through, and subsequently cut off escape afterwards, the team pulled out their iPhones, or in the case of Ben, Jane and Melody, their weapons that enabled them to transform. "You want this to be the end Paradias?" Mal questioned him. "Well on this point we can agree. We're more than willing to finish this. But it won't be us meeting death with eyes wide open."

Paradias laughed. "You still have one more challenge in front of you kids." He cautioned them. "Meet my most powerful monster, Shunoros." Then in front of him appeared a large creature that almost seemed mechanical in nature. Four mechanical tentacles emerged from the rounded stumps on its arms; the middle portion that would be considered the hand was instead cannon shaped. It bore the distinct outline of a circle around its waist that Mal suspected could only be grown to resemble the circular beams that often allowed his monsters to grow.

Each of the team transformed and summoned their weapons, ready to fight. Paradias merely laughed. "Destroy them." He commanded his forces. "Every one of them, except the princess." The soldiers surged forward even as Shunoros took several slow but massive steps forward.

"Which princess do you suppose he means?" Alex asked.

"Audrey." Ellie reminded her cousin just a little irritably. She couldn't imagine how the brunette princess could deal with the obsession Chad had with her. She didn't think she could handle it as gracefully as Audrey seemed to. "He won't kill her because of Chad."

"He won't be killing any of us." Miranda said as she twirled her grizzly blades, and then slashed the first soldier to approach her.

The tentacles on Shunoros's arms lashed out and slapped at the team, sending them flying into the mess of soldiers. They all reached down to try to grab a hold of them but Ellie, Alex, Aquiella and Amy unleashed bursts of elemental energy to knock them back so they could stand up.

"I think it's time for a little bit of divide and conquer." Jordan said to Mal. There was some advantage to having almost twenty team members in their group.

Mal nodded in agreement. "I think you're right Jordan." She looked to Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Jane and Amy. "Let's take go after the Shunoros thing. The rest of you take out the soldiers." She delegated.

Ellie looked to Ben, Jordan, Aziz, Ally, Will, Miranda, Aquiella, Grant, Alex, and Melody. "We have to try to keep the soldiers away from the gate." She said to those who were going to deal with the minions. "They're already trying to scale the walls and get through the ice gate, and if they get in I don't know how many people can defend themselves."

Will remembered rather vividly that both his sister Whitney and her friend Callie, the daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming, were inside those walls. "I think I better take Aziz, Miranda and Grant closer to the walls to act as defenders." He said.

Ellie nodded in complete understanding. "Good idea." She confirmed.

"Then let's get to work." Mal said. The team split into two, though soon Will would lead Miranda and the two boys closer to the walls to try to defend the school.

Again Shunoros lashed out the tentacles. The team dodged to the side and used that maneuver to try to surround the giant mechanical creature though they suspected somehow that it wouldn't matter all that much. Then the ring on its waist extended a huge burst of energy that knocked them all on their backs hard.

"I had a feeling it'd do something like that." Jay said as he started to stand, raising his soul scimitar and got ready to fight again.

Audrey raised her elemental bow and unleashed a few electrical arrows at the large mechanical monster though it didn't seem to be all that fazed by the impact. He slammed a tentacle toward her which she was just barely able to cartwheel over. She gave silent thanks to the hour she spent in cheerleading practice for that.

Carlos leapt at the giant monster with his earthquake claw daggers extended and tried to dig into the metal. He barely stuck on and he tried to deliver a seismic shock to the mechanical monster. It didn't seem to register and twirled quickly to fling the yellow ranger off.

Lonnie jumped up and slashed at Shunoros with her hurricane tessens. It left small trails as she moved back to the ground and then barely dodged as he tried to bring his hand down on the pink ranger.

Mal used her dragon's eye staff as a pole vault to kick him the mechanical monster in the face as hard as she could. It wasn't hard enough as it only took a step back and then slammed one of the mechanical tentacles in right into the purple ranger hard.

Amy rushed to her twin sister. "Mal, are you okay?" She asked her.

"Oh, that didn't feel good." Mal moaned as Amy helped her to stand up. "We have to up our game here."

"I think it's time for the neon armor." Jay said to Mal. "Get our speed and strength up."

The rangers moved closer together. "Let's do it." Mal agreed. The team activated their neon armor and then headed again toward Shunoros. The mechanical monster unleashed another burst of energy from the ring around its waist but this time they had the speed to jump over the attack.

Audrey, Jay, Carlos and Amy brought their weapons down on Shunoros as hard as they could, leaving more scratches on the monsters metal coat but they still couldn't ignore the fact the monster had size over them. "Too big for us, not big enough for zords." Carlos mused.

"It is kind of an unfair advantage." Jane acknowledged. She tried a magical attack on Shunoros just to discover the thing was also immune to magic. The revelation did not surprise any of them. "It figures Paradias would make it magic resistant." The white ranger stated.

"Then we'll just have to stick with the brute force option." Mal said. She wasn't entirely sure how much of an option that was either but at least they had made some dents in the mechanical creature.

"Heh, fine by me." Jay said and then moved in. He used the ring around Shunoros's waist to jump and slash the monster again. "Though maybe you two could try your battlizers out." He suggested. It was their strongest weapon, technically even stronger than the Auradon Blaster or Launcher.

Audrey and Mal nodded and took out their iPhones again. They were interrupted though by Paradias's laugh. "I've seen your little get up ladies." He said to them. "And as impressive as those were I'm afraid I can't allow you your little costume change."

"And what do you think you can do about it?" Jay questioned. Personally he thought Audrey looked gorgeous in the red and pink get up of her battlizer and he knew she was making a dress like that in her fashion design class.

Shunoros started to glow green and the ring around the waist started go glow, only to have another ring form under its legs and over its head to connect in the back. Then a pulse emanated from it and shot through the area.

Each of the rangers had raised their arms to protect their faces and braced for impact only to find that nothing had happened. Carlos snickered. "I think your monster messed up their Paradias." He noted wryly.

"Oh did it?" Paradias asked amused. When the two girls again raised their iPhones and pressed the half sun jewel on the top of their iPhones nothing happened. "Looks like you were wrong. It seems as if access to your battlizers has been restricted."

"But the adjustments that Doug and Donnie made…" Evie started.

"Were to prevent your powers from being cut off from the morphing grid." Paradias finished knowingly. "But your powers aren't being cut off from the grid. Your power levels are simply being limited in this area."

"Well that's annoying." Jane noted. She didn't know what to do about that one. "But we still have some strength and speed on our side."

"Ah yes, very true." Paradias noted with amusement. Then his eyes glowed. "I think it's time we do something about that as well." From the second ring two compartments opened and formed together a third ring that encircled around Shunoros's arms. This was followed by another wave that this time knocked them all back, dissipating the neon armor.

"I'm really starting to hate this guy." Mal said grimly.

"What do we do now?" Amy asked her sister.

"Magic won't work." Jane stated. "We can't access our neon armor anymore. You two can't access your battlizers." She looked to Mal. "We might try the Launcher or the combined blasters but that would leave Auradon Prep defenseless."

"I think we should try something a little more natural." Amy suggested to them.

They all thought they understood and Mal activated her intercom helmet. "Alex, Ellie. We could use you at our location. You guys might be the only way we can stop Shunoros." She said to them.

A moment later they heard Ellie respond, "Alex and I are on our way, we'll be there in a minute."

"So we have to buy ourselves a minute or so." Carlos echoed.

Amy stepped forward and unleashed a small earthquake right in front of the robotic monster. It didn't seem to have too much effect on it but the distraction was enough for Jay and Lonnie to approach the monster and maneuver around the three rings to slash him enough to force him to take another step back.

"Man this thing sure knows how to take a hit." Jay said, perhaps a bit admiringly. If they could take half the hits this thing seemed to take they wouldn't have been in nearly as much trouble as they had been so far.

Shunoros righted itself just as Alex stopped by Amy and took her hand. "Lend me some heat?" He asked her.

"Anytime." Amy said to him. "I always seem to be on fire around you lately." Under ordinary circumstances the comment would have embarrassed the younger twin immensely and amused the older twin but right now it passed without questions.

With Alex and Amy's combined fire power they unleashed a firestorm that was able to envelope the large robotic monster. It still took several steps forward even though they could see that it was clearly now one large thing of heated metal.

Now Ellie stepped up next to her cousin and the rose ranger and unleashed a blizzard on the rapidly heated and slowly cooling monster. The slowly cooling monster rapidly froze up though they could already see it was already struggling to break free of its frozen status.

"We need more power to defeat this thing." Mal said.

"Mal!" Ben yelled out to her. They turned to see the rest of the team approaching. "Some of the castle guards are protecting the school." He said to them as they approached. "And it looks like good timing too." She hugged her knight and the king briefly.

Then Mal looked toward them. "Time for the Auradon Launcher, before Paradias finds a way to block off our weapons too." She stated, perhaps a little bitterly. She was getting a little tired of always being steps behind her mother and the other bad guys.

Mal was in the very back now. In front of her were Audrey and Jay, Evie and Carlos, Lonnie and Will, Alex and Ellie, Ben and Amy, Melody and Aquiella, Aziz and Ally, Jordan and Jane, and Grant and Miranda.

"Focus." Miranda said to Grant softly. "Channel all of yer energy into the Launcher. When it's built up Mal will launch our combined attack at the monster and hopefully destroying it in the process."

"Got it." Grant said with a nod.

They all channeled their ranger energies into the Auradon Launcher and then Mal pulled back on the launcher trigger and released it. The massive energy from the launcher slammed right into the Shunoros, breaking the rapidly cooling, and as a result fragile, metal monster before it was destroyed in blaze of glory.

"Yes!" Carlos exclaimed. "One more monster down the drain."

The launcher vanished as the some of the metal scraps fell to the ground. They could already feel their access to their neon armor restored, and Mal and Audrey could just feel on the edges of their awareness the power of their battlizers.

"Looks like you've lost Paradias." Mal called out to their nemesis. "You better run now before we finish you off."

But all Paradias did was let out a haughty and evil laugh. "You fools. You've done exactly what I anticipated you would do." He told them all. "And in doing so, you've sealed your fates, as well as the fate of Auradon."

"Dude, what are you talking about?" Jay asked him. "Your monster is gone; it was destroyed, just now."

"Yes." Paradias agreed. "As I say it's what I wanted you to do. This has always been the ultimate goal. If you had been incompetent enough to lose beforehand then so much the better, but this has always been the goal." He raised his hands and several dark round objects like energy balls started to form in his hands. "All of the monsters you've destroyed, from Shunoros to the Invader of Nightmares, and even the Psycho Rangers. The admittedly unfortunate destruction of my generals Nerissa and Reviveslime, still leads to this event right now."

"What is he babbling about?" Aziz wanted to know.

"It's time." Paradias said. "For the rise of the Great Serpent. And the fall of Auradon, starting with your precious school." With that he unleashed the dark energy objects, Mal presumed they were the essences of his fallen, and they floated into the already black skies. Then the clouds parted and they saw Paradias's ship.

"Is he planning on blasting us with that?" Ally asked him.

"That's pretty cheap." Jordan mused angrily.

"Wait." Melody said. "Something about that ship is wrong."

It was Audrey who finally realized what the problem was. "It's falling from the skies. The ship must have been evacuated. There's no one to pilot it." She stated.

"It has served me well." Paradias acknowledged. "But is no longer of any use to me."

There was a loud roaring sound that no one could identify, and then each of the rangers let out a scream of horror as Paradias's ship fell from the skies and crashed right into the left side of the school, inertia carrying it in a path through the school and causing destruction in its wake.

"Mom!" Jane shouted out in fear.

"Doug!" Evie gasped.

"Whitney, Callie!" Will exclaimed.

Mal knew there was more than just those four who were caught in this. For a moment all she felt was numb all over. She was only vaguely aware of Paradias's triumphant laughter.


	99. The Largest Storm Part 2

Darkness, there was nothing but darkness. Then something wet and slightly slimy was felt upon her face. With a moan Whitney opened up her eyes to find Dude licking her cheek as if he knew he had to wake her up. With a moan she sat up and reached for the campus mutt and mascot. "Oh, what the…" She started and then gasped, though she ended up coughing a moment as smoke filled her lungs. "Callie." She whispered once she could speak again. She set the dog down and started toward where she thought she had seen her friend, the daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming. Dude followed her.

She was just able to climb over some rubble and land without breaking her ankle. Dude slipped in under some rubble and continued to follow the daughter of Wendy. She was just able to shove her way through another pile of debris and found Callie lying on the floor, trying to force a shelf off of her leg. "Let me help." Whitney said. Together the two girls just managed to shove the shelf off, and Whitney collapsed next to Callie.

"What…what happened?" Callie asked her friend as they both tried to catch their breaths. She flexed her leg and winced in pain. Clearly nothing was broken but she had pulled something. She figured the odds were it was a small favor judging by the destruction around them.

"I remember trying to help people get to the gym." Whitney said. Callie nodded her agreement. "Someone said the sky was falling, and I turned to look. It was dark, but I don't think it was the sky falling." She reached over and stroked Dude's side to calm her thoughts.

"It looked like metal." Callie recalled softly.

After another moment Whitney said, "We need to try to get out of here. Find some of the teachers or some of the other students and find out what we do now."

Callie nodded. "I hope whatever happened to Auradon Prep didn't happen to any of our parent's places." She said as she thought about her parents. For a fleeting moment she wished her brother were there before reminding herself he was some of the reason this was going on.

"I hope mom and Will are okay." Whitney added. She knew her brother was out there right now as the green ranger trying to put a stop to whatever was now going on that had brought about this current realm of chaos. That also meant if evil won her brother was as good as dead.

Whitney took a deep breath and stood up, then helped Callie to stand. The princess needed to lean against her friend in order to move and it was slow going. Dude was strolling beside them. He hadn't reacted and Whitney didn't know if that was good or bad. She was starting to fear they might be the only ones still left alive in the school.

A few more steps and Dude's ears seemed to perk up and he started to bark. Neither girl was sure whether that was a bark of welcoming or warning, but they hesitated as they looked in the direction Dude was barking at.

Gradually shadow began to fade into substance. The first thing they saw was not good as they saw the glowing purple eyes of one of the soldiers. It let out a roar of its own and started to advance on them.

Without thinking about it Whitney sat Callie back on the ground as she picked up a decent sized rock and looked as if she were going to throw it at the soldier, not that it would do them much good. The soldier continued toward them and despite the futility she threw the rock right at the soldier, who knocked it aside with blade. "Just leave us alone." She tried to shout at it despite her rising fear. She suddenly had the horrible feeling that if they had invaded the school then Will, Lonnie, and all of the rangers were dead. "Haven't you taken enough from us?"

Dude was barking and growling but the soldier didn't seem to care about that either as he moved closer to the two little girls. Whitney shakily stood in front of Callie as if to protect her and give her whatever small seconds of life she could.

A portion of the already half destroyed wall suddenly came crashing down. "Hey!" They heard a girl yell. "Get away from them right now!" The soldier turned to be face to face with Ruby the daughter of Rapunzel and Flynn, who had her long blonde hair twirled like a lasso around her left arm even as a long strand was in her right hand, ready to be used as a whip. The soldier turned its back to look at the girls again and Ruby used the long strand in her right hand to wrap up a large chunk of rock and toss it as hard as she could, striking the side of its head. "Don't turn your back on me." She warned.

Seemingly enraged, the soldier turned to face Ruby now. She lashed out her right hand and her hair flew out and wrapped around the soldiers ankle, then she pulled back and ended up tripping the soldier. It fell to the ground hard, but the blonde didn't hesitate as she then turned around to take the bladed arm and slam it right into the things chest, causing it to dissipate.

"That was impressive." Callie said and Whitney nodded in agreement.

Ruby came over to them and only then did they notice she was bleeding a little from her temple. "Are you two okay? Can you walk?" She asked them.

"We're okay." Whitney said to her. "I can walk, but Callie has to lean on me for support, she twisted her ankle or something."

"It could have been worse." Ruby said softly. "Get your friend and let's go. We have to find other survivors, maybe the head mistress or someone."

"What about Whitney's brother Will?" Callie asked for her friend. "He was out in the field, fighting that thing and that man."

"Last I saw they had just stopped that robot thing." Ruby told them. "Right now they're probably in better shape than we are." Whitney helped Callie up to lean on her and the two girls and the small dog followed Ruby where she had come from.

"How could you?" Audrey asked in horror. "All of those people?"

Paradias laughed. "All of those people will likely be dead by the time my vision comes to pass anyway." He answered her dismissively.

It was then that they realized the roaring wasn't from the recently descended and crashed ship or even from the horrified rushing of their own hearts at the destruction and chaos of the school, even from Will or Jane. It was still coming from the skies.

"Now what?" Jordan asked.

The black skies now opened and a large bluish green reptilian head emerged. It was almost more like a dragon's head but it didn't seem quite right for either a snake or a dragon. They all knew it had to be the Great Serpent thing that Paradias had said would be summoned from the dark essences of the monsters they had destroyed.

"What are we supposed to do against that?" Carlos asked in horror and shock. It was large than any zord they had, even the Clam zord that served as the basis for their ultrazord.

"We have no choice but to try the zords." Ben said to Mal. "We can hope that it's not as strong and durable as it looks."

Mal was afraid that was wishful thinking. But she knew that her boyfriend was right. "It's time to call upon our zords." She agreed.

Will now looked to Grant. "You'll pilot the Auradon Warzord with me, Amy, Melody, Aquiella, Alex and Ellie." He told their new gray ranger. "No stepping away from the action."

"I don't know if I should be relieved or not." Grant said with a deadpan expression.

From the mountains the Auradon Megazord emerged. Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos and Lonnie boarded their zords and inserted their iPhones into the appropriate slots.

Mal and Ben both freed their crystalized dragon and horse zord respectively. The two of them boarded their zords. Mal inserted her iPhone into the slot which transformed her dragon to look more like a Chinese dragon. Ben combined his sword with his zord.

Ally, Jordan and Jane summoned the Auradon Battlezord. Right behind that was Aziz's call for the Auradon Falconzord. The four rangers inserted their iPhones into the appropriate slots.

Will summoned the Auradon Warzord and his other team mates boarded the zord with him, inserting their iPhones into their slots.

Miranda summoned her bear zord and boarded it, placing her iPhone in the slot. She transformed her zord into the warrior mode.

"How do we want to try to handle this M?" Evie asked her purple haired chosen sister.

"Ben, you and I will combine with the Auradon Megazord for the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord." She said to her boyfriend and her original team, at least more or less since Lonnie had not started with them but had come in not too long after. "Aziz, combine with the girls to form the Auradon Falcon Battlezord." She hoped that four battle zords would be enough. If not, all they had left to try was the Ultrazord.

"We're on it Mal." Aziz told him. The arms of the Battlezord separated so that it could encompass the wings as the rest of the body folded into the zord. A new spot was made in the cockpit for Aziz, in between Ally and Jane.

As the dragon zord soared up next to the Auradon Megazord, the first zord discovered by the team leapt onto the back of the dragon. The Auradon Champion Megazord then did a loop before descending onto the back of the Horse zord to form the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord. Space opened up between Audrey and Evie to make room for Ben and Mal.

Even from their positions inside the megazords they could hear Paradias laughing. "You think that's going to be enough to stop my Great Serpent. This should be amusing." He stated.

"Can't we just step on him instead?" Grant asked the ranger team inside the warzord.

"You have no idea how tempting that thought is sometimes." Aquiella answered him but shrugged. "Still, I suspect he could easily dodge it."

"Let's worry about the giant snake then." Amy said to them. She didn't hate snakes the way she hated insects, but this one made her wonder if she should change her mind.

Blades extended from the wrists of the Auradon Warzord and they moved toward the giant serpent. They swung but the serpent was quick enough to dodge the attack. It then lunged and bit into the left blade, snapping it off the warzord.

"Wow, didn't see that coming." Melody noted. "It's jaw must be very strong."

The blade on the right wrist was brought down on the serpent and it let out a screech of some sort. Then from the other end of the cloudy vortex what had to be the serpent's tail emerged and slammed into the right wrist hard, shattering that blade too. It still had not emerged fully so there was no way to know how large the thing really was.

"This doesn't bode well at all." Evie said to them.

The Auradon Warzord took several steps away from the Giant Serpent. Now the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord and the Auradon Battlebear moved toward the monster together and tried to bring their blades down on the serpent, but it dodged again and then reared back, sending a burst of points like snake fangs striking the two battle zords hard.

"I sure don't like the idea of getting that close to this thing." Ally revealed to her friends in the cockpit.

"I don't either." Aziz assured her.

"It's not much fun, trust us." Melody stated. They had already tried to do so with the Auradon Warzord and were now bladeless as a result. "Maybe we should try a bit more of a long range approach."

"I think that's a good idea." Will vouched.

"Let's do it." Aziz confirmed. Much like the falcon zord used by Tommy as the white ranger so long ago, they could unleashed rocket like bursts from the tip of the wings. The Auradon Warzord meanwhile had rocket launchers that could be raised from its shoulders. Together the two battle zords unleashed a volley of rockets at the serpent creature.

The Great Serpent moved faster than any of them thought a large snake ought to be able to, swerving to the right as the rockets shot past it. Then it unleashed the same fang like volley at the two battle zords. The Auradon Falcon Battlezord brought up its wings to try to minimize the impact of the attack but it wasn't quite enough as the two battle zords fell to the ground.

The Auradon Champion Defender Megazord moved in to check on the two zords as Miranda maneuvered the Auradon Battlebear moved in and slashed again at the giant snake. It struck with another screech only to have the tail slam into the head of the battle zord. It fell back with a crash.

"Okay, so getting in close is a bad idea. It simply dodges long range attacks." Lonnie said. "What's the next option?"

"I say we try and take it to the skies." Jordan answered. "Both our zord and your zords can do that."

"It's worth a shot." Jay said as he looked to Mal.

Mal nodded. "Let's do it." She decided.

The Auradon Warzord moved in to help the Auradon Battlebear as the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord and the Auradon Falcon Battlezord took to the skies. It caused a bit more of a distraction as the Giant Serpent had to divert its attention to keep an eye everything. Still, it seemed to think that the aerial zords were the greater threat.

"Maybe we should try another missile attack again before they descend." Grant suggested. "It's not paying as much attention, it might hit."

Will thought about it only a moment before nodding. "Get ready." He told them.

Again the Auradon Warzord's rocket cannons rose from the shoulders and unleashed a barrage of rockets at the Great Serpent. Several of them struck this time and the thing let out another screech. They did however notice that beneath the scales the thing was starting to regenerate.

"That's not good." Aquiella noted. "Even the damage we do to this thing can be brushed off with enough time."

"Then we can't give it that time." They heard Mal say over the helmet intercom. From two different sides both battle zords descended downwards. First the Auradon Falcon Battlezord came in and drove both fists into the new wounds opened up by the missiles. Then the wings slashed out at the serpent too.

As that attack ended the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord finished its descent and the fast hooves of the horse zord took over. With the sword raised the battle zord ran past the giant snake with a powerful sword slash that caused it to emit another high shriek.

They however failed to notice the tail ascend back into the sky. Then it reappeared and lashed out, slamming both of the battle zords hard. As the Auradon Warzord and the Auradon Battlebear moved to their sides the Great Serpent let out a huge screech again, this time emitting a sonic burst that struck all the zords quickly.

"Wow, no way." Carlos said as he pressed on his console rapidly. "Don't do it, hold together."

"What are you going on about?" Jay questioned, not having paid much attention as it was between him and Lonnie to create the sword the Auradon Megazord and its forms used to fight.

"We nearly lost all the zords connections to the power levels." Carlos said. "The sonic burst nearly disrupted everything."

"He's not wrong." Jane confirmed as she made a few bypasses of her own. "We nearly lost power over here too."

"Same here." Amy said to them. "That sonic burst seemed to have very nearly fried all of our circuits. If it does that again, we might not be able to compensate for it."

"We need to find a way to end this quickly." Miranda said, though her own voice showed how unlikely that prospect was.

The Giant Serpent reared back its head again and this time a stream of energy formed in its mouth and moments later unleashed a huge burst of energy at the four battle zords. It struck hard and heavy and the four battle zords crashed to the ground hard.

"Report!" Mal called out.

"Not good M." Evie said to her. "We've lost a lot of power from that blow. Main power is down."

"Switching to backups." Carlos added.

"I've switched to backups as well, but it's already down a quarter." Miranda said to Mal.

"We've got less than ten percent main power, we're going to have to switch to backups to even have a chance." Jane reported.

"We're at a quarter main power." Amy said to her twin sister. "We can take maybe two more hits like that before we lose all power ourselves."

"That makes you guys better off than the rest of us." Jordan reminded the rose ranger.

"What do we do Mal?" Audrey asked their leader.

Mal closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could only think of two ideas, none of them good. One idea would leave the zords drained for who knew how long, unable to help in any future fight. The other was surprisingly even worse because it would leave them with no zords what so ever. She let out a small sigh, deciding on the slightly easier route. "Let's give it all we've got." She declared.

The Giant Serpent unleashed yet another of the massive energy beams at the same time that Aquiella summoned the Clam zord. It showed up in just enough time to take the brunt of the attack, its armored hull and lack of prior damage able to take the attack better. "Let's form the Auradon Ultrazord."

The clam zord opened its mouth and the four battle zords jumped or flew into it. The Auradon Falcon Battlezord and the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord split into its base forms as it required the falcon, dragon and horse to take their own places in the formation. And in the center of the clam each of the rangers and knights appeared in the chamber, ready to go.

"I hope this works Mal." Amy said softly. She didn't need to be a twin to know the options that Mal had gone through. They all knew it, but of course Amy had felt it from her sister.

"I hope it does too Amy." Mal replied softly.

"It's better than blowing up the zords Mal." Audrey tried to assure her. She, like the rest of the rangers, had formed a certain attachment to their zords, even the Auradon Warzord despite it having spent more time in the enemies' hands then theirs.

The Auradon Ultrazord move in on the Great Serpent. The giant snake proceeded to unleash a fang attack at it but the giant fortress like zord took that hit without a problem. "Lock on and fire." The team announced. The clam shell opened up just enough for all of the zord's to unload their increased fire power on the Giant Serpent. With a shriek its head hit the ground hard and it seemed not to stir.

"Did we do it?" Jay asked.

"The body is still there." Jane pointed out. In their experience if a body remained there was a chance the monster wasn't dead. But with except for perhaps Paragon they had never seen a creature this ancient, even Sermaya couldn't reach that point. She reminded them as much. "But we've never faced such an ancient creature before."

"Indeed you haven't white ranger." Paradias agreed. He didn't seem to be fazed at all about Giant Serpent's seeming defeat, which only reinforced in Jane's mind that it was not dead. "In fact it's now time for you all to see the full extent of the Great Serpent." With that he disappeared.

"Um, that seems anticlimactic." Jordan noted. "What are we missing here?"

It was Amy who first felt something, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. She glanced in fear to the giant snake and understood why. "Look!" She called out. They saw on the skull of the giant snake wriggling before pulling outward and taking the shape of Paradias as if he were trapped within the snake's skin.

"That's kind of gross." Audrey said.

Paradias laughed, but it echoed from that of the Great Serpent. "The true power isn't the serpent itself, but rather the power that I command from within." The eyes opened and the formerly black pupils of the snake were now his one green and one yellow eye. "And now this game of yours is over." Two new heads burst through, making it more like a hydra. The all three of them unleashed the same massive beam of energy and struck the Auradon Ultrazord. Even the armor of the ultrazord couldn't stand up to that firepower and there several large explosions.

The rangers were all hurtled toward the ground, landing roughly. They all shakily stood up. They looked up in horror as massive explosions were seen on the hull of the clam zord and from within as the zords were severely damaged.

"No." Audrey gasped, holding onto Jay's arm. It was as much the shock of seeing their zords defeat as the immense fall they had taken.

Amy threw herself against Mal, pressing her head against her side. The purple haired girl could feel her sister crying softly.

Ellie took one step forward before falling to her knees. Alex was by her side, hands on her arms.

"This is impossible." Carlos said in shock. He could barely feel Jane's hand on his own arm.

Ruby had encountered two more soldiers as she tried to lead the two little girl's to safety though she had also thoroughly taken them out. She hated the fact though that aside from the two little girls and the campus mascot they had not found any signs of life. Either they were secluded off from the survivors or…she shook her head, she didn't want to think they were the only ones still alive.

She took some consolation that they could hear the fight going on outside. Clearly Mal and the others were alive. It had taken her awhile to figure it out, but between this incident and the previous incident where the talking turtles had shown up she had come to the truth; Mal and her friends were the Power Rangers of Auradon. She also knew if that hadn't been revealed to the public there was a good reason, so she kept the secret.

She finally heard voices. She recognized them vaguely as Doug and the head mistress and she started to work her way to them.

"We're losing it." Doug said to Fairy Godmother. He seemed fine at least. "I don't know how much longer we can keep power going here."

"What happens…if we lose power here in the command center?" Fairy Godmother asked. It sounded like she was injured though it was hard to tell for sure, or how badly.

"Then the other's connection to the grid will be severely weakened." Doug answered grimly. "They could lose their powers, and at the worst time imaginable." He then let out a gasp. "Oh no, the zords."

"Are they…" Fairy Godmother started to ask.

"Not destroyed completely, but it will take days to repair them. If we survive this." Doug reported.

"Can we call…" She started to ask before there were several large explosions that made Ruby flinch and the two girls gasp. Then she heard Fairy Godmother call out, "Doug!"

"I'm alright." He replied. "My arm's burnt. But it could be worse. That's it though. We have no power in the command center."

Ruby finally found a weak point and used her hair to bring the rubble down. "Doug! Headmistress!" She called out. She saw Doug cradling a burnt up right arm. Fairy Godmother was leaning against a wall, clearly she had broken at least one rib on her right side. "What happened?"

"We can't call for help." Doug finished answering Fairy Godmother's question "And with the power gone, I don't know how much longer they can all hold on."

Fairy Godmother looked to Ruby and the two girls. "Welcome to what used to be the Power Ranger's command center." She let out a small cough, and a bit of blood. "When Paradias crashed his ship into the school, he aimed it well enough to damage most of the command center. Doug has been fighting to keep the circuits stable."

"It gave us some time, but now Paradias has decimated all of our zords." He said to them as he came to support Fairy Godmother. He knew it was time for them to leave, whatever the risks. "With power down we can't even contact the Earth Rangers for help."

"Have you seen anyone else?" Fairy Godmother asked Ruby.

The really long blonde haired girl shook her head. "No. Either they've found themselves on the opposite end of the school or…" She again didn't want to finish that sentence. Fairy Godmother nodded in understanding. "What do we do now?" She asked.

"We try to find out way out of here, and hope somehow there is something worth leaving here for." Fairy Godmother said grimly.

"We're not out of this fight yet." Mal said, trying to sound encouraging. She wasn't feeling it though. "Let's try the Auradon Launcher." They all took their positions but when they tried to summon it, not only did it seem to fizzle out, but they were all startled as they were forced to power down.

"Not now." Lonnie said, near panic. They reached for their iPhones and tried to transform, but couldn't do it. Ben couldn't summon his shield, though for what it was worth he could still summon the Praeleanthor sword. The trident responded but the gem did not. The magic wand responded but the gem did not.

"Paradias's ship must have hit the command center, probably damaged it extensively." Jane suddenly realized. "We've lost our connection to the morphing grid." She remembered the same thing happening when Kat had told her about Goldar and Rito using an explosive device to destroy that command center and try to steal the zeo crystals. Likewise Lonnie remembered Cassie saying the same thing when Divatox destroyed the Power Chamber.

"I told you all that your time was near." Paradias gloated cruelly. "Your time is just about up. Auradon will soon be mine." He laughed as he looked down at the defenseless teenagers below him.


	100. The Largest Storm Part 3

As Mal looked up at the Great Serpent with Paradias imbedded into the skin of it, she found for one of the few times in her life she didn't know what to say, what to think, or what to feel. She felt Ben's free hand on her shoulder as if the young king were trying to console her, but beyond the physical feel she didn't feel it.

"What do we do now?" Jay asked, though he was afraid to acknowledge the truth was that there may be nothing they could at this point. Beside him Audrey clung to his arm, shaking slightly. It occurred to Jay that the brunette princess wasn't fated to die with the rest of the, she was fated to something much worse at the hands of her and Ben's former friend Chad Charming. It only made him more determined, perhaps hopelessly so.

"What can we do?" Ally whispered in her soft British voice. "Our zords are damaged beyond use at this moment, our powers seem to be gone." She slumped against Aziz softly.

The Great Serpent laughed, the voice of Paradias. "You can do nothing except accepting your fates." He stated and then powered up another massive blast of energy. He unleashed it upon the group of teens.

Melody bit her lip and raised her grandfather's trident. She shot a burst of magical energy to intercept the energy blast. It dissipated the other attack, causing some fire to reign down around the area. "We're not done yet. We still have magic." She said.

"What good will that do?" Carlos asked. "What kind of magic is big enough to counter that?" Sadly it was a good question.

A noise startled them and several soldiers were starting to cut through to them. Miranda just reacted, she grabbed the Praeleanthor sword, about the only weapon around them, and cleaved her way through. One, then two. She kicked a third one back and turned around to take out a fourth one that tried to approach from behind before taking out the third one. Then she took out a fifth one with a vicious uppercut with the sword. She jumped when she heard the voice only Ben was used to, _Use Us!_

Ben recognized the look, the same one he had. "Miranda, toss the sword at the snake!" He shouted at her. The red headed Scotts girl tossed it at what she considered the true head of the Great Serpent; Paradias.

It slashed him across the face and he let out a growl of anger and pain even as the Praeleanthor sword flew back to Miranda, the one who had tossed in this time. "Clever girl." The evil mastermind said. "But do you really think that's enough to stop me?"

Mal felt a bit of pleasure at this. It meant he could still be hurt. They just had to figure out how, and quickly.

Ellie unleashed one of her magical ice beams at the Great Serpent. But with a roar and blast of fangs the ice beam was cut off enough to be ineffective.

Amy and Aquiella took hands and between their magical focus they were able to unleash a wave of water at approaching soldiers, taking out the fire around them as well.

Jordan conjured up a magical burst of energy of her own and launched it at the Great Serpent but felt annoyed to see it strike against the scales of its belly with only small damage.

The soldiers were now being much more cautious of the girl wielding the Praeleanthor sword. Even when Ben took over to with it they were still being very cautious about it, like they knew it could hurt their master and the Great Serpent he had melded with.

Alex shot a burst of fire at the head of the snake and Paradias dodged it. "You all really think you have what it takes to defeat me, don't you?" He asked with amusement. "Despite the loss of your zords and your powers, far more dangerous than your pitiful excuse for magic, you all think you can defeat me."

"We can." Evie said, trying to sound defiant though it came out kind of small. "Don't underestimate magic."

Paradias laughed. "I know more of magic than anyone in this world will ever know." He gazed at each of them. "None of you are rule shattering white witches. None of you are magically Charmed or the Ultimate Power. None of you are exotic fairies. None of you control the dead or harness the dream." His gaze ended on Mal. "You are all small beings in a galaxy you don't understand, but soon that will no longer matter." With that he launched another powerful burst of energy from his mouth. Melody was not quick enough this time and the beam struck the entire team, sending them flying in all directions.

Ruby found got them out of the rubble and into the fresh air, relatively speaking. They could smell the fire in the breeze. And they saw the blast that struck the team. "Will!" Whitney screamed in absolute horror.

"Oh my gosh, Evie!" Doug exclaimed as he saw her hit the ground hard. He felt a bit better when he saw her breathing.

"Jane!" Fairy Godmother yelled as Jane hit the ground hard. She moaned in pain as her wrist snapped, and then didn't move short of her breathing.

The soldiers were starting to close in on the team and Ruby moved as fast as she could, lashing out her hair to force several of them on the ground. She jumped over them and grabbed the only other thing she could get a hold on; the Praeleanthor sword. Even as she swung at one of them with the sword she whipped her hair around to slap two other soldiers.

"Is Auradon only made of such fools?" Paradias asked with amusement. "Very well, little girl. Spend the last of your miserable life fighting to protect them. It will do you all no good." With that the soldiers advanced on her.

"Don't be counting yer chickens before they hatch Paradias." Miranda interrupted as she slammed her fists into the back of the head of one of the soldiers. "Ye haven't won just yet."

Some of the soldiers turned toward Doug, the injured Fairy Godmother and the two little girls, Callie holding Dude now. A burst of flame made them vanish and Alex stood there, though he had some blood running down his face from a cut on his forehead. He could see Amy getting up and crawling toward Mal, who was not moving either save for the rise and fall of her chest.

"You fools still haven't realized that resistance is futile." Paradias said with amusement. "Well I suppose one has to admire your guts. Which I will certainly do after they've been spread all over the ground."

"Mal." Amy said worriedly as she shook her twin sister as firmly as she could without hurting her. "Mal, wake up. Answer me. We need you."

The total silence was vaguely interrupted by the call of her twin sister, though Mal couldn't have said right now from where that was from. She wanted to tell her to stop, that it was over. She was out of ideas. She was out of powers. As much as she hated to say it, it was done. The proverbial votes were in; Paradias had won and it was time for their concession speech.

The she heard whispering and she opened her eyes, but what she saw was not what she expected. She was looking at a very dim image of Ben's coronation. She could see her and her friends staring down the dragon that Maleficent had become. She could just make out Ben, Jane, Audrey, Fairy Godmother, Belle and Adam on the dais in the back. "We did that." Mal whispered. "And now it's come to this."

"You were able to stop your mother then, without my powers." She heard a voice say. She looked to see the image of a head appearing in one of the mirrors on the side of the building. She knew who it was by word of mouth; Zordon. "You can do so again."

"What do you mean?" Mal asked him. "This is completely different."

"I promise you it is not." Zordon said. "In fact, the situation is very similar, only the numbers have changed."

Mal shook her head, not understanding it. The she heard herself, chanting as she looked at her mother as a dragon, backed by Evie, Jay and Carlos. _The strength of evil is as good as none, when four hearts are as one. The strength of evil is as good as one, when four hearts are as one._

"Yes, I get it okay." Mal said. "But that was my mother, not some ancient evil that doesn't even belong here." She sighed irritably only to glance back at the scene. She didn't know why, maybe because it offered some comfort to see one of their victories. But she saw things had changed, and suddenly she knew what she had to do. "I get it now. Zordon, thank you."

"Mal please." Amy whispered again. She heard footsteps and saw two soldiers approaching her. She saw that Miranda and Ruby were fighting others and couldn't come to her. She tried to rise to fight and felt her ankle protest, and she fell to her knees.

Then Audrey and Ben barreled into the soldiers as hard as they could. The two soldiers stumbled backwards and as Ben delivered an impressive roundhouse kick to the two of them; something he had learned from Leonardo during their sparring session, Audrey came to Amy. "Are you okay? Is Mal okay?" The brunette princess asked her.

"My leg hurts a little." Amy told her. "And I can't wake Mal up. I hope she's okay."

"Mal, come on." Audrey said softly as she placed two fingers over the side of her throat. "You're alive, wake up please. We all need you."

One of the soldiers jumped over the length of hair that Ruby used to trip up a few others and charged right toward the girl before Lonnie and Jay tripped it up together and then brought their fists down hard on the soldier's chest, causing it to dissipate.

"You're okay." Ruby said with relief.

"For the moment anyway." Jay answered. "You...what are you doing out here?"

"Helping my friends, helping the power rangers." Ruby replied. The two of them looked shocked but then realized she must have known for a while and kept it a secret. They gave her smiles of thanks.

The others that had been knocked unconscious had gotten up and were helping again, despite injuries. Jane fought with one arm as she had a broken left wrist. Ally fought despite the fact half her forehead was cut open and she had blood in her right eye. Aquiella had clearly broken a rib as she fought despite the difficulty she was having breathing.

A soldier tried to attack Doug and Fairy Godmother but Evie intercepted and drove her elbow into its stomach as hard as she could. It wasn't quite hard enough but the ice beam from Ellie was more than enough to take it out.

"Evie." Doug gasped.

"Oh, Doug." Evie said softly and stepped up to him and kissed him on the lips softly. "I am so sorry we've failed you guys." She added gently as she felt tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry we've failed Auradon."

"You haven't failed us child." Fairy Godmother assured her softly even as Doug wiped away some of the tears. "You've done us all proud. I know that's what Ben's parents would say. I know that's what Snow White would say."

Ben took out another soldier with the Praeleanthor sword as he looked to his girlfriend, his best friend, and Amy. For a moment it struck him as ironic that his girlfriend was unconscious and he was fighting with the Great Serpent/Paradias watching. It made him think of what Audrey's father Phillip had done to get to Audrey's mother Aurora while Maleficent opposed them. For an instant he considered trying to give Mal a true love's kiss before she gasped and woke up.

"Oh my pink!" Amy exclaimed as she hugged Mal tightly. "I was so scared something was wrong." She kissed her cheek softly. "If this is the end, I want to make sure you're with me, just as you've always been."

Mal stroked her hair softly. "Noble sentiment Amy." She said. "But flawed. This isn't the end." With help from Audrey, the purple haired girl stood up. She then helped Amy to her feet, who had to lean on the brunette princess. "At least not for us. We can win this."

"What are you talking about?" Carlos asked. "How are we supposed to win this?"

Mal looked around. She was not at all surprised to see Ruby fighting alongside them, between Lonnie and Jay. She was not surprised to see Alex, Ellie and Evie defending Fairy Godmother, Doug, and even Callie and Whitney. It was almost right. She only wished their parents could be here. But she thought it would be enough.

"It's over Paradias." Mal announced, surprising all of her friends; ranger and civilian alike. "We're going to win."

"You must have hit your head." Paradias said. "Gotten some sort of brain damage."

"Not at all." Mal replied. "My friends and I can win this fight." As she said that she waved them all toward her and they all hesitated only a moment before moving toward the purple haired girl. As they all got together Ellie used her ice powers to make a wall of ice to protect them from the soldiers.

"Just tell us what to do M." Evie said confidently.

Mal took the blue haired girl's hand. She reached over and took Amy's free hand, the one she wasn't using to hold onto Audrey's arms so she could keep her balance. "I'll stop you just as I stopped my mother." She said.

"I remember how well that worked out." Paradias taunted. He powered up an energy burst from the snake mouth and fired but Melody was ready for that trick and dissipated it.

She pictured what she had seen in her mind before she had woken up. In her mind, Maleficent in her dragon form had not stood there, it had been Paradias/Giant Serpent. She saw Ben, Jane and Audrey suddenly unfreeze and force their way to the four of them. From the crowd the rest of her friends had emerged, even those like Ellie and Miranda who had not been there for the original coronation. And from end the door opened and Amy had come in. Together they stood with Mal as she repeated the spell…that was how she knew it would work. Zordon had shown her.

"The strength of evil is as good as none, when all of our hearts are as one." Mal started to chant, her eyes glowing green. "The strength of evil is as good as none, when all of our hearts are as one. The strength of evil is as good as none, when all of our hearts are as one."

Even those without magical ability could feel the power build up. It glowed with each of their colors and like lightning it launched itself and struck Paradias/The Great Serpent in the body hard. He let out a scream of pain and they saw the damage had not rejuvenated. But it still didn't seem strong enough.

"We have to try it again." Lonnie said to the purple haired girl.

Jane shook her head. "It won't matter. It's not enough power." She looked around at her team. "We need to get more of it somehow."

"But how?" Aziz asked.

"Come on, we can't lose now. Not like this." Carlos said.

Mal grit her teeth as she thought back to what she heard, what she saw. She knew now the answers had all been given to her in her dream, or vision or whatever. She just had to find it. Then she got it. "The numbers have changed." She recited.

"What?" Audrey asked her. "What does that mean?"

"We're not just fighting ourselves." Mal answered her. "We're descended from a legacy of power. And it's that power we need to draw upon too."

"But we can't transform." Alex reminded her.

"I get it." Jordan said now. "Not the actual powers, but the line of powers."

"And beyond." Mal said. "Open your thoughts to our friends. To our families." She took a deep breath. She thought about the rangers they had met. Amber, Andros, Ashley, Cassie, Karone, Carlos, TJ, Zhane, Tommy, Jason, Kat, Kimberly, Aisha, Billy, Adam. The strong legacy of the purple rangers that Amber had told her about. She thought about Adam and especially Belle, who had all but taken her and her twin in as their own when even their own mother felt so alien to them. "The strength of evil is as good as none, when all hearts are as one."

Amy thought about Jennifer, April, Casey, Renet, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, Venus, Karai, Aaliyah and Splinter. She too thought about Adam and especially Belle who accepted her in ways Maleficent never could. And she too was like Mal. "The strength of evil is as good as none, when all hearts are as one."

Evie thought about Snow White, who had welcomed her into her life despite the fact she had no reason to do so. She thought about Rose Red, whose trust she was sure she had to earn but she could see her eldest step-sister was willing to take that chance too. She thought of Casey, Lily, Theo, RJ and Dominic, the Jungle Fury rangers who had helped them to stop Sermaya. "The strength of evil is as good as none, when all hearts are as one."

Jordan thought of the Samurai rangers, who had helped them as well; of Jayden, Lauren, Mia, Emily, Serena, Kevin, Mike and Antonio. She thought of her parents Genie and Eden. She thought about the dramatic change in relationship between her and Aziz as they became rangers. That lead to thoughts of her 'aunt' and 'uncle' Queen Jasmine and Sultan Aladdin. "The strength of evil is as good as none, when all hearts are as one."

Jane felt her mother's presence beside her, the only ranger here to have that bond. Though the sibling relationship between Mal and Amy and in this case Will and Whitney; the cousinly relationship between Ellie and Alex as well as Melody and Aquiella, they all came close. And of all of them she was really aware of the full history of the rangers; from the Galaxy Rangers they had not met sans Karone, to the Dino Rangers sans Tommy, the SPD rangers, the Mystic Force Rangers, the Megaforce Rangers, all the way to the current team the Dino Charge Rangers. All part of their legacy as power rangers. "The strength of evil is as good as none, when all hearts are as one."

Even the non-magic users and non-rangers followed Mal's words. They thought of their mothers, their fathers if they knew them. And somehow Aquiella felt there were other allies that they had no clue about besides the turtles and the power rangers that would none the less contribute on a mystical level. And even though they weren't sure what influence it would have each of them chanted as well, "The strength of evil is as good as none, when all hearts are as one."

Paradias felt the magical build up, far stronger than even he could have possibly anticipated. With a growl he let loose a barrage of fangs but the ice wall protected them. He changed tactics and unleashed another energy beam at the group. This time though it hit what seemed like a force field composed of little blue objects like orbs, and it dissipated the attack harmlessly. "This can't be." He growled, suddenly wondering where in this scheme he had gone wrong. "This is impossible."

Meanwhile energy started to build around the group, protected as they were by Ellie's ice wall and the mysterious orb shield. All of their voices seemed to merge and grow stronger as they thought of the love they had for each other, for the love of their friends and family. And with a rising crescendo he again heard, "THE STRENGTH OF EVIL IS AS GOOD AS NONE, WHEN ALL OF OUR HEARTS ARE AS ONE!"

Again the large beam of energy, coupled with all of the colors of the ranger rainbow formed. But this time it started to rapidly grow and change to become large and more dense. Then it launched again, but it continued to grow in size and mass until such a point that it struck, but it did not strike just one part of the monster but instead it struck every part of the giant snake that was visible and possibly more than what they could see.

There was a loud horrendous streak, perhaps more snake than man at that moment. Then Paradias's own scream came through as well. "Impossible!" He shouted in fury. Then piece by piece the giant serpent began to break down and disintegrate, the hole that was nearly indistinguishable from the clouds surrounding it seemed to blink in and out for a moment before closing. A large explosion followed and again everything went black again.

Ben heard whispers, one directed at him. He opened his eyes. The breeze was cool now and he could see the mess that was the school in the background, but he had a much more beautiful face in his sight; Belle looked down at him with tears in her eyes. As he sat up mother and son embraced.

"Ben, you're alright." Adam said, voice full of relief as he hugged his son and his wife against him.

"Mom, dad." Ben said softly. "You're alright."

"That's supposed to be my line." Belle teased softly.

He pulled back from his parents. "Mal, Amy, Audrey, my friends." He started.

"Mal and Amy are still being checked out by the doctors. They were still out too last I saw them." Adam said. He patted his son's shoulder gently. "I'll go check again."

Ben glanced around. He saw Audrey embracing her parents, crying just a little. To his slight shock but also relief Jay was there too and Aurora was stroking his arm gently. Lonnie hugged Mulan and Shen.

With some shock he realized some good magic must have been pulled off. For the first time he saw Miranda lying on a small cot, having her arm tended to. And holding her other hand was her own mother Merida, who should have been too far away to make it here to Auradon now.

He saw Melody with her head on Ariel's lap as her leg was tended too, a huge gash having appeared sometime after the final explosion. Eric stroked her hair softly. Across from her sat Aquiella with a bandage over her forehead and something wrapped around her sides to help her heal her ribs.

"Mom, what will happen to Auradon Prep?" He asked Belle. He knew they all cared about the school. "How many people were hurt or killed?"

"It looks like Ruby and several of the other older students did well." Belle told him with a small smile. "They were able to get almost all of the students into the ceramics room of the school, in the basement. They were protected from the crash. We have multiple injuries, a few bad ones. But no deaths." Ben smiled, thankful for small favors. "And as for Auradon Prep, we're going to have it rebuilt as quickly as possible."

He saw Jane was with her mother, who right now was in a wheel chair. On her lap was Dude and beside the mother/daughter was Carlos.

"Your Majesty." Ben heard. He turned to see Ellie and Alex approach him, and behind them were their mothers Queen Elsa of Arendelle and Princess Anna of Arendelle. It was Ellie who had spoken. "I'm glad to see you're okay."

"Any further word on Amy and Mal?" Alex asked him.

Before Ben could speak they heard a small scream of delight and Amy ran toward them, though limping slightly. She threw herself into Alex's arms. As the young king stood up he found himself getting helped up by Mal. She kissed him passionately on the lips for a moment before pulling back. "I'm so glad you're okay. I was so worried about you." She said.

Ben stroked her cheek softly. "I was so worried about you, my love." He said.

"I love you." Mal replied and kissed him on the lips again for a moment.

All of the team members and their families started to congregate on that spot. Jordan made sure to bring Ruby and her parents along, she had all but earned her place with them after the last couple of incidents even if she was not a ranger. Audrey hugged Ben, then moved to Mal to hug her, and then to Amy where she hugged the rose haired girl. To all of their surprise she kissed the brunette princess on the cheek.

Jay pet Dude on the head. "Glad you're okay bro." He said to Carlos as he punched his shoulder lightly. "You too." He said to Jay and Alex.

"Glad you made it to man." Carlos said with a smile.

Aziz was with Aladdin, Jasmine, Ally and Alice. Aziz and Jay looked at each other a moment and then gave each other a quick hug. When that was done Jasmine hugged Jay too. Mal laughed a little, but was glad to see that it was like Jay was part of the family despite his father's crimes.

Snow White walked beside Evie, and on the blue haired girl's other side was Rose Red. Beside her was her son Grant. Mal was delighted to see that both step-sisters seemed elated that Evie was okay. She only separated from her step-sisters to step up to Doug and kiss him lightly on the lips.

"Will Miranda be coming home with me?" Merida asked Belle. It was hard to tell if that was what she wanted or not.

"If she likes she can." Belle answered. "But we plan on rebuilding the school. We plan on it being ready to go in a couple weeks, it's our top priority. And in the meantime Adam and I are inviting all of the team to spend that time in our castle."

"Do ye want to stay Miranda?" Merida asked. She already figured she knew what her daughter's answer would be.

"I'd like to." She said as she hugged her mother. "If I'm still needed here."

"You are." Mal said as she smiled at her fellow purple ranger. "Paradias is gone, I'm sure of it. But we're not done yet. Mother is still out there and she has a few generals with her." She saw Audrey shiver just a little; Chad was one of them.

"How can we do that without our powers?" Carlos asked.

"Oh, you'll have powers again." Doug promised as he stroked Evie's hair gently. "We're going to rebuild the command center, bigger and better than before. We're not done by a long shot."

Mal laughed lightly as she laid her head on Ben's shoulder. "You see, we still have work to do. But I know we can handle it. We've got our friends, both far," They thought of the turtles and the rangers, "And near." She looked to Ruby, and then to Whitney and Callie, whose mother's Cinderella and Wendy were with them, as well as Will. "We'll get our powers back and we've got magic. And together, we can handle anything." She placed her hand out. "Who's with me?"

Each of the rangers set their hands on top of Mal's. This was followed by Ruby's, Will lifted Whitney up and she added her small hand, Lonnie lifted up Callie so she could do it as well. That was followed by each of their parents.

In the infinite oceans a storm brewed on an island known as Carnate lightning flashed illuminating a dark stone fortress. Then green light flared on the top of the large stone tower and Maleficent turned to Chad, Marcellus and Jabberwock with eyes glowing green. "The rangers, and all of Auradon, will pay for their victory today." The evil fairy vowed "They better not think the war is over, because it has just begun."

And beyond the windows on the island shadows stirred and writhed.


	101. Restoration

Mal opened her eyes and wondered where she was a moment before she remembered. She had her own room at Adam and Belle's castle. They were all staying right now, even those like Audrey and Lonnie who technically had places in Auradon with their parents. Because it was all about being close to each other right now as a team. She stretched as she sat up and slipped out of bed, got ready and headed out. Her first stop was the library.

It was of no surprise to her to see Belle and Amy talking on the couch about something or another. The truth was she wasn't nearly as literary like as her twin was. But that was part of what made them work so well. When Amy saw her older sister she smiled happily and got up to hug her.

"Good morning honey." Belle said to Mal.

"Good morning." Mal said as she hugged Belle. "How long have you two been in here talking?"

"Since eight thirty this morning." Amy said happily. Mal understood how her sister felt. Though perhaps not the most innocent of things, Mal could remember spending hours with her mother trying to learn all she could about evil, something she now tried to use as the leader of the Auradon Rangers. Amy had never gone for the evil thing and as a result never even felt the illusion of a mother/daughter bond with Maleficent. That was something both girls could feel with Belle, and it was no illusion. Still, Mal appreciated the fact Belle and her sister could share something unique to them.

"So do we know where anyone else is?" Mal asked.

"Aurora invited Audrey and Jay to her castle for breakfast." Belle said to Mal with a smile. "Aurora has been really impressed with how Audrey has opened up and become more accepting since becoming a ranger with all of you. And that is reflected in no better way than her relationship with your friend."

"None of us entirely saw that coming." Mal said with a laugh though she had told Ben she could see it brewing.

"Carlos and Evie went with Doug and Jane to the school to help with rebuilding the command center." Amy said to her older sister. "The sooner we have our powers back the better after all." Mal couldn't argue that one. "Aquiella and Melody are in the castle's pool. They invited me but I thought I'd let them spend some family time together."

"Which is where Alex and Ellie are." Belle added. "With Anna and Elsa. They went out for breakfast as well." She looked to Mal now. "And that reminds me that Ben wanted you to join him on the patio when you got up."

"Okay." Mal said, wondering why. She got up and ruffled Amy's hair, drawing a look of slight annoyance from her younger twin sister. It was so easy sometimes since despite being twins, the same age, Amy was none the less shorter than Mal. "Enjoy your book club." With that Mal left with a slightly wicked giggle that would only result in her little sister rolling her eyes.

She made her way downstairs. As she passed one room she saw Lonnie and Will making breakfast with Cinderella as Wendy and Mulan talked and watched Callie and Whitney. Belle had offered the two little girls to stay for a while too as Whitney had been petrified at the idea of losing her older brother, and the two had become inseparable. Also, they were students at the school and were waiting with every other student for Auradon Prep to be rebuilt. She waved at the two of them, and they waved back, but when Lonnie motioned an invitation for the purple haired girl she shook her head and made a crown shape. The Asian princess smiled and nodded in understanding.

She found Ben at the patio near the living room. The table was set with orange juice, strawberries, bacon, hash browns and omelets. Off to the side he was practicing some katas he had learned from Leo when the turtles had been in Auradon. In his hand he held the Praeleanthor sword, the mysterious blade from an ancient civilization that was still able to be summoned despite their powers being down right now.

Mal leaned against the door frame and watched as he finished his kata. She applauded and Ben looked to her slightly surprised. "How long have you been there?" He asked as he set the sword down by the table and started over toward her.

She met him halfway. "Not too long." She assured him as she wrapped her arms around his neck, he wrapped his arms around her waist. The two exchanged a soft but sweet kiss for a moment before pulling away. "And a good morning to you too." She added with a giggle.

Ben laughed softly and pulled one of the chairs back for Mal to sit in, then nudged the chair back in. He then walked across the table to the other chair and sat down himself.

Mal reached for a strawberry, one of her and Amy's favorites. "So what's on the agenda for today?" She asked the young king.

"We're going to go to the command center today." Ben said. "After breakfast. Doug wants to see how connected we are to the morphing grid after what happened." Mal nodded her understanding as she finished the strawberry. "Afterwards dad and I are going to talk to the council about getting an expedition for the Badlands. You can come along if you like."

"As fun as that sounds," Mal said deadpan, but Ben knew it would have been anything but fun for her. "I think I'll pass. Maybe some of us can find a way to help restore the school."

"Doug said that restoring communications was a high priority too." Ben said as he cut into his omelet. "We don't know how long we'll be lacking powers or zords and Fairy Godmother wants to make sure we can call for help if it comes to it." Their headmistress and mentor had quickly fallen back into the latter role despite being injured. Luckily she also got out of the wheel chair quickly too though she was using crutches to walk for the moment.

Mal bit into a piece of bacon and smiled a little. "I'd like to see them all again anyway." Mal admitted softly. "I felt them, their powers, their essences, their love, when we cast that spell that stopped Paradias. I feel like I owe them."

Ben cocked his head a little bit at her. "You feel you owe them?" He asked. "Do you mean for whatever help they gave for the spell or for the friendship they have all shown all of us?" It was something he thought about too.

Mal only thought a moment. "Both." She admitted. "I mean, when I left the Isle of the Lost I never imagined what was waiting for me. Extended family like Lonnie and even Audrey, friends like Amber and Karone." She felt a blush come to her cheeks at the next thought. "The man that I would fall in love with." Despite the blushes she found saying that was getting easier and easier. Probably because they had encountered scarier things since then.

"Audrey would say the same thing." Ben said with a laugh. "Of course I never imagined I'd fall in love with you either, but I'm glad I did." He reached over and took her hand, squeezing softly. Mal smiled, again feeling a blush in her cheeks. Ben had been getting pretty good at getting that reaction from her lately.

They made some small talk as breakfast progressed, including a very serious discussion wondering how much demonic influence was over Chad now and how that would affect the Praeleanthor swords reaction. Both were confident however that ultimately it would not control Ben the way Maledict's blade might control Chad. It was all about the weapon alignment.

They met everyone up front except for Audrey and Jay who would meet them there and those who were already at the slowly rebuilding Auradon Prep. Amy seemed very happy to see her mermaid friends and Alex. She even took his hand as they walked, nearly mirroring her older sister and the young king.

"I have to say I hope that our powers get restored soon." Miranda noted. "I feel kind of naked without them."

"Trust me, I know what you mean." Mal said. "Some of us have had them for so long that it's part of us. Others have just really embraced it." She knew Miranda was more the latter, and that was okay.

"I miss them too." Amy confessed softly. "I just felt...safer with them."

"I understand how you feel." Ellie said. "It's pretty much mental, but I feel like my ice powers aren't as controlled as much as they would be with my knight…er, dame powers."

"Me too." Alex agreed though he clearly didn't show it since he had no problem holding Amy's hand.

When they reached the school they found Carlos and Evie waiting for them, with Dude by the yellow ranger's side. Evie embraced Mal and then Amy happily. She faced all of her friends then. "Doug and Jane worked up a generator that will start supporting some of our powers." She revealed to them.

"Is the command center going in the same place it did before hand?" Grant asked.

Carlos shook his head. "No. The basement areas are being extended so we can place the command center down there. If someone tries to crash a ship on us, our base of operations should be safer from any harm." He replied.

"What about communications, how is that coming?" Mal asked now.

"That's Jane's next priority after the generator is up and running." Evie answered. "Just in case we want, I mean need to contact our allies." The truth was that all of them had gained a strong desire to talk with the other rangers, the turtles and their friends after the intense battle against Paradias.

Evie and Carlos lead the others into a small area that would later serve as an auxiliary entrance to the new underground command center. They found the area slowly being adapted for the new command center, with one already powered up generator. Doug was implementing something into it, presumably the schematics for their powers.

"What's going on Doug?" Mal asked as they all gathered around him.

"I'm working everything into the generator, but until we can get more of the proper equipment hooked up we can only activate a few powers at a time." He said to her. "I figure I'll start with the six of you as the most experienced." He looked to Ben. "And you as well your majesty, but that's because I think all I have to is synch up the Praeleanthor sword and it'll find its way around, sort to speak."

"We're thinking once communications are established again that we'll call the others for some help anyway." Doug continued on as Ben handed him the sword made from an ancient civilization. "After all this may be out first time losing our base of operations but it's not their first time. Maybe they can help us to rebuild it."

"From what I heard from Donnie even they had to remodel their lair after the Kraang's second invasion forced them to leave New York." Evie remarked. It disturbed them all a little more to know that that had also resulted in Leo fighting the foot clan on his own and being put into a coma for three months and even now having some effects as a result of that. If Maleficent ever got a chance like that…

Then as Mal glanced at Audrey she realized her mother wasn't the only one who could make a huge impact on all of them with one brutal attack. And Chad had sure been proving he had that intention with Audrey. It made her shudder.

"The sooner we get everything up and running normally again the better." Audrey now remarked. "Maleficent is still out there and I doubt she's just been sitting around catching some sun."

The original six rangers handed their iPhones to Doug so that he could get them synched to the temporary generator. A few minutes later he gave them back their iPhones. Lonnie could feel the power flowing through it, her gem restored and she hugged it to her chest.

"We'll get the rest of you up as soon as we can." Doug promised as he saw the looks of melancholy pass over Amy, Ally, Melody and Aquiella's faces.

Then they felt the ground shake and for a moment they were all afraid something was going to happen to the area before they heard Ruby call from above, "It's that weird bug thing, it's attacking."

"Weird bug thing?" Amy asked.

Ally understood what she Ruby was talking about. "Jabberwock." She translated. "Maleficent must have sent him to kick us while she thinks we're down."

Mal wanted to ask Melody and Aquiella to watch over Amy but wasn't entirely sure her smaller but otherwise equal age twin sister would like that statement, plus she bet the two mermaids would do just that. "Then let's show mom and Jabberwock that we're not down." She said as she looked to Ben and her first team mates. "Let's get to work." It felt good to say that.

As Ben summoned his shield and combined it with the Praeleanthor sword the six rangers put their numbers into their iPhones and were all immensely gratified to transform into power rangers. Together the seven rangers headed up to the surface where they found Jabberwock unleashing fireballs at some of the people trying to help rebuild the school.

Ruby tried to use her hair as a lasso as she swung it around to tangle up his feet but he was just a bit faster than her and missed. He turned around to face her, and although he had no part in Paradias's final plans and hence no idea just how much trouble she had caused for a civilian he knew all too well what she had done when Maleficent tried to block out magic and powers. Eliminating her would make his new master very happy and he powered up a breath of fire to unleash upon her.

Ben jumped out and brought his sword down on Jabberwock, sending him crashing to the ground with a loud sound, almost like a plane crash landing. He was then surrounded by the purple, red, blue, pink, black and yellow rangers. "That's enough out of you Jabberwock." Mal said to him.

"Awesome, you guys have your powers back." Ruby said with a smile.

"Some of us do anyway." Ben corrected her a little sheepishly.

Jabberwock had thought the powers were gone, reducing the holders to mere children. "Apparently you shouldn't be underestimated." He remarked casually. "You're not nearly as useless as we thought you were. Too bad Ally isn't here though." Everyone knew he would have loved nothing more than to kill her for something relating to her mother that they weren't entirely sure about.

"Work with you got sparky." Jay said. "And that's us."

"And how well off are you I wonder?" Jabberwock mused and unleashed a stream of fire at the six rangers and the Auradon Knight. They all managed to dodge out of the way. He dived forward and struck Carlos and Lonnie with his wings right before landing in front of Evie with a roar.

For just a moment the blue ranger felt paralyzed as she remembered he had literally dropped a few houses on her. Then she shoved that to the back and raised her mirror force shield. Then from either side of her Audrey and Mal moved in and struck the general in the chest as hard as they could. He fell back a little.

Ben and Jay moved in and brought their bladed weapons down on Jabberwock. He raised his arms to deflect the blow to his chest and then knocked them back hard. "You lack a lot of your strength." He taunted. "Why don't you bring out your neon armor?"

The simple truth was they weren't sure they could. Audrey and Mal again moved in to help Jay and Ben, Audrey and the two men attacked him with their pointed ends while Mal struck as hard as she could with her dragon's eye staff, glad it didn't shatter.

"We need to figure out how to send him packing." Jay said to him as he slashed Jabberwock again though this time he blocked it.

"I'm not going anywhere." Jabberwock countered as he unleashed a burst of flames at them, sending the four of them flying backwards.

Lonnie and Carlos were now in front of them. Carlos tried to send a seismic shock at him but Jabberwock merely flew above it. Lonnie leapt out and brought her hurricane tessens on him but it didn't do nearly the damage she was hoping for.

"I wish he hadn't come alone." Ben admitted. "If he had some kind of minions with him I could charge up the sword and try one of those attacks on him."

"Ben, see if Doug can do anything about giving us more power." Mal instructed her boyfriend and then looked to the rest of her friends. "We have one more trick up our sleeve, the Auradon blaster." Her friends nodded as Ben took a step back.

"Doug, is there any way we can somehow get more power?" He asked as he touched his hand to the right side of his helmet to activate his helmet's intercom.

"I don't know." Doug admitted. "I'm trying to see what I can do but honestly I'm surprised that the generator is even holding up. This was a shot in the dark after all your majesty."

"So there's no chance for the neon armor?" Ben surmised.

"I'm afraid not." Doug replied.

Mal saw Ben now say something else but by that point she had changed her focus as she placed her dragon's eye staff. Audrey's elemental bow was placed on top of it, and then Evie's mirror force shield was placed behind it, the compacts opening to extend its size. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle with Lonnie's hurricane tessens and Carlos's earthquake claw daggers on either side.

Audrey and Mal stood side by side. On Mal's side was Evie and Carlos. On Audrey's side Jay and Lonnie stood. Together the six of them took hold of the Auradon blaster and fired it straight at Jabberwock, aiming for the fire in the middle, which had been the way they destroyed Jabberwock back in Wonderland.

Jabberwock turned to the side, receiving a good gash but it wasn't enough to destroy him. He then unleashed his own fire blast at the team and they fell back hard, their blaster separating into its individual weapons.

"Okay, that isn't good." Carlos said. "Mal, what do we do now?"

"I don't know." The purple haired girl admitted as Jabberwock jumped up and moved to descend onto the six rangers. They each rolled out of the way to avoid any broken bones or worse. They were now surrounding the general for what that was worth.

"Doug says there's a way to activate the battlizers." Ben told Mal and Audrey as he stepped in between them. Audrey knew that tone of his voice; it wasn't that simple.

Mal could hear it as well. "And what do we have to do for that to happen?" She asked dubiously.

"The only way to power up the battlizers is for you four," He looked to Evie, Jay, Carlos and Lonnie. "To temporarily transfer your powers to Mal and Audrey."

The four of them exchanged uneasy looks. "Um, what happens if for whatever reason the battlizers aren't enough to either drive Jabberwock away or destroy him?" Lonnie now asked.

"I don't know." Ben admitted. "But either way, if that doesn't work, what are we going to do anyway?"

Evie hated to admit that she had a point about that. "I don't think we have a choice." She said. Jay, Carlos and Lonnie had to agree with that. Jay and Lonnie stepped up to Audrey while Evie and Carlos stepped up to Mal. They then powered down as their powers were added to the two girls iPhones.

"Let's hope we can do this." Audrey said to Mal.

"Let's hope." She agreed. The two of them then activated the half sun gems on top of their iPhones and activated their battlizers. Mal took on an appearance half similar to her dragon zord while Audrey took on the equivalent of what Evie thought was like a gem princess.

Audrey unleashed a moonblast that struck Jabberwock back. That was followed by Mal flying up and striking him with her own tentacle like extremities. Jabberwock tried to get a hold of them but the purple ranger was too quick for it to work.

"Mal, I think the only way we can stop this thing is how we stopped Infernal Flame." The red ranger said to her.

Mal readied her dragon's eye staff. "Let's make it so." She agreed.

Audrey raised her elemental bow as the dragon's eye staff shrunk down to make a very special arrow. It slid into the strings of Audrey's weapon and she poured a small amount of each element into it. She was nowhere near Amy's level as it wasn't true elemental mastery, it was just enough to let her vary out the kind of arrows she could use. With the dragon's eye arrow powered up with a trace of the elements she unleashed it at Jabberwock.

The arrow flew quickly and even though Jabberwock tried to dodge it wasn't successful enough as it struck him in the same side. He fell to the ground hard and was debating rather to retreat or not before opening up a huge burst of flame at the four unprotected rangers. Ben and the two girls moved in to take the assault but in doing so it forced the two girls to power down as well.

"So much for that." Audrey said. "What do we do now?"

Ben stood in front of them, ready to protect his six friends as much as he possibly could. The odds did not look good at all. Then there was a huge roar and from the clouds came Mal's dragon zord.

"I thought our zords were down." Carlos noted.

"It must be here of its own accord." Evie reasoned. Out of all the zords they had discovered so far Mal's dragon zord seemed to hold an intelligence and will all of its own. It made it a miracle sometimes that it worked with them as well as it did.

Now Jabberwock hesitated. The zord was much larger and there was no telling how much energy it had recovered. This was followed up with what Mal thought of as a dragon pulse from the Jabberwock that struck him hard. He rolled twice before recovering, growling angrily, and taking off.

It wasn't a moment too soon. Mal could already feel that her dragon zord was ready to try the draco meteor that it used, and that by extension she could use with her battlelizer. But that would have been it; it would have had no energy after that. It even landed on the ground and seemed to lay down as if recovering.

"You think it might be able to stay here?" Carlos wondered. "At least it would look intimidating and all."

Mal walked over to stroke her zord on the side of its face. "I don't think it can go anywhere right now anyway." She revealed softly. "It needs to recharge, and I guess this is as a good of a place as any." She looked to her friends. "We better hope that generator didn't get fried."

"You guys still did great." Ruby said to them. "And thank you your majesty, for saving my life."

"Anytime." Ben replied.

They started back to the school and then Mal looked to Ruby. "Why don't you come with us? You're in the know now, so maybe a new perspective wouldn't be a bad thing." She commented.

The eight of them walked back into the underground area that would someday soon be the new command center. "Please tell me we still have our powers." Audrey pleaded.

"The generator is still running." Jordan reported as they saw Doug working to attach it to another console with Ally's assistance even as Jane worked to attach the generator to it with help from Amy. "They're trying to reinforce it so that we can use the neon armor and the battlizers without a problem, and get our powers hooked up as well."

"Even better, we found a way to communicate." Jane said to them. "That was simple enough to route through the computers and through satellites."

"Well we better hope it works and that we can start getting this place up and running soon." Mal said as she shook her head. "Mom has just proven that she's not going to let us get that much recovery time." She looked at her friends. "This was just reconnaissance to see where we stand. Next time, she'll be in force."

"Well I have some good news on that front." Fairy Godmother said to them.

"Seven of them have their powers restored, including your eldest daughter." Jabberwock reported. "They cannot use their neon armor and their battlizers require the sacrifice of the other four rangers."

"It's only a matter of time before they get them all restored though no doubt." Chad reminded them.

"Yes, yes." Maleficent agreed with an unconcerned wave. "The power is limited or gone but that's not what we need to fight." She turned to look at what were now her three generals; Jabberwock, the Dark Knight Chad and Marcellus. "What we need to fight is the knowledge and experience behind those powers. And I know exactly what we're going to do…"


	102. Lost Memories Part 1

"Should we be dressing in some sort of formal get up for this?" Mal teased Ben a coyly as she leaned against the wall and watched as Ben smoothed out his jacket. Their other team mates were heading downstairs as well but Mal herself hadn't been told of any formal dress code.

"There's no official thing for this Mal, even if we are essentially welcoming VIP's." Ben said with a laugh. "But it never hurts to look the part." He moved his shoulders as if trying to smooth those out too. "But those of us who grew up knowing royal functions were going to be important always took opportunities like this to practice it, to work out all the kinks and bumps." He then looked at her seriously. "It'd be a great idea for you to pick up that habit; you're going to be queen one day."

Mal blinked in shock as the words hit her. On some level she had known that when the time came she would marry Ben (there was no reason right now to think it wouldn't happen) that she would be considered royalty. Still, the idea of it just seemed off to her.

They heard Audrey and Jay coming downstairs. "Too bad that dress isn't ready yet." He remarked. They could already see his arm over her shoulders. Jay, like Mal, was dressed in his normal Auradon wear.

Audrey on the other hand wore a silk light red blouse with her right shoulder bare and a red ruffled skirt. She held the hand Jay had over her shoulder lightly in her own. "Well I don't want to look too formal since we're not even meeting indoors." She replied with a small shrug. "You know though that if we were to get married you'd be considered a king like Ben, without the whole ruling Auradon thing. You should learn to dress formally too."

"Uh, I'll think about it." Jay said a bit uneasily. Mal felt for her friend as Audrey rolled her eyes lightly but didn't say anything. After all, both couples were years away from marriage most likely.

Carlos joined them in his normal wear too, but then again if he and Jane ever chose to pursue their feelings for each other he didn't have to worry too much about the royal factor as Jane was not royalty either. Likewise Evie was not officially considered royal since her mother Grimholde had no royal status. The fact her two step-sisters Rose Red and Snow White did though meant she had some royal claim. Ben was actually fighting to have Evie given royal status given her relationship with her half-sisters.

The rest of the Auradon royals; Lonnie, Aziz, Miranda, Ellie, Alex, Melody and Aquiella seemed rather comfortable in formal wear. The non-royals; Jordan, Ally, and Will and were not so comfortable. Grant likewise was not too comfortable either; despite the fact he was a royal by blood (the son of Rose Red) he was not at all used to that kind of privilege. Amy likewise seemed a bit unsure and was wearing her normal get up.

They left the castle and headed toward the school, which was currently being rebuilt. The command center was being rebuilt underground as well so their base of operations was better protected. The first one was above ground and had been one of the many structures destroyed by Paradias's ship crashing to the ground.

They hung around for a few minutes before out of nowhere their guests showed up, some of which they knew and others of which they didn't. The ones they knew were a small number with the original blue ranger Billy Cranston, Donatello and April O'Neil. The others they didn't know but knew of; Kendrix Morgan the pink galaxy ranger, Angela Fairweather-Rawlins the wife of green lightspeed ranger and technical specialist of the lightspeed rescue project, Cam Watanabe the green samurai ranger, Hayley Ziktor the one who helped design the Dino Thunder morphers, Rose Ortiz the pink overdrive ranger, Kendall Morgan the purple Dino Charge ranger and a mutant monkey with a weird helmet on top of his head that Donnie had called Tyler Rockwell. They all had one thing in common; they were the brains of their groups. And they had been asked to help them rebuild and reinforce the command center.

"Hello." Ben said as he stepped forward with Mal on his right side. Audrey stepped forward with him with Jay on her left side. "And welcome to Auradon." He nodded toward Billy, Donnie and April. "Or in your cases welcome back."

"We'd like to thank you so much for agreeing to help us restore our command center." Audrey said to them. "It's surprising how much we've come to miss it."

"Believe me; we can all understand that on some level." Hayley promised as they started walking toward the underground entrance. During their final fight against Mesagog the command post under Tommy's house had been badly destroyed and at the time the dino thunder powers had been lost.

Billy nodded. "Affirmative." He agreed.

"I remember losing our lair during the second Kraang invasion." Donnie said. "Man, that was hard. It was a miracle we were able to restore it the way we were."

"Not to worry. We'll do whatever we can to help you get your command center running again and your powers up to full again." Angela promised them all with a small smile. "It took years for us to get the Lightspeed base running again."

"Years?" Amy asked with some concern.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Angela replied. "We had several buildings to reconnect, we had to get power placed down there again, and it was all being done underwater. Yours shouldn't take that long."

"We're making the power restoration and the technical work our highest priority." Dr. Rockwell told them all as he floated, not walked, alongside the group with his psychic powers. "The basic infrastructure is of less importance to the workings of the command center and can be dealt with afterwards."

They descended the steps to the new command center and Kendall couldn't help but smile just a bit fondly as she recalled their own base under the Amber Beach Museum. She hoped Shelby and the guys would be okay without her and hoped Snide didn't do anything too destructive.

"Welcome to Auradon." Fairy Godmother said to them with a small curtsy. "And I must extend my thanks for coming to help us with restore our command center."

"The honor is ours." Rose replied with a bit of excitement. She was one of those who had grown up with the stories from this world that was referred to as fairy tales in their world and was more than eager to learn all about how things went after the proverbial book was done. She already knew it had to have pretty much gone well or they wouldn't be here, but naturally the details were not in any fairy tale books.

"Our current technical expert will work with you to determine where we should have all of you start, and my daughter will help you all out as needed." Fairy Godmother said as she placed an arm around a slightly embarrassed Jane.

"Sorry to see the school in such bad condition." April said sympathetically to them as she set some tools down. "It was so beautiful. I hope that you guys can recapture the beauty."

"I hope so too." Audrey said to her. Surprisingly they had all been relieved to find the statue of man turning to beast and vice versa that Ben's father Adam had commissioned so long ago had not been destroyed during the attack.

"Hey guys." Aziz interrupted. "We have to go to the tourney field. There's a meeting being held there for the students. We're getting reactions from some of the other schools about what happened." He looked to their guests. "In a show of solidarity the other schools have closed down until Auradon Prep is back on its feet."

"How noble for them." Cam said with a small roll of his eyes. "Doesn't that mean that they get that time off?" He reminded them.

"Sure." Lonnie replied. "At the expense of less time when we hit summer vacation. They could have let us fall behind but they didn't." She shrugged a bit. "Small grace maybe but we should take whatever we can get."

"You guys go ahead." Doug said to the ranger team. "I'll catch up." They nodded and Evie stroked his back gently before leaving with their team.

"Are you guys a thing?" Rose asked Doug as she opened up a panel to try to reroute power for support for the one that Cam was starting to put together.

"No." Doug said. "Not yet. It's…complicated."

"It doesn't have to be." April said simply as she wrapped her arms around Donnie's waist, who blushed slightly at the sudden burst of affection from his girlfriend. "It shouldn't have to be." That made Doug blush almost as much as Donnie and Rose laughed.

The rangers joined Ruby near the bleachers. She had recently started to become a big part of the group but she didn't know the rangers or even Donnie and April that well and so she had let them greet their guests without her. They however were gratified to see her.

"You know I hope this has caused people to change their minds about you." Ruby said to Mal as she looked at her, Carlos, Evie and Jay. Her arm circled over Amy's shoulders softly, like a sister. She recalled that they hadn't been welcome by everyone. And only Fairy Godmother knew that several people protested having the isle kids as defenders of the entire planet.

"I sure hope so too." Audrey agreed as she smiled warmly at Jay and Mal. Mal laughed and winked as Jay hugged the brunette princess with one arm and kissed her cheek.

They sat down together as a group, Amy laughed a little when Ruby wrapped some of her hair around her neck lightly as a scarf.

As the rest of the students and faculty, minus Doug and Fairy Godmother, were gathering and they were getting ready for the meeting, they heard a menacing peal of laughter and Maleficent appeared in the center of the field.

"How nice of you to assemble for me." Maleficent said with a laugh. "What a way to welcome your new queen."

The rangers were already up and pushing their way through to the center. Ruby was right with them, and Mal had to admire the girl's bravery. No powers and very little experience and yet she was right beside them to confront the most dangerous villain around with Paradias gone. "You're no queen mother." Mal snapped. "And no one is here for you."

"My little brats are still around." Maleficent said coldly as she glared at Amy and Mal. Audrey felt her cheeks heating up in anger to hear some people actually snickering at the small humiliation and she swore she saw Jordan, Aziz, and Miranda shoot daggers out around them.

To her credit Mal ignored them, in fact she had an easier time letting the reaction go then Audrey and some of the others had. "What do you want?" She asked her mother with equal fridgity.

"Actually I came here for you and your little friends." Maleficent said simply as she twirled her wand around. She didn't seem to care she was outnumbered for all intents and purposes. "Oh, and notice that my wand it back now, no thanks to that disgusting rat freak." Splinter had broken her wand when he fought her, just before the invasion.

"What are you going on about?" Jordan snapped. "You can't take us out."

"You're all so full of yourselves, aren't you?" Maleficent demanded. "Just because you have your powers…well some of you anyway. And your experiences." She laughed. "And that children is why I'm here today."

"You really want to test us?" Audrey demanded. Since she had grown close to Mal, Evie, and surprisingly Amy and started dating Jay, she had found Maleficent getting under her skin even more so than normal. Except for maybe the whole trying to kill her mother thing. "Feel free to try, you'll fail."

Maleficent laughed. "Oh, if Aurora had half the fire you had." She remarked. "Of course, I still would have tried to eliminate the brat anyway, but it might have been more of a challenge."

"That's enough mother." Mal stated coldly. "Get on with it."

Maleficent gave a wicked smirk. She found she was enjoying this new state between her and her eldest daughter. If not for her bratty twin sister and her little friends she could see Mal easily descending into the darkness she tried so hard to come back from. But that was a potential idea for another day. "I advise those of you who can transform should do just that." The evil fairy stated.

Then the ground burst open and large insect creature emerged from the ground. It had the antennae's and eyes of a cockroach, the feelers on the front of the face like a wasp. Its large body resembled that of a centipede, the arms of a praying mantis, four legs almost like a spider's and a huge abdomen that resembled as wasp as well that ended in moth wings. Truth was it was arguably many of Amy's biggest nightmares combined.

"Oh my, that is one ugly bug." Jordan said with disgust.

"And it just so happens to be your job to try to squash my crusher flat, if you can." Maleficent said gleefully. "So, good luck with that." With that the evil fairy vanished.

"Yes, what she said." The insectoid creature agreed with a menacing laugh.

"That is hideous." Audrey stated as she reached for her iPhone.

Mal looked at Ruby and her team mates that could not transform. "Start making sure the people get out of here." She told them. She could already see the look of fear in Amy's eyes. Not so much because of the insect but because she had to leave Mal and all of her friends to fight this thing. "Meanwhile guys, let's get to work."

As Ben summoned the Praeleanthor sword and shield, the six rangers took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed into power rangers.

"That is one ugly bug." Rose noted. "But I bet the rangers can take that thing out."

April frowned as she looked at the monster. Her senses weren't quite as good as normal sensors and her own abilities didn't have nearly the power level alone that they did when she was with Jennifer, almost as if the lithe blonde's demonic ability was somehow supposed to mix with the Kraang ability she was given despite them not being planned that way at all. But she could sent something very dangerous about the creature besides its bulky size. "I don't like this." She told them.

"What do you mean?" Kendall asked the young red head. She had been skeptic at first about what she had heard about her abilities but had quickly come to see firsthand how accurate they were.

"I'm not positive." April admitted. "But something about that thing, it's worse than it looks."

"I'll advise them to be careful." Doug told them all. "And let's hope we don't get to find out what the mystery feeling is about."

Doug had just cautioned them to do just that as they got ready to square off against the monster.

The insect monster rose up and with lightning speed rushed right at the seven warriors. They weren't quite quick enough to avoid the attack, in part because despite the speed it was still bulky enough to bash them with his arms and legs.

"It's faster than it looks." Carlos remarked. "I guess bigger doesn't always mean slower."

"Let's just hope bigger doesn't also mean better." Lonnie said worriedly. "Too many appendages as far as I'm concerned."

It levitated into the air and unleashed a plethora of stingers from the abdomen right at the rangers. Even Evie's mirror force shield and Ben's shield couldn't protect them from impact and it sent them rolling back.

"We have to start going on the offensive here." Jay said.

"No argument here." Audrey stated and drew her elemental bow. She pulled back on the silk string and hesitated a bit as she wondered what was best here. As a flyer electricity was a good bet to use against it but then again it was a bug and fire was a good idea too, not that anything really liked fire. She settled on two electric arrows that were shot right at the wings of the insectoid beast.

It might have worked too if the large front arms didn't knock the arrows off course. The slight electrical shock from contact with the arrows didn't seem to bother it. "You think you're little lighting arrows bother me?" He questioned. "They're like little lightning bugs to me."

"She's really not fooling around." Amy mused as she watched her sister and their friend fight the monster. She looked to Aquiella and Melody. "But they can beat him, they have too."

Melody nodded in agreement. Aquiella wanted too as well but she couldn't make herself agree as she thought it was premature. Though her iPhone did not work so she could not morph, because of her innate water manipulation abilities her iPhone had a small coating that surrounded her orange gem while also protecting the technology. And it was just strong enough for her to feel that so far all of this fight was just a ruse. She just wondered what the end game was considering this thing seemed to have the upper hand.

Then the insect dove right at Mal. In a flash Ben was in front of her. The monster collided with the Auradon Knight's shield. The impact was enough to cause Mal to roll back. As she started to get up she saw the front appendages of the monster grasp around Ben's waist and the head of the monster descended onto Ben's armored head. "No!" Mal gasped.

"What is he trying to do?" Carlos wondered as he felt kind of sick to his stomach.

Lonnie moved in to try and help him only for the large insect's wings to slap into the pink ranger hard. She tumbled to the ground hard.

Before Mal and Audrey could move in to try to help Ben the insect monster released Ben and he fell to the ground. He then powered down, though the Praeleanthor sword remained. "That's one taken care of." He announced.

"What did that thing do to him?" Evie questioned.

"I don't know." Carlos answered. "He's like some kind of brain bug."

"The same thing I intend to do to all of you." The insect monster answered with a laugh.

Jordan looked to Ruby. "Finish getting the rest of the people out of here." She said to the blonde civilian, as in not a ranger but knew the gist of it. "We have to help our team out." Ruby nodded reluctantly.

Mal was already trying to figure out the best way to try to attack this insect but her concern for Ben was already starting to cloud her normally quick strategic mind, rather she would admit to that or not. "We can't get in close to it." She said. "Not if we want to avoid what it did to Ben."

"But what did it do him?" Audrey asked him worriedly. She was feeling the same apprehension that her leader and friend was.

They heard the rest of the rangers come in to gather around them, trying to protect them despite not having much to work with. None the less Ellie launched a stream of ice at the insect monster, only for an acid blast from his mouth to melt the ice down.

"Let's try a burst of fire." Alex said as he looked to Amy and held out his hand. The young rose colored girl blushed slightly as she took his hand so that Alex could unleash a burst of fire at the monster.

The wings reacted rapidly and unleashed a nearly hurricane force that sent the fire right back at them. They all barely dodged under the fire, only for it to strike behind the and light the field in fire. "Looks like you've just put yourself in between the frying pan and the fire." The monster stated with cruel amusement.

"We'll never let you get close enough to us to repeat what you did to Ben." Jordan warned him.

"I don't need too." The monster replied simply and then rose up, raising the abdomen and shooting more of the needle sharp stingers at them. This time they were all caught in the arm. Audrey raised her elemental bow again but before she could shoot at the monster she felt woozy. She noticed that the rest of her friends seemed just as woozy.

"What…" Amy whispered softly.

Ruby had just gotten out the last of the frightened students when she turned to see her friends all faint and fall to the ground, out of it.

"Jane." Fairy Godmother whispered, feeling the pain in her sides, a remnant of an injury she was recovering from as a result of Paradias's invasion that had destroyed the original command center.

"We have to help them." Rose declared.

Kendall nodded as she reached for her own dino charger and then hesitated. "Wait. Where did Donnie go?" She asked.

"He must have already left to go to the field." Cam said.

"All of you should go on ahead." Rockwell said to the power rangers. "As we can't guarantee that we can be properly protected, April and I will stay here and get cots ready for the rangers."

"Hayley and I will continue to work on getting things up and running again." Angela said. "It looks like we're going to need it."

"Please bring them all back safely." April requested though in truth her biggest concern was for her boyfriend Donnie.

Ruby landed in front of her unconscious friends. "I won't let you hurt them." She warned as she got ready to use her hair as a weapon. It was something she had not thought about until recently but seemed to be doing a lot of in the last few days.

"You should stay out of this little girl." The insect monster said. "Before you join them."

Ruby's response was a simple. She lashed out a large portion of her hair in an attempt to wrap around the monster but he dodged the attack and very nearly gave her a trim. "You've made your choice." He said simply.

"And so have I." Donnie interrupted as he jumped onto the bleachers to gain some height and then used his bo staff to jump over the fire and deliver a hard kick to the chest of the insect monster. He then pressed a button on the side to change his weapon into the naginata and got ready to fight.

"This world is just full of freaks apparently." The insect monster noted.

"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" Donnie asked. He charged the monster and he dodged it, slashing Donnie in the arm with the stinger on his abdomen. The purple masked turtle let out a small hiss of pain and felt a bit woozy but otherwise seemed okay.

Donnie brought his staff upwards and it connected with the face of the insect, which went tumbling and rolling for a moment before standing again. "I'll have my revenge reptile." He promised and took off just as he saw the blue ranger, the green ninja storm ranger, both the galaxy and overdrive pink rangers and the dino charge purple ranger heading toward them.

"Looks like we just missed the party." Rose noted as she stepped up beside Donnie.

"Don't worry about it; we're probably going to get another chance at that thing." The purple masked turtle replied as Billy leaned down to pick up the Praeleanthor sword, which still had not vanished when everything else had.

"Hayley, have Doctor Rockwell meet us out here to help us bring the Auradon Rangers into the command center." Kendall instructed over the intercom. She looked to Donnie, another strange sight that was never the less not hard to believe after becoming power rangers. The fact she had known Keeper for a while didn't hurt either. "We have cots set up for them so we can check them out."

"Don't think you're leaving me behind." Ruby said to them as she picked up Amy, the lightest of the ranger team. "I'm coming with you."

Melody opened her eyes and saw the rangers, Donnie and April looking at her. Then Ruby was in front of them. "Melody, are you okay?" The daughter of Rapunzel asked her.

"I still feel a bit woozy but otherwise fine." Melody answered. "Am I the only one okay?"

"We're not sure." Doug admitted. "You're the first one to regain consciousness."

"We've taken a sample of the toxin that this thing seemed to have placed in you guys." Kendall revealed as she headed toward a small console that Rose had set up for her tests. It was actually something that Andrew Hartford had worked with her to create. "We're examining what was found in Donnie, what was found in you, and what was found in Mal, and what was found in you to see what we can learn."

"Aside from the fact it leaves one mean headache?" Aquiella asked as she shakily rose. She started to get up to go to Melody but almost toppled over, only Cam stopped her from hitting the floor. "Thank you." She said to the green ranger as he took her over to her cousin. "Like I don't have enough of a hard time walking normally." She was still adapting to her legs.

"I hope you two being okay is a good sign for everyone else." Billy said. April had a horrible feeling it wouldn't be.

That was confirmed a few minutes later when Evie stirred and Doug was at her side. He took her hand gently and asked her, "Are you alright?"

Evie blinked a bit unsteadily. "What?" She asked as she shook her head as if to clear the fog out of her mind. "Where are we?" She asked and looked around at her surroundings. "Who are all of you guys?" They all looked at each other confused.

"Um, maybe it's a coincidence." Rose tried to suggest, though the doubt in her voice was clear.

Next Mal rose. "What is going on here?" She tried to demand as toughly as she could. "Who are all of you people? What do you think you're doing?"

"Wow, easy Mal." April said to her softly, trying to calm her.

"How do you know my name?" She questioned the red head.

"This is not good." Donnie noted quietly. "Somehow that insect thing must have affected all of their memories. He's like a brain drainer, or a brain crusher or something."

"But you were stung, as were Melody and Aquiella." Ruby pointed out. "Why would it not affect you? Or them?" She wondered.

Evie seemed slightly uncomfortable and Mal looked tense and annoyed. They were already sure when the others woke up they wouldn't be acting any differently. "Get those tests done please." Fairy Godmother said to Kendall. "We need answers and we need them as soon as we can get them."


	103. Lost Memories Part 2

A/N: Just a quick thought, if you read these please take a moment to review. As I understandably do not get paid to do this, reviews are a big motivator to keep this going.

Over the next twenty minutes the rest of the team also got up with similar reactions to Evie and Mal's. Donnie actually had to subdue Jay long enough for Kendall to assure him they were all friends even if they didn't remember it right now. Now the team sat pretty much by themselves as they waited for further information. Some minor things came back to them; Mal and Amy were able to very quickly realize they were sisters though right now that same closeness they usually exhibited wasn't present.

Fairy Godmother was talking to Jane but it seemed as if the younger girl was having a hard time believing that this woman was her mother. Enough similarities could be seen between Ellie and Alex that they drew the conclusion they were related too, Aquiella told them they were cousins just like her and Melody were.

"Alright," Rose announced a couple hours later. "I think we've got some answers here." Everyone turned to look at her, Kendall and Doug.

"All three examples have a toxin in their bloodstream." Doug said to them. "That seems to be blocking memories, making those affected almost like a blank state."

"This toxin is set up to affect those that live in Auradon only." Kendall said now as she looked to Donnie. "That's why you weren't affected by the stinger from Brain Crusher in that way." She added, using the name that April had tagged it with, also asking that no one mention that to Mikey.

"But Aquiella and I weren't affected." Melody replied. "And we're from Auradon."

"That was the weird thing at first." Rose agreed with a small nod. "But we took a closer look at the toxin. It enters the bloodstream and integrates itself into the circulatory system so that way it constantly refreshes and recycles itself. The circulatory system travels through the entire body, including to the brain. That's when it targets a specific neuron and essentially impede's a massive block over it."

"The original idea seems to have been to block out all of your memories of being power rangers." Doug said to the Auradon team, which drew looks of confusion and doubt from them all except for Melody and Aquiella. Never the less there was proof around them back that claim up. "But it seems like it's tied so heavily into what all of you have become that it blocked out everything else."

"And the part where we're immune?" Melody asked.

"Your minds are not like the others." Dr. Rockwell now supplied. It was still slightly odd to see a talking monkey levitating around what would be their new command center but of course they had all seen stranger things. "At first I didn't quite understand it but we believe it all comes back to your origins."

"What do you mean?" Aquiella asked in confusion.

"You guys are mermaids." Kendall reminded them simply. That felt a bit weird to say too though Angela could easily remind them that the blue lightspeed ranger Chad Lee, not to be confused with the Dark Knight Chad 'Charming' that was opposing the rangers and stalking Audrey, had in fact fallen in love with a mermaid named Marina. "Your lives as mermaids are so drastically different, from having a tail to swim with instead of legs to walk on to the ability to naturally breathe underwater and communicate effortlessly with sea animals the way that we communicate with each other, that when the toxin entered your systems and tried to attack your brains it didn't know which 'persona' to attack and it wore itself out."

"It's almost the equivalent of multiple personalities." April realized. "Only, with one person just two different ways of living."

"That's all nice and grand." Ruby interrupted. In truth a lot of this seemed to be going over her head, and in many ways the two mermaid girls felt the same way. "But here's the big question here; how do we get this toxin out of their system and regain our friends?"

"I'm afraid that's the million dollar question here." Billy agreed with a small nod. "You see, as it's already been explained the toxin is keeping refreshed and made stronger by working through their circulatory systems. We're trying to find an antidote for it as we speak but we're just not sure we can make something strong enough without it resulting in permanent damage."

"But it might work similar enough to the manticore we fought so long ago." Fairy Godmother replied. Only she and Doug could really recall that time though. It was the second monster that Audrey and four isle kids had fought. Paradias's general Nerissa concocted a vemon that paralyzed the four isle kids and forced Audrey to fight it alone, at least until Jane had recruited Lonnie. It had been much easier for the two Auradon princesses to destroy the tail and free the others than it was to find an alternate cure. "If we can kill this Brain Crusher it should rid the toxin from their systems and restore their memories."

Ruby looked to the rangers already here. "Can you guys do it?" She wondered.

"Sorry to say probably not." Cam answered with a frown. "You see, we're all from different groups and there is only so much synchronicity between our powers."

"Luckily I've already made some arrangements to compensate for that." Billy said. The alarm sounded and they saw Brain Crusher again, this time attacking one of the marketplaces. "And perhaps with fortuitous timing." He added.

"That thing is disgusting looking." Audrey said, the first time any of the affected team members had spoken up since the explanations had started.

"So gross." Amy echoed as she instinctively reached to cling to Mal, who displayed the patented older sister look of slight annoyance and calming influence. She didn't really remember how close they were.

"Cam, Rose, give me a hand here." Doug said to them. "Let's see what we can do about getting Melody and Aquiella hooked up to our systems again and get their powers restored." The two of them followed Doug as the two mermaids exchanged glances. Until this was resolved they were the only two Auradon rangers who could be active and aware.

Through all the commotion no one saw Ben lean against the wall and rub his forehead as if fighting a headache.

The insect monster, unknowingly dubbed Brain Crusher by April O'Neil after what he did to the Auradon Rangers, was enjoying the destruction that he was bringing down upon the market place. He expected that at some point Maleficent would send in others to help bring about Auradon's end, but for now this was a good start. Hungry people made for sloppy people after all.

Two of marketplace security tried to apprehend him and the wings slapped them in the face hard, forcing them to the ground. "Isn't there anyone around here who can challenge me?" He demanded to know. Part of him wanted to face off against the six miscellaneous rangers and the purple masked turtle that had forced him to let Maleficent's estranged daughters and their friends live.

"Brain Crusher, you want a challenge? Well now you've got one." He heard called out to him. He turned to see eight people walking toward him in light gray uniforms, except one which was more white. It was Andros, Ashley, Cassie, TJ, Carlos, Amber, Zhane and Karone. It was Andros who had spoken.

"The space rangers." The monster growled.

"We heard you might have taken something that doesn't belong to you." Cassie started.

"And we're here to return them to their rightful owners." Ashley finished.

"That will be easier said than done." He promised the rangers with glare. He didn't seem to have problem with the name they had called him.

"Let's rocket!" Andros called out, and the rest of the space rangers followed suit as they transformed.

"Good idea Billy." Melody said. "Calling in the space rangers to help us out."

"I actually called for any one of the rangers who wanted to help out." Billy clarified. "But the Space Rangers know you guys the best, so of course it was only natural that they would volunteer."

They were so engrossed in the fight that they didn't notice someone take Audrey's hand, shush her quietly and lead her out of the command center area.

Brain Crusher had taken to the air and dove down rapidly at the space rangers, intending to ram into them now the way he had the Auradon rangers on the tourney field, but this time they dove out of the way, the boys rolling to the right and the girls rolling to the left.

The insectoid monster swung around again and aimed again for a group of rangers, in this case the guys. Amber unleashed a large peal of lightning that struck their adversary head on and caused him to crash to the ground.

"Great work." Andros said to her.

Amber shrugged. "What can I say, I hate flyers." She responded. The first monster she had ever fought had in fact been a flyer, a falcon creature that also wielded the power of lightning, and very well at that. That was why Zordon had made sure she could the same with her own powers when she had become the original purple ranger.

"What do you think of this then ranger?" Brain Crusher questioned as he lashed out with his long mantis like scythes and struck them all with far better speed than a creature of his size should normally display.

"I can't say I liked that all that much." Zhane remarked as he stood and helped Karone to her feet as well.

Carlos summoned his lunar lance and leapt out at the insectoid monster. He raised his mantis arms to block the attack and then slapped the black ranger with a wing that looked harder than any of the rangers would have expected.

Ashley and Cassie pulled out their weapons and fired at the monster. He growled and then rose up to unleash stingers at the space rangers, striking them all back.

"Hurry up." Aquiella said to Doug with urgency. "They need Melody and I out there. They need our magic. This thing is going to take more than physical powers to beat." She was sure it was going to need a combination of both, and since neither twin, Arendelle children, Jane or Jordan were in any condition to help it would have to be them.

"I'm working on it." Doug promised. "Almost done." He had Kendall helping him to get their iPhones back online.

At that moment Rose happened to glance around. "Hey, where is Audrey?" She asked.

"Wait what?" Ruby asked and looked around. "Oh come on."

"I'll find her." April said.

Billy stopped her. "No need, someone else is on it." He promised.

"Where are we going? Who are you?" Audrey asked the guy dragging her toward the forest.

"You don't remember me?" Chad asked her with a small smile. "They really messed with your head. I'm Chad, your boyfriend."

Audrey frowned. "I don't remember that." She replied.

Chad tried not to laugh. He intended to take advantage of this spell's memory loss to finally make Audrey his own. He was even hoping to take her back to the island that he, Maleficent and the remainder of the army was using as their home.

Audrey frowned. "Chad, stop a minute." She said to him. "This, this feels wrong, to just run off like this. The others…" She really didn't know what to say, she wasn't even sure who they were or why it mattered except for one thing; they all had been found together and those who had come to them had all but insisted something was wrong. She tried to pull away and return to that weird underground structure.

Chad held on slammed Audrey against a tree so hard that she felt the air pushed from her lungs roughly. "You're not going back there." He said in a dangerous tone of voice that she didn't like. He held her arms tightly and she flinched in pain. "You're coming with me."

"Chad, stop." Audrey protested as she tried to free herself.

"Shut up." He hissed at her angrily and kneed her hard. She let out a gasp of pain. He pressed himself against her hard, his right hand reaching down to start pulling up Audrey's top. She reached out to try to stop him but he ignored her resistance. "I'm going to take from you what is rightfully mine." He said to her harshly before forcing a kiss on her lips.

Something solid connected with the side of his head and he lost his grip on Audrey. Then he felt impact to his right side and he fell back away from her. When he looked up Kat, as the pink Zeo ranger, stood in front of Audrey protectively with her zeo shield raised. "Trying to take advantage of her, it's just pathetic." She said to him.

Chad glared at her. "What I do with her is not your business." He spat at her and then formed Maledict's blade and summoned some Mamluk's that Marcellus had had standing by. "I'll make sure you pay for interfering in my business."

"Don't worry Audrey, I'll keep you safe." Kat promised as she took a fighting stance.

"You know me?" Audre questioned. She was confused. She didn't understand why so many people were trying to keep all of them safe.

"You're our friend." Kat said to her as she kicked a Mamluk hard. "All of you are."

"If you're all her friends, why did you come alone?" Chad asked with a laugh as he charged her with his sword. She blocked it but he lashed out and tripped her hard.

He was kicked hard in the chest then. "She didn't." Said a voice. Chad looked to see the original red ranger and the black dino ranger in front of him. It was Tommy, her ex-boyfriend and friend who had spoken.

Jason took out the dragon dagger and combined it with his power sword, unleashing energy at the Mamluk's and taking them out. From out of nowhere the Praeleanthor sword appeared in Tommy's hands and the black dino ranger turned to face Chad.

"Are you okay Kat?" Jason asked her as he looked to the pink zeo ranger.

"Yes." She answered as she came to Audrey's side. "Let's get rid of Chad and get her back to the others."

"With pleasure." Tommy assured Kat as he and Jason turned to the dark knight.

"Why do you people keep doing this?" Chad demanded to know angrily. "Protecting the likes of her," He pointed his blade toward Audrey. "Protecting scum like Mal and the isle brats?"

"Whatever you claim you had on that part is gone." Jason snapped at him angrily. "Whatever you hold Mal and the others accountable for, you've passed that line long ago when you took on those powers."

"And that's a line I'm not sure you can even come back from if you wanted too." Tommy added. He knew a thing or two about that since he had started his career as the green ranger in service to Rita Repulsa. "As far as Audrey goes, whatever problems she may have had with them, in the end she didn't lose who she was and is still an innocent."

"What's more she gained from this, something that in her right mind she would gladly acknowledge." Kat added and Audrey had a feeling she could admit to that now. If so many people were here to protect her and those she had woken with, then there had to be a good reason for it.

Chad looked as if he wanted to fight but it was really three on one odds, and he knew these three were more experienced than he was. "When our monster destroys all of you rangers I'll just come back for Audrey then." He vowed and vanished.

"Let's get you back to your friends." Kat said to Audrey as she placed her hand gently around her arm. "None of you might realize it now but they'd all be very worried under normal circumstances. Actually, Melody and Aquiella probably are worried." They had been briefed on what Billy knew, including the immunity of the two mermaid girls.

They brought Audrey back to the command center and indeed Melody and Aquiella were happy to see she was okay. They were in no way surprised that Chad had tried to take advantage of the situation and in fact were kind of angry at themselves for not having seen it coming sooner.

"That's why I called them here." Billy explained. "With all of us working on this crisis I figured we needed a few people who could keep an eye on all of our wayward friends."

"Unfortunately it doesn't seem like Amber and the others are having much luck." Kat noted softly as she saw them getting struck with Brain Crusher's stingers. "Is there anything we can do to help them?" She asked.

Billy was about to let them down gently when Hayley exclaimed, "We got it!" She looked up from her place in between Rose and Doug. "We have Melody and Aquiella's powers up and running again into the system beside Mal and her team mates."

"Great." Melody said. "We're back." She and her cousin exchanged small smiles as they reached for their iPhones. Like Ben and the original five rangers they could feel the power's reconnection with them. "Let's help the space rangers take out that overgrown bug."

"Hold on." Tommy said and handed the Praeleanthor sword to Aquiella since Melody would need the trident to transform. "Ben can't use this right now, but it can still be helpful. Use it yourself, or give it to Amber, something like that. Let it help us take back your friends."

Aquiella nodded. They all knew the sword would respond to them if Ben was unable to use it, and his memories as a ranger being drained certainly qualified as a good reason. She took the sword in her hand. "We'll make sure we get our friend's back." She vowed. Then the two mermaid girls headed out of the command center.

"That's enough out of you." Zhane stated as he extended his super silverizer. With Andros by his side the two longtime friends charged at Brain Crusher. They both tried to bring their weapons down but were blocked by his mantis like arms.

TJ and Carlos moved in with their astral axe and lunar lance respectively and jabbed the monster in the chest hard, though his skin was thick enough to take the heat despite the strikes.

Karone took out a recursive crossbow from a holster on her right leg, a unique design compared to the other space rangers, and with Ashley and Cassie on either side of her they unleashed blasts at him just after Andros and Zhane moved out of the way.

Amber brought her solar sais together and unleashed a stream of solar energy at Brain Crusher. It made him stumble back with an annoyed roar. The bug creature than unleashed a stream of acid at them but the eight rangers rolled out of the way of the attack, which as far as Cassie was concerned was probably a good thing.

"You know I must admit that I thought the hard part was supposed to be over." Brain Crusher lamented. "Taking out the memories of the Auradon rangers should have been the end of it. Even the two mermaids were nothing without their powers. You've made our job much harder."

"Glad to hear it." TJ remarked.

"I guess that means you don't have any back up coming then." Zhane half mocked.

"I wouldn't say that." Brain Crusher replied gleefully. From the acid small flying wasp like creatures started to emerge. "Meet my sky insect soldiers." He said. "And let's shake things up a bit here."

The sky insect soldiers charged right at the rangers and the space rangers drew their weapons and met them head on. They were quick and rather slippery but the rangers were still managing to take some of them out. Then Brain Crusher moved in and slammed hard into TJ and Ashley.

"Everyone be careful." Andros said. "That thing really hurts."

"We've noticed." Cassie promised.

Amber tried to attack him with her sais only for one of the wings to come out and hit her backwards, then turned around and slash the other five rangers with his large stinger.

"Man, we should be able to squash this bug no problem." Carlos groused. "What's going on here?"

Karone folded in her crossbow to take out her own sword to defend herself against the flying insects buzzing around them. Zhane was now back to back with his girlfriend.

The two mermaid girls showed up and saw the fight was not going well. As Melody took out the trident, glad to feel the power of her gem again, Aquiella took her iPhone and input her numbers 9999 to transform.

The newly restored aqua and orange ranger landed in front of the space rangers. Brain Crusher let out a hiss in response. "You two again, and this time with your powers."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Melody deadpanned though in truth she was not at all disappointed to be causing this freak problems. As the flying insects he summoned started toward them she brought her trident down to protect them.

Aquiella unleashed a tidal wave that came crashing down on almost a dozen of them. She jumped slightly upon hearing _Use Us_ in her mind though of course intellectually she knew what it was; the Praeleanthor sword. She tossed the slightly warm sword at the large insect monster.

Brain Crusher tried to bring his large right arm down on the weapon but it angled away from the strike and then tore a huge gash into the monster's chest. He let out a very angry and even somewhat painful roar even as the sword swung back toward the rangers.

"Amber, get ready." Aquiella said to the purple space ranger. She looked up to see the Praeleanthor sword coming her way and as she let her solar sais vanish she reached out to take the Praeleanthor sword in her grip.

"Now let's see what we can do to turn this around further." Andros said to his team mates and their two guest partners.

Kat kept close to the entrance with Jason, neither of them really wanting Chad to try and make another appearance. Tommy kept closer to the others just in case something happened further on in. Billy and the rest of the original group were working on the consoles so they could try to get the command center online.

With Amy not being herself she had no idea what to make of the empathic feelings she was getting and was forcing those feelings to the back. It was why she had no idea how to interpret the strange feelings that were coming from Ben.

Unlike the other rangers Ben had more working against him than mere memory loss. When Ben had been born it was with a genetic disposition from his father due to him spending half of his life as a beast creature due to Nerissa's spell before Belle entered his life.

Nerissa had in fact used that as a way to force Ben to unconsciously fight Mal and her (at the time) five team mates in several fights as the original dark knight before being freed and then the powers diverging into the Auradon Knight powers he used now and the Dark Knight powers used by Chad. It was also that reason that Audrey became the red ranger when in fact that was originally meant for the young king himself.

It was also a unique point that Sermaya had sensed too and had used his own pheromones to bring that instinct out in him as a borderline possessive feeling for Mal, which worked coincidentally well when a potion forced Mal to fall in love with Chad. But then Ben still was pretty much himself.

That was not the case now. There was almost nothing of the young king inside of him and because of Amy's memory loss and Aquiella's loss of powers until recently they had not sensed the beast within him stirring again, and finding almost no resistance.

So they were not expecting any problems. When Ben stood the others looked at him curiously before Doug stepped forward, "Ben, are you okay?" He asked him.

When Ben looked at him only then did April realize something was very wrong. "Doug." She started.

Ben, or the beast that now seemed to have control over Ben, lashed out and struck Doug hard in the face and sent him crashing into Donnie and Kendall. April moved to check on the purple dino charge ranger and her purple masked boyfriend even though it would have been smarter to try to restrain him.

Cam moved to react next with Rose and Billy behind him when he took a hold of a startled Carlos and tossed him into Cam, where they were knocked over by the amnesiac yellow ranger.

Rockwell tried to restrain him but was distracted as the Beast Ben grabbed Grant and performed the same trick with him. He dodged past Tommy as the black dino ranger tried to get a hold of him and then shoved past the pink zeo ranger and the red ranger before running up the stairs and vanishing.

"What just happened?" Rose questioned as they all started to get up. "Why did Ben just do that?"

"There was something primal in Ben's mind, I felt it come to the surface." April answered as she helped Donnie up to his feet. "But I don't know where it came from or what it means."

"I'm afraid we do know." Fairy Godmother said to them. "I wish we had thought of it sooner." She looked to the rangers of Earth. "The part of Ben that has the beast inside him that he got from his dad has taken over his mind."


	104. Lost Memories Part 3

"That's right." Kat said with a small frown. "Ben is the son of Belle and the Beast, Adam." Jason helped her to her feet. "Is that kind of thing supposed to be genetic?"

"Not normally." Fairy Godmother responded. "But that's the way that Nerissa wanted it. In order to control him to fight the others when they first showed up. We thought it was made dormant when he became the Auradon Knight."

"It might have been." Rose replied as she helped Doug up from Ben's surprise attack. "But the problem is the king isn't himself right now. He isn't the Knight and I'm not entirely sure he can be called Ben right now."

"We have to go after him." April said.

"I'll go after him." Tommy replied. He looked to Billy, one of his oldest friends alongside Amber, Jason and Kimberly, though the latter was not there of course. "Contact the space rangers and let them know to join me as soon as Brain Crusher is destroyed."

"By that time Mal and the others should be able to come help too." Kendall added.

"Doesn't that mean that Ben would be back to normal then?" Kat asked now.

Fairy Godmother frowned. "It's hard to say." She answered the pink zeo ranger. "Ben's memories would be restored too but then he has to fight the part of him that holds the essence of the beast."

"Let's hope he can then, or that we can help him somehow." Tommy said before the black dino ranger took the stairs to leave the command center.

In some ways the gash caused by the Praeleanthor sword was like a beacon, a weakness that the space rangers, Melody and Aquiella were hoping to exploit. But in other ways it was also like asking for trouble as Brain Crusher was mightily pissed.

Amber balanced the ancient blade in her hands as they stood ready to face off against the insect monster that had stolen the memories of Mal and the rest of the team. "Let's see what we can do to finish this thing off." She said.

"I'm open to ideas." Zhane told her.

Then their morphers went off and Andros answered it. "We read you." He said.

"Andros," It was Billy of course. "We've run into a slight problem here. Ben is gone."

"What do you mean?" Melody wanted to know.

"With Ben's memories stolen by Brain Crusher, the beast part of him that originates from his father has taken control of him. He's left the command center. Tommy went after him but we don't know anything more than that." Billy explained to them all. "Defeating Brain Crusher would help Ben to fight that primal influence."

"We're working on that now." TJ promised him. "I just wish we were having better luck."

"Can Tommy get Ben on his own?" Karone now asked.

"I don't know." Billy answered her. "Finish Brain Crusher off as soon as possible and then help Tommy find Ben."

"Great, no pressure." Carlos noted.

Melody moved in with her trident and jabbed at Brain Crusher. He used his own mantis claws to block the attack. Aquiella moved in and kicked him in the chest hard, right where the wound had been inflicted. He stumbled backwards and glared angrily at them.

Zhane and Karone moved in now with their weapons, the silverizer in blade mode and Karone's sword, knocking the mantis arms aside and then dual slashing him hard.

Ashley and Cassie worked together to blast at the flying insect soldiers that had been summoned from Brain Crusher's acid. Many of them were still dodging the attacks but it was really the set up that they were hoping for. With them herded so close together Melody was able to use the power of the trident to take them out.

"The minions are down." Cassie said happily.

"We should try the spiral saber booster mode and the quadra blaster." TJ said to them.

Andros nodded. "Good idea. Let's do it." He replied.

Tommy was only half sure that he was following the path Ben took, he didn't even know for sure where that was. Part of him was trying to recall the story of Beauty and the Beast, in truth when it came to fairy tales that was more Kim or Kat's forte.

 _As I recall despite his outward mannerisms the Beast, Adam I suppose really, was still a kind hearted man. It's what Belle ultimately saw in him._ The black dino ranger thought to himself. _Ben has both of their qualities in him, so how bad could this really be?_

Still Tommy was always a good person too, except of course for his stint as the green ranger under Rita's command. And he was also aware of one other problem; the fact that this was not the first time that Ben had had his beast side spark up.

Tommy found himself being drawn into the forest. In truth this kind of reminded him of the dream he'd had just before becoming the black dino ranger, where he had to face down himself as the red zeo ranger, the white ranger and the green ranger. "I guess something's are just universal." He remarked to himself.

Then he saw Ben leaning against a tree and looking at him. But his eyes did not have the same gentle intelligent look he associated with the young king. That was the look of a predator, albeit perhaps a cocky and arrogant one. "So you followed me into the woods dino ranger?" He questioned with a chuckle. "Seems to me like that was a foolish mistake on your part."

"Whoever you are, I've come to take Ben back to the command center. He'll be needed when my friends destroy Brain Crusher and set their memories free." Tommy stated firmly. He didn't want to fight him, but he suspected he might not have a choice.

"Ben is gone." He said dismissively. "He's held me back long enough. That monster was the best thing to happen to me, and now I can do what I was meant to do."

Tommy hesitated a moment. As far as he knew there was not supposed to be an independent form. It was all about Nerissa's spell that should have been rendered basically moot. "What is it you were meant to do?" He asked.

Then the trees around the young king's body exploded outward as Sermaya charged out and slammed both of his huge fists hard into the chest of the black dino ranger. He rolled and stood only to see Yellow Baboon and Green Baboon on either side of Ben, with Chiron behind him. "He's meant to help me destroy Auradon and return this world to its glory." Sermaya stated darkly.

"Oh no." Tommy groused. "Have we got a problem." He got ready to fight as the three beast creatures began to advance on him.

Carlos, TJ, Cassie and Ashley formed the quadra blaster as Andros combined his spiral saber with his astro blaster. The five rangers took aim as they waited for Zhane, Karone, Melody and Aquiella to set up Brain Crusher. If the monster was still standing, Amber would try to finish him off.

Aquiella charged up her boomerangs with water energy and tossed them both at Brain Crusher. He moved again with his uncanny speed and dodged under the thrown weapons. "Nice try orange ranger." Brain Crusher said mockingly. "But you missed."

Melody knew her cousin pretty well and she laughed. "She didn't miss." She replied. "You fell right into her trap." The boomerangs came around and went right through Brain Crusher's wings. He let out a sound that might have been a small scream even as the orange ranger caught her weapons.

"That should stop him from flying." Zhane said. "That means no more stingers."

"Alright, sounds like as good a time as any." Karone said to the two girls and her boyfriend. The four of them rolled out of the way of the insect monster.

Andros took aim with his spiral saber booster mode as the others took aim with the quadra blaster. They fired and the energies from their weapons converged as it struck the damaged spot on the monster's chest from the earlier wound. He fell back with a huge explosion but they could still see him still rising to his feet again.

"No way." TJ said.

"What do we have to do to stop this thing?" Ashley wondered.

Amber had never tried to channel her electrical energy into an object before, though in truth it had never been necessary. Now though she felt the time may have come to try it, and for better or worse the object she was going to use was no ordinary object. She only regretted the fact that the Praeleanthor sword itself hadn't been charged up from the destruction of the flying insects since she had not been the one to destroy them.

She charged up the Praeleanthor sword with the same electrical energy she had been using to help her fight ever since her first time as the original purple ranger and Zordon had chosen her to help Jason and the other rangers. She then tossed the electrically charged sword right at Brain Crusher.

The sword flew through the air and took off not only the mantis like arms of the insect monster, it gashed through the already open wound that had been made on its chest earlier. It stumbled back again but still refused to go down.

"Got to give Maleficent credit, she made this thing to take a beating." Karone grudgingly acknowledged. She had made plenty of monsters when she had been the Princess of Darkness Astronema, none of them nearly that durable. In fact one of her monsters had attacked her when she accidently attacked it. It hadn't been all bad as that had been how she had first started to develop feelings for Zhane.

"Hey, I think it's paralyzed." Melody gasped. She looked to the five space rangers. "Try it one more time guys."

Andros and the four rangers again unleashed their blasts at the Brain Crusher and it finally blew up in a huge blaze, knocking over the eight space rangers and two Auradon rangers for a moment. Then Aquiella sat up. "The others." She started.

"Will have to find us." Amber reminded her simply. "We need to go help Tommy find Ben."

Together the eight rangers headed off, following Cassie's tracking ability with her satellite stunner.

It all came back rushing to Mal's mind. Her protective love for her own twin sister, who sat behind her at the moment. Her friendship with Evie, Jay and Carlos. Her mother Maleficent sending them to Auradon to retrieve Fairy Godmother's wand where she ended up falling in love with Ben. Becoming Auradon rangers, which prompted a friendship between her and former rival Audrey the daughter of sleeping beauty Aurora. The development of her team, resulting in an attempt to stop them from ever being rangers but ended up with Amy joining them, both in Auradon and as a ranger herself. Paradias's defeat, and their power's needing to be restructured. And of course through it all, Ben.

Still her first thought was always of her younger twin. She sat up and gasped, "Amy." Then her rose haired sister wrapped her arms around Mal's waist and hugged her tightly. She embraced her sister back. Then Evie was there and she let one of her arms wrap around Evie.

"Audrey." Jay gasped as he sat up and went to the brunette princess. He placed his arms gently on her shoulders as he recalled what Kat had said; Chad had tried to use this as an attempt to take advantage of her again. "Are you okay?"

She nodded a little. "Yes, thanks to Kat and the guys." She said and then moved forward to hug him softly.

Will and Lonnie hugged each other. Alex came over and took Amy's hand, and she squeezed it back gently. Then Mal looked around. "Where is Ben?" She asked them all.

"You don't remember?" Rose asked softly. When Mal shook her head the pink overdrive ranger sighed softly. "Ben's memory loss allowed the beast part of him to take over. The others are out there looking right now and could probably use your help."

"Where is Melody and Aquiella?" Amy wondered.

"That's the one bit of good news." April said to her. "We got their powers back online. They should be with the space rangers looking for Tommy, who went after Ben first."

"Then we better join them." Mal said anxiously as she kissed her sister on the cheek and then looked to Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie and Lonnie. "The sooner we have Ben back the better off we'll be, and the better off I'll feel."

Tommy drew his Brachiostaff and tried to keep his eyes on Sermaya, Green Baboon and Yellow Baboon as they stalked him the way predators stalk their prey. It reminded him a little bit of how raptors would seem to act like in Jurassic Park.

"Perhaps once I've returned this world to its real state I'll turn around and attack your world as well." Sermaya mused. "What forms of life have been destroyed on your world in favor of 'human evolution'?"

"Now you sound like an old villain we defeated before." Tommy replied as he tried to keep his eye on the three beast warriors. It was true however as he sounded very much like Mesogog, the villainous dinosaur creature that had shown up. That had resulted in Kira, Connor, and Ethan being recruited as dino thunder rangers and it had also forced him to come out of retirement; at that point he hadn't been active since the red rangers had gotten together to stop the remnants of Machine Empire from restoring Serpenterra, Lord Zedd's personal zord. At that time the Wild Force rangers had been the ones with the active mantle.

In fact it occurred to Tommy that no ranger teams had been active at the same time until now, with the Dino Charge rangers and the Auradon Rangers. Prior to that they had all been the only active team, with preceding teams either reactivating their powers or figuring out how to reacquire them, something he had made easier in recent times.

Sermaya leapt at the black dino ranger and he rolled under the huge fists. He came up and used the Brachiostaff to block the large attack from the defender of the forest. He was barely able to hold onto his weapon after the impact. "Kind of ironic that forest defender would use an axe as their weapon." Tommy said. He growled and tried to bring it down on him and he rolled away. "After all, that's what one uses to chop down trees." He tried again and again Tommy back flipped out of the way.

Then he was kicked in the chest hard and sent falling backwards. Amber landed beside Tommy. "Hey, look at the bright side." She commented with a small laugh. "The only thing that would be safe would be the trees."

"You got that right." Tommy agreed with a chuckle.

Sermaya turned to see Melody, Aquiella, and the seven space rangers approaching them now. The primal creature let out a growl as he saw the two Auradon rangers approaching.

"I was waiting for this. Descend Simorgh!" Chiron now spoke up. He raised his staff and there was a horrible screeching from the skies. Feathers rained down harshly on the seven space rangers and the two Auradon rangers, knocking them back hard. They looked up to see a large green bird like hovering just above them all.

"When this turn from a fight against Maleficent to a fight against Sermaya?" Amber couldn't help but wonder. In truth she had almost forgotten that Mal and her team had had more than Paradias and Maleficent's former alliance to worry about here.

"Talk about taking advantage of a bad situation." Tommy mused and then looked to the purple space ranger. "But if you're here then that means that you destroyed Brain Crusher. Mal and the others should have their memories back now right?" He asked.

"They should." Amber answered. "I just hope it doesn't take too long." Then the two rangers rolled out of the way as Sermaya tried to drive his fists into them yet again. "Talk about one track mind."

"Looks like I get a nice meal out of this." Simorgh commented as he looked down at the two Auradon girls. "I can smell the salty tang of the ocean on you two. You must be mermaids." He tongue darted out around his beak. "Quite a treat."

"And that might just get me off of seafood for a long time." TJ said. It was already one of those facts that they all ignored; that Melody and Aquiella could have casual conversations with the likes of salmon, shrimp and clams when they were often considered food even in Auradon. But the idea of something trying to eat their two friends for lunch was almost sickening.

Simorgh dove toward the two mermaid rangers. Karone raised her crossbow and unleashed a few bolts at the bird monster. He was quick enough to dodge but that required him to move away from them. The nine rangers rose to their feet.

Amber and Tommy did likewise. Then Sermaya tried to grab a hold of Amber and the purple space ranger was only able to dodge because she was much smaller compared to the large beast. Tommy again had to block an axe attack from Green Baboon, defender of the forest.

Simorgh circled around the remaining space rangers, Aquiella and Melody. They got ready to strike at the bird monster if he struck at them again but made the mistake of taking their eyes off of the others. Yellow Baboon, archer of the forest raised his own bow, far less elegant looking and modern than Audrey's elemental bow, and unleashed his own stream of arrows on the rangers, striking them all.

That was the scene that Mal, Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie and Lonnie found waiting for them. "When did Sermaya get involved in this?" Evie questioned.

"It makes sense I suppose." Carlos mused. "He's always had some of fascination with Ben, at least the beast part of him. He tried to bring that out when he did whatever he did to turn his feelings for Mal into a possessive form."

"Speaking of Ben, where is he?" Mal wondered. Then she saw him by the tree. From that vantage she thought Sermaya had gotten a hold of him and bound him to the tree so that he couldn't escape. "There he is. Audrey, take everyone and help with that bird thing. I'll unbound Ben and then get the Praeleanthor sword from Amber so that Ben and I can help deal with Sermaya and the green baboon." She said and they all nodded. "Let's get to work." The six of them took out their iPhones, input their numbers and then transformed.

Audrey aimed her elemental bow at the yellow baboon as Jay and Carlos got on one knee each so that they could launch Lonnie at the flying bird monster. As soon as the pink ranger placed her feet on the boy's hands so they could help her gain height the red ranger let loose with a few arrows that struck him in the hands and face, causing him to fall back.

Lonnie brought her tessens down on the bird monster, which let out a horrible squawking as he fell with the pink ranger. Unlike Simorgh who landed hard and alone, Lonnie landed only slightly awkwardly and had her four friends to check up on her.

"It worked." Cassie said happily. "You guys are okay." She and Lonnie hugged as they joined the Auradon Rangers.

"Nice save guys." Jay said as he high fived Carlos, the black space ranger. "Thanks for the assist."

"Anytime man." Carlos reminded him.

"We're not out of the woods yet." Andros reminded them. "We have to stop Simorgh and the beast warriors and bring Ben back to his senses." He raised his spiral saber.

"Right." Audrey agreed as she brought her elemental bow in closer to her body to use as a close range weapon. "Let's do…" She started to add and then the red space ranger's words started to sink it and she glanced at him. "Wait, what did you say about Ben?"

Mal was all but ignored by the beast warriors until she got closer to Ben. Chiron raised his staff though as the purple ranger approached. He moved forward and swung at her. Mal dodged and summoned her own dragon's eye staff. She turned to face him as he tried to follow up on his failed attack. She blocked it and then struck him in the chest hard. "No one gets in the way of me and what I want." She said to him.

She then turned to Ben only to realize now that he was not bound against the tree but leaning against it almost too casually. She let her staff phase out as she started toward her boyfriend. "You got out." She said happily. She thought maybe it had been a magical binding that had dissipated when she struck Chiron. She reached for his hand and added, "Come on, let's get your sword and help Tommy and Amber fight Sermaya."

Mal was surprised when Ben pulled his hand back. "Nah, that's okay." He said to her. "I think I'd rather watch and see what happens."

She looked at him shocked. "Ben?" She questioned. With that glance though she noticed something in his eyes. "Wait, what…"

Ben gave her what almost seemed like a gentle smile before he moved quickly and struck her in the chest hard, gritting his teeth a little to push back the massively loud _**NO!**_ that shot through his mind, a remnant of the real Ben that was trying to break out. Mal fell back, gasping to catch her breath.

Back at the command center, Amy felt a little like she had had the breath knocked out of her too despite she was breathing just fine.

Sermaya had seen that and laughed. "Great shot my brother." He said and then replicated the effect by slamming his fist into her leg hard enough that she fell to the ground. It almost sounded like it had broken.

Green Baboon brought his axe down again and this time it chopped right through the Brachiostaff as it descended hard down Tommy's chest until he fell back, hitting a tree and then the ground hard.

Simorgh again took to the skies and this time came down in descending arc that struck the rangers down hard. He dove down and bit into Aquiella's leg hard, hard enough to draw blood despite her ranger suit's protection. Just as he was ready to pull her into the skies Zhane lashed out with his silverizer and slashed him across the face hard enough to get him to release the orange ranger.

"Let them be for now Simorgh." Sermaya said as he, Chiron and the two forest baboon generals came to Ben's side. "Our plans have changed for the moment."

"Ben, what are you doing?" Mal asked, still feeling uncertain as she tried to rise to her feet. "You can't be serious about this."

"I thought you figured this out already." Ben said with a dismissive gesture at the purple ranger. "When Ben lost his ability to keep me contained, he lost this body." He laughed now, sounding almost cruel. "Your boyfriend is dead, Mal. He's not coming back. But don't worry, soon you'll all be joining him." With that they all vanished even as Mal stood up and started again toward him.

"No." Mal whispered as she fell to her knees. She felt tears building in her eyes. "Ben." She whispered to herself. She could hear everyone else coming up to her, Tommy stopping to help Amber up and supporting her. Melody likewise was supporting Aquiella. "No." She whispered again. She let Audrey and Evie help her up and supported her as they returned to the under construction command center.

When they entered both girls moved aside as Amy through her arms around Mal and hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry Mal." She said to her older twin. Never before had Amy seen Mal so broken.

Mal and Amy sat down together, Andros placing the Praeleanthor sword on the purple haired girl's lap. Cassie started to look at Amber's leg as Jordan, now in possession of her memories, began to work up healing potions for Amber and Aquiella's wounds.

"It's not broken." Cassie reported. "The bone is dislocated but it's easier to fix that, even if we weren't using a magic potion for it."

"That's one bit of good news." Audrey noted softly as she sat by Jay, her legs under her. She had her head on Jay's shoulder and her hands in his as she tried to process what Ben, no the beast that had taken over Ben's body, had said.

"There's more good news." Kendall announced now. "He's lying. Ben is not dead."

"He's not?" Evie asked.

The purple dino charge ranger shook her head. "No. I've been going over the brain waves of the last few minutes of that fight." She looked to Mal, technically a fellow purple ranger. "When he struck at you, there was a spike in his brain waves. A huge one."

"Which means what?" Grant asked her.

"Which means Ben was inside and he didn't approve of the beast using his body to attack Mal." Miranda answered. "He's in there and he has to gain control again."

"That still might be easier said than done." Doug warned them. "When Brain Crusher took your memories he left blank slates behind. Except for obviously with Ben, allowing the beast to take full control."

Jane caught on now. "When our memories came back they overrode those blank slates." She mused softly. "But the beast isn't a blank slate but another personality in itself. It's just never had the chance to be dominant until now."

Kat hated to admit that this seemed very similar to Angel/Angelus. It was not a good sign.

Mal wrapped her hand around the Praeleanthor sword. "My boyfriend is not dead." She decided coldly. "And I will get him back."

"No, Mal." Audrey said and Mal looked at her sharply. Before the purple haired girl could respond she added, "We'll get him back." That drew a small grateful smile to Mal's lips for her second in command, good friend, and former rival.

"We'll get him back." Mal amended as she saw the same look of determination from Jay, Evie, Carlos, Lonnie, Melody and Aquiella. She even saw the same looks from Miranda, Grant, Ellie, Alex, Will, Amy, Jordan, Ally and Aziz even though right now they couldn't do much to help out.

"We're all going to get him back." Amber said as she finished off the healing potion the genie girl had given her and flexed her leg experimentally.

"Guys, we can't ask you…" Mal started.

"You're not." Karone said to her. "We're volunteering." She looked to Mal and the other Auradon rangers. "We came here to help restore your memories, and we're not leaving until we've finished that."

Mal smiled again, reminding herself that this was the girl who was supposed to be the Princess of Evil at one point in her life. She just wished she they had a plan to go with their shared determination.


	105. Fighting For Friends Part 1

Billy got the Brachiostaff reassembled. It was the simplest thing that had to get done at that point.

"I can't find Ben anywhere." Doug said. He had taken to the sensors while the rest of the 'genius team'; Rose, Kendall, Billy, Hayley, Donnie, April and Dr. Rockwell continued to work on the command center itself. "I don't know if it's something that Chiron did or what but he's not showing up on sensors."

"How long do you think it will be before Sermaya strikes again?" Carlos wondered. He and Jane were not helping out, with bits of assistance from Jordan as well. "I mean this is the first time we've seen him since they attacked the school weeks ago."

Mal felt her stomach tighten at the thought they would go months without getting the chance to bring Ben back where he belonged. Right now they had elected not to tell Belle and Adam what had happened but if it he was gone for more than a day they would have no choice but to reveal to his parents what had happened. She briefly lowered the Praeleanthor sword, interrupting the practice she was putting into using the weapon with Jason.

"I'm sure it won't be that long M." Evie tried to reassure her first chosen sister as firmly as possible.

Carlos looked ready to debate that point but Jane quickly nudged him in the side to keep him quiet. The yellow ranger had a perfectly valid point but it wasn't going to help Mal feel better or raise morale in general to pursue that path.

"It might be a good thing that the beast can't access Ben's powers without the Praeleanthor sword." Jay tried to note somewhat brightly. "He'd be a bigger threat then."

"Does he even need it?" Audrey wondered as she looked to Mal. The only time she had been hit outside of battles was when Chad managed to isolate her and attack her. She had never been hit by Ben before thankfully.

Mal thought a moment. Beast Ben seemed stronger than normal Ben but not nearly as strong as most of enemies they faced. "It wouldn't hurt, from his perspective I mean." She answered.

"For what it's worth I'm not entirely sure the Praeleanthor sword would respond to the beast that is controlling Ben." Kat said. "The original artifact that the Praeleanthor sword seems to be based on wouldn't respond to just anyone, just a hero."

"It's responded to all of you so far." Ruby said with some laughter. "I guess that means you're all heroes. And that wherever the tech came from there weren't a lot of heroes." Kat giggled a little bit, but like Amber, Billy, Jason and Tommy her face showed just enough grimness that perhaps that comment struck closer to home than they would have liked. It made her wonder about the circumstances of the original artifact.

Near the torii, the same object that faced the ocean on the side where the Isle of the Lost could be seen, Chiron was setting up a ritual for the next thing they wanted. He had Green Baboon and Yellow Baboon helping him with the set up. On the side Sermaya and the new Ben was watching them. In the trees one could just make out Simorgh.

"What's the point of this again?" The beast Ben questioned Sermaya as he leaned against a tree.

"I've finally gotten you join us." Sermaya said with some pride. "I must say it was quite unexpected, thanks to the evil fairy from the isle." He looked to the Isle of the Lost though that was not Maleficent's current location, no one in Auradon outside of her group knew where she was now. "But we have had another unexpected opportunity placed in front of us that we cannot ignore."

"And we intend to make that work to our advantage right now." Chiron added. "But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Our attack on the school weeks ago lead us to one of our biggest and most important goals. Win or lose with this idea, the big games will begin soon enough."

"So Chiron casts this spell and we get what we want?" He asked Sermaya.

"It will help us out. We will have to make sure that your girlfriend and all of her little friends don't interfere before it's done." Sermaya corrected him.

"Well I'm sure as soon as they realize something is wrong they'll come running." He noted with amusement. "They always do."

"We are ready my lord." Chiron said to Sermaya.

"Good." He replied. "We will reach out to our new brother in arms. Make him see where his place is." He looked to Beast Ben. "But there is one more idea to this spell. Please, step into the circle as well and we shall guarantee your place among us."

Fairy Godmother was glad to see that the command center was slowly falling into place. Doug had just announced that they were ready to try to add more of the team's powers to the power network though at the moment it was up in the air as to whose powers would be going up next.

For what it was worth Mal seemed to have gotten a good handle on how to use a sword though they were all hoping Mal would be giving the Praeleanthor sword back to Ben sooner rather than later.

Amy sat next to her own friends Aquiella and Melody even as she watched her older twin sister. She couldn't entirely imagine what Mal was feeling right now. She had gotten kind of close to Alex but they were in no way near the same status as Mal and Ben were. She worried what would happen if this was dragged out too long.

Lonnie too watched Mal even as she helped Will and Jay to shift a console into place. She thought about how she felt when it was revealed that Will was supposed to be working with Gregory to take the Auradon Warzord from them. She was sure Mal had to feel as bad as she felt at that time…and it some ways she hated the fact that the person who was there for her when that happened was the same person who they were now worrying over.

"Perhaps if we were to scan for a genetic anomaly." Rockwell suggested to Jane as they messed with the sensors in an attempt to find Ben. "As far as we know there is no one else in Auradon that would have that kind of thing, except his father. And we know where he is now so we can easily exclude the castle."

The surprise of working with a giant psychic monkey had pretty much worn off and now it was a matter of colluding with a fellow brilliant mind. "I think the one thing that worries me about that is the unknown variable." Jane replied to him. "We didn't even know for a while that Ben had an anomaly like that. If we're wrong and others have something like it too, we might never find him that way."

"There's got to be some way to find Ben fast." Rose mused.

Work continued on in silence for a few minutes. Then all of a sudden April felt a tingling sensation at the back of her neck. She glanced around, uncertain of what it could be about. She was about to return to her console when she noticed Rockwell kind of tense up, but she wasn't sure why.

Rockwell on the other hand could hear it in his head clear as day. _It's time. Join us, my brother._ The voice sounded like Sermaya's, judging by the audio they had had when Mal and her team had found the Ben. _It's time for you to take your rightful place within our brood._ In some ways it was all too familiar.

Tyler Rockwell had once been a human neuro scientist partnered with another scientist named Victor Falco. Falco used mutagen from the Kraang and a sample of monkey DNA to transform Rockwell into his present mutant form so he could work on a psychic neuro chemical, though the results had been only temporary. However Falco had tried to duplicate it and become changed into a mutant himself, changing his name to the Rat King, which had not been Mikey's idea.

He had taken that name because he had gained a telepathic bond to the rats of New York, and that had included the turtle's father and sensei, Splinter. He had used that connection to try to force Splinter to act as his bodyguard and for a brief moment in time it had worked. Rockwell had discussed this with Splinter to get an idea of what it was like, but now he was starting to get a firsthand experience.

 _Join us brother. It is your destiny._ Sermaya again insisted in his mind.

Now Amy caught the edge of something. She looked toward Rockwell. "Professor, are you okay?" She asked him. That drew everyone else's attention.

"I…" Rockwell started but again he heard Sermaya's voice. This time it was not spoken words but something more primal, like a howl of some kind. His assurance to the rose haired girl was lost, as was his other thoughts. He just turned around and started to levitate toward the exit of the command center.

"Professor Rockwell?" Donnie questioned as he tried to step up to his Mutanimals colleague. He turned to look at the purple masked turtle and the helmet glowed pinkish before Donnie was sent flying into Billy and Cam.

"What's going on?" Ally asked.

"I don't know." Jordan answered as she stood up to try to intercept the psychic monkey mutant. "But I don't like it." Before she could take more than a couple of steps one of the consoles slid rapidly from the corner of the room and blocked everyone's way long enough for him to leave.

"What is going on here?" Carlos asked. "Why did he just do that?"

"There was some kind of, of noise in the back of his mind." April told them all as she helped her boyfriend to his feet. "I just don't know what it was or who it was sent from."

Mal grimaced. "I think I know who." She said.

"Maleficent?" Miranda asked her.

She shook her head. "Not my mother. Sermaya." She answered. "Just like he was trying to get Ben to work with him because of that beast gene, he's now gotten to Professor Rockwell because he's a mutant primate."

"We have to get him back." April said.

"Agreed." Cam said. "But this might give us an opportunity here." When the others turned to look at him he continued his theory. "If they called Rockwell to their location, we can follow him and do whatever we need to do in order to bring Ben back.

"We just have to remember that Sermaya won't be alone." Rose commented. "He'll have his baboon defenders and Chiron with him, as well as hopefully Ben. That bird monster Sirmorgh might be there too."

"We'll find out when we get there." Amber said as the space rangers stood beside the Auradon rangers. Carlos gently patted Jane's arm as Lonnie leaned up to press her lips gently against Will's. Mal kissed Amy on the top of her head as each of her mermaid friends patted her hands softly in assurance before they all headed out.

Alex sat beside Amy. "Are you going to be okay?" He asked her as he took her hand now.

Amy nodded. "Yeah." She answered. "I just hate the fact my chosen siblings and two of my closest friends are going to fight and I can't help them." She shuddered just a bit. "That bird thing mentioned a taste for mermaids." She added softly.

"They'll be fine, don't worry." Alex tried to assure her.

The eight space rangers and the eight Auradon rangers did their best to follow Rockwell from a discreet distance. The last thing they wanted was to get attacked by their mind controlled friend. On top of that, it reduced the chances of him working to elude their attempts to track him and through him Sermaya and find Ben.

Lonnie found she was not surprised to find that the trail lead to the torii that had once protected Invader of Nightmares when he had tried to use his powers to bring down Mal, Evie and Audrey from their minds. They found of course that everyone was present as Rose had predicted.

For a moment it wasn't clear who should take the lead; Andros lead the space rangers and had more experience but Mal lead the Auradon rangers and they were in her native world after all. Then Andros cleared that one up. "How do you want to approach this Mal?" He asked her. It gave her the chance to give the orders while Andros could try to make any corrections he thought needed to be addressed.

"You guys take Simorgh." Mal said. She wanted to keep that flying menace away from Aquiella and Melody if at all possible, knowing the fact that he seemed to like mermaid probably made her twin very nervous. "I need to deal with Ben." She tightened her grip on the Praeleanthor sword. "The rest of my team will take on Sermaya and his goons. We just have to be careful not to hurt Rockwell."

Andros nodded. "Sounds like a good idea Mal." He agreed. "Let's rocket guys."

"Let's get to work." Mal stated.

As the space rangers input their codes on the astro morphers, Mal and her team took out their iPhones and input their numbers to transform. Then they stepped out in the open. "We've come for Ben and we're not leaving without him." Mal announced to Sermaya.

"Then you won't be leaving." Sermaya retorted with a laugh.

Simorgh took the skies and headed toward the two teams of rangers. Then they saw Rockwell turn around to face them as well. As the space rangers headed toward the bird monster Rockwell raised his arms and psychically entrapped the space rangers, tossing them against down in front of the torii.

"Guys." Audrey gasped.

"Don't worry about us." Amber said to them. "Get Ben. Free Rockwell from Sermaya's possession."

Sirmorgh dove at the Auradon rangers and they all rolled to avoid the attack. "Mal, you have your job." Audrey called over to her leader. She wasn't sure anyone else could get to Ben. "We have ours. We'll just have to add bird brain to it too."

"Be careful." Mal answered. "And if you need me, tell me. I won't pay with any of your lives to get Ben back." She was determined to make sure that she didn't lose her friends ever.

Evie also suspected that Amy would be worried about her mermaid friends. She looked to Audrey though it seemed as if the red ranger had thought about it too. "Melody, Aquiella. Keep the defenders off of our backs while we deal with the bird." She instructed them.

Mal approached Ben with the Praeleanthor sword in her hand. "Ben, I don't want to have to fight you." She said. In truth she was still trying to work out the fact that while the one in front of her was the boy she loved, inside it was the beast form that she hoped that Ben was finding a way to overpower.

 _I don't want to fight you Mal, but do you what you have to._ The mind said even as the body growled in annoyance at the unbidden thought. "If you want any chance of keeping this world safe you don't have a choice." He replied and then let loose a predatory grin. "Of course the only way to make that happen will be to end this boy's life."

"Ben is still inside of you, I know he is." Mal stated as she started to pace her opponent. "He's fighting for control and I'm going to make sure he gets that control back."

He laughed again. "Are you delusional or just dumb?" He questioned. "What, you think if you let yourself get injured that he will suddenly break free in an effort to protect you? Or maybe you intend to try to beat me down enough that the mental anguish will be such a distraction that Ben will overpower me on principle?" It was clear he was being sarcastic.

Mal shook her head with a small amused laugh of her own. "I love Ben, and he knows it. But he also knows that I'm not stupid or selfless enough to let myself be injured when I have so many people relying on me keeping safe." She answered. "But I won't injure Ben either in what could very well be a vain attempt to weaken you either."

"Then a magic trick then?" He shot back, now feeling a bit more unsure now.

Mal shook her head. "No magic here." _At least not yet, wonder if I can make one out of the blue._ She thought to herself. She let herself sigh a bit. "I don't really have a plan." She found herself confessing as if she were talking to Ben in between fights as opposed to the enemy. "But I'll make one and bring my boyfriend back to me. Bring our king back to us." She thought briefly of Belle and Adam and added silently _Bring their son home too._

"You know I have the advantage here." Beast Ben said casually. "You want the boy alive and whole. You can't or won't hurt me." He shrugged. "However I don't need your, your silly little friends or any of the people in this world." With that he jumped at Mal.

The purple ranger rolled out of the way and took up a defensive posture, the sword in front of her. "You need Ben's body if you want to stay alive." Mal reminded him, perhaps needlessly. "You can't afford for me to accidently kill or fatally injure you. You have no powers and I'm morphed and armed. I'd say we're on equal footing."

"Until I take that sword and shove it into your already dying heart." He growled with anger.

Mal worried for a moment that could be a problem. But she forced that from her mind. Right now she had to focus on how she was going to bring Ben back to them without a solid plan.

Simorgh spread his wings and then angled them upward so that feathers shot from his wings and slammed into the five rangers. The force of the impact knocked them down and the bird monster took the chance to dive down at the five of them.

Lonnie tossed one of her tessens at Simorgh and he barely dodged out of the way of the attack. It gave them the time to get up again though their feathered adversary was more than ready to take another dive at them.

Aquiella and Melody had been barely holding their own against the two defender baboons and the loud attack distracted both of the girls as worry for their team overtook their combat instincts. That allowed the two monsters to slam their fists hard into the chests of the two girls and to send them flying into the five rangers.

"This isn't working out too well." Melody noted. She looked to Audrey. "If those two stay out of it, the seven of us are going to have to help you with Simorgh."

Audrey grimaced. Like Mal she had thought about their safety after his comment of liking mermaids. "We should stop them before they do get involved." She tried to reason. "Cut them off at our leisure rather than theirs."

"Forget it Audrey." Jay now said to their leader since Mal was dealing with Ben. "We need them if we want to have any chance at stopping him. We should only worry about those two goons if we have too." It was unclear if he realized that Audrey and Mal were trying to protect them from a monster that had threatened them personally or if he simply knew that right now it wasn't going to happen.

"Look, it's my dinner." Simorgh said with a cackle. "I don't suppose you two came properly seasoned?" He asked with laughter.

Aquiella made a face. "That's disgusting." She said.

The bird monster laughed. "I suppose that would be your opinion, but I say you shouldn't knock it if you haven't tried it." He dived toward them again, this time aiming for the orange ranger but Carlos moved in front of her and slashed him across the face with his earthquake claw daggers.

"Maybe you two could try and drown him? Sort to speak?" Evie questioned the two of them.

Sermaya tried to drive his huge fist into Jay's head now but he ducked under the attack and then kicked him as hard as he could in the chest, making him stumbled just a little bit.

"It's worth a shot." Melody answered. She just hoped the bird monster would give them the time to implement that plan. Aquiella took out her tidal boomerangs and tried to charge up her weapons even as Melody placed her arms on her shoulders to lend her whatever power she could give her cousin.

But as Ariel's daughter had been afraid of Simorgh would not give them that time. He dove right at them. Jay and Audrey tried to knock him off course with their own weapons but the wings rose up and slashed the two backwards. The downward stroke of the wings struck out Lonnie and Carlos even as he hooked his beak around Evie's mirror force shield and tossed her aside hard. He ended by striking the two mermaid girls hard, making them land just as roughly.

Sermaya looked with amusement as he saw the seven Auradon rangers on the ground, struggling again to recover. He saw Mal and Beast Ben clashing which was even more amusing. Mal was trying her hardest without hurting him, but her opponent seemed to take great glee in trying to take the sword to critically injure or kill her.

He looked to the Defender of the Forest and Archer of the Forest. "Crush the space rangers." He ordered them. They both nodded and started over to them. They were still struggling but against Rockwell's psychic powers it was useless.

"This is not looking good." Ellie said softly. She looked to Doug and the others. "What can we do to help them?"

"There's nothing you can do your highness." Fairy Godmother reminded her gently. She was not a ruler of Auradon but she was the heir apparent to Arendelle when her mother Queen Elsa either stepped down or was no longer around.

"But Mal…" Amy said softly as she watched Beast Ben grab her arm and twist hard. She barely slipped out of the grip before he broke it. "She needs us…she needs me."

"Is there any way to disrupt Doctor Rockwell's psychic control?" Rose asked now. She hoped if they could free the space rangers that would turn the tide in the fight easily enough.

"Not from here." Cam said. "And it would probably have to be on a psychic level too. Physically those two baboon goons can keep him protected and he doesn't seem to have any control of his own."

"Hold on, that's it!" Donnie exclaimed. "It's so simple." He looked to them all. "Rockwell's most powerful psychic control comes from the helmet he took from the Kraang. If he's disarmed of the helmet he loses his psychic stranglehold on the space rangers."

"Grand." Jordan said with a roll of her eyes. "Except that our team mates are too busy getting beaten down by Simorgh, Sermaya and even our own king."

April bit her lip as she watched the screen. She heard Hayley comment, "We might be able to get a couple more powers up and running through the backup systems. It's a temporary solution though and I don't know how much that will help."

"They only need to stay on the backup systems for maybe two hours." Kendall interjected. "Rose and I should have access to the morphing grid for permanent integration by then." Alpha had to stay on the megaship to orchestrate that part of the reconstruction.

"Let's do it then." April suddenly announced. They all looked to the red head. "I have a plan on what we need to do." She looked to Doug. "This is who I need to get their powers restored for this to work…"

Mal flexed her arm, trying to ignore the pain in her arm from Beast Ben's strong hold on her. "Oh, Ben." She said softly. "You have to fight him before this turns into something that isn't so easy to reverse."

"There is no Ben!" He exclaimed and tried to kick Mal in the side of the head but she dodged under the attack. She knew she probably should have tackled him right then and there but was afraid that it would hurt him. "He's gone, and I'm all that's left!"

"I can't…I don't believe that." Mal said to him.

Ben moved fast and brought his hands in a chopping motion down hard on her shoulders. She let out a gasp of pain and fell to the ground, dropping the Praeleanthor sword. He knelt down and picked up the ancient weapon before turning looking down on a stunned Mal. "This is it, love. You and I just have our separate paths to take, and this is where you get off." With that he raised the sword high.


	106. Fighting For Friends Part 2

_I won't kill my girlfriend._ A part of Ben declared as he tried to fight what the beast portion of him was trying to do. The Praeleanthor sword was held high above Mal as she struggled to regain her composure so she could stand and continue the fight.

"You don't get a choice boy." He growled to the boy whose body that he was currently inhabiting and trying to steal. Then the weapon itself started to glow and the beast lost the view he had of the purple haired purple ranger as she struggled to stand up.

He found himself back in a small rocky area. The rocks themselves were not like any rocks that had ever been seen in Auradon as they were a very dark black but split on all sides with red, almost like lava, flowing through the seams of the rocks and rocky walls. The sky overhead didn't seem to match any skies in Auradon either, it was black and cloudy but not at all like what one expect from a brewing thunderstorm. There was no one around; no Mal, no Auradon rangers, no Sermaya or any of the generals he always seemed to have around him. He wasn't even wielding the Praeleanthor sword in his hand anymore. _What is this?_ He tried to question but it sounded very muted.

 _That would be a good question._ He heard in response and saw Ben come out from behind one of the pillars. _This certainly isn't my idea of paradise. Don't suppose this is yours?_ He shrugged in seeming indifference but it reality wasn't the truth. _I mean I thought I had an idea on what my other half is like, you've been there forever, and with my knowledge for months now. Why is this happening now?_

His counterpart let out a growl. _You think you know me? You know what you want to be, but I've never had a chance until now. Even Sermaya's original attempt only touched on the barest hint of what I am._ He responded somewhat angrily.

Ben didn't know what would happen if the beast gene were no longer be a part of who he was, if it would affect his powers or not. _If you want to be out on your own, I can't blame you. Maybe we can even find some way to make it happen._ He tried to reason with the beast. _But this isn't the way to go. We have to stop Sermaya from his plans and if you're part of it that means we'd have to stop you too._

 _Like you could stop me if you tried._ The beast part snapped hotly and laughed. _And I already know how I will be on my own. Starting by eliminating you!_ With that he moved quickly to try to punch Ben, but the young prince dodged out of the way of the strike and was now in defensive stance.

 _I don't want to fight you._ Ben reminded him though he suspected two things. The first was that he wouldn't have a choice. The second was that the Praeleanthor sword may have wanted them to fight. Perhaps it was a way of giving Ben the control he needed of his body so he could return to Mal, his family, and his friends. _But I will if I have too._

 _You will have too._ The beast version of himself growled and launched himself at his opponent again. This time Ben was prepared and caught him in the stomach, then jammed the palm of his hand into the face.

Mal stared in shock. One minute Beast Ben was ready to kill her, and the next moment he was just standing there, seemingly vacant. She wondered what had happened. "Ben?" She asked quietly but of course got no response from him. She stood up a little shakily and was about to reach for the sword but something stopped her, some instinct she wasn't sure she could identify.

Then she glanced over at her friends. The seven Auradon rangers were again struggling to recover even as they were approached by Sermaya and Simorgh. The bird monster licked the inner edges of his beak as he looked at Aquiella and Melody and her stomach lurched as she remembered that he called them his dinner.

She saw the defender baboon's approaching the space rangers, who were being psychically held down by the possessed Rockwell, one of the guests from Earth that had come to help them repair the command center. She felt uncertain of who to help before a voice in her head said, _Help your team!_ She didn't recognize the voice but she felt she should take that advice.

She glanced at Ben worriedly. But whatever was going on was internal and Mal suspected she couldn't help him right now; she could however help her friends. She used her dragon's eye staff as a pole vault to slam her feet hard into Simorgh's back. As Sermaya turned to her she slammed one of the ends of her staff into his face.

"Mal, what happened to Ben?" Audrey asked their leader.

Mal shrugged. "I don't know." She revealed. "I think the Praeleanthor sword did something to him. Whatever is going on can wait until we're all a little safer." She was glad to see her friends getting up. "So let's finish this bird brain and Sermaya once and for all."

"You're going to regret that girl." Sermaya threatened as he and Simorgh again started toward the eight Auradon rangers.

Ben was sure that if this were a real place he'd be sweltering right now as he aimed a snap kick at the beast in the man suit. He raised his arms and caught the young king's foot in his hands and forced him back hard.

He landed hard and felt the breath knocked out of his lungs. This was followed by what seemed like his chest being crushed as Beast Ben landed on top of Ben and hit him in the face hard. Again he was sure if this weren't all mental he would have a broken nose right now.

He swung again but this time Ben caught that fist in his own and pushed back hard enough so that his foot could connect with the back of his opponents head. He then pushed him off and rose. _Doesn't this seem wrong to you?_ Ben couldn't help but ask. _We're two sides of the same coin fighting each other._

 _Fighting for control, for the right to live._ Beast Ben retorted with a mixture of impatience and glee. _The way any life ought to be._ He lunged again at the young king, aiming the palm of his hands toward Ben's chest. He barely managed to block it but was caught off guard by the knee to the gut and the elbow to the back.

Ben landed hard and just barely rolled out of the way of the foot that was aimed at his head. Beast Ben seemed to laugh though it was hard to discern. _You can't beat me. I am stronger, faster, better than you could ever hope to be._

Even as Amber saw the two giant baboon monsters approaching them she still did her best to resist. "We have to come up with something." Carlos said. "Or we're going to have a huge problem."

"We already have two huge problems." Zhane pointed out as he continued to try to struggle as if it were rope and not a psychic hold. "They're coming right this way after all."

"They're not going to give us a problem." Cassie noted. "They're going to kill us."

Then they felt a breeze and saw someone jump over them. Will as the green Auradon ranger landed in front of the two baboon monsters with his recursive blade raised for combat. "You'll have to get by me before you can get by them." Will warned them.

"Fine with us green ranger." Defender Baboon said as he raised his axe and tried to bring it down on him. Will blocked with his sword, maneuvered his hands to slide it to the left then twisting it to force the axe to slam into the ground. That was followed by a kick to the green furred baboon.

"Stop him too." Archer Baboon ordered the mind controlled Rockwell as he raised his bow and aimed an arrow at the green ranger.

Rockwell started to direct his energies at Will but felt a block in his way. He looked up to see April there, focusing her energies as well. The part of him that was still Rockwell couldn't understand what she was doing there as she was unprotected and could be injured or killed easily. On top of that she didn't have the power to stand up to him alone.

Then Amy, also unmorphed, stepped up behind April and placed her hands on the red head's shoulders. She started to lend her energies to April as she would have, and in fact had done, for Alex, Melody and/or Aquiella. It wasn't much as her powers were different from April's but the red head had been confident it would be enough.

A long while ago, April had discovered that the Kraang had made clones of her to make something as unique as her. They finally succeeded and created a girl who had named herself May. But the Kraang had overestimated her and she had taken over that base. Weeks later she had lured April to her and wanted them to join their strengths together. The turtles and Raphael's girlfriend Jennifer had followed and when April refused she had used millions of Kraang droids to attack them. Only combining her powers with Jennifer's recently untapped powers had saved them. Since that point on their sensei Splinter had done what he could to mentally discipline them so that they could use that as a weapon if needed.

Doing so with Amy was more complex as her powers were different from even Jennifer's demonically originated powers, let alone her own Kraang originated powers. But it only had to work long enough for task; she used that focused power to knock the helmet off of Doctor Rockwell as her boyfriend Donatello had suggested.

Doing that freed Rockwell from the control Sermaya had forced on him. The sudden shock overwhelmed his mind and he collapsed to the ground. It also freed up the rangers.

"Karone, check on April and Amy." Andros said to his sister. He looked to Zhane. "Keep Rockwell safe." The two rangers nodded. He then looked to the rest of the team. "Let's help Will show those baboon freaks what it means to be power rangers."

"Right." The five terran rangers acknowledged.

Karone came over to the two girls. "Are you two alright?" She asked them.

"Just fine." April said with a small but strained smile. "The forest isn't spinning at all."

Amy helped lean April against Karone. "I'm fine." She said to the white space ranger. "But my job isn't over yet. Will and I still have a bird to pluck from the heavens." With that she took her out her iPhone and input her numbers 9976 and transformed into the rose ranger. With that she headed toward Will and the space rangers.

Amber and Andros slashed Green Baboon. Carlos and TJ struck Yellow Baboon. Then Cassie and Ashley used their weapons to blast the two monsters. Amy came up to Will. "Ready?" She asked him.

Will nodded. "Ready. Let's get help our friends and bring Ben home." He replied.

Sermaya swung at the rangers and Jay barely blocked the attack. Carlos and Lonnie kicked him back together. Simorgh tried to dive at Aquiella but Mal was there and she swung her staff like a baseball bat, cracking him in the face and sending him landing roughly.

Aquiella threw one of her tidal boomerangs and it struck the bird monster across the chest hard, knocking him back. Audrey then shot an electric arrow right at him. He tried to dodged to the left but wasn't quick enough as it struck his upper arm and gave him a slight shock. "That wasn't nice." He remarked.

"You're not going to like what happens next then." Audrey replied. As the monster shook the arrow loose it brushed down his body with enough charge in the arrow to shock him again, but this time with the wet feathers delivered an even stronger electrical shock.

"Water conducts electricity bird brain." Evie thought she should point out happily.

That statement helped give Karone an idea. She took April over to Zhane. "The two of you protect Rockwell in case the baboons or their boss get an idea. I've got to get Amber out of that fight so she can help the Auradon rangers." She said to her boyfriend and the red head.

Amy and Will started toward their friends. Will leapt up and landed hard on Sermaya's back. The lion ape monster tried to fling him off but the green ranger held tight. Jay and Carlos then moved in and slashed him hard.

"Good to see you back in green dude." Jay said to his friend.

"Glad to be back." Will said, the smile obvious in his voice.

"Mal!" Amy said happily as she rushed up and hugged her sister.

Mal laughed happily as she hugged her back. "Great to see you Amy, in prime condition too." She said. "But we have to get back to the fight."

Amy shook her head at her sister. "No." She replied. "That fight is for them to handle. You have your own fight in front of you." She motioned toward Ben and started to drag her sister over to the immobilized young king.

"But…" Mal started.

"I'll help you get in there Mal." Amy promised her firmly. "But Ben can't stop that thing on his own. He faces the same limitation in his mind that you faced out here. But together maybe you two can overcome all those limitations so that Ben can come home."

Mal nodded. It required no thought at all. "Let's do it." She agreed with her twin sister.

Karone moved in with her own sword and helped her brother and Amber strike against Green Baboon. Both monsters were technically big enough to take three rangers attacks with little difficulty. She looked to Amber. "I know how they can take down that bird, but with Amy helping Mal with Ben they'll need you to help them." She said to the purple space ranger.

Amber nodded. "I think I know what you have in mind." She said, having overheard Evie's remark. "I'm on my way."

The Beast Ben advanced on Ben, though the young king was more inclined to call it stalking. He braced himself for the attack though in reality he wasn't sure how he was going to stop the next attack. Though he wasn't sure it was possible to feel exhausted physically, he sure felt that way. The beast on the other hand didn't seem as phased and he suspected that it was because he was losing his hold on his physical body.

 _This is almost done; I am going to take your body and your life._ Beast Ben said and got ready to jump him.

"What kind of place is this?" They heard. The two boys looked to see Mal appear behind her Ben. The fact she actually spoke out loud made them realize some outside force was helping her out. This was verified when she added, "So hot and humid. It seems like…" Then she cut herself off as if something occurred to her.

 _What are you doing here?_ Beast Ben demanded angrily. _I left you on the ground; you have no right to be here._

"I have every right." Mal retorted. "I'm here to take my boyfriend home." She held out her hand but instead of her dragon's eye staff forming she instead received the Praeleanthor sword. She then looked to Ben. "I don't know if I have the strength to strike him down the way he looks now." She confessed to the young king, feeling kind of embarrassed. "But your mind is still in here, if you could…"

 _Say no more._ Ben said to her with a soft, understanding smile. _Let me make it easier for you; just don't let it be in vain._ He closed his eyes and Mal looked to Beast Ben. After just a moment he started to waver, his form going from looking like Ben to looking like his father had as The Beast Belle had known except he lacked hair and had extremely pink skin. His white claws gleamed in the harsh light.

"You don't look like a beast." Mal said with some disgust. "You look like a demon." She shrugged. "But it makes it easier to get you out of my boyfriend's body. And I have just the sword to take out a demon."

The now Beast demon let out a roar and leapt at the purple ranger. She dodged under it and rolled to a battle stance. He rolled and then turned to face her down. He moved and slashed at her. Mal kicked is arm away from her and brought the Praeleanthor sword down on him hard. He let out a roar as he fell back.

Then for the first time the Praeleanthor sword glowed. It had happened in the past but only when the wielder, usually Ben, had taken out a few minions. Mal smiled a little through her helmet at the unexpected burst of power and then charged the Beast again.

He raised his hands and blocked the strike with his long sharp claws.

Ben figured out that there was only one way Mal could have come in here; Amy had to have combined her general magic from Maleficent rather she liked it or not, and her intangibility. _If there is anything you can do help Mal win this battle I'm sure she would appreciate it._ Ben implored.

It was as if Amy had heard her sister's boyfriend, and perhaps she had as Amy liked Ben very much and thought he was perfect for her. Or perhaps it was simply the way the twin's hearts and minds connected with each other. Whatever the reason fire lanced out from some of the small broken areas on either side and burned the Beast creature's arms.

He let out a roar of pain and pulled his arms away from the sword, moving as if to attack whatever had struck him before realizing that there was no way to fight fire.

Mal would have loved to take some kind of pleasure in that but if anything the presence of fire that Amy could manipulate, even from the confines of Ben's mind, proved to her where the Praeleanthor sword had placed this battle. She again forced that revelation down and unleashed the powerful sword down on the beast monster, which shattered into millions of pieces.

"Mal." Ben gasped as he stood up. Then he realized he had spoken out loud. The nightmarish surroundings they had fought in were slowly starting to dissolve around them. "You did it, you defeated the beast."

Mal stepped up to him as the sword vanished. She took his hands in hers. "We did it." She said to him. "You confronted it, reminded him that this is your body and your life. You showed the mental strength you needed to overcome him and gave me what I needed to free you the rest of the way."

Ben wasn't entirely sure the Beast was actually gone though. But he figured that was a problem for another day. He was sure there were other immediate problems. "Our friends?" He asked.

"Fighting Simorgh." Mal answered. "And they might still need us."

"I can take my body back now." Ben replied. "But not with you in here."

Mal nodded and laughed. "I know." She assured him. "It's time for Amy to take me back to my body." She squeezed his hands gently. "See you on the outside."

"We're going to need two part harmony here." Amber said as she approached the Auradon rangers. "Karone has a plan, and I need you two to help with it." She looked to the two mermaid girls. "But the rest of you are going to have to keep this thing busy." She now looked to Audrey, Jay, Evie, Carlos, Lonnie and Will.

"We'll do that." Carlos said to her. "Just get ready to do what you have to do."

A voice came over Evie's helmet intercom. "I have a surprise for you." Jane said to the blue haired blue ranger. "We've been able to add a new function to you mirror force shield, and I suspect that it will help out with Karone's plan."

"I thought we couldn't add any new powers to the grid." Evie inquired.

"And we didn't." Jane replied. "This is a simple boost that goes into the circuitry of your shield."

Evie took out her mirror shield and sure enough saw that another small component had just appeared there. Amber peered over her shoulder and laughed. "Oh yeah, looks perfect." She told Evie. "Let Jane know the timing is indeed perfect."

Evie nodded. "Amber says it's perfect timing." The blue haired blue ranger said to Jane over the helmet intercom. "So let's see if this new one is as impressive as some of my others." She personally loved the storming attack herself.

"You like to eat mermaids and other sea creatures so much." Amber said as she stepped up in between Aquiella and Melody and pointed at Simorgh. "Time for you to learn why it's so dangerous to be hunting by the tides."

"Like you scare me purple ranger." Simorgh mocked and started toward them.

Will, Jay and Carlos stood together and drew. Then Audrey and Lonnie jumped up onto their shoulders as they drew their own blasters. Evie stayed where she was in front of her five team mates and brought up her mirror force shield. "Time for you to take a bath." She declared and activated her newest attack. "Time for drowning mirror force." A tidal wave of water almost as powerful as what Aquiella could produce shot out and slammed into the bird monster hard, knocking him off of his feet with a painful crash. With that Evie switched out her mirror force shield for her own blaster and back flipped high in order to land on Audrey and Lonnie's shoulders.

Melody placed the trident over Aquiella's tidal boomerangs as Aquiella drew moisture from her own iPhone's water pocket and the air around her, including marvelously enough moisture left over from Evie's new attack, and then Melody pulled her trident back so that Aquiella could unleash her water built boomerangs.

Simrogh rose in just enough time to get struck by the force of those weapons, which then flew back toward Aquiella. "You think getting me soaked is going to do anything other than wet my appetite?" He asked as he got to his knees.

"Weren't you listening to Evie?" Amber questioned him. "Water conducts electricity. But then, you don't realize that I'm the biggest conductor of electricity this side of the planet." With that Amber unleashed her own streams of lightning right at Simorgh, a gift she had been given by Zordon so long ago when she had become the original purple ranger, a necessity against the monster she debuted ag against known as Lightning Falcon.

The electrical bolts struck him hard and he let out a screech. All of them seriously hoped they weren't smelling his roasting flesh as that was still kind of disgusting even if he was a monster. "Still standing." He growled out.

"We'll put an end to that." Audrey said to him. The six rangers charged up their blasters and unleashed the Auradon Triangle Spark at Simorgh, and the final impact sent him reeling back before landing on the ground with a hard explosion.

Then Sermaya appeared and rammed hard into the six Auradon rangers. They fell to the ground hard. Carlos's landing was relatively soft until Evie came crashing down on him. It was a bit more of balance between Audrey and Jay and Will and Lonnie.

He swung at Amber but she dodged under his attack and brought up her solar sais, trying to slash him. He blocked with one massive arm. Then Mal and Ben were there, striking him with their own weapons, the dragon's eye staff and the Praeleanthor sword respectively, and he fell back.

Sermaya rose as his two baboon generals joined him. They were then met on the opposite side by the eight space rangers, the eight Auradon rangers and Ben, who was unmorphed but held the Praeleanthor sword and his shield as he readied himself to do so. Rockwell was now conscious as well and was being supported by April.

Sermaya growled. "You think you've won rangers, but you haven't. All is not what it seems to be." With that the three monsters vanished, presumably to wherever Chiron was waiting for them.

"Are you okay Ben?" Lonnie asked the young king.

Ben nodded. "Yeah. Thanks to Mal and Amy." He said as he wrapped both of his arms around each of the girls. Mal laughed and Amy giggled a little in embarrassment.

"And how are you doctor?" Carlos asked Rockwell.

"Feeling a little groggy, but I could be doing a lot worse after that." Rockwell answered and moaned a little. "This must be what Splinter felt like after my former colleague Falco tried to control his mind."

"Donnie has an idea on how to modify your helmet to prevent that from happening again." April promised the smartest member of the Mutanimals.

"To that end, let's get back to the command center." Will suggested. "I'm sure everyone will feel better once we put in a post battle appearance."

As they all turned and walked away they didn't notice the small collection of feathers, the same color of Simorgh's blowing in the small breeze and collecting together before glowing.

In a small forested area outside of the Badlands Sermaya and his two generals formed in front of Chiron. The mage raised his eyes. "I see we lost the king." He noted dryly.

"The purple ranger and that damned sword." Sermaya growled. He shook his head angrily. "Where did that weapon come from anyway? Even Auradon's strongest magic couldn't have made that sort of thing."

"I can't answer that either." Chiron replied. "But I can tell you that when the beast took control of the king, we got what we needed." He looked to a long hollowed out tree trunk full of emerging steam. "Soon he shall have what he most desired, and we shall have a brother in arms."

As they looked at the tree trunk they could make out a masculine figure that seemed to be forming within.

Donnie took Rockwell's helmet to begin working on the modifications to stop Sermaya from taking over Rockwell's mind again if he tried to do so.

"Does it feel good to be back in action?" Alex asked Amy as he came over, placing his hands lightly on her shoulders.

Amy smiled. "Yeah, it does." She answered with a smile. She didn't feel brave enough though to tell him that it was only second compared to the feeling of his reassuring hands on her shoulders. For the longest time only Mal could have ever gotten this close to her, though she was quickly learning that she could trust them all, even Audrey.

Will lightly picked up Lonnie by the waist and twirled her around a bit, making the Asian princess laugh a little. He set her down after a moment. "And yes, I too feel great to be back in action." He answered the unspoken question before planting a light but passionate kiss on her lips that Lonnie all but melted into.

"Grand." Aziz said with a laugh. "I hope soon we'll be following in your footsteps."

"Agreed." Jane said with a small wistful smile. She still had the magic wand and it still had the white gem in it but it was not connected to the morphing grid.

"So let's get back to work and see what we can do to get you all up and running again." Kendall said with a small smile. She looked to Cam. "If you can give me a hand over here, we have one more area we need to patch up too." The green samurai ranger nodded and joined Kendall over the console.

"I am so glad you're back." Mal whispered to Ben and leaned up to brush her lips against his lips softly.


	107. Undivine Return

"I really wish I had the chance to delve deeper into your history." Kendall remarked as she helped Fairy Godmother affix the symbol of their school on what would be the command center doors when Cam and Aziz got ready to weld them onto the entrance. "To see what's so similar to ours and what differences they are."

Audrey laughed a bit. "I don't think I hear too many people say that." She noted. "No offense."

Kendall brushed it off. "It's probably not everyone's thought." She admitted. "Not in what amounts to a virtual fairy tale." With the symbol affixed Fairy Godmother had to take a moment to relax as she was still sore from the injuries she had sustained during the final conflict with Paradias; where he had brought his ship down on the school and command center, hence why they were doing this now. "But back home I run the Amber Beach museum and history has always fascinated me. Not just the paleontological kind either."

"The what?" Jay couldn't help but ask.

"She means dinosaurs genius." Carlos answered with a smirk and then had to dodge Jay's hand as he aimed for the back of his head.

"Maybe we could do some kind of exchange of information?" Lonnie suggested. "That way you guys can learn what you want to know and we can learn what we want to, or need to know."

"That sounds like a great idea." Donnie agreed.

"If it weren't for you guys and my dad I'd love to stay here for a while." April admitted. "It's so cool here."

"I guess when you five came to Auradon, they didn't exactly send exchange students to the isle in return." Rose speculated.

"Four." Tommy corrected her. "Amy came back with us when we, the zeo rangers, and the space rangers came here to help unite the team after Maleficent tried to separate them."

Fairy Godmother seemed to think a moment. "That is true." She agreed. "And the truth is that no student in Auradon would want to go the isle for any extended length of time. We weren't even entirely sure that the Isle kids would stay here that long though of course we know now otherwise." She looked around at the rangers. "But your world is different. We could consider an exchange program of our own."

"Exchange program?" Kat questioned.

"You mean someone from our world would stay here for a while, and someone in Auradon would stay in our world for a while?" Amber asked.

Fairy Godmother nodded. "That would be the idea." She replied.

"I bet we could find some volunteers on our end." Karone noted with a small smile. "The catch would be trying to find a volunteer who could do so without disrupting the ranger teams."

"It would be more or less the same problem here too." Mal agreed. She knew in theory Ruby could have gone as she was privy to the inside workings of their team and what they did but for some reason Mal thought it was best Ruby not be the one to go.

"We can worry about that idea after we've done what we came to do here." Andros said. "Right now it's hard to worry about that when we have to make sure that you guys are ready to go."

"So if we had to leave in an hour, what is it that you think would still need to get done?" Rose as conversationally as she worked on setting up an interface that they hoped would accept the neon armor the way it had originally been set up.

"You mean besides the neon armor?" Lonnie asked with a laugh as she sat by Will, the two of them holding hands. She only gave the response because she knew what the pink overdrive ranger was working on and it had been harder to interface than she had anticipated.

Rose rolled her eyes good naturedly. "Yes, besides that." She answered with a smirk.

"We still lack zords." Will answered with his own smile at the sarcastic quips going around.

"That's right." Kendall answered. "Luckily that's our next step." She was working with Cam and now Doug on that too as they worked to retie the zords into the command center's systems. "We're working to tie in the Auradon Megazord and the Auradon Warzord now."

"Why those?" Amy asked as she passed Ben a screwdriver as he shut the console that centered on their communications systems, one thing that had seemed to integrate in well enough.

"Because Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie and Lonnie are all ready to go." Cam answered. "And Fairy Godmother says you, Will, Melody and Aquiella can control the Warzord without a problem, though Mal can lend a hand in that regard too."

"Shouldn't we be worrying about the steed zord and the dragon zord?" Audrey asked as she handed Evie a few chips that had to be hooked into another of the consoles before they could test it out and then connect it with the others.

"The dragon zord actually doesn't seem to need it." Donnie replied, sounding amazed even as he said it despite the fact they had realized it hours ago not long after finishing the modifications to Rockwell's helmet. "I think it's because of its unique biological qualities." It was the only zord to almost appear alive compared to the rest.

"The steed zord is easier to link up." April added. "For lack of terms here, it doesn't have as many moving parts as the actual battlezords."

"And we can't even bring up the Auradon Battlezord, the Auradon Falconzord, or the Auradon Battlebear until we can successfully link up our powers." Jordan said to Ally, Jane, Aziz and Miranda.

"I have to admit, this process is going a lot slower than I was hoping for." Miranda lamented with a sigh. "But I guess it's better to take longer and get it right than to rush it and have some mistake happen."

"Be glad we're only building from the ground up as opposed to doing that while trying to get it set, manufactured and established." Fairy Godmother said. "It's a good thing it took so long for Paradias to return. If he had done so even a decade earlier we wouldn't have been ready for it."

Mal frowned just a little as she wondered how her mother had gotten to become the same threat level as Paradias. Granted Maleficent was known and feared in Auradon and was arguably the most diabolical villain in their history. Yet, no ranger powers had been developed to fight her. In fact it was Audrey's father Phillip, a simple prince, who had defeated her. Even Jafar had evidently been by Aladdin with some assistance from Donatello's older brother Raphael.

"Are you okay Mal?" Ben asked her softly as he placed his hand gently on her back.

Mal nodded. "Yes. Just kind of wondering how my mother suddenly became our next ranger threat when she was never that way beforehand." She answered.

"I think maybe it's something she, I guess inherited when she joined forces with Paradias." Ben supplied. In truth no one fully understood why Paradias chose to seek out assistance from Maleficent when it was clear he probably didn't need it. The point seemed moot now that he was gone.

Mal glanced down at where Ben currently had the Praeleanthor sword in a scabbard at his waist. "I think I know where Amber and the others pulled it from now. What that ancient civilization must have been fighting now." She found herself confessing to Ben.

Ben looked at her oddly. "We already know they were fighting demons." He reminded her.

"You didn't feel it, that battlefield you fought that beast version of you in." Mal said. "They weren't fighting just demons Ben. That civilization was dealing with demons from the lowest parts of the underworld itself." She shook her head softly and said in a quieter voice, "Might as well call it what it is. That civilization was dealing with Hell itself."

That gave Ben slight pause. Of course the concepts of heaven and hell were known about but it wasn't exactly something that was touched on much in their schooling. Even those who knew what Lonnie knew about objects like the torii considered it mere legend and not fact. He glanced back at Tommy, Amber, Jason, Kat, Donnie and April with an even higher degree of respect. "If they've seen all that and have come out so well…" He mused impressed.

Mal nodded. "I know." She agreed. "I only hope if push comes to shove we would do so well."

Ben kissed her on the cheek softly. "Let's hope we never have to try." He replied gently. They both feared they wouldn't be that lucky. That meant Chad himself had the potential to eventually command and unleash all of that on Auradon itself.

After what had happened; not just the knowledge Maleficent was still out there with Chad and Marcellus and possibly Undine, but the knowledge that Sermaya and his three minions were still a very active threat proved that luck was not always on their side.

"I think it's about done." Rose said to them. "We should have the zords ready to go in just a few minutes."

As if something had heard her the alarms sounded. When the newly installed large screen that was installed to replace the view screen of the original one in the command center they saw a gathering of feathers before rising up and transforming into Simorgh again. But this one was colored very differently; in yellow. He also grew to immense size.

"Talk about passing go without collecting two hundred dollars." April mused in some shock, though she knew only about half of them would get the monopoly game reference.

"So much for bird brain being done." Amy said to her sister.

Mal nodded. "Time to see if those zords really are up." She said to Rose. "Once we get outside we'll morph and then call them out."

"I wish we could help." Ashley said. "But our zords can't use the same gateway to come here the way we can." It made her wonder how Paradias's ship had been able to come into this world if their zords couldn't do it.

"Man, it sucks to have to be on the sidelines still." Aziz noted.

"I hear ye." Miranda agreed. "We're just going to have to wait it out."

Alex kissed Amy on the cheek. "Good luck." He said.

Amy blushed and shyly waved as she followed Mal and her team mates out of the command center.

They easily found the giant monster. Simorgh had been destroyed near the torii but the distance was easy to cover at that size. He looked down at the Auradon teens. "Thought you'd seen the last of me? You can never get rid of something so divine." He said.

"Divine?" Jay questioned. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Not at all." Divine Simorgh answered with a laugh. "And now you're all so tiny and bite sized. Guess I'll need more than a mermaid meal."

"Don't count on it creep." Mal said as she looked at her team mates. "Let's get to work." As Ben formed his shield and drew the Praeleanthor sword to combine then, the rest of the team pulled out their iPhones and input their numbers. They all transformed.

"Time to call the zords guys." Audrey announced.

"Right." Will agreed.

Together they tried to summon the Auradon Megazord and the Auradon Warzord. Nothing happened. Evie quickly activated her helmet intercom. "Rose, Jane. It didn't work. Our zords didn't come." She told them.

"What? Oh no." Rose gasped and dived toward the console, Jane and Doug right behind her as they began to find out what went wrong.

Divine Simorgh laughed. "Did your plan just fall apart little rangers?" He questioned and then unleashed a huge stream of feathers at them. It struck the Auradon Knight the ten rangers down. He then moved to step on them.

A stream of energy struck him in the chest and he fell back hard. There was a roar from the skies as Mal's dragon zord descended down in front of the large bird monster. "There is something to be said for a zord that for whatever reason doesn't need or seem to want to interlink fully into the system." Mal said happily.

"Can you keep Divine Simorgh distracted until our zords are connected again?" Audrey asked their leader.

"I hope so." Mal answered softly. Right now she didn't have a choice but she didn't think in a face to face battle her zord would really be outdoing this monster solo. "Let's hope it doesn't take long." She then jumped onto the head of her zord and from their placed her iPhone into the slot in the console. It transformed it into its Chinese dragon like form.

The dragon zord headed toward Divine Simorgh, who rose up and then dove hard onto the back of the dragon zord. Mal used the tail to slap him in the back of the head in order to knock him off but with little to show for it aside from the zord's freedom.

"Come on, come on." Amy whispered. It wasn't clear if she was trying to encourage her sister or encourage the others to find out what happened to the zords.

"One of the circuits must have been fried from the call." Rose said as she pulled out one of the longer wires. She tossed it onto another console in annoyance even as she saw Cam checking for another one. "Some of these components must have been damaged in that last attack, but we have no way of knowing which ones until it's too late."

"We should see if Alpha can send some fresh replacements." Carlos suggested to Andros.

The red space ranger nodded. "It's a good idea, and we'll do that. But it won't help us right just now." He replied.

"Do ye have another replacement there?" Miranda asked Cam.

"I think I've got one." Cam said and tossed it to Rose who quickly set to installing it.

Divine Simorgh again took to the skies and this time as the dragon zord headed toward the monster with its attack charging the bird monster responded by unleashing another storm of feathers, this time at the zord. It struck multiple times and Mal nearly lost her balance on the stand. The zord itself seemed to be living just enough to feel the pain and lost its charge focus.

"Hang in there M!" Evie called out though she didn't know if her chosen sister could even hear her from that distance.

Divine Simorgh dove down and slammed hard into the dragon zord. They both came crashing down on the ground but it was the monster that was standing when the dust settled as the dragon zord was trying to right itself. The bird monster unleashed another powerful gust of wind energy at the dragon zord and struck it down again.

"Jane, how is it coming?" Carlos asked her nervously over the intercom helmet.

"Rose just got the new circuit in." She answered the yellow ranger. "Try it again."

Again they proceeded to call for their zords. The Auradon Megazord emerged from the mountain and the Auradon Warzord showed up behind it. From the forests somewhere Ben's steed zord showed up as well. The Auradon Knight and the rangers boarded their zords and together the two battlezords slammed into Divine Simorgh so that the dragon zord could recover.

"I see that you managed to get your acts together. What a shame." Divine Simorgh commented dryly and then the wings slammed hard into the two battle zords.

"Time to go on the offensive here." Audrey said to her team. Lonnie and Jay nodded, inserting their weapons into the console they shared to form the sword of the Auradon Megazord.

"And let's make it a double." Will added as Aquiella and Melody extended the blades on either arm of the Auradon Warzord.

"Let's skewer us a bird." Jay commented.

The two battle zords headed Divine Simorgh and swung their blades at him. The wings rose up and blocked the attacks before spreading, knocking the swords away from his body as his clawed talons slashed the two zords back hard.

The steed zord galloped toward Divine Simorgh and at the last moment did an about face so that the rear hooves struck his chest hard. "Mal, are you okay?" He called out.

"I'm fine." Mal said. "But it's going to take a bit to get my zord up again." She sighed. "I think I'm out you guys."

"Don't worry about it Mal." Audrey said to her. She had never been able to get herself to call her M the way Evie did. Then again she figured maybe it didn't matter, no one else did not even her own twin sister. "We're going to try the Auradon Defender Megazord to take him out."

"Then we'll provide you with cover." Will said to the red ranger. The three girls in the cockpit with him nodded in agreement. The Auradon Warzord moved forward and again attacked with the wrist blades.

Divine Simorgh blocked them with one of the wings and then used the other to slash the warzord hard. In the meantime the Auradon Megazord got on the back of the Steed zord and formed the Defender megazord. The sword turned into a lance as the warzord took a step back so they could face Divine Simorgh.

"Look, it's a knight on a horse." Divine Simorgh taunted. "How very trite. Bring it on rangers."

The Auradon Defender Megazord charged forward, the lance aimed at his chest. At the last moment he soared upward, hooking the claws of his feet into the battlezord and tossed it hard. They found it was very awkward to get up from that one.

"Looks like that went out well for you." Divine Simorgh taunted and then powered up blasts from his feathers, again striking them all hard.

Now the Auradon Warzord moved in and tried to attack but he flew up and behind them, pulling off what Donnie feared his younger brother Mikey would call a great back flip. He landed behind the warzord and slammed his beak hard into its back. Then he grabbed it by the chest and back and slammed it into the ground hard, followed by slamming his feet into the warzord hard.

"This isn't looking so good." Amy said. "What do we do?" A console on her left exploded and she couldn't help but look out a little shriek.

"Amy." Mal gasped. She placed her hands on the console. "Come on, please get up." She pleaded to the zord. "My sister needs me." She sighed a bit. "Not that it will help much I suppose, we can't do this on our own." The dragon zord roared in response.

With a twirl Divine Simorgh turned around and blasted the Auradon Defender Megazord just as Carlos and Evie had almost managed to get the battle zord on their four feet again. As it crashed down again the yellow ranger muttered, "Do all horses have such a hard time getting up again?"

Divine Simorgh then leaned down and grabbed the warzord by the neck and lifted it up. The four of them could easily see into his eyes. It was like he could see exactly where the two mermaid rangers were. "You two aren't much of a meal now but hopefully you two still taste just as great. And the humans might make for an interesting flavor." He said.

"That is just disgusting." Will noted. The Auradon Warzord tried to break the grip but the bird monster held firm.

Like a whip the dragon zord uncurled and rose, shooting toward the bird monster. The dragon zord snaked under the Auradon Warzord and it met Divine Simorgh face to face, where it unleashed the attack Mal thought of as a dragon pulse right in its face. The Auradon Warzord's hands latched onto its back as Divine Simorgh dropped them and fell back.

"Thanks for the help Mal." Melody called out. "But what do we now?"

"I don't know." Mal answered. "I'm open to suggestions."

"I think I have one for you." They heard over the helmet intercom. It took them a moment to recognize it as Cam since he normally was not around to speak to them over the system. "Your zords can be combined together just like the dragon zord combines with the Auradon Megazord."

"Let's give it a shot." Amy suggested excitedly.

Mal laughed a little bit. "Like we have a real choice their sis." She remarked teasingly. Then she grew serious. "Alright then Will, girls. Let's bring it together to form the Auradon Wardragon Megazord." She thought it was kind of a cool name considering she made it up on the spot.

Just as the Auradon Megazord would do the Auradon Warzord took the spot on the upper back of the dragon zord, the tail wrapping around it for protection. Mal found herself a place in between Will and Amy as the blades slipped out of the warzord and combined to form a double bladed lance.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Divine Simorgh questioned.

"Well, I think a dragon should normally be better than a bird." Will noted.

"So a war dragon ought to be even better." Mal added with a smirk. "Let's just test that theory out." This time it was Divine Simorgh who moved in to attack the new battle zord, but this time his claws had very little impact against the additional dragon armor around the Auradon Warzord portion of the battle zord.

The Auradon Wardragon Megazord lashed out with the double bladed lance and struck in succession, and as the bird monster stumbled backwards the battlezord then turned around and slammed the tail hard into him, sending him flying to the ground.

"That wasn't very nice." Divine Simorgh replied. "I think it's time for me to make a hasty exit. Sermaya might just need me." With that he took to the skies.

"We're not letting you get away that easily." Mal declared and the Auradon Wardragon Megazord took to the skies themselves. The double sided lance started to twirl around and then it unleashed a huge windstorm, mixed with green almost like part of the color of Mal's dragon zord, and it struck Divine Simorgh in the back hard. This time it was the bird monster that crashed to the ground hard as the Auradon Wardragon Megazord landed on the ground.

By that time the Audrey and the others had gotten the Auradon Defender Megazord back onto its feet. "Mal, are we ready to finish this?" Jay asked her.

From the Auradon Wardragon Megazord the purple haired purple ranger responded, "I think so Jay. Get ready all." The new battle zord again flew straight toward Divine Simorgh as it powered up the lance and struck hard with the lance, and this was followed by a powerful shield ram from the Defender Megazord.

As both battle zords landed on the other side of where they started Divine Simorgh fell to the earth with an explosion. "And that ends that monstrous bird." Carlos declared happily.

"I sure hope it does." Amy said softly as she forced the fear she had of her two mermaid friends getting killed by that cruel bird monster.

"And the zords are working just great." Melody declared with a smile, oblivious to her friend's worry. "We're one step closer to being back in full force."

Aquiella, being partially empathic as well, could feel Amy's concern and she touched her shoulder reassuringly. "If it comes back we'll defeat it again." She promised.

The rangers sent the megazord and the warzord back to the mountains while Mal restored the steed zord and the dragon zord back to their crystalline forms so they could spend some time around Mal and Ben and returned to the command center.

Carlos ran over and hugged Jane for a moment with a burst of, "You guys did it! That was awesome!" Then he realized what he was doing and quickly took a step back as he let her go. Both of them were blushing.

"Great job guys." Mal said to Cam and Rose as they came in.

"Would have been better if the circuit hadn't died." Rose said with a small laugh.

"Yeah well we can't have all the luck." Lonnie remarked.

"I just hope we can get finished up here before something else happens." Billy commented. "I don't know how many more close calls like this we can take."

It was then that Ben received a text. He saw it was from his mother and he just looked up. "Mom is on her way to the command center. She says it's urgent and has asked us to prepare one of the cots."

"What?" Amy questioned. "Is she okay?"

"I'm sure she's fine." Audrey reminded the rose haired girl. "She was the one who texted after all. I'd more worried about who she's bringing with her."

Ally quickly made up one of the cots they had in case of an unexpected injury. A few minutes later Belle came down into the command center with the last person any of them expected; brunette woman in a blue top and long but torn blue pants. She looked very pale and was bleeding from several gashes in her arm and even one across her forehead.

Ellie gasped in shock as Alex murmured, "Mom?" As the two of the headed toward Anna.


	108. Cold Reception

"You seem cold." Amy observed softly as Belle sat Anna down on the cot. At that comment Ellie moved off to get her aunt a blanket as Alex kneeled down in front of his mother and took her hands.

"She was even colder when she came to the castle." Belle said. "She hasn't been able to talk yet, that's why I brought her here."

Jordan was already getting a cloth and warm water so that she could tend to Anna's wounds but when she brought it over Alex stopped her and said, "I'll take care of my mom Jordan, thank you." The genie girl nodded in understanding.

Ellie wrapped the blanket around her Aunt Anna's shoulders and then shivered herself. "I feel the cold too. It's far more intense than anything my mother or I could produce." She then frowned a little. "Speaking of, I wonder where my mother and Uncle Kristoff are?"

"Ar…Arendelle." Anna managed to barely get out. She pulled the blanket tighter over her shoulders.

"One would think that you'd be used to the cold living in Arendelle." Carlos said.

Ellie gave him a small glare. "It's not normally cold in Arendelle Carlos." She replied a bit coldy. "It's usually a very temperate place. The only time I remember it being anywhere near cold was when mom would do something like make the outside of the palace ground into an ice rink."

Alex held his mother's hands and started to channel some of the warmth of his fire power into her. "Mom, what happened? Where are dad and Aunt Elsa?" He asked.

"Give your mother a little time." Belle interrupted them all gently but firmly. "She can barely speak and she couldn't walk here on her own. Whatever happened must have been horrible."

"We may not have time." Ellie reminded her simply. "My mom and Uncle Kristoff could be…"

"Hang on." April said now as she stepped forward. Belle hadn't even known they were there until just now, as focused as she had been. The others turned to look at her. "Maybe between Amy's empathic powers, my Kraang mental abilities and Aquiella's empathic powers we can figure out what's going on." She suggested.

Ben nodded. "It's worth a shot." He said.

"Let's get some water around here then." Melody said. "We're going to need it to enhance Aquiella's own abilities."

Ally and Aziz brought over a pitcher of water and Aquiella took out her iPhone and then placed her hand into the water to channel her abilities. Then she took Amy's hand, who in turn took April's hand. Together the three girls started to lightly probe Anna's mind for what had brought her here to Arendelle.

"I have a feeling this is not going to be good." Miranda remarked.

"Yeah, probably not." Jay agreed. "No one ever comes to us for a joyous occasion."

Now Miranda looked over to Ellie. "Are ye alright?" She asked the princess of Arendelle gently.

"I'd like to say yes." Elle replied with a shake of her head. "The problem is that I'm worried. If something weren't wrong I think mom would have come here herself. Even if something were wrong she still might have." She wrapped her hands around her chest. "If something happened and she's gone…"

Miranda rubbed her arm gently. "I don't think your mom is dead Ellie." She said consolingly.

"She's not dead." April assured her now. Her eyes were closed as the three girls were assimilating the information they were getting from Anna's mind. "But she might be in trouble."

Anna was starting to feel warmer now thanks to her son's special powers. "We were attacked…" She started.

"Maleficent." Mal surmised, feeling somewhat sad and very angry.

"No, not her Mal." Amy now said as she looked to her older twin sister. "I don't know who she is though." The three girls backed off a bit now that Anna seemed to be able to start talking. "But whoever it is seemed to have gotten some kind of, of influence over Queen Elsa."

"What? How?" Ellie asked now.

"Maybe the same way that Nerissa had control over me, through the beast trait genetically passed onto me from when she turned my father into the beast." Ben suggested now.

"I don't think it was anything that sophisticated." April said. "But maybe Princess Anna can explain it better." She started toward Karone to talk to her and see if she, as the former princess of evil, might have any idea who was responsible for the attack on Arendelle.

"She entered Arendelle on her own and asked for sanctuary." Anna said, though she was shivering a little still. "Elsa gave it to her. Our guards encountered these weird blue creatures and were attacked. They only barely got away and told us what happened."

"It wasn't a coincidence was it?" Lonnie now asked her.

Anna shook her head softly. "No. They were merely the army."

Kat interrupted, "That's impossible." They all turned to look at her and the Australian blonde blushed softly. She was with Tommy, Jason, Amber, Karone and April. "Sorry." She apologized.

"But she's not wrong." Jason said as he looked to Tommy. "This shouldn't be man."

Tommy nodded. "I know bro. But somehow it is." He now looked to the Auradon Rangers. "Arendelle was invaded alright. Invaded by the Ice Queen."

"Do I need to mention the lame name?" Carlos asked with a smirk. It reminded Donnie of Mikey criticizing Falco for choosing the name Rat King.

"No you don't." Audrey said pointedly. "That's beside the point."

"It was another early escapade as power rangers." Amber now said. "Tommy as the green ranger, Jason, Kim, Trini, Zack, Billy and I were drawn to another realm to help unseat a god known as the Shadow King. One of his strongest allies was a sorceress named the Ice Queen."

"And those creatures your guards encountered where the Ice Witches." Jason added.

"The Ice Queen." Anna murmured. She kind of recalled some people referring to Elsa that way. As her little sister she knew that just wasn't true. But the demeanor of their guest had made Anna think the nickname would have been apt for her. "Her minions invaded Arendelle."

"Where are dad and Aunt Elsa?" Alex now asked his mother.

"Kristoff left Arendelle with Sven a couple of days before the Ice Queen showed up. Elsa sent him with ice to provide relief for nearby kingdom that's having severe droughts." Anna answered her son. Like Alex she was relieved he was not in direct danger.

"And my mother?" Ellie now asked again. She was getting tired of asking that question, the fact she had to repeat it made her think that they were trying to postpone the inevitable bad news she felt brewing in her chest. "And what about Olaf?"

"Elsa…tried to confront her, the Ice Queen, when we realized she had set us up to take over Arendelle." Anna said as she looked to the side. "I…I saw them fight. They were evenly matched until Elsa realized I was nearby. She told me to come here, to you two." She looked to Alex and Ellie. "And the Ice Queen struck Elsa in the back. I…I saw her fall, and she didn't get up even as I called out for her."

"Oh no. Mom." Ellie whispered softly as she struggled to grip a console lest she loose her balance. Miranda placed her right hand on her back and started to rub her back softly.

"Is she…" Alex started to ask.

Anna shook her head. "I don't know." She confessed.

"We have to stop the Ice Queen." Kat said as she looked to Tommy and Jason. "We need to get the others here."

"No." Mal said and the three of them looked to the purple haired girl. "Auradon is our responsibility. We have to go to Arendelle and stop the Ice Queen ourselves." She explained.

"You might be needed here." Andros reminded her. "Maleficent could strike at any time, and Sermaya has proven he's still a threat to contend with too."

"Arendelle is my home, and if there is any chance my mother is still alive I have to go to her." Ellie said. "I have to go and find out. And if I have too, I have to take my city back from the Ice Queen." Technically there was some question of whether or not it should be Anna or Ellie would take over as Queen of Arendelle if the worst had happened to Elsa, but the point was still well made.

"You're not going alone." Alex said. "Arendelle is my home too, and obviously the queen is my aunt too."

"I'm going back too." Anna declared. "I won't give up on Elsa this time, any more than I have in our lives."

Mal looked to the terran rangers. "This is why it's our responsibility. Two of my team mates are going to go into danger and they can't do it alone. They need this and we need to be there." She said.

"Andros." Ashley now said as she stepped up to her husband. "Let them go, they need to help their friends. We can protect Auradon in their absence." She took his hand softly.

Andros nodded. He knew they were both right. "Alright." He conceded. "Go to Arendelle and…"

The monster alarm sounded. They saw a creature that seemed vaguely fay in origin, though the wings were as hard and solid as ice. It had two upper wings like a butterfly though smaller and two lower wings that were shaped like the pointed edges of a scythe. Below the waist and below the wrists were sharp ends that also looked like icicles.

"Think Maleficent sent that?" Evie asked.

"I don't know." Mal answered.

Then they heard the figure call out. The voice was hard to pinpoint as either masculine or feminine, though it was perhaps a little more the latter. "Princess Anna, show yourself to me or this place will suffer for your cowardice."

"The Ice Queen sent someone to find me." Anna realized.

"I'll show that thing a thing or two." Ellie declared.

"No, you won't." Mal said to the future queen of Arendelle sternly. "You will stay here with your mother and your cousin while we find out what that freaky ice butterfly fairy thing knows about your mother before we destroy it."

Ellie seemed ready to object but saw the look on her cousin and aunt's face. Then she heard Miranda say, "Ye know that's the best idea. They have powers and ye don't. On top of that if that thing uses ice then whatever natural advantage ye have over that thing would be gone." Ellie sighed and looked to Mal with a small nod of agreement.

"I promise we'll find out what happened to your mom." Amy said to the young blonde queen.

"Count on it." Audrey agreed.

The rangers headed out of the command center and toward the area they thought the monster was at. It turned out it wasn't hard to find as what the screen did not capture was the fact that this monster drew a small flurry of snow with it wherever it went, similar to what Elsa had done for Olaf so he would not melt, only on a larger scale.

"Maybe if we remove the flurries we would destroy the monster." Lonnie suggested.

"Somehow I don't think we'll be that lucky." Mal said. She looked to Amy and Aquiella. "Think you two could conjure up a rainstorm though just in case?"

Both girls nodded at each other. "I think we can." Aquiella answered for the rest of them.

They entered the snow flurries and found the monster. Incredibly it turned around to face them as they approached. "Hello rangers of Auradon. I am Icegerald." The monster introduced. "I mean you no harm honestly. I have only come for the princess of Arendelle."

"You make it sound so reasonable." Audrey noted with annoyance. Never before had a diplomatic approach rubbed her the wrong way.

"You know there are actually two princesses of Arendelle right?" Mal asked scornfully. "Not that it matters because we won't turn over Ellie or Anna to you or your Ice Queen leader."

"Then that is your final mistake." Icegerald informed them and then unleashed a huge blizzard right at them. One moment it was just the flurries and the next a huge wind storm came up to generate that blizzard.

"Let's get to work." Mal announced. As Ben summoned the Praeleanthor sword and shield the rangers took out their iPhones and input their numbers to transform. The blizzard struck and the monster turned away from them unaware that it was too late. When Mal called out, "This isn't over yet." Icegerald turned to see them ready to fight.

"I see I'm going to have to turn up the pressure." Icegerald noted and then brought the icicle of the arms together and unleashed a flurry of sharp edged ice straight at the rangers, striking them all except for Ben who was able to ricochet those off with his shield.

Ben charged forward with the Praeleanthor sword and slashed at Icegerald, who dodged out of the way of the attack and then dove forward with the 'legs' and slammed into the Auradon Knight hard. He fell back and Icegerald laughed and came back to the ground. "Nice try, but that's not so easy to ignore is it?"

"Time for plan b?" Aquiella asked their leader.

"Give it a shot." Mal confirmed.

Aquiella gathered moisture around them and then Amy took her free hand to contribute her own elements, not only of water to try to build up the storm but wind to help propel that storm, and together the two girls released a hurricane right at Icegerald.

"Trying to take this out?" Icegerald asked and laughed. "It doesn't even matter. You know that water will simply freeze up and become snow again anyway." Icegerald started to float toward the rangers. "And even then it's not a life sustaining thing or anything."

"Then why have it all?" Carlos asked.

Icegerald gave them a wry grin. "You'll have to figure that out for yourselves if you can." Then with quick speed the hurricane rains turned into a bigger snow storm that was starting to blind them a little.

"Okay then." Amy decided. "Have it your way." Though she wished Alex were here to combine his naturally stronger fire power to her own, she never the less extended herself and started to melt the snow that was trying to pelt the ranger team.

Will summoned his recursive sword as Melody drew her trident and the two rangers moved in to attack Icegerald. They swung and the icicle monster blocked the two attacks. Lonnie moved in under them and struck the monster with her hurricane tessens.

"Hey Evie, looks like this monster doesn't like fire." Audrey said to the blue ranger. "I think maybe we can help take advantage of that."

Evie nodded. "I think we can too." She agreed.

Audrey drew her elemental bow and summoned a flame arrow. She then unleashed it at Icegerald. The monster saw it coming and slashed away Will and the two female rangers and then prepared to dodge the arrow before it split into multiple ones and struck the ice monster multiple times and stumbling backwards. Amy's field of heat that surrounded them worked well to enhance the strength of her arrows.

"Not bad, but let's try increasing the heat on this one." Evie said jokingly about Audrey's shots but at the same time teasing everyone in general. She raised her mirror force shield and then unleashed a blazing mirror force attack at Icegerald, who shrieked in shock at having such a huge burst of fire that close. Amy's field of heat that surrounded them worked pretty well for her attack as well.

Mal and Jay followed up with the dragon's eye staff and the soul scimitar, slashing the monster again. Carlos followed up by bringing up the claws to knock him down.

Icegerald looked up to find Mal's dragon's eye staff just above the throat, and on either side of the purple ranger was Jay and his soul scimitar and Will and his recursive sword also aimed downward. "Where is Queen Elsa?" Mal demanded of him.

Amy could almost hear the commanding feeling of their mother in her older sister then. She was also relieved to hear the concern in her voice too, in this case for the Queen of Arendelle and for the concern for their friend. "Is she dead?" Amy couldn't help but ask.

Icegerald laughed. "The former queen of Arendelle is alive, though she might wish she weren't."  
The monster responded somewhat enigmatically. "Personally I don't know why I was sent to retrieve the princess. She's basically useless, no powers or abilities whatsoever."

Amy felt herself flush with annoyance and felt the need to defend Alex's mother. "She was smart enough to escape the Ice Queen and to escape your attempts to find her from Arendelle to here." She commented.

Mal smirked. "She's got you there." She agreed. She glanced at Audrey and Ben and despite the helmets there seemed to be a moment of unspoken communication between them. Then she beckoned Jay and Will off of the monster before stepping back herself. "Go back to Arendelle and tell the Ice Queen she has two days to leave Arendelle and all of its people, including the Queen, or else we will be coming and we will not be happy." She stated.

"Mal, are you crazy?" Carlos couldn't help but blurt out.

It was on Evie's lips to question that too but stopped herself, assuming her chosen sister knew what she was doing. "You heard her Carlos." She said softly. The team then backed up and turned away from the monster.

Icegerald looked at them for a moment as if not understanding what this was about before raising the icicle arms and shooting replicas of them, aiming for Mal's back.

But both Ben and Audrey had expected as much and turned around, Audrey taking one out with the sharp edge of her elemental bow while Ben took out the other one with the Praeleanthor sword. Then Mal turned around and unleashed a beam of energy straight at Icegerald. "I knew you wouldn't take that so easily." Mal said. "But can't say we didn't give fair warning."

Like Ben and Reviveslime had done a few times so long ago, Will and Ben combined their own weapons and unleashed a stream of energy at Icegerald. This was joined by a combination attack from the energies from the trident Melody used and Aquiella's tidal boomerangs.

That gave the other seven rangers the chance they needed. Mal combined her dragon's eye staff with Audrey's elemental bow. Behind it Evie placed her mirror force shield, the compact expanding around the weapon. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the center, then on either side Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens and Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers, finally Amy took apart her rose lance and placed them on either side of the daggers to form the Auradon blaster.

From the command center Amber laughed a little. "I wonder where I've seen a weapon similar to that before." She remarked humorously.

"It stands to reason they'd have some similarities to us on some level." Billy pointed out. "After all chronologically speaking the Auradon powers were designed long before Trini, Kim, Zack, Jason and I became power rangers, even if they weren't activated until recently."

The seven rangers aimed the Auradon blaster at Icegerald and unleashed their firepower on the monster, destroying it with in a blaze that Jay considered ironic since it was an ice monster.

"That's the end of that one." Carlos said.

Lonnie nodded. "Yeah." She agreed. "But it's not the end of this chapter."

"No." Mal agreed. "If anything it's only beginning." They powered down and started back toward the command center.

A short time later at the command center they relayed what little they had learned from the battle despite the fact that they had all seen in on screen.

"At least ye know your mother is okay." Miranda said to Ellie consolingly.

But Ellie just shook her head. "No." She replied. "Icegerald said that my mother is alive. She didn't say that she was okay."

"If she's alive then that means we can still help her." Amy reminded the princess of Arendelle gently.

"She's right." Anna agreed as she placed one of her hands on Ellie's shoulder, and then reached down to take Alex's hand. "If something is wrong than we can still help her and that is exactly what we're going to do." She looked to the Auradon rangers. "I have to return to Arendelle. And I know my niece and son will want to come with."

"And you're not going alone." Ben promised the princess. "We'll be going with you."

"I feel kind of bad asking for this kind of favor." Ellie confessed.

"Don't." Aziz said. "We do this for our friends. We did this for Ally when we rescued her mother in Wonderland and we did this when we went to Agrabah. Even if we won't be able to help you in this instance."

"We will work on restoring our powers to help the space rangers if Maleficent or Sermaya does something here." Jane assured them all. "And maybe we can get them restored in enough time that we can come to back you up if you need it."

"And we'll keep Auradon safe for you while you go to Arendelle and put down the Ice Queen." Andros promised them. Though the initial encounter with the Ice Queen was before their time as ranger's bar Amber's, the fact was you messed with one team of ranger's you took the chance of messing with them all. And sometimes more so when one factored it allies like the Turtles and the Mutanimals.

Alex looked to Amy. "Are you sure you all want to do this?" He asked her. Ellie swore there was something more personal between the two in that comment.

Amy only nodded. "Yes, I am sure that I…we should come and help you." The rose haired girl answered as she stood up and stepped up to Alex. She took his hands in hers. "That's what we do for the people we love." She then felt herself blush a bit as she realized how that sounded and she wasn't entirely sure it was a wrong thing to say either.

"At least we have the element of surprise on this Ice Queen." Audrey said.

"Sorry to say you don't." Doug counteracted her.

"What do you mean?" Mal asked now.

"Like Icegerald said, that snow cloud that was around it wasn't some kind of internal air conditioner to keep it alive." Donnie now answered. "We were analyzing that thing and it was what one could call a modified weather transmitter."

"Of course. So obvious." Jay said with a nod that everyone suspected meant he didn't get it.

"What he means is that the snow storm was probably used as a tracking signal that the Ice Queen could use to keep an eye on Icegerald's progress." Carlos translated for those like Jay who didn't really get what was being implied.

"So she saw that battle." Evie said. "She saw some of what we can do and she knows we're on our way to Auradon."

"Great, no need to make this easy or anything." Audrey said with a small sigh. "Okay, so is there anything we can do that she isn't aware of."

"I'm going to make the neon armor and the Auradon launcher a priority for restoration." Jane said. "So you can use them if need be. Also, your and Mal's battelizers should be ready for use too." She looked to Miranda, "Then we'll focus on restoring our powers."

"I only wish we could be going with you all." Miranda said to them as she glanced at Ellie. "Especially you, I suspect ye might need all the support ye could get."

Ellie smiled softly. "Thanks. I know all of you have my back, even if you won't all be there." She replied.

Jordan handed Jay a backpack. "Take that on your journey." She said. "I enchanted it to be like an endless bag to hold food and water in since you don't know what will be available around you with Ice Queen in charge."

"I suggest dressing warmly." Anna added. "It's going to be colder than any of you have probably ever experienced."

Mal looked to Tommy and Jason. "Any advice on fighting the Ice Queen?" She asked.

"She's fast and she likes to keep her distance." Jason answered. "She tends to throw ice spears like what you saw from Icegerald. The other problem we ran into was when we fought her she couldn't be damaged until she an object called the cold fire was used against her."

"That might not be the case now." Tommy added. "But if you happen to see a blue flame around, it might be a good idea to grab it."

"She never had monsters like that working for her." Amber added. "Just the Ice Witches and green skinned creatures that were like goblins. I don't know what changed but it seems she might be more dangerous than ever. Definitely keep an eye out and watch your backs."

"Sound advice in our line of work at any time." Jordan noted wryly.

"It's going to be night time soon." Fairy Godmother said now. "And it's going to be more dangerous to travel at night. Not to mention cooler as you approach Auradon. I suggest you all stay in Auradon tonight and leave first thing in the morning."

"I agree with Fairy Godmother." Belle said. "Stay at the castle tonight and we'll see if we can do anything else to help you prepare for your journey."

"It's a good idea." Anna agreed. She looked to Ellie. "I'm just as eager to help your Elsa as you are but we need to be properly prepared to do it." No one could argue with that line of reasoning no matter how badly they might want too.


	109. Frozen Fights Part 1

Sometimes the bad thing about being an empath is that you can feel people's emotions rather you want to or not, and it ended up being a distraction. Amy thought in that regard Aquiella was lucky; since water wasn't so prevalent around the castle her senses were probably dimmed right now, especially if she kept her iPhone off of her at night. The rose haired girl was not so lucky as her powers were always on and constant. She had easily learned to handle the general feelings of others when she had discovered her abilities and trained herself to do so.

But that night was no general feeling as she felt the anxiety of her team mates, along with her own, Belle's, Adam's and Anna's. She was kind of glad that no one else had been there that night. As a result of the emotional turmoil she hadn't been able to get much sleep that night though she took some consolation in the fact that no one else slept that well either.

"Again I wish I could be going with all of ye." Miranda said to Mal and Ellie. The currently inactive Highlands ranger stood by the other currently inactive rangers; Jane the white ranger, Aziz the silver ranger, Ally the crystal ranger, Jordan the gold ranger and Grant the gray ranger.

"We'll be okay, I promise." Mal said. "You just worry about helping our other ranger friends." She looked to Jane. "And make sure to get your powers up and running again very soon. It'd be nice to have a complete team again."

Jane laughed a little. "It would be indeed." She agreed. "Restoring our powers are priority number two, after making sure you have the neon armor, Auradon launcher, and the battelizers at your disposal for this." She added.

Ellie smiled a bit. "Who knows? Maybe your powers will get restored sooner than you think and you guys can come back us up." She said with a small teasing smile as she winked at Miranda and Aziz.

"We might take you up on that challenge." Aziz noted with amusement.

Belle hugged Ben tightly. "Be careful honey." She said to him. She then stepped up to Mal and Amy and hugged them as well even as Adam now moved in to wish his son luck as well.. "And you two please be careful too." She added.

Mal and Amy both hugged her back. "I'll bring us all home safely, I promise." Mal said to the queen, who was very quickly becoming like a surrogate mother.

Belle stepped back, and then reached out to stroke Amy's hair lightly away from her eyes. Mal thought her twin sister appreciated the small but caring gesture, something only Mal herself had ever done.

"Be careful out there, all of you." Adam said to the rest of the Auradon rangers.

Doug was standing by Evie and the blue haired girl leaned up and kissed him gently on the cheek, though the kiss lingered a few moments longer than necessary. "Stay safe Doug." She said to him.

"You're the one going into battle against the Ice Queen and whatever else she has at her command." Doug berated her softly as he touched her cheek gently and then ran his hand down to rest on her shoulder. "I'm going to be spending most of my time at the command center."

Evie laughed a bit, though it lacked humor. "And we've learned how safe that always is." She remarked dryly. Not only had the original been destroyed in Paradias's last stand but way back when Ben was forced to work against the rangers he had attacked the command center and nearly wrecked it then as well.

"Don't forget though that we won't be alone." Doug now said. "Tommy, Jason, Kat, and the space rangers will be there as bodyguards of a sort. To say nothing of the other rangers and Donnie, who came here to help us reestablish our command center."

Evie frowned a bit but had to grant that one. "Yeah, I guess you guys are a bit more protected then normal." She allowed and then hugged him. "But for me, please try to be careful."

Doug hugged her back. "For you Evie, the world." He replied.

"You be careful out there." Jane said as she looked to Carlos. "If Icegerald was any indication this won't be an easy fight." She gave him a shy smile. "I'd very much like you, all of you I mean, to come back to us in one piece."

"We'll be back Jane, I promise." Carlos said and reached out to take her hand and squeeze it softly. Jane smiled before moving forward and kissing him on the cheek gently. "And if you really want to check up on us, we are just a call away." He reminded her as he placed his hand on his yellow hued iPhone.

"Alright you guys." Mal said in a gentle but authorative voice. "It's time to move out." Both would be couples exchanged another quick hand squeeze before Anna, Ellie, Alex and the active Auradon rangers started down the steps and toward Arendelle.

"Do you wish Snow and Rose had been here to say goodbye?" Mal asked Evie as they walked together, though the purple haired girl's hand was in Ben's hand. Sometimes Evie privately wished that Doug could be around more often but didn't want to begrudge her friends their stolen moments.

"Part of me says yes." Evie answered honestly. "But I think about Belle's face when she sees the three of you leaving and I hate to see Snow like that." She had yet to see Rose's expression in a situation like that but was already sure it couldn't be more heartbreaking.

"Sometimes I think it would be better if our parents didn't know we did this kind of thing." Audrey now voice from behind the four of them. "My mom worries every time we go into a fight and I don't know how to promise that everything will be okay, because we can't know that."

"How would we explain going out like this though?" Lonnie questioned softly. "We'd be gone for days at a time." She didn't want to add that if something went really wrong it could be possible some or none of them would come back. She looked to Will. "What do you think?" She asked her boyfriend now. "We're talking about our parents here, but you also have a little sister to worry about too."

Will frowned a bit as he thought about it. "Somehow it seems weird to imagine Whitney growing up without me around to be there for her." He admitted. "But to think about what she would grow up around if Maleficent or Sermaya or some other evil rules the world is more unthinkable." He took a deep breath. "It's small comfort I suppose, but if I were to die doing this, Whitney would know why and hopefully she could make her peace with that. Maybe it could even inspire her."

"I'd rather influence a younger sibling while being alive." Carlos noted. "At least if I had one."

"Look at it this way though." Ben said. "If the worse were to happen, our parents have someone to help them through it. Be it our other parent," He looked to both Auradon princesses. "Or a daughter." He looked to Will. "Or another sibling." He looked to Evie. "And they'd all help each other beyond that to accept the worst case scenario."

"You're right." Mal agreed with a small frown. "But it also won't matter." She pulled away from Ben to face her friends. "We're not going to end up with the worst case scenario. None of us would ever let anything happen to the other. And I'm not just talking about here." She raised her arms up a little. "We have others to help us, as we all should know over the last couple of days and even more waiting if it came down to it. That's the nature of the legacy we carry, we fight and we do our best to make sure we don't lose anyone in that process."

"And really that's the best attitude to have." Anna said to the teens. "It's the best way to make sure that your parents and siblings and those you care about don't have to worry live the worst case scenario, to think positive and work as hard as you can."

"Is that a hard attitude to have right now?" Jay asked curiously.

"A little." Anna admitted. "But I have to think that as long as my sister is alive, there is still hope to help her and return her to where she belongs, with her family."

As they continued on toward Arendelle they felt it getting colder. Even Ellie, who was somewhat used to the cold herself considering her powers, was finding it very chilly. The blonde princess looked to her friends. "Would it be warmer for you guys to transform now?" She asked.

"Our suits would probably provide us with a certain amount of insulation." Evie admitted. "But if it gets much colder, I don't know if it will really matter." She looked to Ben. "On top of that I can't say it will help you all that much."

"She's right." Carlos agreed. "It would be like putting you in a giant freezer or something."

Mal rolled her eyes at the statement but suspected it was probably true. "Turning back isn't an option but neither is freezing to death before we get to Arendelle." She replied. It made her wonder how the people of that city were doing and was sure Alex and Ellie were wondering the same thing. "We need a plan b here everyone."

"What we need is a magical solution." Audrey answered simply. It would be a lot harder without Jordan and Jane there, as they didn't have their power and had to stay behind. "Maybe we should take a small break so you and Amy can come up with something."

"Wouldn't stopping be a bad idea?" Jay questioned. "If we keep moving we keep circulation in our bodies, and that helps reduce the whole freezing thing."

"Ah, look who actually came through the with the knowledge." Carlos said jokingly and then dodged out of his friend's grasp. Mal and Evie snickered just a bit at the exchange.

"Jay is right though." Lonnie said. "We shouldn't stand still too long, but we can't expect Amy and Mal to come up with an idea on the go either."

"We can take a half hour or so off." Alex said. "We can build a fire and I can keep it going." The good thing about having fire power was that he could start fires regardless of how wet the wood around it was and he could keep the a small area warm for a while.

Mal nodded. "Alright, just long enough for Amy and I to come up with a solution." They found a relatively covered area that would work for that length of time, perhaps a little longer and then the two daughters of Maleficent started to talk.

"Do you want to try to help them?" Lonnie asked Evie.

The blue haired girl shook her head. "They're more magically adept that I am." She reminded Lonnie. The fact Evie didn't exactly try that hard didn't help that situation any. "Besides, there is a saying; too many chefs spoil the recipe."

"What does that mean?" Carlos asked.

"It means that too many people can make a job harder and more complicated." Will translated for him. "It's best to keep it simple, and let the two of them bounce ideas back and forth." He was sitting next to Lonnie, his arms around her waist as if to try to help keep her warm.

For the sake of concentration Mal had decided it was best not to have Ben do the same for her. He was instead keeping an eye out for any trouble, as was Jay and Audrey. Alex kept the area as warm as he could while the rest of the team waited around for the two sisters to come up with a solution.

The self-imposed half hour limit was just about up when Mal stood up with Amy next to her. "Okay, we think we have a plan." She announced. "Naturally magic is involved here, but it's going to have to be more than a simple spell."

"What do you mean?" Ellie asked her.

"Does anyone else have any idea what rune magic is?" Amy now asked them.

"Their little marks that have magic imbued in them." Evie answered. She had at least heard of it from her mother though it wasn't normally the type of magic they practiced. She looked now to the others. "Rune magic is applied and as long as the rune is active on the skin the magic is active as well. When the rune fades, so does the magic." She explained to them.

"Um, not to sound vain or anything but will it leave a mark?" Audrey now asked. "And will it hurt?"

"No." Mal answered, knowing her second in command would have thought to ask those questions. In all fairness she couldn't entirely blame her either. "When the runes fade so will any indication they were ever there and it won't hurt at all. For that it's a simple spell and a touch to the arm."

"It should even keep you warm through the armor too Ben." Amy added helpfully.

"No being a frozen can for you." Carlos joked and then had to dodge an attempt by Mal to hit him in the back of the head for the same lame joke.

"Will it work on me?" Ellie asked and then added, "Without it effecting my powers?"

Mal bit her lip a bit. "I don't know." She admitted. "Under normal circumstances I'd say no, but if this were normal we wouldn't need the rune in the first place. Using your powers in conjunction with the rune might make it run out faster, or it might negate your powers."

"Likewise the rune won't work longer on you just because of your powers." Amy told Alex a bit shyly, who just shrugged as if to say what are you going to do?

Ellie frowned a bit. She hated the idea of the one advantage she had in any upcoming fights being taken away from her. On the other hand, hypothermia didn't appeal to her either. "I guess I have no choice but to test my luck." She decided.

"Don't forget that when we actually morph, if we don't need our blasters we can give them to you two." Will reminded the two Arendelle descendants. "In fact if Amy would be willing to give Alex her blaster, I can give you mine Ellie." He added.

"I'd be okay with that." Amy said a bit happily. Alex smiled back at her gently.

Ellie nodded. "Alright, fair enough." She conceded. "What do we have to do?"

"E, we need your help with this." Mal said. "The sooner we get everyone marked with the warmth rune the sooner we can get our journey back on the road." The blue haired girl nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later each of them had a small flame drawn in black ink on the back of their necks, where they figured it would be pretty hard to get to it in case Ice Queen or someone else had the presence of mind to try to remove the rune from them.

"How much further to Arendelle?" Carlos wondered. He remembered something that Mikey had told him when the turtles had been there, that they had infiltrated a backup headquarters of the Foot clan to rescue Raph and it had been too quite because it had been a trap. He was starting to wonder about that right now.

"Not too much further to the river bank." Anna answered him as she walked beside her son and Lonnie. She too had a warming rune drawn on the back of her neck. "Normally we'd need a boat to cross it but somehow I doubt that's going to be a problem right now." She thought of it frozen over just as it had when Elsa had lost control of her powers during her coronation.

They had just about approached the river bank Anna had spoken of when they saw several figures approaching them now from the borders of Arendelle. The team tensed up, with Alex and Ellie stepping in front of Anna. Of course the rest of the team stepped up to protect their friends. Three men in the center stepped forward now. They couldn't make out the rest of them yet.

"King Ben of Auradon." One of them, the one in the middle now spoke up. He wore ice blue armor and had a sword glistening in an ice colored scabbard on his right hip. "I am General Ryu. Have you come to welcome the new rulers of Arendelle?" He demanded to know.

"New rulers? You stole Arendelle from my mother!" Ellie started and was about to ask about Elsa when Ben held up his hand to stop her.

He was determined to try to settle this diplomatically if at all possible. But Ellie was still right about the true status of Arendelle. "Arendelle does not belong to you. It belongs to Queen Elsa and her family." He answered. "But if you wish to settle in an unclaimed land in Auradon we would gladly help you to do so. Supplies, assistance in building infrastructure. As little or as much help as you desire, we will gladly provide."

The man to the left of Ryu laughed. He too wore armor very similar to his general though at the moment there was no sign of any weapon on him. "He offers help in making something we have already taken for ourselves." He commented with a sneer. "This is a waste of time."

"We can take it back." Mal warned him seriously. "Don't think for a minute we can't."

"Hold your tongue Colonel Grunard." The general said to him, though it didn't hold much command in it. If anything he seemed just as amused. "Why not just offer that assistance to the former people of Arendelle?" He now asked.

"They're still alive?" Audrey now questioned.

The man on Ryu's left gave the Auradon princess a hard look. He wore what looked like the outfit of a Tibetan monk, though it too was ice. His left hand was covered in an icy gauntlet. "Of course they are. We don't wish to kill indiscriminately." He said and then gave her a mirthful smile, which belied his seemingly benign origins. "It would take away from the labor we will need."

"I am the future Queen of Arendelle." Ellie now said harshly. "That city, the people, they don't belong to you. Free them now or you'll have to face the consequences." Truth is no one could really blame her; it was clear this 'diplomatic' talk was quickly going downhill.

"If that is how it meant to be, then so be it." General Ryu announced. "As Master Gauntala has explained, the Queen has taken the city for her own purposes and has her uses for the population. If you wish to deter us then you will have to earn it, Power Rangers." He drew his sword as he made this last statement, proving the Ice Queen knew who they were.

"I don't remember anyone mentioning generals." Jay noted.

"I didn't know there were any generals." Anna told him. "When I left Arendelle to get all of you it was just Ice Queen and those Ice Witch ball things."

"I guess this Ice Queen has upped her game since stealing Arendelle." Mal noted. "Luckily things have changed for the good side too since that time. Let's get to work." As Ben formed the Praeleanthor sword and shield, the rest of the rangers took out their iPhones and input their numbers. Together the team transformed.

Only then did the figures in the background start to come forward. They were humanoid in appearance though devoid of any sort of emotion, it was also impossible to tell if they were male or female, or if either even applied. They held two long swords in their hands.

"She didn't have those either." Anna added, perhaps needlessly.

With his sword drawn Ryu approached Ben. "Let us see if you're worthy." He said.

"Worthy?" Ben questioned. He wasn't sure that someone who stole a kingdom should be question anyone's worth.

"Worthy of the knight title you clearly bare." It was true that Ben did look like a knight. "Worthy of the sword you wield." Some of the minions began to approach but the general held up his free hand. "Don't engage him Ice Guards." He commanded. "No need to give the Praeleanthor sword any more power than it already has."

"You know about the sword?" Ben questioned, a little surprised.

"I know about the sword, the civilization that made it, and the power that destroyed that civilization." Ryu responded with a smile. Before the young king could try to dig into the mind of someone who might have a good understanding of the power his former friend might one day soon wield against them the general slashed at him, forcing Ben to block.

The colonel formed his own sword as he approached Mal. "How ironic that a former villain would defend the people of a naïve land." He remarked as he moved to stab the purple ranger.

She blocked it with her staff and then swept the blade of that weapon away from her. "I was never a real villain." Mal said to Grunard. "You, your friends, and the Ice Queen taking over Arendelle are already an act more evil than anything that my friends and I ever did." She didn't even bother questioning how they knew about the Isle of the Lost.

He laughed a bit. "True enough. I guess that proves how weak you and yours have been all along." He remarked and slashed at Mal again. She raised her staff to block the attack only to receive a hard kick to the stomach for her efforts. She rolled along the snow for a moment before getting up.

"Good is not weak." Mal responded hotly. It was after all a lesson she had to learn of her own accords somewhat recently. "It's stronger than you can imagine. That's why all of the ranger teams are still standing when the dust settles while the bad guys that oppose them are left to the ashes of time."

"Poetic aren't we?" Grunard questioned and then added somewhat dismissively, "That really is more of a thing for Gauntula." He then started toward the purple ranger again. He tried to decapitate her but Mal rolled to the side to avoid the strike and then rose up, intending to slam her staff into his face. The colonel twirled his sword to knock her strike off guard. "Still, if you really believe that your side of good is all that powerful, perhaps it's time to have a serious talk with your other friends. You would learn victory is not nearly as cheap as you think it to be." He then moved out and slashed downward from chest to stomach hard, sending her reeling back.

Gauntula meanwhile was squared off against Audrey. "Tell me princess; are you a master at that bow?" He asked her somewhat haughtily. "Because you will have to be to have a chance of beating a master like me."

"I don't need to be a master of anything." Audrey said to him. "Like my weapon, I can be more than one thing." She readied her bow like she would the baton the cheerleaders of Auradon Prep would use, the sharp edges gleaming softly in what little sunlight escaped the cloud cover.

"We shall see, won't we?" The master questioned and then swung at the red ranger with his gauntled hand. She dodged under it only to receive his elbow to the back of her head. She was sure if she weren't morphed that would have given her a concussion. As it was she was seeing stars in her vision as she hit the ground and rolled onto her back.

It wasn't enough to stop her from blocking the next attack that he tried to drive the gauntlet into her chest. She kicked him in the chest hard to force him away so she could stand again. She still felt a little dizzy from the first impact though. "Something tells me that that thing isn't as fragile as an icy thing should appear to be." She murmured.

"Even the most fragile things can be deadly in the right hands girl." Gauntula reminded her as he moved in to hit her again. She blocked it with one of the sharp ends of her bow. She noted that it didn't do any damage to his gauntlet though it didn't hurt her weapon either.

Then he flexed his hand and grabbed that sharp end. It surprised Audrey just long enough that he pulled her forward and rammed his head hard into her own helmeted one, again causing her to see stars as he tossed her to the side.

The rest of the rangers were finding that the Ice Guards were formidable as well. Lonnie had to use every move her mother Mulan had taught her to even keep up with them, and only a few improvised hip hop moves that unknowingly would have made the original black ranger Zack rather proud.

Carlos was having a hard time because he had to get in really close to attack but the long blades of the guards kept him at bay.

Will was able to use his recursive sword to block one of the guard's attacks and knock the swords off balance long enough to take out one of them only to get overwhelmed by another two guards. Jay likewise found himself in a similar situation.

Evie used her mirror force shield to block a sword attack from one of the guard's but she was finding that it was difficult to keep up with all of them. She kept blocking the multiple strikes directed at her but found that she couldn't get the chance she needed to launch her own offensive. Finally sheer numbers managed to get by her best attempts and she was struck hard across both the back and chest.

Melody was able to block one sword strike with the trident but the other sword got her across the stomach. The guard tried to bring the swords down on the aqua ranger only for her to catch both blades in between the tridents and knock them away, and then she blasted the guard back. As she stood another struck her in the back hard.

Aquiella used her tidal boomerangs to counter another ice guard's swords but she already knew she couldn't charge it up with water as it was just freeze. She didn't know what effect that would have on her weapons and she didn't care to try her luck.

But it was like the guard knew what her weapon was made of. This time when he struck the swords suddenly solidified over the boomerangs. He then launched his foot hard into Aquiella's chest. The ice around the weapons shattered and he gave her an x slash across her chest hard again, forcing her to fall back.

Another seemed to have the idea to try that against Amy as he battled the rose ranger with her rose lance. But Amy had heat powers similar to her crush Alex and was able to channel that to cancel the freezing effect. What she was trying so hard to ignore was that the guards were stronger than she was and when he used another downward strike that she blocked with the rose lance she felt her body shake upon impact before he tripped her. She hit the ground hard and only activating her intangibility saved her from two swords in the chest.

The ice guards moved in and struck the rangers hard, forcing them to the ground hard. They rolled close to Alex, Ellie and Anna.

Audrey was starting to get up when Gauntula hit her in the chest hard with his gauntled hand and she was sent flying into Lonnie and Aquiella.

Mal swung her staff at Grunard only for him to dodge under it and then come up with his sword, hitting the purple ranger backwards where she flew into Evie and Carlos.

Ryu swung at Ben and he blocked it with his shield. He tried to bring the Praeleanthor sword on the general but he dodged the strike and brought his knee into Ben's chest hard. As the young king stumbled backwards the general moved in and struck him hard, sending him crashing into Jay and Audrey.

Anna quickly picked up Amy's blaster and shot at Gauntula but he raised his icy gauntlet and blocked the attack. Ellie tried to use her own ice powers but it seemed to dissipate just upon contact. She let out a frustrated sigh and reached for Lonnie's blaster.

The ice guards began to advance on them and with no other ideas Alex raised a wall of fire in front of his mother and his friends. It got the ice guards to halt their advances.

"That won't protect you or your friend's boy." Ryu warned Alex.

From the edges of the fire they could see Gauntula place his gauntled hand fist inward at them. Then both Ryu and Grunard placed their blades on top of the gauntlet. Then the master extended his fingers and the a huge beam of ice, far greater than anything Ellie had produced to date, struck all around them.

Most startlingly the ground around them started to crack, as if it were freezing and shattering the earth around them, and a moment later they felt the ground beneath them give way. As they tumbled into the darkness an avalanche of snow seemed to follow them, and Alex reached over and grasped Amy's hand…


	110. Frozen Fights Part 2

_Queen Elsa and Princess of Anna of Arendelle rushed to the front of the gates of their castle where one of the guards had requested their presence. Oddly Anna could not sort out the contradictory feelings of wishing that Kristoff was there and being grateful that he was not. There they found several guards and one of their doctors attending to a woman._

 _The first thing that seemed very odd for all of them was the woman's skin was blue, ice blue. Under normal circumstances it would look like she had frozen to death but it was clear that she was still alive. She looked however like she had gotten out of a gym class. Her hair, as well as her gloves and boots, were the same dark blue._

 _"You must be Queen Elsa of Arendelle." She said as she looked to the lovely long haired blonde in her shimmery light blue dress. Anna wasn't so sure she liked the fact that she knew her sister. Not that she wasn't famous in a sense but something about her seemed kind of off. She didn't acknowledge Anna at all, which didn't exactly sit well with her either._

 _"I am Queen Elsa." She answered as the two approached her. "Who do I have the honor of addressing? What happened to you?" She asked._

 _"My name is Thera; I was traveling Auradon, taking in the sights as it were." She answered. "I was attacked on my way to see your lovely city." She rubbed the back of her head. "By a monster."_

 _Elsa could not entirely be surprised by that. Even though Paradias was gone, Maleficent remained active. Sermaya did too. And no one knew if Undine was aligned with any of the villains or if she had gone into business for herself. Nor had the queen forgotten about their terse encounter with the Neptune Kingdom around Atlantica._

 _"What kind of monster was it?" Anna now asked the woman, Thera if she was too be believed._

 _She glanced over at Anna as if acknowledging her existence for the first time. "It was a large lizard with blue skin." She answered and touched the fabric of Elsa's sleeve. "Much like the color of your dress actually. It had a few floating balls of ice with it."_

 _"Or the color of your skin." Anna noted. She wondered if this was all a coincidence or not. But she knew Elsa couldn't turn her back on a problem, and truthfully neither could she._

 _The queen looked toward the guards. One of them nodded. "We found her being chased by the ice balls and we dispatched them. We saw no signs of the ice lizard but this had happened rather close to the cave, it might have retreated back into it." He answered Elsa's unspoken question._

 _"Your welcome to stay with us." Elsa said to her. "Our home is your home."_

 _The woman, again Thera if she could be trusted and Anna had a hard time with that, rose to her feet. She took Elsa's arm into her own as if they were already friends. That also got on Anna's nerves and she couldn't say why. "Thank you so much for your hospitality Queen Elsa." She said with a smile. "Please, show me what your marvelous kingdom has to offer and I'll tell you all I know about the beings from the ice barrier."_

 _With that their visitor seemed to all but glide Elsa back into the castle even as Anna watched, an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She again wished Kristoff were there, then she changed her mind. She wanted her son and her niece there, to tell her rather she was going crazy or if she was right be uncomfortable about this. Then she heard, "Aunt Anna, Aunt Anna…"_

"Aunt Anna." She opened her eyes to see Ellie looking down at her, her eyes full of concern.

Anna found herself lying on Ellie's lap, feeling a little cold. "You look so much like Elsa." Anna murmured softly as she started to sit up. She felt a bit dizzy and Ellie placed her hands on her aunt's shoulders. "What happened?" She asked.

"We're underground." Mal said to her as she now sat down. "We very nearly got buried in snow but your son and my sister are using their powers to stop it from enveloping us. Our powers went out after we landed." Anna turned to see her son and the rose haired girl that looked so much like Mal since they were twins with one hand each raised to stop the otherwise burying avalanche of snow while their other's hands firmly. "Jay, Carlos, Will and Ben are looking for another way for us to get out."

"Those three generals probably decided to leave us for dead." Audrey noted with annoyance.

"I feel kind of cold." Anna told them.

"It's the warmth rune." Evie explained. "We need to give you another one." She sat down behind Anna and the princess moved some hair from the back of her neck so the young blue haired girl could do that. "Yours goes out quicker than the rest of ours since we had our powers to protect us."

"Turns out it burns out slower on me." Ellie said softly. "Because I'm more used to this kind of temperature than anyone else, except mom." She looked down a bit. "My powers won't work on those ice guys. I don't know how I can help now."

"You can help me get through to your mother when the time comes." Anna answered her gently as she reached out and took her niece's hand. "I wish I had made the connection sooner though. When Ice Queen showed up in Arendelle she said there were creatures from a place called the ice barrier."

"Never heard of it." Mal told her. "But if it's from the Earth that the rangers and the turtles come from it's no surprise there." She wondered if Maleficent knew about it, not that that mattered too much.

Anna glanced over at her son and Amy. She had to admit they made a pretty cute couple. But that wasn't her concern at the moment. "How long can they keep that up?" She asked.

"I don't know." Mal answered. "It's never been tested. Magically they might be able to do it for a while but they'll still get tired. And we can't stay here forever either." She glanced around. "The boys haven't returned yet though."

"What if there's no way out?" Melody asked her "What do we do then?"

"We find a way to make our own I guess." Mal answered.

"I could probably use one of my mirror force settings to make an opening somewhere." Evie supplied as she finished the warmth rune for Anna. "But I don't know how dangerous it could be. We could cause some kind of seismic disturbance or something similar to the avalanche that Amy and Alex are already trying to avoid."

"We would also let Ice Queen and her generals know that we're alive." Lonnie added.

"Let's hold off on that surprise for a while." Jay said as he came in. Audrey went over and hugged him for a moment. He held her back as he added, "Carlos and I found a way out." He patted his friend on the back gently. "He sniffed it out."

"Yeah, yeah." Carlos brushed him off as he looked to Mal. "I think it should lead us into the mountains facing Arendelle."

"Elsa made an ice castle up there somewhere when she tried to isolate herself from the rest of the people." Anna voiced as she stood up now with some help from her niece. "She has this snow giant up there nicknamed Marshmallow. I don't know if Ice Queen got to him though."

"We'll just have to be careful then as we make our way there." Mal said. "Where are Ben and Will?"

As if on cue the other two boys emerged from another side. "It's a dead end." Ben told Mal as she stood up and the two clasped hand briefly. Will had gone over and kissed Lonnie on the cheek softly. "But we heard Jay's mixed bragging. At least we have a way out."

"As long we're careful about Marshmallow." Will added with a small smirk.

The rangers and Anna got up and began to follow Jay as they started toward the alternate way out. Each of them felt a little sore from the fight and the fall. "Those guys sure knocked us around like we were nothing." Lonnie commented. "At least things like that stop us from getting too confident in ourselves."

"Is that really a good thing?" Jay questioned her. The Asian princess just shrugged.

"Where did they come from anyway?" Will now wondered. "I mean if men, monsters, whatever, like that had been around for a while then why hadn't Paradias or Maleficent recruited them before?"

"I don't think they were around before." Ellie answered him. "I think they must have recently shown up. Probably not long after Ice Queen did."

"I hadn't seen them until they lead the invasion that took Arendelle from us." Anna said. "And the guards never mentioned it. Just the monster and the ice balls...I think your friend Tommy called them Ice Witches." She frowned a little. "When we first met her she referred to creatures of the ice barrier and called herself Thera." She recollected.

"I wish we knew if any of that was relevant now." Carlos said.

"I'd be willing to bet that the ice barrier has to be one of those realms that are separate from our world or the Earth that the others come from." Amy voiced. "That would be why we've never heard of them before."

"I've never heard grandfather speak of an ice barrier before." Aquiella noted. "And the fact is he's much older than he appears to be, and he knows a lot."

"It's also not in any sort of archive in Atlantica either." Melody added.

"Then somehow they gained access to the Ice Queen, or she gained access to them after somehow coming alive again." Evie said. "That still seems to be a mystery though. How is she even alive if she was defeated back when Tommy was the green ranger?"

"We'll try to ask that before we take her out again." Mal replied.

Their surroundings shook and they all looked around. They thought maybe it was coming from around them before realizing it had actually come from above them but since they were underground it reflected all around them. "What was that?" Audrey asked.

"Maybe the earth above us is starting to become unstable as a result of the general's attacks that got us down here in the first place?" Alex suggested as he let go of Amy's arm. He had taken ahold of her arm to try to stop her from falling.

"I would have thought that we would have been far enough away from the sight of the attack." Carlos replied.

"Could they have done something?" Audrey asked, "Could they be making something above us right now?"

"We're too far away from Arendelle to feel any construction tremors." Ellie replied. "It would have to be something within this mountain." She glanced around. "If it were because of them we should be seeing some evidence of that even now."

"Then it must be something inside the mountain." Mal said as she started to glance around too. She frowned then. "Um, is this the mountain where that monster retreated too?" She asked. "At least if Ice Queen was to be believed."

"Yes, yes it would be." Alex said, catching on.

"She could have lied you guys." Carlos reminded them. "She after all isn't some peaceful visitor named Thera from a far off land."

Their surroundings shook again and this time a stalagmite from the ceiling fell and nearly rammed right into Lonnie. She let out a small shriek as Will pulled her to safety. "I think we should discuss this in smoother surroundings." Will noted as they glanced up to realize that that stalagmite was not the only one now on shaky holds.

Mal was more certain than ever that Ice Queen had not been lying about the monster that had gone to the mountains. She was equally certain that it knew they were there. "It's here." She said to her team. "But it didn't retreat at all. Ice Queen obviously sent it as a guardian. We need to get someplace safer now." As if to help prove the purple haired girl's point a stalagmite fell to the ground and crashed behind them, making Amy gasp in shock and hold tight to Alex's arm.

"Time to go." Jay agreed as they started toward the exit on the other side of the room. Another stalagmite fell and crashed behind Anna and Ellie, knocking them both off of their feet. Mal helped up Anna as Will and Lonnie stopped to help up the blonde princess.

Another fell and struck close enough to Audrey that she was hit with a few small chunks of rock. Even as Jay went over to help her, the brunette princess was already getting to her feet though she had a small gash on her lower arm from the shrapnel.

Aquiella was able to draw just enough power from the water in her iPhone to knock a stalagmite off course away from otherwise impaling her. Melody had to use the trident to blast away a stalagmite heading toward her and then shrieked in surprise as the rubble still managed to strike her arm.

Ellie raised her arms, only to flinch a little at the pain in her right shoulder. She looked down and saw no blood, she assumed she had only hit her arm against the hard floor and that was it. She started to form a barrier of ice. "Everyone get around me." She instructed. "Let's hope this will protect us from the stalagmites."

As they started over toward Ellie one of them almost landed on Evie. She fell back and crashed into Mal. The two girls were dazed for a moment and when they looked up they saw a sheet of ice over them. Amy was leaning down to check on her two chosen isle sisters.

"That wasn't fun." Evie said as she let Jay help her up.

Amy helped up her twin. "Let's get out of here." Mal said to them with a small smile at her. A stalagmite crashed into the ice shield and it lost a piece off of the outer edge. Ellie worked to try to reinforce it but it was still only temporary. "Before we lose that barrier and get hurt."

By the time they had arrived on the other side the barrier of ice was in shambles and they all hit the ground in relief. They glanced back to see the floor covered with chunks of ice that wouldn't melt until the Ice Queen was destroyed and multiple pieces of rock that had been stalagmites until recently.

"That wasn't fun." Anna echoed Evie's previous declaration as Ellie dissolved the remnants of the barrier. "I think when this is over I should talk Elsa into having this place thoroughly scouted out in case anyone else has to make this kind of journey so they know where to go and what to avoid."

"Grand idea." Jay agreed. "Too bad it hadn't happened already."

They all got to their feet. This time Mal took the lead as they continued onto the only path available to them. In a few minutes they found themselves in a wide open area. It was fully of crevices and even a small pit though at least it was far from bottomless. There was a small lake in a corner that somehow remained unfrozen. "This is kind of cool." Lonnie said. "It's almost like a small living space." She then exchanged glances with the purple haired girl as she realized what she said.

"Do you think that this monster is making its home here?" Amy asked quietly as she glanced around uncertainly.

Ben noticed an opening on the other side of the cave. "Let's not find out." He advised as he tapped Mal on the shoulder and pointed it out. "Let's just get out of here." His girlfriend nodded her agreement and together they all started toward the other side.

Just as they were approaching the other end there was a ferocious growl and from the shadows leapt a large icy blue creature. It stood on two reptilian legs and its arms were encased in three pointy blades on his arms, two smaller ones on either side of the front and then one over the shoulders. It even had what looked to be wings but they didn't look to be active. It landed right in front of the team.

"Oh, my gosh." Audrey gasped in shock. "What is that?"

"It almost looks like a dinosaur of some sort." Amy answered.

It made Melody briefly remember her mother Ariel talking about accidently freeing a frozen underwater sea creature from the prehistoric era during her life as a mermaid. But it was definitely not like the creature before them.

"Bet they don't have that fossil in the Amber Beach museum." Jay remarked coyly.

"I think we should be more worried about making this thing a fossil first." Will replied.

"No arguments here." Mal said. They all reached for their iPhones as Ben formed the Praeleanthor sword and shield. She already saw Ellie and Alex take one of Anna's arms and start to take her over to a crevice that would offer some protection. "Let's get to work." She declared.

As Ben combined the Praeleanthor sword and shield to become the Auradon Knight the rest of the rangers input their numbers into their iPhones and transformed. Anna had to admit it was a dazzling array of colors; purple, silver, red, blue, black, yellow, pink, the darker shade of pink rose, orange, aqua and green. She wondered what it looked like with the second silver, second purple, second red, light blue, white, gold and crystal colorings.

The monster that Mal was thinking of naming Freezadon raised its arms and unleashed jagged icicle spears at the team, who had to roll right or left to dodge out of the way of the attack. With a roar he charged right at Ben, the only one armed at the moment.

"Oh, yikes." Evie gasped as the large fist of the monster collided with Ben's shield. The young king blocked it but it seemed to take every ounce of strength to absorb the impact from the monster. The impact even left a small indent around the field and Amy gasped, "Oh my pink."

"Well that's not encouraging." Will noted wryly as he formed his recursive sword. Jay formed the soul scimitar and together the two of them moved in toward the monster. The wing like objects on the monsters back turned and started to attack the two as they drew closer.

"Now that is something you don't see every day." Carlos remarked.

"But when you're us we tend to see things like that more often than necessary." Jay added.

Freezadon, as Mal silently dubbed him for anything else to call it, then did a one eighty and struck Jay and Will in the chests hard with his fists. Audrey raised her elemental bow and fired two fire arrows at the monster, which just raised its arms and let the arrows lodge there before shaking them off.

Melody drew power into the trident and moved in to attack Freezadon. He raised his hands and caught the charged attack in between his hands before raising his foot faster than any of them expected and kicked Melody in the stomach hard. He then slammed his palm into the back of her head.

Aquiella moved in to prevent a further attack and slashed at him with her tidal boomerangs only to realize she too couldn't really penetrate his thick scaled skin. She took a huge stab from the tips of his wing like objects on its back and fell beside her cousin.

"Okay, let's try another tactic." Mal said as she looked at Lonnie. She nodded in agreement and together the pink and purple rangers charged at him. Lonnie went up high as she tried to bring her tessens down on him. Freezadon raised his arms to block and Mal shot her dragon's eye staff right into his chest. She connected but discovered the frozen scales were like armor and still stopped it from getting much damage.

"Keep mom safe." Alex said to Ellie and then ran over to Amy. The rose ranger turned to look over at him. "Let's try a fire move to defeat that thing." He suggested to her.

Amy didn't like the idea of him being out there without powers but she understood that they might be the only ones who could hurt it. She took his hand and her control over fire, equal to the rest of the elemental control she had but irrelevant right now, mixed with his extraordinary control over fire and together they unleashed a torrent of fire at Freezadon.

It struck him but he simply shook it off and started toward the two of them menacingly.

Carlos and Evie immediately moved to protect the two of them. "His scales must be super thick." Evie reflected as she drew her mirror force shield. She was already sure that a blazing attack would have the same ineffectual results.

He swung at Carlos and he dodged under it. Evie took another step back and tried to unleash a tidal mirror force at him. It struck Freezadon and he started to pace his way through it and toward Evie. The blue ranger felt herself getting more nervous as he did so.

"Hey." Ben called out and moved in to attack Freezadon. He turned to block the attempted attack with the Praeleanthor sword before hitting him in the chest hard, sending him landing hard.

Jay and Will moved in now and Freezadon jumped up and landing on a small crevice, looking down at the ten warriors. He then unleashed another stream of icicles at them, striking them hard.

"Mal, guys." Amy gasped. She summoned her rose lance and then split it into two parts. Then she jumped up, intending to strike the reptilian ice monster. He stepped back and then slammed his fist hard into her, making her hit the ground hard. He then looked down at the recovering rangers and at the dazed rose ranger. Then he stepped off the ledge, intending to bring his feet down onto her.

"Oh my gosh." Anna gasped. From that distance, as large as the monster seemed to be and as small as Amy seemed to be, he would crush her.

Alex started to power up a flame burst but remembered how ineffectual that attack had been. From the corner of his eye he saw Ellie get ready to power an ice beam before remembering that these ice things seemed to be immune to the ice attacks.

"Amy!" Mal yelled in horror and stood up. To say that the purple haired purple ranger ran or even walked to protect her sister would have been to kind, it was more accurate to say she literally slipped and slid her way.

Mal leaned down and took Amy's arm and was able to easily lift her lighter twin sister up and toward Evie and Audrey, the ones closest to her, before Freezadon slammed down hard onto Mal. She let out a scream as she felt her left leg snap and her body hit the ground hard. She felt her chin impact against her helmet, which in turn had hit the hard icy ground. Then her vision swam and went black as she fell unconscious.

"Oh my pink, Mal!" Amy gasped in horror. She wasn't sure if she was trying to push away from Evie or sag against her blue haired chosen sister.

"You icy scaled freak!" Audrey exclaimed heatedly as she ran forward and slashed at him with the edges of her elemental bow. The slight pain she had been feeling in her arm ever since the stalagmite had injured her falling from the ceiling seemed to fade into oblivion. "Get off of her right now!" Her attacks were ineffectual but she got what she wanted as Freezadon stepped back away from the unconscious purple ranger.

Jay and Lonnie moved in to help Audrey keep the monster away from Mal though they weren't sure what they could do fight him. Amy finally pulled away from Evie, still unsure if she had been fighting her or not, and stumbled to her unmoving sister. She heard Ben right behind her.

"Mal, Mal. Please, wake up." Amy pleaded as she knelt beside her sister. She felt herself getting more freaked out that she did not move at all. Ben and Aquiella were beside her now, the Praeleanthor sword placed right at the ground in his side, point in the ground. Amy looked to Ben. "She won't wake up."

Evie came over now as she saw Jay and Lonnie try to strike Freezadon only to get slashed back hard. Carlos moved in to help now for whatever it was worth. Will moved in to help Carlos. Evie wished she knew what to do to help but she didn't have the room to use her powers without risking hurting her friends.

Evie knelt down and pressed the sides of Mal's belt. It powered her down only to see her eyes closed. Her leg was broken, nearly twisted in half. She had some blood coming out of her mouth and Ben dimly assumed she must have scratched her teeth against the edges of her tongue. "Mal, wake up." The young king now said softly. She didn't respond to him either.

Freezadon shot forward rapidly, aided by the ice that surrounded them all, and slammed hard into Jay, Will, Carlos, Lonnie and Audrey hard. They all took a rough landing. The monster barely avoided hitting the twin sisters and the young king.

Ellie and Alex both unleashed their powers on him but neither of them was surprised to see that Freezadon absorbed the attacks like they were nothing. He rammed into them hard, and they shot into Anna hard, the three of them hitting the wall hard. Alex saw that his mother was knocked unconscious from the attack. "Mom." He said as he shook her gently, then positioned her against him as Ellie shakily stood up and glared at the monster. She wished she could come up with an idea.

Freezadon roared, seemingly in victory. He turned toward the rangers now.

"What do we do now?" Carlos asked Audrey, who was now the leader with Mal injured and unconscious.

She looked to Jay, Will, Carlos, Melody and Lonnie. She knew that Amy and Ben would be too distracted to focus on the fight right now, which was really a bad thing but she couldn't fault them for it. Likewise she figured Aquiella should stay by Amy's side. She didn't want to imagine how easily that could have been Jay. "The six of us will have to attack him. At once." She said.

"Seven." Evie said as she let her mirror force shield vanish and picked up the rose lances that Amy had dropped when Freezadon had struck her down. "I'll help too." She wasn't sure how focused she was either but Amy and Ben were already with her chosen sister.

"Seven of us." Audrey amended. Together the seven of them tried to attack the monster at once. Freezadon blocked the attack from Lonnie and then turned around to slash Carlos and Lonnie with the fin like wings on his back before lifting its head and slamming it hard into the top of Audrey's head.

Jay and Will moved to slash Freezadon, the monster took a step back and slammed its fists into the two rangers hard. Even as the two boys stumbled back Melody tried to attack with the trident with Evie beside her. Freezadon took a step forward and slammed his broad shoulders into the two girls hard, forcing them to collide with Jay and Will as they started to get up again.

Audrey took a deep breath and stood up. The slight pain had flared up again but she easily b rushed that aside as she stared down at the reptilian monster that had caused them so much trouble. She approached Ben and Amy. "I have to take this thing down." She declared.

"How are you going to do that alone?" Amy asked her softly, feeling scared and even a bit defeated. In fact she could barely feel the comforting presence of Aquiella at her side.

Audrey had only started to figure anything out. "I don't know." She answered honestly. She looked to Ben. "Can I borrow your sword?" Ben nodded in confirmation and the red ranger picked it up. She could feel the same power that the others felt upon holding the ancient blade and hoped it would help her as she tried to figure out how to stop this thing. "Thanks. Take care of Mal." She said and then stepped forward, ready to do her best against the reptilian beast.


	111. Frozen Fights Part 3

_Anna wasn't sure why her head hurt. Being around as their guest Thera seemed to absorb herself in the kingdom of Arendelle managed to make her feel sick to her stomach constantly but it never seemed to induce a headache. It occurred to her though that perhaps it should make her head hurt as much as it made her sick to her stomach._

 _Being the queen, Elsa did her best to courteously answer their guest's questions as the day progressed without revealing too much about the inside workings of her own government, let alone Auradon's at large. Sometimes Anna couldn't tell if the evasion annoyed the blue skinned woman or not._

 _When dinner came around Elsa again extended her most diplomatic gesture and allowed her to join her and her sister for dinner. If Kristoff had been in the kingdom he would have joined them too, and that was the spot that she occupied right now. The spot where Ellie and Alex would take were empty, had been they had gone to Auradon to learn to control their magic._

 _Sometimes Anna thought about asking Kristoff if he wanted to have another child. She wondered if Alex would be okay with a younger brother or sister. Of course for Elsa having another child, if she ever even thought about it, was impossible._

 _"Tell me again where you came from." Anna said to her as she placed her fork down and picked up her water glass._

 _"Far from here." She responded to Anna's inquiry somewhat evasively as she cut a chunk out of the chicken breast she had selected for dinner. "Toward the frozen tundra's." Anna and Elsa had of course heard about it, as they were beyond the explored islands, even the one where Paragon was said to inhabit. Most places did not have the resources to explore naturally frozen lands such as that._

 _"Is there some place in those tundra's that link this place, this Ice Barrier to Auradon?" Elsa now asked their guest. Sometimes Anna wasn't sure her older sister entirely trusted their guest either, but being a good host and a good diplomat was some of the unspoken requirements to being a good ruler of any kingdom._

 _"There might be, I never saw any direct evidence." She answered, somewhat evasively in Anna's opinion. After all, how could she really know any of that unless she had some kind of evidence to prove it._

 _"Are they heading here to Arendelle? Or to Auradon?" Anna now asked. She presumed if they had attacked their guest that meant they probably weren't friendly and that meant that her son, niece, and their friends had to know about it. And if there was any chance that she was the one who was in the wrong here there was still the chance they would want to retrieve her._

 _"I would prepare your men for that possibility." She answered simply. It still almost seemed like evasion to Anna but she was starting to think that maybe it was simply the lack of trust on her part that made her question a lot of what this woman was saying._

 _"We'll take care of that after dinner." Elsa said as she looked to her little sister with a small reassuring smile. "And we'll keep you safe too as well." She added to their guest._

 _"Yes." Anna said somewhat doubtfully. "We'll make sure that they don't succeed in whatever plans these ice barrier people have planned for anyone."_

 _"I'm sure that you will all do your best." She had said with a smile. Anna was sure she thought it was meant to be reassuring or encouraging but to Anna she felt it was condescending. She had to give Elsa all the credit in the world for the tolerance she seemed to show._

 _Even that had some limits as she had looked to Elsa and requested, "Please, tell me about your children." That required quite a bit of evasion._

"Knocked unconscious again." Anna moaned as she looked up at Alex.

"You weren't out that long." Alex assured his mother.

"Yeah." Ellie replied. "You're just in time to see the show. Though I don't know how it will turn out." She looked at the area beyond them.

An upset Amy and a very concerned Ben were around Mal. The purple haired purple ranger and leader of their team was currently unconscious as well. She had a broken leg and was bleeding. Ellie feared she might have received at least a mild concussion. Aquiella was by the younger twin's side, trying her best to reassure her.

Evie, Melody, Lonnie, Will, Carlos and Jay were kind of surrounding the area as they watched, just as unsure of what was about to happen as anyone else; as Audrey had just declared she would find a way to take down the reptilian monster Freezadon down on her own.

Audrey tightened the grip on her borrowed sword, the mythical blade of an ancient civilization that named the object the Praeleanthor sword. She felt the power of the ancient weapon and that helped strengthen her resolve a little. She was going to need it.

This monster had deflected every attack they had thrown at it. It had hurt Mal badly when she had rushed to help protect her twin sister. And now the red ranger was going to try to take the thing out on her own. Jay was impressed by her bravery but feared for her safety now, perhaps even her sanity.

"Audrey." Evie started.

"I have to do this." Audrey told the blue haired blue ranger. "I have to put this thing down. I have to avenge Mal." And what the brunette princess didn't want to admit to anyone else was that she felt she had to prove herself to everyone, especially herself.

The red ranger leapt at Freezadon, bringing the Praeleanthor sword down toward him. The reptilian beast raised his arm and blocked the attack. He swung his other fist at the red ranger and she barely dodged it, pulling off a matrix like backbend to make the escape.

"Audrey." Lonnie called out.

"I told you I have to do this." Audrey retorted as she back flipped out of the way of the double fist that Freezadon aimed at her. She kicked it back hard and this time slashed the Praeleanthor sword at him, making him step back just a little bit.

Lonnie understood what she was saying. And the Asian princess also had a good understanding of what her brunette princess friend was not saying. It seemed foolish to her but then she was not the one who had spent weeks being personally targeted by Chad either. "I got that." She replied. "But just because you want to fight on your own doesn't mean you have to fight by yourself. Use the neon armor."

Audrey nodded in understanding. She, Evie, Mal, Jane and Doug had developed it to help them in fight. She powered up the neon armor and then found Freezadon aiming his fist at her again. This time the added speed allowed her to dodge it much easier, this time with a cartwheel to the side.

With the side exposure from the monster she slashed him as hard as she could with the Praeleanthor sword. It seemed to gash him a little but it wasn't enough to keep do much more than annoy him.

"What else can we do to help her?" Melody asked. "You know, without actually helping her?" She didn't understand why Audrey felt she needed to do this but she figured if Lonnie and Jay were allowing it then she couldn't really stop it.

"The first thing Audrey has to worry about are those things on his arms." Carlos said. "He can block just about any attack with those things."

Jay called out. "Audrey!" And the red ranger barely afforded him a glance as she was prepared to stop him from protesting her brave but stubborn decision to fight the monster on her own. But all he did was toss his soul scimitar to her, giving her an extra bladed weapon to fight with.

"Thanks, love." Audrey replied automatically as she caught his weapon, she was too caught up in the fight to really think about what she had just said. Jay still felt himself flush a bit in pleased embarrassment.

Freezadon unleashed the icicle stream at her and struck her hard. She rolled to the ground, feeling the sting in her arm from the gash she has received from the falling stalagmite not too long ago. Freezadon charged her, intending to ram her but the red ranger was able to dodge that one.

She stood and brought the Praeleanthor sword and the soul scimitar across each other as she moved in toward the reptilian monster. She channeled as much of her own energies into the two bladed weapons, as well as the neon energy, she swore she felt Jay and Ben contributing their own energies to the weapons as well, as irrational as that was, and brought it down on the left armored arm and it shattered upon impact.

"She got a hit in." Carlos said excitedly.

"But wait." Melody interrupted as she saw Audrey take a few steps back as the force of the impact forced her to lose her grip on the soul scimitar, which flew into the water pool in the corner of the room.

Freezadon growled and slammed his now unprotected fist into Audrey hard. It sent her sprawling backwards, hitting one of the crevices roughly. He tried to follow up with his right fist but the red ranger leapt over the attack.

She leapt down and kicked the monster in the side of the head. She dodged a swing from his right fist and side stepped the left fist, slashing his arm hard. He growled in annoyance at the slight gash. He still had his scaled skin to help mitigate the attack.

"Okay so this thing seems to like to attack physically while in one on one combat." Carlos noted. "What can Audrey do to exploit this?"

Evie flexed her hands nervously. Audrey had done great so far but one slip up could get her killed, and that made them all very tense. She felt metal pressed against her hand and then remembered she was holding her mirror force shield. And she had an idea. "Audrey!" She called out. She saw the red ranger look over at her briefly and she tossed her weapon at her. "Shake it up, number three." She hoped Audrey would understand that code, as she didn't want Freezadon to pick up on it.

Audrey glanced down at her friend's weapon and felt confused for a moment. She knew that despite the glass look the weapon was anything but fragile, it could take hits that no one would ever have expected. What she didn't understand was the number. She glanced down at the buttons, and then thought she caught on.

Freezadon charged right at her and again Audrey had to back flip out of the way. "Thank heaven for all those years of cheerleading." She said to herself. Freezadon shot his unprotected fist at the red ranger and she ducked under by doing the splits. She brought the Praeleanthor sword up and slashed its arm hard before twisting her body around and bringing her feet up as hard as she could into the chest of the beast.

The armored arm came crashing down toward Audrey and she raised Evie's mirror force shield up. The scaled hand connected with the glass of the mirror force shield and she pressed the third button, unleashing a quaking mirror force. As Evie had hoped the attack shot the arm up and shattered the protective covering on that arm too.

"Yes, great idea Evie." Melody said to the blue ranger.

Freezadon lashed out and kicked Audrey's arm hard. She let out a gasp of a pain. The plus side was her arm didn't break upon impact. The negative side was that she lost her grip on Evie's mirror force shield and it went flying into the corridor where they had been trying to get to before the monster had first attacked.

Audrey rolled to her feet and barely dodged the wing like sections on its back that tried to jab itself straight into the red ranger's body. She again raised the Praeleanthor sword in a semi-defensive stance. She was rapidly growing exhausted and she was no closer to a solution despite the neon armor and her friend's weapons. She glanced around the cave, noting how shiny and blue it was…and it gave her an idea.

She took out her iPhone again, this time though she pressed down on the small half sun piece just above her gem in order to activate her battlizer. Audrey felt the armor assembled all over her body, glowing with a mixture of red and pinks. The earrings slipped out of her helmet. Long elegant silk like ribbons emerged from over her shoulders. The same colored crystals that resembled her earring grew around her waist.

Even now Jay was still amazed at how amazing Audrey looked when she activated her battlizer. A true princess.

"How about a tasted of your own medicine?" Audrey suggested to the monster. She raised her arms and unleashed her own crystal attacks on him, similar to his own icicles except they were pink and not really ice. They struck him hard and he scooted back several steps, but his scaled skin was still like a natural shield.

As Freezadon started to rampage toward Audrey she started to gradually step, almost float, back and started to gather the energies of her own powers and the neon armor into the Praeleanthor sword and as the monster grew closer she started toward him and brought the sword down across his chest and stomach. The monster fell to the ground hard as Audrey came to a stop, feeling kind of dizzy.

Freezadon started to get up. The red ranger could see a gash in the chest now that was unprotected. Audrey was sure if she could get a good hit on that spot she could finally put this thing down. She channeled more energy and headed toward the monster again.

This time he brought up the wing like appendages on his back and slapped the Praeleanthor sword hard. It flew and embedded itself into the wall right beside Alex, his mother and his cousin.

"Audrey, use this." Amy tried to call out as loud as she could. It was an effort since her voice was laced with worry and fear over her sister. She tossed the red ranger the dragon's eye staff. Audrey caught it with one hand as she summoned her elemental bow to her other hand.

"Please, let this work." The brunette princess prayed. She didn't know who she was praying too and she didn't even know if it would work at all. She was feeling shaky and knew it wouldn't be long before she lost the power stream she was currently wielding. "This has to work."

Freezadon charged at her even as she levitated herself up to avoid the attack. For a moment she was unsure how to do what she and Mal had done once before to stop the Infernal Flame. Mal had shrunk her dragon's eye staff to the size of an arrow for her to shoot from her bow. Then with a burst of concentration that also seemed to drain her further she shrunk it down.

Audrey placed the dragon's eye arrow in between the strings of the bow and had to dodge again as Freezadon leapt up, intending to slam into Audrey. To his credit Freezadon landed on one of the ledges and was turning again to face the red ranger down.

She drew back the silk feeling string and aimed the dragon's eye arrow and let loose her attack. Even as Freezadon leapt out the arrow flew straight and true right into the opening on his chest. The monster instead started flying backwards but before it could hit the wall itself the energy burst was finally enough to put the monster down, with an explosion and a slight shaking of the cave, he was gone.

Audrey was barely able to float down to the ground as she turned to her friends. "I did it." Audrey said, feeling dizzy and tired. "The monster is gone." Then with that she felt herself black out. She was vaguely aware of her body falling toward the ground before she lost consciousness.

She had fallen to her knees and was about to fall backwards but Jay was there as he caught her in his arms and then brought her over to their friends as he said, "You did great Audrey. A job well done."

For a moment they all looked at each other. They had never discussed who would lead the team if both Mal and Audrey weren't available though the one time it had happened in the burnt tower, Evie had been the one to try to take charge.

Then Melody spoke up. "Audrey should be okay with some rest." She said. "But what about Mal? How do we help her?"

"She still won't wake up." Amy said softly. She stroked Mal's hair and looked down at her worriedly with tears in her eyes.

Aquiella glanced around at their surroundings and then realized something. "I better go get the soul scimitar and the mirror force shield." She announced. She squeezed Amy's shoulder gently to reassure her as best she could again and then headed toward the water. Melody took her cousin's place by Amy's side.

The mermaid girl released the spell that let her have legs instead of a tail and dove into the water. She then dove in and started to swim down to the bottom of the lake. It was a bit colder than she was used to in the oceans of Atlantica but she wasn't too worried about it. She wouldn't be in that long. It was easy enough for her to find the weapons. She picked them up and started toward the surface again.

She returned to the surface and set the two weapons down on the cave floor. Then she frowned a little. "Amy, come here please." She requested. "Ben, please bring Mal over here as well."

Curious the two did as the mermaid girl asked, the others slowly following her over. "Now set Mal into the waters with me." Aquiella said to Ben. "I'll keep her from sinking too far into the water." She looked to Amy. "In fact I need you to come in here with me." Amy nodded and did as she said.

"Think I could help you?" Melody asked now, having a good idea of what her cousin was planning.

"I think you could." Aquiella answered with a small smile. Trident in hand, Melody released the magic that gave her legs to become a mermaid as well and joined her cousin and friend.

"Is there anything else we can do to help with your plan?" Ben asked her.

Aquiella thought about it a moment. "Yes, please give Amy the Praeleanthor sword. Perhaps its ancient energies will help us too." She replied. The young king nodded and handed the rose haired girl his sword.

"I don't understand what she's planning." Carlos said to the others as quietly as he could.

"I think I know." Evie answered him, feeling very nervous. "She wants to channel her own water magic with Amy's water magic and whatever energies she can from Triton's trident and the Praeleanthor sword to make the lake into a temporary healing spring."

"A what?" Jay asked.

"A healing spring." Will said as he placed an arm around Lonnie and held her against his side gently. "She wants to imbue the water with the ability to heal. The feel of it should help to heal her leg and her wounds."

"If it's a freshwater lake, they might even be able to give her some to help with any internal damage we can't see, including any concussion." Lonnie added. "It's more draining to the magic users than it would be for Jordan to make healing remedies and potions though."

"Who will it drain more?" Ben now asked. "Aquiella or Amy?"

"Probably Aquiella." Evie replied softly. "Amy and the two items are acting as conduits for Aquiella to draw energy from, but it has to be her natural affinity for water that turns that lake into the healing springs she wants to make in order to help Mal."

"Will it help Audrey too?" Jay asked now.

"It wouldn't help her too much." Evie replied. "Audrey just exhausted herself. Granted, probably way more than she should have but it's not likely to kill her and if she can rest she'll recover. Mal's wounds are physical and if there is something worse than that broken leg it could kill her."

They all watched as the four girls floated in the water. A few minutes passed and Jay felt himself getting restless as it seemed as if they were doing nothing but wasting their time when Arendelle was still in danger. Then he started to notice a slight lime green tint to the water. "Is that a good sign?" He asked Evie.

"I believe so." It was Ellie who answered that. "I can feel a slight vibration from the water because of how cold it is. I'm pretty sure that it's the healing property."

Amy did her best not only to channel her control of water into her friend but she also tried to send some mild heat into the water so that way they wouldn't freeze to death. She wasn't sure who would be worse off; she was clothed but that was wet, which offered very little heat. On the other hand as mermaids Aquiella and Melody had almost no clothing on save bra like tops. She also wasn't sure that they would be used to the cold temperatures that Arendelle's water were currently going through.

That thought was not even on Aquiella's mind as she drew whatever energy she could from her rose haired friend and the two weapons, what she would almost call artifacts in her possession. Through it she discovered something interesting though it had no way to be used here. The Praeleanthor sword could not only damage or even defeat strong monsters with enough charge, but it could even help keep the user healthy. She also knew it matched the original artifact the space rangers had discovered that clued them in onto the sword itself.

The first thing that Evie noticed was the water that lapped against Mal's leg seemed to now be mending her broken leg. Another minute passed before it looked unblemished, like Freezadon had not crushed it.

"That is amazing." Anna said in a whisper. "She did it. They did it."

Soon Mal's complexion, which before had been very pale, almost as white as a ghost, began to return to normal. Because of the water even the blood that had been on her was washing off. In another few minutes it was like nothing had happened to her, except for the fact she was still unconscious.

It seemed as if Aquiella was now getting as drained as Audrey had been after single handedly defeating Freezadon. Ben quickly made his way into the water to take Mal into his arms as Amy and Melody each took a hold of Aquiella's arms and together the five of them made their way to the edge of the small lake.

"I think we should take a bit of time to rest up here." Ellie said to them all. "Mal, Audrey, and Aquiella need it a lot. And I think we all could use a bit of a rest."

"Good idea." Evie agreed. As Jay settled down, taking off his own jacket to help keep Audrey warm, Alex and Will gathered some stones together that Alex said he and Amy could heat up enough to warm the area up for a little while.

They were able to do just that, though Alex had to a good majority of the work as Amy had expended quite a bit of her own energy when she helped Aquiella to heal Mal's injuries.

Jay leaned back against the wall as he kept Audrey's head in his lap as she seemed to sleep on, recovering from her grueling battle.

Will wrapped his arms around Lonnie again. The Asian princess leaned the back of her head against his chest as they tried to relax.

Alex sat by Amy. The rose haired girl felt kind of drained herself. "You must feel tired." Alex said to her softly. "Especially mentally. With what just happened to your sister, it must have felt like being on a roller coaster, at least an emotional one."

Amy nodded softly. "Yeah." She agreed. She glanced over at Ellie who sat by the fire herself but her gaze kept going back to the pool they had recently just used as a healing spring. It had since gone back to its clear coloring. "Ellie must still be on that roller coaster." She added softly.

"And she'll be on that 'ride' until we know what happened to Aunt Elsa, one way or another." Alex observed regretfully. After another few moments the Arendelle prince felt Amy unconsciously cuddle up against his arm as she slept.

"Don't worry." Evie said gently to Ellie, though she wasn't sure the blonde Arendelle princess heard her. She didn't acknowledge it if anything else. "We're going to get to Arendelle and we're going to save your mother."

Melody sat by the fire, feeling her body temperature returning to normal now that she was out of the cold water. She just hoped that it helped to heal Mal, that her healers would wake up refreshed from the attempt, and that Audrey would wake up refreshed from the very draining fight.


	112. Frozen Fights Part 4

_Anna had never trusted their light blue skinned guest. It seemed wrong to her after all she had heard from her son and her niece in Auradon. They had made friends with six giant mutant turtles, four males and two females, who had a rat master teaching them martial arts. They had a sister who was supposed to be mutant snake and two female friends who had some sort of alien and demon DNA in them. Yet that all seemed perfectly normal to her, and this did not._

 _But that lack of trust did nothing to prepare her for when things did go south._

 _It had been a rather cold night in Arendelle, all things considered. It had been after two in the morning and Anna had not been able to fall asleep. It was certainly one of those nights where she would have loved to have Kristoff by her side. But she had talked to him only that afternoon to find out that the relief effort, though turning out to be a success, was slow going. He would not be home for at least another week._

 _When she had told him of her suspicions about their guest he gently poked fun at her willingness to marry Prince Hans of the Southern Isles despite the fact she had not known him that well at all. It was on Anna's tongue to point how quickly she had fallen for him despite that same lack of knowledge and look where they were now when Kristoff added, "Look Anna, if you think something is wrong with her you have to follow up on that. Get Elsa to help you and have a real interrogation or something. Or ask someone in Auradon to help out. You're not alone in this, and neither is Arendelle."_

 _"You're right." Anna said to him with a sad smile. "I have to remember that." She resolved to contact her son in the morning and get some help. She remembered Alex saying that he found one of the girls, the younger twin daughter of Maleficent Amy, very attractive and sweet. That she was the exact opposite of what they thought the Isle of the Lost stood for. And she remembered Alex commenting on her older sister Mal, her strength and determination. Her stubbornness and her confidence. Someone like her and Ellie were what they needed to find the truth. She decided she would let Elsa know about her plan and contact them when the sun rose._

 _That moment never came. One hour later there were several screams that echoed around the castle. Anna burst from her room only to let out a scream herself as she ducked under a rapidly flying ball of ice. It stopped and twirled back toward her. Anna scrambled into her room and closed the door, and she heard a collision against it._

 _She grit her teeth and slammed the door open hard, shattering the ice ball. She thought it might be easier than she expected. But as she made her way into the main halls of the castle she saw more of the ice balls fighting the guards. She saw other weird creatures; a tiger for one. Outside she gasped in shock as she saw two large monsters dealing with the guards outside._

 _She saw some of the strongest guards falling to three warriors; the ones she would later come to know as Grunard, Gauntula and Ryu. She suddenly feared her husband, son, and niece wouldn't have a home to come back too. She decided she had to find Elsa and they had to go to Auradon now._

 _Anna ran through the halls, finding Elsa's room abandoned. She had to swallow sorrow down as she saw a picture on the floor. One of their family; her, Elsa, Kristoff, Ellie and Alex on the floor. The frame was broken and there was some blood around it. She knelt down and brushed her hand against it. "You've tried so hard to make this work for all of us Elsa." She said softly, feeling an uncharacteristic rush of anger at the man who abandoned her sister and niece. "And now someone else is trying to ruin it all."_

 _She left her sister's room to and again resumed her search. To her horror she found Elsa in the courtyard. She wasn't too shocked to find her sister in a standoff against their 'guest', the blue skinned woman._

 _"You fell for my trap." She gloated to Elsa. "Such a fool." She shot at Elsa with her own powers, and the Queen of Arendelle was able to block it._

 _"I was foolish to trust you." The blonde queen agreed. "And when we drive out your forces I'll make sure you regret bringing this to my kingdom."_

 _That was when a three headed beast, showed up and attacked as well. It struck dangerously close to Anna and again she screamed in shock._

 _Elsa gasped and turned around. "Anna!" She called out. "Don't hurt my sister." She said to their invader._

 _"Then surrender." She ordered._

 _"Elsa, no!" Anna called out to her. "You can beat her."_

 _Ice Queen shot out at her again and this time it struck the balcony. She fell hard, feeling a shooting pain in her leg. It would not fade until days later when she found herself in Auradon._

 _"Anna, go!" Elsa called out to her little sister. She swallowed her own sorrow. "It's too late for Arendelle. Keep our children safe. Keep Auradon safe. Keep Kristoff safe."_

 _Anna started to protest. "I can't leave you Elsa."_

 _The Ice Queen shot at the younger princess again and this time Elsa intercepted the blow directly, taking it in the center of her back. "Anna, go." Elsa again implored softly before she fell to her knees, losing consciousness._

 _"ELSA, NO!" Anna screamed in horror. She then forced that down to fulfill what she realized might have been her sister's last request. With tears glistening in her eyes she turned and ran for the gates, ran for all she was worth toward Auradon…_

Anna sat up with a small scream at the nightmare and hugged the blonde in front of her. "Elsa, I'm so sorry I failed you." She whispered.

The embrace was returned. "It's me, Ellie." Her niece chided her softly. "Not mom. And you didn't fail her. You did what she said, what she knew had to be done. We're going to save Arendelle and save my mom." She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.

Anna pulled away and wiped the tears from her face. "Of course we will." She said softly.

Audrey opened her eyes and saw the last thing she expected, though it was far from unwelcome. Mal was looking down at her with a smile on her face. "Morning sleeping beauty." The purple haired girl said with a small smile.

"You're okay." Audrey gasped and hugged her for a minute. She then looked behind her and realized she must have been asleep on Jay's lap the entire time. She reached out and hugged him now. "You're all okay."

"Thanks to you." Jay said, voice full of pride. "You did it on your own. You took down Freezadon."

"Very brave and very stupid." Mal chided her softly but with her own sense of pride. "You did really great Audrey." The two former rivals exchanged friendly smiles.

Meanwhile Amy and Melody were hugging Aquiella tightly as she smiled at the sudden show of affection. Amy was the first to pull back and leaned against Alex a bit. Mal looked over at the mermaid girl and smiled. "Thank you for what you did." She said. She glanced at Melody and Amy, knowing both had contributed to her rapid recovery as well. "All of you."

"I owed you." Aquiella said with a light joking laugh. "You did that for me in Atlantica after all." She had been gravely injured taking a spear for Belle and the ranger team had healed her. "It's what we do for each other."

Ben and Amy both went over and hugged Mal again, the fifth one they had given her since she had woken up almost five minutes ago. The purple haired girl took another moment to lavish in the affection from her boyfriend and twin sister before saying, "We aren't the only family that needs a reunion." She looked to Anna, Ellie and Alex. "We need to get moving to Arendelle and liberate the kingdom and free Elsa."

"Whatever you say M." Evie said with a delighted smile of her own. She had been right behind Ben and Amy when her chosen sister had woken up. Carlos and Jay too had been delighted to see her recover as well.

"Hang on a second." Melody said. "I think we better take a moment to replenish those warmth runes you two invented." She had looked to Mal and Amy, both of who nodded in agreement. They had been close to wearing out on most of them and in the case of the twins and mermaid cousins the runes were all but gone. Between the twins and Evie they got the runes reapplied and were ready to move on.

Together the team happily but cautiously moved on. They discovered, perhaps not too surprisingly, that the way out had not been that far from where Freezadon had taken up residence. It didn't stop their surroundings from being extremely cold of course.

"Just the way Ice Queen likes it no doubt." Carlos remarked.

"I remember Tommy saying that they had been so cold even through their suits that it felt like the cold was hurting them too." Lonnie voiced. "It took an artifact that he says no longer exists to make that stop."

"Let's be glad for the warmth runes then." Jay said.

"We should head down." Anna said. "Toward the castle. The more fights we can avoid the better off we'll be." They all knew she was right and started down the mountain. Even with the thick snow cover they could just make out the ice palace Elsa had made at the top of the mountain were the giant ice guardian that she had made named Marshmallow was living at.

"I just hope they don't know that we're coming down this way." Jay commented. "If they do, we could be setting ourselves up for a major ambush here."

"The generals should have reported us dead." Carlos reminded him. "They probably don't expect any sort of opposition to whatever the Ice Queen has planned."

"A word of warning." They heard a growl from the snow. "Never underestimate the enemy. You may not live to regret it." A tiger with light blue fur emerged holding two swords and covered in wrappings, almost like a mummy. He stood on two legs, reminding Lonnie of the mutant assassin Tiger Claw that Karai had told her Shredder hired as his second in command.

Before anyone could point out that they could probably take out one tiger monster what seemed to be hundreds of floating ice balls appeared. "Ice Witches." Audrey commented softly. They all glowed softly, ready to attack the defenseless team.

"Who are you?" Evie asked. "How did you find us?"

"I am Loren, tracker of the Ice Barrier." He answered her. "Surrender now and your deaths will be quick." The tiger monster promised. "Otherwise it will be excruciating."

The team was clearly unhappy about this turn of events but they saw no other choice at the moment. Any move to transform would get them killed. If they played along maybe they would have a way of turning things around, they sure couldn't do that if they were dead. They all started to raise their hands.

"That's what I thought." Loren said gloatingly as some of the Ice Witches started toward them.

There was a loud crashing through the forest and then Anna gasped in pleasant surprise as Marshmallow revealed himself, slapping several of the Ice Witches around, this way and that.

"What? It's still alive?" Loren questioned in annoyance.

"Let's get to work." Mal called out quickly. They rapidly went from reaching toward the skies to grabbing their iPhones and inputting their numbers to transform. Ben didn't even need to change anything as he summoned his Praeleanthor sword and shield and then combining them to become the Auradon Knight.

"No crazy stunts this time, okay Audrey?" Mal commented to the red ranger.

"Sure, as long as you try to avoid any crippling shots." Audrey replied back with a small laugh.

"No promises." Mal teased the brunette princess. Then she grew more serious as she looked to Ben. "Keep Ellie, Anna and Alex safe from the Ice Witches." She instructed her boyfriend. It was weird to her sometimes to be giving the king of Auradon orders, but that was the hierarchy of the ranger team. She looked to Will, Melody, Aquiella and Amy. "Help Marshmallow," She still wondered where that name came from. "To take out the Ice Witches while the rest of us deal with Loren."

"You got it sis." Amy said even as Will, Ben and the mermaid rangers added, "You got it Mal."

"Then you six will be the first to be slaughtered, like lambs." Loren said as he stepped off to face off against Mal, Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Lonnie.

"We'll see about that stripe head." Carlos replied.

"Stripe head?" Jay questioned with a slightly mocking laugh. "Dude, we have got to work on your trash talk."

"Even I know that's really lame." Lonnie added.

Loren brought his two bladed weapons together and unleashed an icy burst of energy at the six rangers that sent them landing to the ground hard. Loren then charged toward them.

Mal rose and summoned her dragon's eye staff and met him halfway. He swung at her left handed and she blocked with the staff. He tried to go the right way and she blocked that one before slamming the jewel that made the staff what it was into his face as hard as she could.

"You will regret that purple ranger." Loren threatened her.

"Not likely." Mal retorted as she raised her dragon's eye staff. Jay and Carlos launched into the air and used that as a platform to increase their momentum as they slashed him with the soul scimitar and the earthquake claw daggers. He stumbled back with a growl.

Lonnie and Audrey moved in and double teamed with a slash attack of their own with the hurricane tessens and the right edge of the elemental bow. He rolled to the side as he stumbled back even further.

Evie unleashed her storming mirror force attack at Loren and sent him flying back into one of the trees. Some snow came lose and fell onto his head. The blue haired blue ranger couldn't help but laugh. "Looks like you've bitten off more than you can chew." She noted. "Pretty ironic if you ask me."

"Do not get cocky." Loren advised as he leaned back a bit. Then he rushed forward quickly as he moved his blades out to the side and slashed all six of them hard, forcing the boys and Lonnie to fall to the left as Audrey, Mal and Evie fell to the right. "You are but cubs, playing in the den of the beast king."

Even with Marshmallow helping them out it seemed as if the Ice Witches were endless. Amy realized with a lot of regret and slight annoyance that neither she, Will, the king, or the mermaid girls would be able to help them out. They were on their own.

Loren jumped up and attempted to bring his blades down on Carlos, the yellow ranger just managed to move out of the way. Then with his hind legs, equipped with sharp claws, he lashed out and kicked both Jay and Lonnie in the chest as they started to get up. Then with a quick twist he kicked Carlos in the chest hard as well.

Mal and Audrey moved in to try a double team attack, but this time Loren was fast enough to raise his blades and block the downward stroke of the dragon's eye staff and the edge of the elemental bow. He then knocked them back and slashed both rangers hard.

Evie watched as Loren turned toward her and she raised her mirror force shield, ready to try to block any attack he sent her way; regardless of whether it was the physical attack he had delivered at her friends or another energy attack with his blades.

Loren laughed at her. "There are more ways to deal with an opponent besides direct attacks blue ranger." He commented. With that he drove his blades into the ground and directed an attack that started toward her.

As Evie prepared to reflect that attack it suddenly diverged into two and then remerged in the back to strike her hard. She flew forward from the impact as Loren leapt toward her and slashed her with one of his blades hard.

She fell to the ground as her other five team mates gathered around her. "So what do we do now Mal?" Carlos asked their leader.

"Time for the triangle spark." Mal announced. "Quickly."

Audrey, Evie and Lonnie stood side by side. Jay and Carlos jumped onto the girl's shoulders. Mal then jumped up onto the boy's shoulders, reluctantly glad that Evie had talked her into cheerleading after all. They formed their blasters and then fired the Auradon Triangle Spark at Loren.

Loren placed his left blade on in back of the top of the right blade and then drew it down. That action drew up a large icicle, more like the size of a stalagmite, that blocked the attack and shot it right back at the six of them.

Even as the three girls fell backwards landing hard on their backs, Mal and the two guys fell forward. The boys took a hard landing on their right sides as Mal landed hard on her own back. Loren launched himself at the purple ranger and she let out a gasp of shock as she rolled out of the way.

"Mal, what's plan b?" Lonnie asked her friend.

"Plan b." Mal murmured as she rushed thoughts through her head. Only one came to mind. "Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie. Keep him distracted for us." The four nodded and she looked to Audrey. "Time for us to go big."

"Good idea." Audrey said to her. She just hoped it worked.

The four rangers did their best to surround Loren. He lashed his blades out at Carlos who blocked it with his earthquake claw daggers. Jay and Lonnie kicked him in the chest, knocking him backwards. Evie followed up with her own form of revenge; the quaking mirror force attack. It sent him sprawling to the ground.

As the four did that, Mal and Audrey activated their battlizers. Mal now was outfitted in what Alex thought of as her dragon mode while Audrey was outfitted in what he thought of as her princess mode.

"How very interesting." Loren allowed as he turned to face the two rangers. "But has anything changed besides your looks?"

"You bet it has." Audrey replied. "You should find this move just as familiar as your friend Freezadon did." She raised her hands and the pink crystals formed. This time she also removed the pink earrings and then tossed them all, along with the crystals themselves, at Loren. They all struck him hard and he fell back.

Mal powered up a dragon pulse of her own and tossed it at Loren. The tiger monster raised his blades to block the attack, but the pulse was strong enough to not only break through the ice stalagmite but his two blades as well. "What?" He gasped.

Now Mal shrunk her dragon's eye staff down to the size of an arrow and tossed it at Audrey. "Time for the dragon arrow strike and the draco meteor." She said to the brunette princess.

"Let's do it." Audrey agreed with a small laugh. She placed the dragon's eye arrow into the strings of the elemental bow and took aim the tracker of the ice barrier.

Mal powered up her energies and launched her draco meteor attack at Loren and struck him hard, he fell back several steps. Like her own zord's attack Mal knew that her powers would start to get weaker with every subsequent meteor attack. But if it worked out like she was hoping Audrey should be able to finish off the threat.

Audrey drew her bow back. She remembered when the turtles and Jennifer had helped them stop Maleficent and her power draining plan. Afterwards they had had a pizza party and Raphael's girlfriend Jennifer had said that Audrey's skills with the bow struck her as on par with a character named Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games series. The brunette princess didn't exactly understand the reference behind the comment but figured if the lithe blonde was saying that it was meant to be a compliment and had gladly accepted it. Now she took her best aim and fired the dragon's eye arrow straight at Loren. It collected power and energy as it soared right at the tiger monster and by the time it struck it delivered a powerful blow that destroyed him even as he would have otherwise been sent flying.

The two girls descended downward, each looking regal in their own way. Mal was more in line with the strength and confidence of a dragon while Audrey was more in line with the grace and regality of a royal. Then they both powered down their battlizers.

"Let's help our friends clear out the Ice Witches." Mal said to her team. They all nodded and echoed, "Right."

With all of them working together the Ice Witches didn't have a chance and they quickly turned tail and ran.

"Um, so what about the big guy?" Carlos asked with a somewhat nervous glance at Marshmallow.

"I thought Marshmallow might have either been corrupted or taken down." Anna answered as they started to approach the somewhat wary ice creature that Elsa had made as a guardian, and later care taker, of the ice castle she had made. "I guess I was wrong."

Aquiella and Amy somewhat cautiously approached him though the truth was he seemed almost as uncertain of the ranger team as they were of him. Finally though between Amy's empathic powers and natural awareness and Aquiella's empathic powers, more like telepathic when boosted by Amy and surrounded by water albeit frozen they were able to piece things together.

"He's been trying to stop the Ice Queen's minions from acquiring something on this mountain." Aquiella revealed to them. "Something that she doesn't want found. She overheard her former tracker talking about it with those generals we had misfortune of meeting earlier."

"Maybe it's that cold fire that Jason mentioned." Ellie suggested. "If it is, it could help us defeat the Ice Queen and free Arendelle and my mom."

"And maybe it will help us defeat the others too." Mal added. She still remembered their loss to the three ice barrier generals. That loss had actually propelled them into the caves where Freezadon had did a terrible number on her after she prevented Amy from getting that fate.

"Sounds like the best option we have is to go after it then." Ben replied.

Ellie nodded. "Keep the paths open for us if at all possible." She requested of Marshmallow who, at least to her, at almost seemed like a giant pet when she was younger. "We're going to retrieve whatever it is that Ice Queen doesn't want to be found and then we're going to take it with us to Arendelle." It seemed as if Marshmallow understood her as the large ice creature trudged back into the forest.

"It's nice to have a big somewhat scary monster on our side." Carlos noted. "Instead of having it trying to kill us."

"How do we find this…this whatever it is?" Audrey asked them. "We don't exactly have a map to show us the way."

"No, but we have something almost as good." Evie replied as she took our her magic mirror. The way she had used it as a weapon after becoming a power ranger it was easy to forget originally she had been given the item for a different purpose; to help locate Fairy Godmother's wand, which now served as Jane's source of ranger power when they had their grid fully operational, so they could take it to Maleficent. Now she held up that mirror. "Mirror mirror in my hand, take us to the what the Ice Queen most fears in the land." She recited.

"Hey, that was a pretty good one actually." Carlos remarked. He was usually the one to make jokes about spells that he thought had bad rhymes to it, even though as Mal pointed out on more than one occasion as long as the spell did its job then it didn't matter how it sounded, or looked in some cases.

"Come on guys, follow me." Evie said as she started to the left. The others were behind her as they hoped that whatever it was they were seeking would really help them to put the Ice Queen down, liberate Arendelle and save Elsa.


	113. Frozen Fights Part 5

Silence prevailed among the team as they followed Evie, who was in turn following the directions her mirror was giving her on where to find 'the item that Ice Queen fears. If possible it was even colder now than it had ever been.

Mal thought it was nice though that they had been able to out fight Loren the ice barrier tiger tracker relatively easy enough. It was better than getting beaten down like the ice barrier generals had done to them. The truth was they were still uncertain how they were going to win the inevitable rematch.

"Do you think Miranda and the others are okay?" Ellie voice out of nowhere. It was a bit of a weird question from her considering she had spent so much time recently dwelling on the fate of her mother after Ice Queen's invasion of Arendelle.

"I think they're okay." Amy replied. "If something had gone wrong they would have tried to contact us. Our communication devices might be damaged but I think that April or Professor Rockwell could contact Aquiella or I psychically if something was wrong."

"Man, I hope so." Carlos mused as he thought about Jane.

"I never thought it would feel so empty like this." Audrey voiced.

"Empty?" Jay asked in confusion. He'd never admit but he thought on some level Audrey was referring to the two of them as a couple or whatever they were.

"Look at us Jay." Audrey replied as she gestured around them. "Ellie and Alex are here because this is personal for them; otherwise we would have insisted they stay behind." She gave the two Arendelle heirs apologetic looks but they both knew the brunette princess was right. "We don't have Jordan, Ally or Aziz with us. We don't have Jane or Miranda with us. We don't even have Grant with us." She sighed just a bit. "We're only half of what we should be."

Mal placed her hand on Amy's shoulder and squeezed it softly. "You're right Audrey." Mal agreed. "Our team won't be complete until we have everyone who should be here fully reunited with their powers."

"Out of curiosity I tried my iPhone." Alex said. "During the battle with the Ice Witches and Loren. My powers are still out."

"Same here." Ellie admitted. She too had tried. And they knew that after the battlizers and the neon armor their powers would be the next priority for those back home in Auradon. Two out of the three had come to fruition so far.

"We'll get there, back to that level." Evie said with confidence. Unlike most of those statements of late this one she could say with certainty. Though it had indeed been daunting she could understand what needed to get done on a level no one else here except for Carlos could understand. They had really already made remarkable progress. "And we might even end up better than ever."

"She's right." Carlos confirmed. "Doug and Jane will make it happen, I promise. And they're not alone either. We have the best technical workers of the ranger legacy right there with them."

"Most of which won't matter if we lose here." Mal reminded them all gently but firmly. "So where do we stand on finding what we need E?"

Evie glanced down at the magic mirror. "A few more miles to go M." She answered her first chosen sister.

"Do you two remember when you were younger and we'd come up here for the weekend?" Anna asked Ellie and Alex. "Just the two of you, me and Kristoff?"

Ellie laughed. "Yes, I think that was the 'mom has to catch up on castle business so we're going to get out of her hair' weekends." She replied though it was clear they were fond memories. What wasn't so fond though was when they had made it a week trip once, when her father was in the midst of leaving the two of them. Elsa had met them to tell her daughter not to worry and to enjoy herself. Her father had not shown. She rarely spoke of that incident, and in fact Alex was the only other one who knew that.

"I hope it was warmer." Lonnie joked.

"In fact it was." Alex said. "It was so nice around here. The skies were usually clear, it was pretty mild. The fruits and berries were sweet and it was easy to fish for food." He laughed and smiled just a little. "Dad knows where most of the good stuff is. He's been doing this for a long time."

"But your mom had to have her own traditions with you two right?" Audrey asked them.

"Of course." Ellie replied. "When Alex and I were younger she would take two weeks away from Arendelle and we'd spend that time in the ice castle she made. It's so pretty inside of it, and once she realized that we'd be using it the castle was made with more modern conveniences."

Alex laughed. "Imagine a heated swimming pool in a castle of ice." He told them all. "But there is one." That caused the two mermaid girls and Amy to laugh a little.

Lonnie laughed a little. "We could use one of those around here right now." She joked.

To the slight displeasure of everyone the path they followed led them back to the mountains. It was an unpleasant reminder of the fight with Freezadon that had critically injured Mal and forced Audrey to her limits.

However rather than leading them into the mountains proper they instead started to follow Evie around the side of the mountain. "At least we're still outside." Jay said as he glanced around. "Though some of these areas look kind of steep."

"Let's not get into a fight here if we can avoid it." Will said.

"Yeah, I'm sure our opponents will care about that." Audrey replied with an amused roll of her eyes.

Aquiella saw Amy tense. "What's wrong?" She asked her friend.

"Something is here." Amy said to her. "Some kind of strong, I don't know if magic is the right word but it's all I can think of."

Alex took her hand and squeezed it softly. "I feel it too." He said to the rose haired girl. "It's hot and cold…it has to be the cold fire." He glanced at Ellie. He was certain she too had also felt it. One could only wonder how something like that had been made. "It's somewhere around here."

"And I thank you children for leading me right to it." They heard from one of the rocky hilltops. They turned to see the monk general Gauntula there with several of the Ice Guards around him. "Once we destroy the cold fire nothing will stand in our way."

"Too bad for you we're going to get it first." Mal said to him. She was sure between her sister and Alex, who would also get help from Ellie and Anna since they wouldn't be fighting, she was sure they could find it before the general did. On top of that the rest of them could distract them.

Gauntula laughed. "Do you really think I came alone rangers?" He questioned. Then from a higher crevice a dragon climbed over it. It let out a roar as the wings seemed to go from covering the entire back of the body to rising into the air with a flourish. "Meet Gunrir of the ice barrier." He said with a laugh.

"Oh my pink." Amy whispered in shock. Not that it was the first time she'd seen a dragon but it was never any less of a shock, especially since aside from Mal's dragon zord all of the dragons they ran into seemed to be something they had to figure out how to defeat.

"Alex, Amy, Ellie, Anna, find that cold fire or whatever it is we came here to find." Mal said to her sister and friend. "Ben, Will. Deal with Gauntula. The rest of us will take out that dragon." As Ben formed the Praeleanthor sword and shield and Melody formed the trident, the rest of the team except Amy took out their iPhones and transformed.

Gunrir jumped off the crevice and landed with a thunderous crash in front of the rangers. "Oh, I'm so glad we get the fun part." Audrey drawled as she formed her elemental bow. In response he roared at them and then started to charge them.

Without knowing what else to do the rangers dodged to either side and let Gunrir soar past him. To their slight dismay they saw his claws dig into the ice and make a sharp and agile u turn back toward the power rangers.

Will nudged Ben's shoulder. "Come on, we better go intercept Gauntula before he intercepts Alex and the girls." He said to the Auradon Knight. "We're just going to have to hope that the others can handle this thing."

Ben nodded. "You're right." He agreed. Together the two started toward the ice barrier general who had indeed started toward the four of them, some of the guards with him as the others rushed over to intercept Ben and Will.

"Mal." Lonnie started.

But the purple ranger noted what was happening too. There was only one thing she could think of right now. "Melody, Aquiella." She called to the two mermaid rangers. "Can you two get the guards so that way the guys can stop Gauntula?"

"We're on it Mal." Melody promised as the two mermaid rangers started toward the guys to help out.

"Leaving us with the dragon." Carlos noted. "Great for us."

Gunrir reared back his head and unleashed a stream of blue fire at the six rangers. There was no room to dodge and the six of them were sent flying back in flames and sparks before landing hard. He then started to charge right toward the rangers. They all barely recovered enough to dodge it.

Melody and Aquiella rushed the ice guards, the attack distracting them enough for Ben and Will to slip by them just as Gauntula almost caught up to the Alex and the girls. He was just reaching for Amy when Ben shield bashed him in the face and sent him sprawling in the opposite direction. He and Will faced off against the general.

"I hate the idea of leaving Mal and the others." Amy confessed to her friends and Anna as they followed the path Amy thought would lead them to what they were looking for.

Alex patted her shoulder gently. "Let's hope it doesn't take too long to find what we need so that way we can get back to them that much sooner." He replied softly.

They had reached a small cave where there were two ice guards starting to go into it themselves, how they found it was anyone's guess. Ellie formed a long icicle and moved in, knocking both of them out. "Glad I could finally do something to help." The blonde princess commented.

Inside they started down, and a few feet later the area started to glow a light blue. It was easy to find a small campfire like thing in the area along with what looked to be crackling blue fire. "The cold fire." Ellie murmured.

"So who wants to grab that one?" Anna asked teasingly. Ordinarily she'd be more than willing to do that but suspected it wasn't her place."

"Cold." Alex teased his cousin.

"Fire." Ellie teased her cousin back.

They both laughed softly and then Alex patted Amy's shoulder again reassuringly as he started to step toward the cold fire. Then Amy let out a little scream as a third ice guard slammed his staff into her hard. She fell and hit the cave wall, stunning her.

Ellie moved now to try to stop him but he dodged the icicle she had used to knock out the other guards before bringing his staff up against her chin hard and she too fell back to the ground hard, as stunned as Amy.

"Leave them alone." Anna tried to protest and got the staff slammed into her face hard too.

"No." Alex gasped. "Mom, Amy, Ellie." He started toward them but his hand brushed the cold fire. He felt a very small shiver shoot throughout his body followed by a strong and intense heat. It ended at his iPhone and then it glowed. As he turned to face the ice guard the gem inside the iPhone glowed and he charged his adversary as the Fire Knight. The fire tonfa formed in his hand and broke the staff into half before the second one slammed into the ice guard's chest and knocked him out.

"Alex." Ellie breathed in shock but some relief as she looked up at her transformed cousin.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked his cousin even as he saw Anna getting up and going to check on Amy.

"Yes." Ellie answered. She turned back to see the cold fire still there. "I'll get that." She smiled a little. "Maybe it will help restore my powers." She joked and as she stood she added, "Make sure Amy is okay."

Alex nodded and approached as Anna helped Amy to her feet. "Are you okay?" he asked the rose haired girl.

"Yes." Amy replied and then gave him a soft smile. "I assume you're okay, now that somehow you're back to your former glory."

Alex laughed a bit. "It was the brush with the cold fire. It seemed to jump start my powers." He laughed just a little. "I'd love to see the look on Doug and the others faces when they see that show up on the consoles." Amy laughed a little now too.

Ellie had picked up the cold fire and looked at her iPhone. She was disheartened to see that her powers had not stirred. She felt nothing different besides the cold. When she turned around the other three could see the look of disappointment on her face. "I guess what was good for the goose wasn't good for the gander." Anna asked.

"Huh?" Amy questioned confused.

"What Aunt Anna means is that she's guessing my powers weren't restored like Alex's was." Ellie translated for the rose haired girl somberly. "And she's right." She let out a soft sigh. "We should get you two back to the others so you can help against Gunrir and Gauntula. I'll hold onto the cold fire." She wanted to be useful somehow after all.

The dragon tried to take a huge bite out of Carlos but he yelped and jumped back. "Dang, that is some horrible breath." The yellow ranger noted with annoyance.

"I'm sure that's the monsters worst concerns." Jay reminded him with a laugh.

Lonnie and Audrey moved in to try to attack the dragon. Gunrir's wing lashed out and struck both princesses hard. Evie brought her mirror force shield up and unleashed a storming mirror force attack but the dragon soared above the attack and unleashed a stream of blue fire at her, striking her hard.

Jay and Carlos jumped up and tried to bring their weapons down on the dragon monster, which chose to furl the wings in around itself and blocked both attacks. The bottom wings lifted and the claws came out and slashed the boys down hard.

Mal twirled her dragon's eye staff and then aimed the jeweled part of it at the dragon's chest. Gunrir lashed down and chomped onto the staff hard before tossing her hard. As Mal hit the ground and rolled he unleashed a stream of blue fire at her.

"I think we need a plan b here." Lonnie noted. She was starting to think they needed a lot of plan b's. She saw that the mermaid rangers were still engaged with what seemed to be an endless supply of ice guards. Ben and Will were having a difficult time against the general despite it being a two on one fight, perhaps proving that fists and feet were the best weapons a fighter might have.

"I think it's time that we try to use our battlizers." Audrey said to Mal. It was all she could think of to do against this dragon.

"I think you're right." Mal agreed.

Gunrir again moved pretty fast and the wings stretched out to slash Evie, Lonnie, Carlos and Jay hard and then rammed his hugged head into Audrey hard. As the other rangers took a rough landing the red ranger took a harder landing that resulted in her crashing into a tree and having the wind knocked out of her.

"Guess it's up to me." Mal murmured and started to summon her battlizer but Gunrir's flight path ended as he landed in front of the purple ranger and moved rapidly enough to lash his head at her. She tried to dodge to the side only for the dragon monster to clamp its teeth around her waist and start to lift her up.

"Mal!" Amy gasped out. She was already sure she was going to have nightmares about Mal putting herself in danger against Freezadon to protect her and now the giant dragon was trying to tear her apart.

Alex combined his tonfa's and unleashed a stream of blue fire right at Gunrir. It struck him hard and he hissed as he released Mal. She landed hard and turned to face the fire knight. Mal's eye widened slightly. "Alex." She gasped. "You…you're powered again."

"Yeah, I just wish it worked for Ellie as well." Alex said to her. "But I'll help you take out the dragon."

Amy took out her iPhone. "I'll go help Melody and Aquiella then." She decided. She input her numbers 9976 and transformed into the rose ranger. With her rose lance divided into two she jumped into the fray.

"Did you guys find it?" Melody asked as she looked at Amy.

The rose ranger nodded. "Ellie has it, the cold fire." She replied. "I hope we can use this to get Ice Queen out of Arendelle once and for all."

"I do hope so too." Aquiella agreed. "But we have to worry about surviving this fight first." The two girls couldn't argue with her logic and resumed the fight against the ice guards.

Alex moved in with his tonfa's and tried to attack Gunrir. He flew up and tried to unleash a stream of blue fire at the fire knight but the attack didn't have any real effect on him since his powers were based on that element.

Gauntula aimed both of his fists at Ben but the young king raised his shield to block the strike and then swung the Praeleanthor sword at the ice barrier general but he stepped back to avoid the blow. He looked to Will. "Go help Lonnie and the others." He said. "Between the Auradon Triangle Spark and the battlizers you might be able to put the dragon down."

"I don't feel right leaving you to fight this guy alone." Will replied as he swung his recursive sword in arc at Gauntula, who again had to side step to dodge the attack.

"Have Alex come over and give me a hand." Ben replied. "With the three separate attacks I think he could be spared." Will nodded reluctantly and started back over toward the rangers, taking out a couple of ice guards along the way.

Will jumped off a tree and came down hard on Gunrir's back. He roared and tried to force the green ranger off. He held on as long as he could and then flipped off of his back and landed in front of Alex and the rangers. "Ben thinks the two battlizers and the triangle spark could take out the dragon monster." He told them and then looked to Alex. "But I don't feel comfortable leaving Ben alone to fight Gauntula."

The fire knight nodded. "I'll go back him up." He answered and then ran off.

"The five of us will keep Gunrir occupied then." Evie said to Mal and Audrey. "Get your battlizers set up and then you two can occupy the dragon while we get in position for the spark blast."

Mal nodded. "Alright, sounds like a plan." She agreed. As the Blue, Black, Yellow, Green and Pink rangers drew their blasters and headed in to distract the dragon monster the purple ranger looked to the red ranger. "Ready to do this?"

Audrey nodded. "As you like to say, let's get to work." Mal chuckled a little bit and then the two girls activated their battlizers. Moments later they were ready to go just as Gunrir brought across a huge clawed paw and slashed down the five rangers.

"Let's see how he likes that kind of attack." Mal said as she headed toward the dragon monster, the two being able to fly while they had their battlizers equipped. She used the same extensions that were on her zord when it shifted to its Chinese dragon form to lash out and strike Gunrir hard. He roared at them and fired blue flame at her, but she dodged it.

Audrey removed the jeweled earrings and tossed them opposite arches toward Gunrir. They were just small enough that while the dragon monster could see them coming he was unable to figure out how to deal with them until they struck him across the face hard. He stumbled backwards.

"This is our best chance." Mal said to her team as she floated up next to Audrey, again changing her dragon's eye staff into the arrow form for her. She didn't need the staff to use her attack with the battlizer. "Let's give it all we've got."

"Good call." Audrey said as she accepted the arrow.

"We're on it." Will replied. He stood next to Jay and Carlos. Lonnie and Evie jumped up onto the boy's shoulders and they pulled out their blasters.

As Audrey placed the dragon's eye arrow into the silk like strings of her elemental bow Mal powered up her draco meteor attack. Gunrir was just recovering from the small but seemingly shocking attack and the red ranger called out, "Now."

The five rangers shot out the Auradon Triangle Spark from their combined lasers. Audrey let loose with the dragon's eye arrow, the energy around it collecting to make a powerful burst upon impact as Mal released her strongest draco meteor and hoped this worked as she wouldn't be able to release another attack that strong for a while if this failed.

The three attacks struck Gunrir head on, causing a few massive explosions before the dragon monster fell to the ground with an explosion. The seven rangers hit the snowy ground hard but when they looked up they saw that the dragon monster was gone.

"We did it." Audrey said happily even as her battlizer powered down. "We defeated him."

"We're not done yet." Jay reminded the red ranger though she heard satisfaction in his voice. "We have to help defeat the Ice Guards and Gauntula."

"I'm going to help Ben and Alex." Mal told them. Her battlizer had likewise powered down. She wanted to finally be able to back her boyfriend and she wanted to help protect the guy that her little sister seemed to like. "The rest of you help get rid of the Ice Guard's and then join us so we can get rid of Gauntula." The others nodded in agreement.

Mal divided from her team and jumped out, kicking Gauntula from behind. He turned look at them her in annoyance only to realize that the dragon monster he had brought with him was gone. He saw the rest of the rangers moving in and helping the three girls take out the Ice Guards, whose number seemed far less intimidating now that there were more than three rangers.

"You're monster is history." Mal said, admittedly stating the obvious. "You've lost this fight." She didn't want to tell him that they got what they were looking for.

It was clear though that he must have drawn that conclusion. "And you have what we came looking for." He said with annoyance. "But that's only half the battle. You still have a long way to go, power rangers." With that the general and the remaining ice guards vanished.

As the two teams converged Anna and Ellie came out of the forests to join then. Amy was already rushing up to her twin sister. "Are you okay?" She asked Mal. "I saw that dragon trying to take a bite out of you."

Mal stroked her sister's hair softly. "Just fine Amy, the ranger suit seems to have a great sense of durability." She replied though in truth her sides ached just a little. She figured it would pass soon enough though.

Ellie showed the cold fire to the rest of the rangers. "I don't know how it works, but we have it. We have a way to weaken the Ice Queen and take back Arendelle."

"Looks like the unusual mix of fire and ice helped restore you powers too." Carlos noted to Alex with a smirk. "Don't suppose it helped you out Ellie."

"No, it didn't." She answered with a small hint of annoyance.

"We'll get it restored soon enough." Mal promised her. She knew that Doug and the rest of their friends were working tirelessly to get the rest of the powers up and running again. "We're almost to Arendelle and we're going to send that usurper packing."


	114. Frozen Fights Part 6

Tensions were mounting as Anna led them across the frozen waters toward the gates of Arendelle. Amy took Alex's hand softly as she saw the look of sadness in his eyes. She could only imagine what Alex, Ellie and Anna were thinking about as they made this trek. She wished that someone could offer Ellie comfort the way she thought she was doing for Alex.

Anna herself was torn between what she had always thought of when it came to Arendelle and remembering what it was like the last time she had seen it like this. That time though it was due to Elsa not having proper control over her powers while this one was an external influence that she hoped son, niece and their friends could put a stop too.

She ignored the tears the brimmed as she remembered Hans ready to strike down Elsa and she rushed in to protect her as the ice that had been inadvertently placed into her heart by Elsa had frozen her over. It was Elsa's tears and love that had brought her back. And days ago she had been forced to watch as the Ice Queen struck Elsa down. That last thought resulted in some of those tears escaping,

"We'll free Arendelle." Amy said softly to Anna and Alex as they walked. "We'll find your aunt and stop the Ice Queen."

"Count on it." Mal agreed with steel in her eyes. Although it wouldn't have been ice based, she could only see this as the kind of chaos and destruction her mother would have delighted in. And now she couldn't possibly abide it.

"I always hated the cold weather." Audrey said to herself as they walked along as carefully as they could. It sounded like a bit of a contradiction since she liked to ice skate.

Out of mild curiosity Carlos hopped a small boat to reach one of the larger boats and looked around. The boards were slippery and he very nearly fell but managed to catch his balance. He saw so many frozen over things though he was glad none of them were people. "They must have evacuated these boats after Ice Queen did her thing." He called down to his friends.

"No question about it." Ellie called back up to him. "It'd be impossible for anyone to survive on out here this long on their own." She could only assume somehow the people of Arendelle were still alive. For a moment she had this horrid thought that all of the Ice Guards they had been taking out were the citizens of Arendelle and she had to force that thought down.

Aquiella caught the thought and looked to the Arendelle heiress. "The Ice Guards are not your people." The mermaid girl promised her. "I can feel the darkness in them. They must originate from the ice barrier."

Ellie looked away. "Good. I've already failed my parents and I don't want to fail them as well." She commented.

"Hold on a second." Mal said sternly and turned Ellie to face her. "You did not fail your mom. You came to Auradon to get stronger for her. You are here now even without powers to help her." She didn't know anything about her father but knew one thing. "You haven't failed anyone, least of all your mother."

"Your father failed you." Anna commented, more bitter than anyone had heard from her before, to Ellie as she placed her hands on her niece's shoulders. "You didn't do anything to cause what happened. He was the one too weak to handle the powers that you and Elsa held." Something told Mal that she had had that conversation with her older sister at least once.

"I don't know your dad." Amy said now. "But I know you Ellie. You're awesome. He's the one who had to be the one in the wrong."

"They're right." Evie said. "Take it from us, the four of us seemed to have failed our parents when we didn't bring the wand back to the isle and even more so when we chose good." She gave a sort of sad smile but one that held no regret. "But in reality we didn't fail them. We may have let them down but that was it, and it was never their lives to live."

Ellie bit her lip a bit. "We will fail everyone if we don't get a move on." She said to them and looked to Mal. "And I for one don't want that to happen."

The purple haired girl gave her an approving smile. "We won't let that happen." She vowed.

"It's too bad you have to say that." They turned to see Ryu approaching from the path that leads to Arendelle's gates. "You'll be letting yourself and all of your friends down with that attitude."

"Didn't your little gauntleted friend tell you we beat that little dragon of us and sent him running?" Jay questioned him even as Carlos jumped off the boat to land by his friend. "It's time to stop deluding yourself about who's going to be let down."

"You survived our initial assault." Ryu agreed simply. "And you survived a couple of our monsters, though I hear one of you only barely managed that." He added with a cold smirk at Mal that she returned with a glare. "But as for beating a dragon, well let's just say you only beat one of them."

With a roar another dragon jumped over one of the boats and landed hard onto the ice, cracking the areas around its clawed paws with its massive landing. "Power Rangers, I would first like you to meet the second ice barrier dragon Frionac." Ryu said gloatfully.

"There had to be another one." Lonnie sighed.

"That's not all." Ryu said with a laugh. Not only did Ice Guard again start to emerge from around them but from behind him emerged another fighter. This one was obviously female and looked very much like melted ice. She drew two long ice shards and twirled them around, ready to fight. "And this is Icesha."

"Just we what we needed." Will said to them. "Another threat from the ice barrier."

Amy frowned a bit. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but something about this new monster. She didn't think this was from the ice barrier. But she wasn't sure it was something that her mother Maleficent would use either.

Mal glanced between Ryu, Frionac and Icesha and already knew they would have to divide to try to conquer. These situations were why she had not been thrilled of the idea of Anna, Ellie and Alex accompanying them even though she had known why they needed go with. And of course it also resulted in Alex getting his powers restored, a bonus for him. "Lonnie, Amy, Melody, Aquiella, Evie, Audrey and I will take out the dragon. Carlos, you and Ben deal with the esteemed general," She said that one with a bit of sarcasm, no doubt In response to his dig at her injuries against Freezadon. "While Will and Alex deal with Icesha. Jay, help Ellie keep Anna safe." _Don't want to mention keep Ellie safe too._ The purple haired girl thought to herself.

Each of the team nodded in understanding and then Mal called out her trademark, "Let's get to work." As Ben combined the Praeleanthor sword with his shield and Melody used her trident the rest of them input their numbers into their iPhones and transformed. The girls headed toward the dragon as the boys headed toward the two general monsters. Jay readied his soul scimitar as some of the Ice Guards headed toward them.

Ellie reached forward and took ahold of Jay's blaster. "You're not going to be fighting alone." She told him as she readied the newly borrowed blaster at the nearest Ice Guard.

Ryu drew his sword as Ben and Carlos approached him. "It's very odd to see a king in combat unless necessary." He remarked. "Not eager to settle into the life of a monarch I take it."

"Not every ruler sits on the sidelines while the people under them do all the work." Ben replied as he readied the Praeleanthor sword.

"Lucky for us." Carlos added as he raised his clawed hands ready to fight. Ryu swung his sword at the yellow ranger and he blocked it. Ben moved in and slammed his shield into the general, but a follow up attack with his sword was deflected by his own sword.

Icesha pulled the two bladed ice shards and shot icy rays at Will and Alex. The green ranger fell back a little as Alex pushed his way through thanks to his inherent fire power. He tried to attack her with his fire tonfa's but the icy opponent took a step back to avoid the attack and then lashed out, kicking him in the chest hard.

"Are you okay?" Will asked as he came to the newly restored Fire Knight's side.

"I'm fine." He assured the green ranger. "Quite an agile monster though."

Will swiped at her with his recursive sword at Icesha. She dodged it. A follow up swipe resulted in the same action. The green ranger moved and attempted to bring his weapon down on Icesha and to their shock her body seemed to dissolve around the descending weapon and then reformed behind it. "Wow, what?" Will questioned in shock right before she slammed her fists into Will's chest hard.

"That monster has some moves." Alex had to grant. He was starting to think it was going to take more than two of them to really take her down. At least Ben and Carlos were coming up even against Ryu.

Frionac unleashed a burst of cold fire at the girls and they all barely managed to dodge the attack. "This one is bigger than the last one." Audrey noted. "What's the plan here Mal?"

"Um, truth is I don't have one yet." Mal confessed. "I'm open to ideas ladies."

"I think we should take a minute to see if this thing can take what it's dishing out." Evie said as she positioned her mirror force shield.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Lonnie agreed as she got ready to attack. "Two waves I think; I'll start with Aquiella, with Amy and Mal backing us up." She looked to Audrey and Melody. "If we need some long range back up then you guys can provide it."

Mal nodded. "Good idea. E, get ready for when we piss this thing off enough to attack." She said.

"You got it M." Evie replied.

"Then let's make it so." Mal declared.

Lonnie and Aquiella leapt up at the dragon, using the wings as a booster to bring their weapons against the dragon's chest hard. It scratched Frionac but all it did was growl and lash out to try to take a bite out of Lonnie, who flipped out of the way of it.

The daughters of Maleficent followed suit, the jeweled end of the dragon's eye staff and the rose lance slamming into the dragon's jaw. They heard the very audible clack of the lower jaw against the upper jaw as it recoiled before a massive wing moved around and slapped the two sisters hard.

"Eyes on me scaly." Audrey called out as she raised her elemental bow and fired a rain of magical arrows at Frionac. He roared and turned to Audrey, unleashing its stream of cold fire.

It was just what Evie had been waiting for as she stepped in front of Audrey and let the attack impact her mirror force shield before deflecting it right back at Frionac. The first thing was the recoil that sent Evie crashing right into the red ranger.

The second was the wings coming up to protect Frionac's front from the attack. Any damage that would have been done was completely negated.

Melody aimed the trident at the wings now and unleashed her own energy attack. The wings were completely immune to that as well.

"Nothing." Aquiella said. "Its wings protected it from its own attack and from Melody's trident."

"But we got a couple of scratches on its chest." Amy remarked. "That means it's not fully protected. We just have to figure out how to exploit that weakness."

Now Lonnie bit her lip in thought though of course none of them could see it through the helmets they wore. "We damaged the chest but we can't get through the wings." She mused. Then she called out, "Melody, get ready to attack it when we get its attention."

"Alright, sure." The aqua ranger agreed dubiously.

Lonnie charged up her hurricane tessens and tossed one of them at Frionac's wing. As expected the first one struck the wing and didn't do any damage. The second was charged up and ready as the wings separated and Frionac unleashed another burst of blue fire. That one twirled around and striking again across the chest, causing it to emit a little roar of pain.

"We figured that one out already." Amy pointed out. "What does that prove?"

Melody shot out energy from the trident again and struck Frionac in the back. The dragon serpent monster let out another, louder roar of pain. Again Melody repeated the performance as Frionac turned to face her and Audrey now. Some damage occurred up until it struck a wing and again blocked the attack.

Amy amended her own statement. "We have to strike it in the back, where its wings can't protect it." She declared.

"Time to regroup then." Aquiella stated. The five rangers started toward the dragon and when it raised a paw to slash at them they each dodged as low as they could to avoid the attack. For Amy it was easy enough as she was the shortest one out of the entire group, whereas Aquiella had to work a little harder to avoid the attack.

Evie and Audrey met them. "Okay so we know what we have to do to defeat him, but how do we accomplish that?" The blue haired blue ranger asked them.

"Audrey and I will have to hit that thing with everything we've got, just like the last ice barrier dragon that we dealt with." Mal said to the red ranger and then looked to her little sister and the rest of their team members. "You five will have to throw everything you can at it so that way we can get our battlizers going."

"We'll need to do a bit more than that." Evie countered. "We're going to have to keep it off balance." She looked to Melody. "You and I will have to use our weapons and make our shots count." She looked to Amy, Lonnie and Aquiella. "The three of you should stick to our blasters, we don't want to risk any damage to the tessens or boomerangs."

"I don't even have a choice on that anyway." Amy replied with a small shrug. "My rose lance won't do any long range damage to a monster. But we should use the neon armor for protection."

"So we've got a plan then." Mal said. She patted Amy's arm gently. "You'll do fine." She looked to the other girls. "You'll all do fine. Just do your best. Audrey and I will hopefully be able to clean things up."

Meanwhile as Ice Guards started to show up around Will and Ben, Icesha leapt past the two rangers and landed right beside Ryu as he clashed with Alex. Carlos noticed the newest monsters approach and got ready to defend against her.

"Guys, be careful." Ben called out to the fire knight and the other two male rangers even as he had to turn his attention toward the Ice Guards.

Carlos tried to go at Icesha only for the arm of the monster to flow like water and lash onto the yellow ranger's arm and tossed him toward Ben and Will hard. Her attack bowled over several of the Ice Guards as well but she didn't seem to care. She then turned toward Jay and Ellie.

"Not good." Alex said and tried to turn around to help his friend, cousin and mother; two of who were practically defenseless. Ryu got in the way and slashed him hard.

"Keep those guys off of me Ellie." Jay said to the blonde Arendelle princess. "I'm going in." With a quick breath he started in toward Icesha. He swiped his soul scimitar at her but the agile creature dodged out of the way.

She responded by lashing out with the same move that she hooked on Carlos, but the black ranger had seen it coming and was prepared to dodge out of the way with a side step that was almost on par with a dance move.

He tried to follow up with a slash of his own but Icesha brought up her hands and formed a small and thin ice shield to block the attack. It shattered under the impact of the attack but it allowed her to get her arms around the soul scimitar and proceed to toss Jay into a group of oncoming Ice Guards.

That move sent him bowling over Carlos and Ben while Will was a little too far away to catch that one. Again though she also bowled over several Ice Guards. "She doesn't seem to care who she takes down here." Ben noted. "I don't know if that's good or bad."

"Right now, I'd have to go with bad." Jay replied as he got up, pulling Carlos up with him. "Because now we're all surrounded by these guys and nothing is stopping her from trying to tear into Ellie and Anna." Right now the girls couldn't spare anyone if they wanted too, as much of a problem as the dragon was posing.

Ellie noticed that problem too as she moved her aunt behind her and pointed her borrowed blaster at the creature opposite her. Icesha approached boldly and confidently but hadn't struck yet. "What are you?" The young princess couldn't help but ask.

"General Ryu already told you my name." Icesha replied. "Isn't that all you need to know?"

Ellie actually knew that shouldn't even be important. Than Anna said, "I don't remember you being part of the attack force that invaded Arendelle that night." She had been caught up in a combination of shock and sadness that night, there were somethings that were like a blur, and yet…she figured she would remember a monster like this.

Icesha leapt at Ellie and she barely dodged the attack, tossing Anna the blaster as she formed an icicle blade and got ready to try to square off against Icesha.

Lonnie, Amy, Aquiella, Melody and Evie started a charge toward Frionac activating the neon armor as they did so, even as Mal and Audrey started to back away from them in what looked like a retreat. Evie released a storming mirror force attack at Frionac. As expected the wings came up to protect the monster. Lonnie and Evie cut to the left as Evie and Amy cut to the right. The risky part came on Aquiella, who had to skirt underneath the monster so that it was forced to turn away from the two soon to be battelized rangers.

Aquiella knew the only thing stopping her skin from feeling the scaly skin of the monster was her ranger suit. It didn't seem like it would be that big of a deal since she had grown up around fish and octopi and other assorted and often scaly sea creatures, but somehow the idea of brushing skin with this creature almost made her feel sick. She was relieved to be on the other side of the dragon monster.

On one side Evie released a blazing mirror force at the right side of Frionac, with Lonnie firing her blaster. On the other side Melody used the trident to unleash energy with Amy backing her up with her blaster. When Aquiella slid out from under the monster she unleashed her blaster on Frionac as well. The monster didn't seem to know which way to block first, the wings barely able to protect it from the side attacks while having no choice but to take the blaster shots from the orange ranger. Even that though was only part of the diversion.

Mal and Audrey activated their battlizers and then rose to the sky. They already knew they had to be quite about this if they wanted the plan to work. Its back was unprotected and couldn't be protected by the wings but if they drew Frionac's attention it would then have the wings to protect itself.

Mal shrunk her dragon's eye staff down to arrow size and handed it to Audrey, who nodded her appreciation. Then the purple ranger started to charge up her draco meteor attack. Audrey placed the dragon's eye arrow into the silk strings of her elemental bow and then as she took aim at Frionac she also summoned several jewels to strike him with.

"Come on M, Audrey." Evie whispered. "We're running out of time." Frionac powered up another blue fire blast and the blue ranger raised her shield in an attempt to get ready to deflect even part of it.

"We're only going to get one shot." Mal said to Audrey softly. "Let's make this count."

"Right." The red ranger acknowledged simply.

Both battlized rangers unleashed their attacks at Frionac's back. The draco meteor attack almost seemed to be surrounded by the jewels Audrey summoned and the dragons' eye arrow shifted right into the center of the meteor attack. Mal quickly mentally coined in the draco jeweled meteor strike and hoped they could do it again even as Frionac was struck in the back hard, falling forward and exploding in a massive burst. The five female rangers in front of it was knocked back just a bit by the blast.

"Amy, guys! Are you okay?" Mal called out.

"We're fine sis." Amy said to her. She could feel that easily enough. "One down and two to go."

Ryu turned his attention from Alex to realize how quickly the situation had changed. He was already sure some of the girls would be advancing on him soon enough.

Even as Ellie and Icesha paced each other the young princess felt herself hesitating. Something still seemed wrong here but she wasn't sure what it was.

"Icesha, enough." Ryu called out to her. She turned to the general and almost seemed to give a glare of annoyance but leapt back and landed next to the general and what was left of this group of Ice Guards. He looked to the Auradon rangers. "Nothing more stops you from entering Arendelle, but if I were you I would think very quickly about your next actions, rangers. It will be your last." He warned and with that they had vanished.

"Everyone okay?" Mal asked as they powered down. She went up to take Ben's hand.

"That new monster has a mean punch to her." Jay said as he brushed a strand of hair from Audrey's face softly. "And another ice barrier dragon creature. How many of those things are there?"

"Too many." Audrey noted with a smile as she leaned into his hand.

"Stopping Icesha won't be easy." Alex noted as he patted Amy's arm gently. "But we'll have to find a way."

Ellie bit her lip. "Mom." She whispered softly.

Gauntula and Grunard were waiting for Ryu as he showed up. "Tougher than they look after all, wouldn't you say?" the latter asked the defeated general.

"They're tougher than they're given credit for." Ryu reluctantly granted. Icesha said nothing.

Then from the shadows a voice spoke. "They're power rangers. I warned you not to underestimate them." From those shadows emerged the same woman that Anna had described to the rangers when she had arrived in Auradon. "They are not the same as the ones who opposed myself and the Shadow King so long ago, but rangers none the less."

"What is the plan now my queen?" Grunard asked her.

"The time has come to prepare for their arrival, they are literally at the gates." Ice Queen told them all. "But we have can handle it." She looked to Ryu and Icesha. "Your time is soon." She looked to Gauntula. "You're with me as we prepare to have our official royal meeting." She then looked to Grunard. "And your chariot as it were awaits. Together we will divide and conquer these power rangers, and cement our place in Arendelle."

"And after that?" Grunard asked.

"We take Auradon." Ice Queen said. "And with that done we take Earth and avenge my death against those rangers."

"The sooner we free Arendelle the better." Lonnie admitted. "Even I'm getting weary of the cold."

"And we're running out of what daylight we have left." Mal added. She looked to Ellie. "Think we can stay in one of these boats?"

Ellie glanced around a moment and then nodded. "Yes, that one over there." It looked to be a small but luxurious cruise line ship. "We can stay there for the night."

"Then we'll do that." Mal said. "And come morning we storm Arendelle, usurp the 'queen', find Queen Elsa," That she said as she smiled at Ellie softly and touched her shoulder before looking back at her team. "And we end this once and for all."


	115. Frozen Fights Part 7

_Anna ran through the forests of Arendelle. She would have loved to find something with more speed so she could get to Auradon quicker. She had to get to her son, niece and all of their friends before it became impossible to restore Arendelle to its beauty._

 _What she hadn't counted on but probably should have was that she would be pursued. She had seen signs of the general's pursuing her for the last couple of hours and had nearly been cornered by the lizard like monster that their 'guest' had told them about, proving she had been not lying about its existence, at least. Marshmallow had shown up and chased that one away though. It was all it could do though as more Ice Guards had shown up. Anna knew that meant they had successfully taken the castle._

 _The snow was picking up, far worse than it had when Elsa had lost control of her powers and tried to isolate herself in the mountains. She wasn't even sure how anyone could survive here without shelter and feared she would not make it to Auradon to get the help they needed._

 _That seemed to be confirmed when she was surrounded suddenly by Gauntula, Ryu and Grunard as they seemed to appear from nowhere. "Surrender yourself princess of Arendelle and our queen might let you live." Grunard said to her._

 _"I won't." Anna said. "And she won't hold Arendelle for long either."_

 _"You won't be able to get any help." Ryu warned. "By the time any other kingdom here can mount an attack effort it will be far too late to remove us without heavy damage. Our presence here will be a fact of life."_

 _Anna tried to move past then and Gauntula hit her. She landed awkwardly, resulting in the sprain that she had when Belle would later bring her to the under construction command center. The cuts had occurred back at the castle when she had fallen though that attack reopened the wounds._

 _"It's over." Ryu said as the three started to approach her. Anna felt herself fighting to stay conscious._

 _Then there was a flash of energy and it struck in front of the three generals. It seemed to almost be like the shape of a bird. Then the blizzard grew even more intense and Anna felt a presence above her, a shadow blocking her out._

 _"What is that?" Ryu asked._

 _"It's protecting the princess." Gauntula noted._

 _Grunard drew his sword and fired a burst of energy at the mysterious arrival but Anna could just make out a pulse of water intercept it. Then the blizzard picked up and Anna had lost consciousness._

 _She sat up with a gasp, expecting to be locked up or on the sidelines of a mismatched battle. She instead found herself outside the forest, but no snow in sight. She realized it was Auradon. She looked around and saw nothing but a couple of blue feathers. "How…" She wondered._

 _Then a couple of guards found her and she asked to be escorted to Auradon but had instead been taken to the castle for medical treatment. There Belle had come to her and Anna had convinced her she needed to see her son, Ellie and their friends. The Queen had agreed instantly._

"And you know the rest." Anna said to the team as they sat around listening fully to her story/dream of what had led her to Auradon to get their help as they finished their quick breakfast the next morning before the full on attack.

Aquiella and Melody exchanged a small knowing smile even as Alex hugged his mother and Ellie hugged her aunt. "We're able to prevent her plans for Auradon and Earth thanks to you." Mal said to her with a small smile. "And we'll bring Arendelle back to what it was."

Ben hugged Mal against him softly. "You have my word." The young king added.

"Thank you." Anna said with a sad smile. "I just hope Elsa is around to help with this." She looked at the teens. "And there is only one way to find out."

Jay nodded. "Time to storm the castle." He said. Mal nodded in agreement.

They left the small luxury boat they spent the night in and approached the gates of Arendelle. As they approached the wall though they found the three generals; Grunard, Gauntula and Ryu standing on the walls. On the roof they could also see Icesha standing and watching.

"Here for your final match?" Will asked the generals as they took fighting stances.

"We're here for your final test." Grunard responded. "You failed your initial test when we clashed with you on your way to Arendelle." He laughed at the memory. "You really fell for our powers then."

"Then all of you proved your weaknesses when your own leader put herself in harm's way to protect the little girl." Gauntula added with amusement.

"Excuse me?" Audrey demanded hotly. "I beat down that Freezadon thing on my own. And Mal protected her sister, the way any good sibling or team mate should do."

"As I recall you barely won the battle, and fainted afterwards." Gauntula replied mockingly. "And if you were all so good then you would have defeated Freezadon without the beating or injuries that were sustained."

"And your down two dragon's because of us." Jay now defended as he glared at the three generals. "And two of you have already ran from us."

"Indeed." Ryu agreed. "And that is why it's time for your final test." There was a huge roaring sound and from behind the walls crawled another large monster, again much larger than many of the monsters they faced but too small for the zords. "Let's see how you rangers handle the Snowrachnid."

"Oh my pink, it had to be spider looking monster." Amy said with disgust.

"Just swell." Audrey muttered in agreement.

"Something seems weird about it." Alex said as he looked at his mother and cousin. He watched the spider monster start to descend down the wall and noticed the bobbling on its head. "Is that…"

Anna caught onto her son's observation. "That's Olaf attached to it. It must have absorbed him to help power him up." She gasped.

Ellie looked to their leader. "Mal we can't destroy that monster until we figure out how to free Olaf from that entrapment." She said to the purple haired girl.

Mal understood and she gave a nod. "We'll figure it out." She promised the future heiress of Arendelle. "Keep Anna safe, fall back toward the docks. We're going to help Olaf and take out Snowrachnid." She looked to her team mates. "Let's get to work."

As Ben combined the Praeleanthor sword and shield to transform into the Auradon Knight the other rangers took out their iPhones to transform into rangers or the Fire Knight in Alex's case. They were no sooner transformed when Snowrachnid jumped off the wall and landed in front of him, shaking the surrounding area a little.

"Hey Evie, let's see if he likes our response." Carlos said as he formed his earthquake claw daggers.

"Sounds good to me." Evie agreed as she formed her mirror force shield and unleashed a quaking mirror force attack at Snowrachnid while Carlos struck the ground with his weapons. It generated a small earthquake toward the monster though his larger size made it so that he wasn't as effected as they would have liked.

Snowrachnid unleashed a huge icy web from its mouth straight at the rangers. They drew their weapons in an attempt to avoid getting trapped but the webbing like substance was too thick for that to matter. "We're trapped." Carlos growled.

"Not for long." Amy said as she channeled her fire energy into her rose lance. Alex caught onto what the rose ranger was going for and channeled his own fire energy into his tonfa's. Audrey followed suit as best she could by having an arrow form at the center of her elemental bow and making it a flaming arrow just as Evie adjust her mirror force shield to unleash a blazing mirror force.

Snowrachnid moved in quickly and tried to take a bite out of the nearest rangers, in this case Jay and Lonnie, but Evie directed her blazing mirror force attack upward and caused the thing to take a step back to avoid getting singed. "Looks like that ice bug really hates fire." The black ranger noted with some glee.

"Spiders are arachnids, not bugs." Carlos corrected him.

"Whatever." Jay brushed it off.

They were able to brush off enough of the ice webbing to move again. "We need to spread out so we're not easy targets for this thing again." Mal said to the team. "So let's move out." The ranger team started to spread out, each of them glancing warily at the generals. They seemed perfectly content to watch as they had stated.

Audrey rose her elemental bow and formed another stream of arrows that were quickly transformed into flaming arrows that she shot at Snowrachnid. They hit the skin of the monster who glared at her. It was in some pain but wasn't doing the damage that she had hoped for.

"I don't know if we can kill this thing until we get Olaf out of harm's way." Lonnie called out to them.

"You might be right." Jay said. "I'm going up." He leapt up into the air and toward the ice spider's back. Will jumped up right after him with his recursive sword raised. They headed toward the lump that Anna said was supposed to be Olaf when the skin in front of them started to split and smaller spiders emerged. They hissed and shot small bolts of ice at the two rangers.

"Whoa." Will blurted out and shoved Jay to the left before tumbling to the right himself. They both rolled awkwardly but avoided the ice bolts. A couple of them then leapt at the boys. Will caught two of them on either end of his weapon while Jay had to use his soul scimitar to dissipate the two that launched themselves at him.

"That is kind of gross." Audrey commented. She then looked to Mal. "Okay, so is that going to happen if we destroy that Snowrachnia thing?" She asked now.

"Snowrachnid." Evie absently corrected the brunette princess. She didn't really care enough to tell the blue ranger she didn't really care what it was called. "I can't tell if that was done by accident or by design. Or what will happen if we destroy it." She said.

"What choice do we have?" Lonnie reminded them. "It's standing between us and freeing Arendelle. We have to get Olaf off of that thing and destroy it."

"Grand, but how do we get Olaf off of if that thing sprouts spiderlings every time someone gets off of it?" Carlos now questioned.

"We don't." Mal decided.

"But Mal we can't sacrifice Olaf." Amy protested to her sister.

"And we're not." Mal assured her. She looked to Audrey and Evie. "I need you two to cover me. The rest of you keep that Snowrachnid distracted. I'm going to hit the walls and magic Olaf out of that thing."

"Great idea Mal." Melody said and Audrey nodded in agreement.

Lonnie nodded too. "You heard her guys, it's bigger but only one monster right now. Let's see if we can keep it distracted."

"Just remember it has eight eyes." Evie pointed out to them all. "We're going to have to work harder than with most monsters if we want to keep its eyes off of Mal."

As Mal started toward the icy walls of Arendelle, Audrey and Evie readied themselves to protect Mal if the generals tried to stop her working her magic. The rest of the rangers and the Auradon Knight headed toward the giant arachnid monster and then started to move in different directions to try to keep it off balance.

Snowrachnid unleashed more of its icy webbing at them. Alex in turn powered up his tonfa's and jumped up to shred the icy webbing before it could entrap any of them.

One of the mini spiders leftover leapt at Melody and she used the trident to take it down as it leapt at her.

"Let's try to unbalance this eight legged freak." Jay said as he ran toward one of the legs and swung his soul scimitar. Even with his strength though he found the legs, somewhere between ice and bone, was impossible to swing through. He could barely dent the thing.

Mal had seen that, but what she couldn't tell Jay yet was that even though his attack hadn't hurt the thing he had clued her in on what they could do stop this thing if her theory was right. She was able to jump to the walls though she nearly lost her balance. She turned to face the generals, gearing to move from their attack in case Audrey and Evie weren't ready.

They didn't seem too inclined to do anything other than watch. They all seemed to be delighting in this and she had a horrid feeling about this. But she also didn't see that they had a choice in the matter. They had to stop the Snowrachnid to get liberate Arendelle and find Queen Elsa.

She raised her dragon's eye staff above her body. "Trapped within the spider's icy grip, take the tip and tear upon the rift." Mal recited and then swirled the staff around, aiming directly at the large spider monster's back.

A beam of dark purple energy shot out of the top of the staff where the dragon's eye gem Belle had given Mal months ago and encompassed around the area that it was suspected that Olaf was currently being held at and it started to extract the dormant snowman.

Snowrachnid let out an ear piercing screech and started to rotate toward the purple ranger. "We can't let him get to my sister." Amy said as she moved her rose lance to her right hand and drew her blaster with her left so she could shoot at the monster, though it seemed to have no effect.

Aquiella powered up her tidal boomerangs. She hoped her weapons wouldn't freeze right into the monster but thought even that would serve as at least a little bit of a distraction so that way Mal could finish her spell. She tossed them at two of the snowy arachnid's legs and watched as they cut them and thankfully returned to her. She wished though that it had done anything more than that as it still was looking toward Mal.

Lonnie powered up her hurricane tessens but hesitated. She'd simply cause the same lack of real damage that Aquiella would and she might stir up the snow and blanket their vision. That wouldn't help at all.

Alex powered up his tonfa's again and ran over to the monster, he jumped up and hit him in the face with both of his flame powered weapons. Snowrachnid let out a screech as he turned and tried to snap at the fire knight.

Lonnie took that opportunity to throw one of her tessens at its face. The head snapped back upon impact, slamming the jaw shut as Alex landed back on the ground. That momentary diversion was none the less just enough to keep him from being injured.

With a final magical pull Mal managed to pull Olaf from the spot. As he was high up in the air she suddenly lost control and with a lurch in her stomach the purple ranger saw him start to plummet. "Um, what do the laws of physics mean to a snowman?" Mal called out nervously to her chosen sister.

Before Evie could respond Anna rushed out, somehow avoiding slipping on the ice which was a miracle itself since unlike her sister and niece she was a pretty bad ice skater, and leapt out to catch Olaf in her arms. The landing wasn't that graceful but she stood up with the snowman when all was said and done.

Snowrachnid was still screeching in pain as Mal landed beside her chosen sister and second in command. To their shared horror from that now gaping hole more of the little spiderlings started to emerge and climb down their 'mother' right toward them.

Mal, Evie, Aquiella and Alex could hear simultaneous bursts of ,"Eew, gross." From Audrey and Amy as this happened before they forced themselves back on task.

"We can use that gaping hole as a way to destroy that thing." Carlos pointed out as he slashed two oncoming spiderlings with his earthquake claw daggers.

"Great idea." Jay replied. "But we have to figure out how to get a good weapon up there first."

No one seemed to have any suggestions. For a minute they all just did their best to deal with the incoming spiderlings, which seemed to surge forward of their own volition without any form on containment. Then as Ben took out another approaching one, his like fifth or sixth one, he heard the familiar _Use Us._ From the Praeleanthor sword. Without thinking about he tossed the bladed weapon at Snowrachnid.

The sword struck the monster across the face and it let out another screech as it reeled backwards. This time though it did so on several of its front legs, giving what would be a perfect shot if the gaping hole were on its underbelly. A moment later though the thing reared back and came fully to the ground as the Praeleanthor sword returned to Ben.

It was enough of a display though for Audrey to get an idea. "What if Ben does that again and then we flip it around?" She asked the group at large as she used her elemental bow to keep them back as best as she could.

"How do we flip it around?" Carlos wondered as he took out another spiderling.

"I think the trident might be powerful enough to do that." Melody supplemented. "A good blast to the underbelly will help tremendously."

"We can add some muscle behind it too for what that's worth." Will added. "Alex, Jay, Carlos and I can try at the legs, maybe it will at least be enough of a recoil to add to the unbalance and make it flip."

"Let's assume that works for a minute." Lonnie said. "What do we do from there?"

There was only way that Audrey could think of to deal with a snowy bug monster though the thought kind of disgusted her. "That will be up to me and all the flaming arrows I can get into that spot." She reluctantly replied.

"You won't be alone." Amy said to her. "I'll contribute all of my fire elemental control to your attack too."

"So will Alex." Aquiella said to them now. She looked to the fire knight. "There's enough water around here, frozen or otherwise, for me to draw upon and help the boys flip that monster around. You're literal fire power though can't be outdone, not even by Amy." Amy's elemental powers were certainly strong but she covered all four elements. That made those who only used one element like her and Alex stronger than her in that one ability. But it also allowed them to stack their powers for more effect, being far stronger than any of them could be alone. And they could channel that into other things, such as Audrey's arrows or Evie's elemental like mirror attacks.

"Then all we need is to get that sword going again." Jay said to Ben.

"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem." Ben replied simply as more of the spiderlings continued to emerge and come down the body of the Snowrachnid to confront the team. Both Audrey and Amy had a horrid vision of those things falling down on them while trying to fill their 'parent' up with strong flaming arrows.

With the horde coming at them it was easy enough for Ben to feel the power and the voice of the Praeleanthor sword once it was powered up enough again. "Get ready." Ben called out to everyone. The girls and Alex backed up with Lonnie and Mal acting as protectors for them as Audrey formed an arrow and drew fire into it.

Amy put her hand on Audrey's waist, not being tall enough to touch her shoulder, that size difference between her and Mal always being kind of an amusing oddity between them despite them being twins. Alex placed one hand on Audrey's right shoulder and the other on Amy's back, essentially creating a fiery circuit between the three of them.

Ben again tossed the Praeleanthor sword. It was like Snowrachnid had heard their discussion and reared back its head, launching another icy web that Amy was sure was meant to encase the sword before it could strike.

Lonnie tossed her hurricane tessen straight at the icy webbing and watched as the weird material wrapped around her weapon before clattering to the ground. But as the pink ranger hoped that allowed the ancient sword to soar past and strike it in the face again, where it reared up as it did last time.

"Get ready Melody." Will said to the aqua ranger. "We can unbalance it but the magic of your trident is going to be the only thing that is going to actually make it work." With that the green, black, yellow and orange ranger ran forward.

Aquiella drew as much water as she could from around her, a simple task considering they were still essentially fighting on Arendelle's frozen ocean, and with Carlos's help unbalanced the right legs.

On the left side Will and Jay were able to flip those legs out.

Melody released the strongest blast of magical energy from her trident that she could and it struck the monster in the upper abdomen hard, forcing it to indeed flip into the air. That move surprised everyone, friend and foe alike. But Audrey could already tell it wouldn't be doing several rotations before landing and she aimed her arrow at the gaping hole.

As the two girls feared, rather by accident or design, the little spiderlings began to leap off of Snowrachnid's body to plummet down toward them. Evie however spared them that feeling as she unleashed a blazing mirror force above them to fry the spiderlings as they fell. It didn't protect them from the ones already on the ice, which was what Mal and Lonnie were there for.

Despite what should be a lack of vision between the arrow and the brunette princess's target, the red ranger let loose the arrow where she was confident it would work. First of all, she was a really good shot, something she would attest to easily but that had also been proven in the field time and again anyway. Secondly, the flaming arrow magically split into a dozen arrows so it would have been almost impossible to miss since the monster was descending toward them anyway.

From the side Ellie could see though that almost all of the flaming arrows indeed entered the gaping hole, which now that she thought about it leaked the spiderlings but it didn't spill anything that resembled blood. It was a mystery though that she was prepared to live with if it destroyed the monster.

Just as it seemed the monster would land on the two rangers and the fire knight the monster suddenly exploded. It left a bit of a mess around everyone but it was better than squashing three of them.

"That was still gross." Audrey noted with disgust.

"At least we don't have to get it out of our hair." Amy tried to say brightly. The rose haired girl might not be the most concerned with her looks but she still wouldn't have looked forward to getting bug gunk and stuff out of her hair the next time she showered.

"Everyone okay?" Ben asked as he came up next to Mal. She nodded as they heard positive responses from the rest of the team.

"Well done rangers. Very impressive." Grunard said from the rooftop with his two generals. Icesha landed next Ryu.

"You're next." Jay promised him.

"Yes, well done heroes." Said a strong voice that Anna recognized from her last day in Arendelle before fleeing to Auradon. The Ice Queen stepped up between Gauntula and Ryu. "But this is the end, your time has ended."

"That's what you think." Mal said. "It's time to let leave Arendelle of your own volition before we end your second existence."

Ice Queen laughed. "It will be quite a challenge." She told them ruefully. With that she raised her hands ad summoned a powerful blizzard. The three generals unleashed a powerful attack that struck them all.

Ellie rushed forward to check on the people closest to her; in this case the rose ranger and her fire knight cousin. She too found herself wrapped up in the blizzard and even she could not dissipate it or see her way through it.

Ben tried to reach for Mal but couldn't grab her hand. "Mal!" He called out.

"Ben!" The purple ranger shouted before she too lost sight of him, and all of her friends…

Anna had her arm in front of her face and when she looked she gasped in shock to see that they were all gone; her son, her niece, the ranger team. As well as Ice Queen and all of her generals. "Good luck guys." She whispered.

"Yeah, good luck." Olaf said. "Glad I'm not a pile of snow balls now."

"Glad you're not too." Anna noted. "But as long as they're gone let's go find Elsa."

"She's not in the castle, or in Arendelle." Olaf informed her. "I don't know where she is."

Anna looked up at the walls in horror as she wondered where her sister had gone; what the Ice Queen had done to her. Then she tried to force it to the back. Her family was missing but she was still Arendelle royalty, perhaps the last one. She had her people to think of. "Then let's find the rest of the people and make sure they're okay." She looked back one last time. "Good luck you guys." She whispered, and then blinked in shock for a moment. "Did I just see a bear?"


	116. Frozen Fights Part 8

The blizzard in front of Ellie made it impossible for her to see anyone, even her cousin Alex or Amy despite the fact she had been right next to them to check on them after the three generals of the ice barrier had blasted the team.

Something jumped out of the blizzard and grabbed at her and the blonde Arendelle princess jumped but recovered herself quickly as she realized it was just Amy having thrown herself against her, and the rose haired girl had let out a small gasp of shock too. "Sorry." Amy said. "I thought…well I don't know but…"

"It's fine." Ellie promised her as she pat her shoulder softly. "I don't know what's going on either but it seems so weird." She then realized something. "Weren't you transformed?"

Amy nodded. "I was." She confirmed. "I think the blizzard shorted that out. Hopefully I can transform again if I have too."

Ellie nodded in agreement. "It'd be nice if we didn't have to worry about it but I doubt we're that lucky." She commented.

"Mal, Ben, Alex!" Amy called out now though she still stuck close by Ellie. "Can you hear me?" After a beat she added, "Can anyone here me?"

Ellie tried now. "Aunt Anna! Jay! Evie!" She called out. She was of course unaware that Anna and Olaf had been left behind compared to wherever they were now.

An Ice Guard landed in front of them and on instinct Amy jumped just a bit and Ellie raised her hand to summon an icicle shard to protect her and the rose haired girl when a trident slammed into the back of his head and then fell to the ground, then got destroyed as he was stabbed.

"Nice to see a couple of familiar faces." Melody said to them as Amy ran forward and embraced her friend. Then Ellie and Melody shared a brief hug too. "I was starting to think I was alone in this…this fog covered blizzard world."

"It still might just be the three of us." Ellie said to her. She frowned a bit. "And it sucks that I don't really have a way to help keep us safe."

"Looks like you still wanted to try." Melody pointed out with some amusement at the half formed icicle in the blonde's hand.

"Yeah." Ellie admitted as she none the less dropped it. "Don't know how much that would be worth around here though."

Two more Ice Guards showed up and Melody used her trident to block one of the spear attacks. The other aimed for Ellie and she brought up an ice shield to protect her. Amy kicked him in the stomach, a rather painful blow despite the fact she was not transformed. She and Ellie then tried to drive an elbow into his head only to be grabbed by the wrists and tossed to the ground hard.

The one Melody had prevented from striking twisted and disarmed Melody before hitting her in the face with the blunt end of the spear. The daughter of Ariel landed hard beside her two friends as the guards began to converge on them again.

The two started to advance on the girls when their legs were brought out from under them. As they hit the icy looking ground hard they looked up to see Carlos. He brought his fists down on their heads hard and then looked up to the girls. "Hey, glad to see you three are okay" He said.

"Glad to see you're okay too." Melody said to him as she stood up and helped Amy up. The rose haired girl hugged Carlos as the mermaid girl helped up the Arendelle heiress. "I take it you haven't run into anyone else?" She asked.

Carlos shook his head. "Nope. You're the first three I've seen aside from those two clowns." He replied as he handed Melody the trident that the Ice Guard had knocked out of her hands.

"And you four will be the last ones that any of you will see." They heard Ryu say as he stepped out of the foggy mists, Icesha by his side. "We're going to end you once and for all."

"Think we can morph?" Carlos asked Melody and Amy.

"I think we're about to find out." Melody replied. She transformed into the aqua ranger as Carlos and Amy took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed into the yellow and rose ranger.

Ellie formed an ice blade into her hands. "There are only three of you; you can't tell me that you don't need whatever help I can provide now." She remarked.

"No we can't." Carlos agreed.

Icesha leapt up high and nearly came down on the four of them. Ellie took a step back as the two girls rolled to the side. Carlos had the misfortune of rolling closer to Ryu though, who tried to take advantage of the situation and bring the sword down on the yellow ranger. With a slight gasp he brought up his earthquake claw daggers to block the attack.

"Amy, help Ellie deal with Icesha." Melody said to her friend. "I'll help Carlos deal with Ryu."

The rose ranger nodded. "Okay." She agreed. She hoped this worked out well. She had never been around the team when it was this small. Even Mal had started out with four others for a total of five, and Lonnie had shown up not long after that. She didn't want to think about where her sister and their other friends were right now.

Icesha formed her own ice blade and clashed with Ellie. It made the Arendelle princess wonder what exactly her opponent was and how she had learned to do this kind of thing. She herself had had a vague idea of how to do that and had received some vague training from her mother Elsa but hadn't truly learned how to do it until going to Auradon Prep.

Amy tried to come in behind Icesha only to have six Ice Guards appear in front of her. "Oh my pink, this is not a good time." Amy remarked as she twirled her rose lance around and prepared to clash with them.

Melody kicked Ryu and he stumbled back to find himself face to face with the two rangers. "This hardly seems fair." Ryu said to them and then snapped his fingers, summoning several Ice Guards to his side. "Much better." He pointed to them. "Get them."

"You call that fair?" Carlos balked in annoyance as the Ice Guards started toward them.

"They always did love the numbers advantage." Melody noted with annoyance as she dodged under one of the attacks and then slashed him with the trident. "Or the power advantage."

Carlos blocked one of the spear strikes and shot his knee into the monster's chest as hard as he could to make him fall back before turning to another one.

Icesha lashed at Ellie and she blocked it with her own icy blade. It almost shook her to her very core and she wished she had her powers to back her up. She didn't voice the frustration directly but she was sure she hadn't been able to hide it; the cold fire may have restored her cousin Alex's powers but it hadn't helped her. She had still been virtually helpless this entire journey and she didn't know why.

"You don't belong here." Icesha said to her. "You contribute nothing to this already pointless little endeavor your pathetic friends have made to save Arendelle." She pulled back and swung again, the young princess dodging the attack. "Why did you come here anyway?"

"Because Arendelle is my home." Ellie said. "Princess Anna is my aunt. And the Queen of this land, Elsa, is my mother." She glared at her opponent. "Where is my mother?" She demanded to know.

"I don't know anything about this Queen." Icesha said as she tried to stab Ellie. The lithe princess dodged to the side and gashed her arm hard. She hissed in pain and Ellie realized she had drawn blood, red blood. She couldn't remember a monster ever bleeding.

Amy saw the move to and let out a gasp. "Blood, I don't think I've ever actually seen a monster bleed before." She remarked.

Carlos saw Ryu glance over at them as he stood by and let the Ice Guards fight him and Melody. He had a feeling Ryu was trying to keep an eye out on them in case. But he didn't understand what that case might be.

Icesha turned toward Ellie though she seemed much more cautious. "You're better than I gave you credit for. In fact I didn't think you'd get a blow in on me." She said. She started to pace her now. Ellie matched her pace and as she did she noticed that it wasn't just blood she was seeing.

She was seeing blue as well; it was light and almost filmy. It didn't make sense to her, it didn't seem possible. "No." She whispered. "No way."

"What is it?" Amy tried to call out to her. She had almost taken out the Ice Guards. Just one more.

Icesha charged forward and slammed into Ellie hard. She hit the ground hard and the creature stood over her. Amy moved forward by the last guard and tackled her only to receive a shock. As they landed the rose ranger rolled off and went to Ellie.

"Ellie." Amy said softly. "We can't kill her."

"I don't think we could." Ellie moaned. "She's stronger than the four of us can handle."

"It's not just that." Amy corrected her. "That's Elsa, your mother."

"What?" Ellie gasped. She had already started to suspect it after the filmy blue material on the arm but she had tried to reject that. Amy reached down and touched the blonde princess's hand…

 _The last thing Elsa remembered was telling Anna to run. She had to protect her younger sister and someone had to make sure the world knew what was going on in Arendelle so that they could be prepared. She hoped Anna could make sure Kristoff didn't return to Arendelle and that she could keep her daughter and her nephew safe. She had then blacked out._

 _She found herself vaguely dreaming of being in Atlantica, the first time she had met her daughter's friends and several of their parents, including former king Adam and queen Belle of Auradon. They had met with the Neptune Kingdom to find out why Undine had had their support during an attack. It hadn't turned out to reveal anything helpful. They had all agreed they were either truly ignorant or had been really good at hiding something. Even Aquiella had confirmed that._

 _Then suddenly Belle had looked to her. "This is going to be bad, but don't lose yourself. Don't lose your faith. My children will bring you back." She had said._

 _Elsa looked at her in confusion. "What?" She asked. "What do you mean? Bring me back from what?" Thing started to fade out, the scenery, all of the others she had come with. She suddenly felt very scared and tried to reach out to Belle, "Please, don't leave me, tell me what's going on…"_

 _"Help me." Elsa whispered softly only to find herself gaining consciousness. She was strapped down to a kind of table she didn't recall ever existing in Auradon. She saw Ice Queen and the three generals talking a little further in the room._

 _But then the Ice Queen turned to look at her. "Don't worry Elsa. You'll be getting help soon enough." She promised as she came forward and stroked the blonde queen's cheek. "You'll be better than ever very soon."_

 _"Where is Anna?" Elsa demanded to know._

 _"I have forces looking for her right now." Ice Queen promised. "She'll be brought here very shortly. And she will be helped, just as you will be." One of the Ice Guards came over with a light blue orb, which was laid in Elsa's outstretched right hand. "A little power boost, you'll need it." She told the blonde queen._

 _Then another approached with a squirming blob in his hand. When it saw Elsa it leapt out of his hand and slammed into her hard. It started to grow around her and as some of the tendrils brushed her face and wrapped around her head she let out a scream of pain…_

"Mom." Ellie whispered softly. "How could they do that to her?"

"Icesha, destroy the yellow and aqua rangers." Ryu ordered her. He then moved rapidly and slashed Amy across the chest hard before turning to Ellie. "I'll finish you myself."

"You tortured my mother and you turned her into a monster." Ellie said in anger. "You're going to pay for what you did to my mother and my kingdom." She started to rise only for the general to knee her in the face hard. She fell back with a vicious snap and her head hit the ground hard.

"Ellie!" Melody gasped. She was so shocked by the attack that she failed to realize that Icesha hadn't attacked them now.

Amy knew why that was. The brief contact that allowed the rose haired girl to see the truth of Icesha's origins also allowed her to plant some small thoughts of her own. The concern her daughter and nephew showed over them, the feeling of failure and sadness she got from Anna, and the determination of her sister Mal, Ben, and the other rangers to make things right. That things weren't hopeless and they were all ready to fight for the truth. She also liked to believe it was some of Elsa's own motherly instincts fighting to break free and protect her daughter.

"We're coming." Carlos tried to assure Ellie only to get attacked by several Ice Guards again. "Get out of my way you annoying creeps." He shouted out as he started to try to slash his way through them.

Ellie tried to stand up only to feel a hard object crash into her chest. She could feel it was Ryu's boot. He twirled his sword a moment in his hand. "You might be able to free your mother if you got the chance." He said. "But I won't give you that chance. The Ice Guards will keep the three rangers off of me long enough to finish you off once and for all."

He brought his sword down toward the Arendelle princess when it clashed between two blades, moving in like scissors to trap the general's own weapon. "I won't allow ye to do that." Ellie heard a very welcome and distinct Scottish lilted voice say. Then Ryu was kicked off of her and Miranda knelt down to her. "Are ye all right Ellie?"

"Yes, thank you." Ellie said and through her arms around Miranda for a moment. "I am so glad you're here." She confided and then pulled away.

"Fool." Ryu spat. "Getting in my way. And no powers to help you to boot."

Miranda shook her head. "Ellie, I heard what he said. Go and help yer mother." She told the princess. "I'll worry about him." She then looked to Ryu. "I won't let ye hurt my friends. And as for being powerless, I think you'll find ye have another thing coming." She let one blade drop as she pulled out her iPhone, input her numbers 8011 and to everyone's delighted surprise transformed into the Highlands ranger.

"Jane and Doug did it." Carlos said. "At least one more ranger is back in the picture."

"How did you get here anyway?" Ryu demanded to know. He knew the spell that Ice Queen cast to separate the rangers shouldn't have impacted anyone not there.

"I saw that nasty spider thing ye tried to use. It made a huge mess. Meaning though I was close enough to get caught up in whatever it is ye all did." Miranda said as she twirled her bear claw blades in her hands. "Was about ready to jump in myself, but I didn't need to that time."

Ryu struck at the Highlands ranger but was not prepared to deal with her as they had the others. She had not been present during the initial attack or anything prior that the ice barrier generals had been warned of.

"Mom." Ellie said as she started toward Icesha. "What did they do to you?" She wondered softly. "What did they force you to bond to?"

Icesha formed an icicle dagger and threw it at Ellie. For a moment the princess knew she could easily dodge it or block it. But then she realized that that wasn't going to cut it. This monster controlling Elsa didn't need to see her at her strongest. The woman, her mother, trapped within had to see her at her weakest.

"Hold on a sec." Amy started as she read the determination in Ellie's mind. But it was too late as Ellie instead raised her hand and blocked the dagger by taking it into her hand. She felt as well as saw Ellie flinch.

"Nice shot." Ellie grimaced. She had read somewhere that it was better to leave something like a dagger in if a person had been stabbed as one could cause more damage by removing it. "Care to try again?"

"Are you out of your mind?" Icesha demanded to know. Or was it? Amy suddenly thought that might have been more the reaction of a shocked mother than an angry monster.

Ellie shook her head. "No. If anything I know exactly what I'm doing. My path is clear right now." She replied. She continued to walk forward. A couple of Ice Guards tried to attack only for Melody and Carlos to take them down. They now had an idea of what Ellie was trying to do and didn't want to get in her way.

Icesha formed an ice dagger again. "Don't test who's in charge here girl." She warned Ellie. "Or you will lose."

Ellie shook her head. "You're right, you will lose Icesha." She replied. She now knew who the enemy here was and who had to defeat that enemy. And it couldn't be done by any power ranger. She took another step forward, the blood falling from her injured hand.

With a scream Icesha leapt out at Ellie and collided hard with the Arendelle princess. She hit the ground hard and found the monster controlling her mother looming over her with the ice dagger in her hand. She held up her injured hand as if to try to ward off the blow.

If anything though it seemed to cause hesitation. Amy could feel it, it wasn't the monster hesitating. It was the mother inside that was as she saw her daughter's injury, one that in a roundabout way she had helped to cause.

"Finish her off and attack the rangers." Ryu managed to bark out despite the fact he was barely holding his own against the vigorous attacks of the newly restored Highlands ranger.

"Whatever this thing is, you're strong enough to beat it mom." Ellie said to the figure above her, again not talking to Icesha but the person behind the get up. She didn't move an inch, waiting for the blow that could kill her or the proof that her mother had won.

Carlos, Melody and Amy were swarmed with Ice Guards now and they both fought as hard as they could to defeat them. A few Ice Guards finally got through and started in on Miranda. She had to turn her back on Ryu to avoid being literally speared in the back.

The ice barrier general took a step back and leapt to land in front of Ellie. "Finish her off, now." He commanded again. He was starting to assume that the Queen of Arendelle was getting control over the creature Ice Queen had used to possess her.

"I…I will…" She started to say but stopped as she grimaced in what seemed to be pain. Ellie reached up and clasped the hand that did not hold the dagger, leaving some of her own blood on her opponent's hands.

"No." Ryu snapped and kicked Ellie's right shoulder hard, which was the exact same limb that had taken the dagger into the hand. She grimaced in pain as it shot through her arm and even to an extent her entire body.

"You leave my daughter alone." The voice that spoke was definitely not Icesha but rather Elsa. It didn't stop the strike that lashed out from coming from the ice dagger held in hand though. But Ryu seemed to have seen that coming and blocked the strike with his blade.

"The idea was interesting." Ryu said mockingly. "But the execution was horrible, using a human to make it happen." He struck hard and the forming around Elsa dissolved, making the monster no more and leaving a very injured Elsa in that wake. He moved to strike her down for good.

"Mom." Ellie gasped and stood up, taking her injured mother by the shoulders and turning her around so that she would take the blow meant to kill Elsa. Miranda had just gotten the Ice Guards off of her and saw what was going to happen, trying to run over to stop the killing blow. The other three were in no position to stop it any more than Miranda was though.

Ellie wrapped her arms around Elsa, who still seemed to be somewhat confused about what was going on. She in fact was as everything that had happened after the invasion was kind of a half blur of panic, fear and adrenaline. But as Ryu's sword would have landed what could only have been a killing blow it there was a glow from the queen's chest, where her heart was. A moment later a second glow joined from Ellie's chest where her heart was. Then large wings like what Anna remembered saving her from the generals the night she ran to get help from Auradon, except these were like crystalline, seemed to appear around the two Arendelle women and protected them from the strike.

"It's so pretty." Amy couldn't help but say in a small voice.

Miranda too noticed that but she had something more important on her mind. She had made it to Ryu and kicked him away from Ellie and her mother hard. He slashed at her and she ducked under the attack.

Amy had made her way over as the glow faded. Elsa started to fall backwards but Amy barely managed to catch her. Ellie stood straight and for a moment the rose haired girl feared the entity that had possessed the mother had somehow turned to the daughter.

Then she glowed again and the gem in her iPhone absorbed the glow as well. "I don't know what caused this." Ellie said. "But it also did me a huge favor. It's time for me to get to work." She input her numbers 9898 into the iPhone and finally transformed into the Ice Dame. She extended her ice chakrams and tossed one hard into Ryu's face.

Miranda turned to see what happened and smiled. "Well, it looks like I'm not the only one able to return to my former glory." She remarked.

"No." Ellie agreed. "But this never would have happened if you hadn't come here on your own to stand with me. To stand with us." She and Amy came over, followed moments later by Carlos and Melody. Ellie gently helped Amy lay her mother on a small slab. "Let's finish this and find our friends." Ellie said to them.

"We're with you." Melody agreed as she twirled the trident in her hands.

"You can't stop me." Ryu said as he stood up and rubbed his jaw. "You don't have the power. We divided you for conquer for a reason."

"Then ye divided wrong." Miranda said to Ryu. She looked to her friends. "I've got an idea on how to stop Ryu once and for all." She looked to Amy and pointed left, pointed right for Carlos and then at her motion the two drew their lasers. "Stay here and use your trident Melody. Ellie, prepare to give it all ye've got with yer weapons too."

Ryu launched energy at the rangers and Ellie raised a huge ice chunk to block the attack even as Amy and Carlos took their places. Together with Miranda the three rangers formed a very loose triangle spark blast that struck Ryu. It only seemed to stun him.

Melody turned around and blasted him with all the energy of the trident and it sent him flying back with an eventual hard landing. His sword went flying off into the ether and with the fog he lost track of it.

Elle channeled everything into her weapons; her fear and worry for mother and her people, her anger at their attack on her home land, the trouble they had put them all through from Mal's near fatal injuries at the hands of Freezadon to the gory mess of Icerachnid. She then unleashed the massively powered up chakrams even as Ryu tried to stand up and instead got struck with both weapons. With a final cry Ryu fell and exploded into nothing.

"Serves him right." Miranda said.

Ellie leaned down next to her mother, her friends coming up to her. "Mom, mom." Ellie called out. "Are you alright?" She took her mom in her arms.

"Ellie." Elsa whispered. She was clearly very tired. "Your hand…"

"It's fine." Ellie said to her. "Whatever protected us from that blow seemed to heal up my hand and restore my powers." She stroked her mother's hair softly. "That thing that had you…"

"I think Ryu destroyed it." Elsa revealed. "In an attempt to destroy me for refusing to kill you." She took a deep, though somewhat painful breath. "I couldn't fight that thing, not until I saw what you were willing to do to and then I knew I had to find the strength to fight it, to protect you." She stroke Ellie's cheek. "I had to be strong just like my ranger daughter."

"You've always been strong to me." Ellie replied. "I've always known what to fight for, what needs to be protected. Because of you." She looked to her friends. "And right now we have to fight with our friends and protect our world from the Ice Queen."

"How do we do that?" Carlos asked. "We don't know where we are, let alone anyone else."

"I think I know how." Amy said. "I'm going to use my magic to find Mal and take us to her. I just need a little power boost." She looked to Melody who laughed happily and offered her friend the trident.

"I'm glad you're all right and that ye found yer mother." Miranda said as she leaned down next to Ellie and Elsa.

"Again, in part thanks to you." Ellie said. "You came out all this way on your own just to help us and you stopped Ryu from killing me, giving me the chance I needed to break through to my mom." Elsa smiled at both girls softly. "I owe you much more than you could ever know." She figured however that was a problem for after they'd found and reunited their missing team members.

Carlos sat down with them moments later with Melody and Amy. "I think I can take us there now." Amy said to them. "So it's time to go."


	117. Frozen Fight Part 9

Mal didn't hate the cold as much as her twin sister did but she wasn't fond of it either. And that was exactly what surrounded her, combined with lots of snow. She would have liked to assume that the sun shining overhead would make things a little warmer but that was not the case at all.

She looked around and was not too surprised to notice that she seemed to be alone. "Swell." She said aloud. "How do I find the others?" She wondered.

She heard a screeching and ducked just barely in enough time to avoid one of the spiderlings that had accompanied the Snowrachnid from digging its legs into her face. She turned around as it got ready for another attack and slammed it with the dragon's eye staff, sending it flying backwards. She didn't see it coming back but stayed on guard just in case there were more or it came back.

She walked just a little bit before hearing more screeching. She saw a bunch of spiderlings heading toward her. "Oh, come on." She said exasperated. She raised her dragon's eye staff but wasn't sure how she was going to take this many out.

She was already panicking over finding a spell that wouldn't come when a huge stream of fire shot out from behind her and burned them to a crisp. She turned to see Evie coming toward her, lowering her mirror force shield. "The blazing setting." The purple haired purple ranger said with relief.

Evie stopped in front of her and the two chosen sister's hugged for a minute, glad to have found someone else, and each other to boot. Then the blue haired blue ranger pulled back. "We have to try to find the others." She said.

Mal nodded in agreement. "I hope Ben and Amy are okay." She said softly.

"There's only one way to know for sure." Evie said gently. "Let's get a move on."

It wasn't long before they got a bit more discourage again. This time there were no spiderlings or any other signs of life. Then from out of nowhere an Ice Guard landed hard on the ground, clearly knocked out. He had a bow and arrow next to him.

"Not too smart are you?" Jay asked as he hopped down in front of him. "Trying to snipe? Oh, and your bow is definitely not of a high caliber. My girlfriend would smoke you."

"And you definitely sound like your girlfriend." Mal said to him as she laughed.

"But thanks anyway." Evie added as the two of them hugged their friend. "Have you ran into anyone else yet? Where did you even come from?"

"Not yet." Jay replied as the two girls pulled back. "There is a mountainous area coming up not far from here. We should go back and search there."

"Sounds like a good idea." Mal agreed. Together the three of them started toward the mountain. It almost seemed like old times to them except for the fact that Carlos and Amy were not with them. Amy being missing especially worried Mal.

As Evie looked up, contemplating how they were going to scale the thing beyond a certain point, they heard a loud crunching sound and saw Alex as the fire knight come flying through the air hard. As the two girls ran to his side and Jay readied his soul scimitar they saw Gauntula coming toward them. "Look, the rest of the power rangers." He said.

"Rest?" Evie questioned.

"Where are the rest of my friends?" Mal questioned hotly as she rose up to her feet. "Where is Ben? Where is my sister?"

"Dead, with luck." Gauntula said simply. Mal lashed out at him and he dodged her attack before striking her in the stomach hard with his gauntleted fists and then bringing them up against Mal's chin, making her fall back to the ground hard. "Temper temper girl." He advised her.

"He's trying to force us to lose our concentration Mal." Alex said as he got up. "If Ellie were dead I'd know it. And she's my cousin. You would know if Amy were dead without question. And I think it'd be the same thing for Ben." He looked to Jay. "And Audrey too."

Mal knew in her heart that if Amy was dead she would feel it. She was her twin sister; there was no way something big could happen to her without her knowing something. As for Ben…she hoped Alex was right but even more importantly she had touched the Praeleanthor sword, she knew higher forces protected him. And when she remembered that the sword had been gifted to him by the other rangers, it made her feel even more confident of his safety. "Then let's put this guy down so we can make sure they stay safe." She declared.

"I'll distract him." Jay said to Mal. "You show him the power of the dragon." He was referring to her battlizer.

"That is a good idea black ranger." Gauntula acknowledged smugly. "I think I'll take that to heart." He raised his left hand and snapped his fingers.

"He was talking to me brain trust." Mal said snidely. "But a good idea is a good idea." She got into position to activate her battlizer. Then there was a large rumbling sound.

"I hate to ask what that is." Evie said nervously.

The area surrounding the four rangers was struck hard with multiple energy bursts and sent the four of them reeling backwards hard. Mal had no chance to use her battlizer. When they looked up the blue ranger almost wished they hadn't. They were looking up at a large three headed dragon that had large light blue, again almost icicle colored wings and armor over the front of its body.

"I know exactly what Amy would say if she were here." Mal said in shock.

"And I wouldn't blame her for it either." Alex added.

"Meet your end power rangers, the three headed dragon of the ice barrier Thrisula." Gauntula said to them as the dragon let out a roar from its three heads.

"How are we going to take that one out?" Jay had to wonder. He wasn't sure they could do it with anything less than their full team, something they haven't had since Paradias's final assault on Auradon Prep. And maybe not even then.

Gauntula jumped onto Thrisula's head. "The game is over Power Rangers. We have won." He bragged with amusement. "My dragon will end you while my compatriots will have already your friends down. Arendelle belongs to the Ice Queen and we will soon take over Auradon and your world."

"Even if you do take us down, our friends will make sure that you don't fulfill your queen's desires." Evie stated.

Gauntula laughed. "I expected you to say that." He admitted. "You know, after defeating her and costing her the deal she made with the Shadowking, my queen is quite looking forward to taking down your friends Jason, Tommy, Kimberly, Trini, Billy, Zack and Amber." He shrugged. "In a way you all are nothing more than stepping stones."

Mal could only spare a moment to realize she didn't really know who Trini was. When they got back to Auradon she hoped she remembered to ask Jason, Tommy or Amber who she was. Right now she had more pressing problems as she had come to the same realization that Jay had already thought.

Trishula took one massive step forward to try to crush the four rangers but they were able to dodge out of the way. They could hear Gauntula laughing at their plight. "I wish there was some way we could shut him up." Jay commented.

"We'd have to reach him first." Evie reminded her longtime friend simply. "And right now I don't even know how we can do that."

Trishula shot out at them again and they all scrambled to dodge the attack, barely doing so. Then the large dragon snapped at Evie and she let out a frightened gasp as she barely dodged the attack. "That thing can swallow us whole." She commented in fear.

"Yeah and it would still chew us up just to be mean." Jay said with a small smirk. Not that he thought it was a good thing but he thought it was a clever comment for the moment.

"We could actually probably being chewed up." Evie tried to say reasonably. In some ways it was only a way to help calm herself down. "But in reality when we landed in its stomach acid it would probably dissolve just the same. And as for breathing…"

"Okay, let's focus less on the many ways this thing could demolish us and more on how we can survive this encounter." Mal interrupted with a healthy dose of fear of her own.

"Honestly I don't see how M." Evie admitted to her. "There are only four of us here." They all had to dodge another set of bursts from Trishula, and again it was only barely successful. "Even if we had everyone here this thing is still bigger and seems to be stronger."

"It has to have a weakness." Alex reminded them. "We just have to figure out what it is."

"That's going to be kind of hard to do." Jay pointed out as they all had to avoid yet another seemingly devastating strike from Trishula's three heads.

Mal rolled and recovered as quickly as she could. "What about the cold fire? Can we use that to defeat this thing?" She asked Alex.

"I think that only works against the Ice Queen." The fire knight replied as he stood and started to draw power into his tonfa's. "And honestly even if it would work I don't know how to make it happen." Truth was he wasn't even sure how to use it against the Ice Queen even though somehow the original rangers had found a way to do so.

Trishula lashed out to try to take a bite of out Alex and he lashed out with his flame tonfa's and struck the large dragon across that head hard. It roared with a mixture of annoyance and pain, since it was a fire based attack, and pulled back.

"You're only delaying the inevitable power rangers." Gauntula said now.

Mal hated to admit it but it didn't look promising at all. The four of them just weren't enough to stop a dragon monster this size and Gauntula was not exactly a good thing to have glaring down at them either.

"Mal." Evie started doubtfully.

"It's time to finish these four losers off and so we can see how the others are doing." Gauntula said to the dragon monster. As he started to point down at them for what Mal assumed was the final command two chakrams came from the side and slashed him hard, forcing him to fall off of the dragon and land on the ground hard.

"What?" Jay questioned.

"Mal!" She heard someone cry out and turned around to find Amy running up to her and hugging her tightly, her head pressed tightly against her stomach. "You're okay. I was so worried about you." She said to her sister.

Mal hugged her back. "I was worried about you too Amy." She said softly.

Evie smiled broadly as Melody came over to her. "Are you guys okay?" She asked the blue haired blue ranger.

"We're alive. Let's be thankful for that." Evie said to her with a small laugh before the two of them exchanged a brief hug. By that time Amy had extended her arm to welcome her chosen sister into the embrace as well.

Carlos and Jay high fived each other. "Glad to see you're okay dude." Jay said to him.

Carlos laughed a little. "Well we're alive. Let's save okay until we're out of this mess bro." He said to Jay, who nodded in agreement.

"The chakrams." Alex whispered and then laughed as he saw his cousin as the ice dame approaching him. "Hey, your powers are back Ellie." He said happily.

"They are. And they're not the only ones." That drew Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos's attention as they saw standing next to her was Miranda in the get up of the Highlands ranger. "Miranda got her powers back and came all this way to help us."

"And we'll need all the help we can get." Mal said happily as she and her fellow purple ranger clasped hands. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Amy give Alex a very close and happy hug, glad to see him almost as much as she was to see her twin alive and well.

"This is impossible. You should all be dead." Gauntula said with annoyance as he stood up to glare at the half reformed team.

"It's quite possible actually." Miranda said to him. "Oh, and by the way. That does mean that yer little friend Ryu is gone."

"What's with the big dragon?" Carlos asked.

"That would be Trishula." Evie answered. "I think it's Gauntula's little pet. And I don't know how we're supposed to fight that thing."

Amy glanced up at the big dragon. "Oh my pink." She gasped which got small smiles from Mal and Alex as they had not more than a few minutes ago had commented they knew that would be the rose haired girl's response to seeing this thing.

Melody looked up too. For a moment she could only imagine how overwhelmed Mal, Evie, Alex and Jay had felt upon seeing this thing. She had to raise her neck up high to look up at the three heads of the dragon. Then she noticed something. "What are those on its heads?" She asked Mal.

"What?" The purple ranger questioned and then followed the aqua ranger's line of sight. She then noticed what they had failed to see up until now. Each of the heads had what looked to be a small red gem on each of their foreheads. She suddenly had the idea that that might be the key to defeating the dragon.

"Any ideas?" Carlos asked her curiously.

"I think so." Mal said to him but she had to think quickly. They had to divide the forces they had between the three heads and there was still the seething general to take into account too. "Okay, Ellie and Alex. I need you two to be a general distraction." She said to the two knights. "Carlos and Jay, you're team one. Amy and I are team two. Melody and Evie are team three. We get to deal with the heads."

"I'll take on Gauntula then." Miranda said to Mal. "Make sure he doesn't get in the way of whatever ye have planned for this dragon."

"Sounds great." Mal replied to her fellow purple ranger.

Miranda moved in with her grizzly blades and started to fight Gauntula. She didn't care at all that he had fought against the other rangers without weapons, she had learned very early from her mother Merida that when you had to fight you fought with anything you had at your disposal regardless of what your opponent chose to do, or not do in this instance.

"Take the front cuz." Alex called out to Ellie. "I'm going to take it from the back. Between the two of us we should be able to confuse the monster enough for the rangers to take out their heads." His newly reinstated cousin nodded and aimed a burst of ice at Trishula as Alex slid under the giant dragon monster, though just barely.

Carlos and Jay went to the left as Melody and Evie went to the right. The two daughters of Maleficent stayed in the center. Though Melody decided it was going to be easier to stick with the trident, the rest of the rangers drew their blasters and got ready to try to get the red jewel at the center of their respective heads.

"Hope your aim here is better than it is here on the Tourney field." Jay commented jokingly as he and Carlos took aim at the right head.

"Hope your aim is better than your jokes." Carlos retorted simply. The two boys laughed just a little.

Alex powered up a blast of fire from his tonfa's and sent it as a wave of fire at the dragon. Trishula roared in annoyance and perhaps a bit of pain and aimed a snapping attack at him which the fire knight dodged. That made it impossible for Evie and Melody to attack that head though.

Mal and Amy fired at their head just as Carlos and Jay fired at theirs. The girls missed as it hit the side of the head, and it didn't seem to care at all. Somewhat ironically Carlos hit the red jewel object on the forehead while Jay missed. It didn't seem to matter though.

"Nice shot." Carlos poked fun at his friend for his initial comment. Then he moved on to be more serious. "I hope hitting it together does the trick because just one hit didn't seem to matter at all."

"What happens if two hits don't do it?" Jay questioned the yellow ranger.

"Either we try to get the numbers further up at one gem or we're in total trouble." Carlos answered him simply.

"Keep it together guys." Mal called out to them. "Let's not jump off that bridge until we make sure this plan won't work." She placed her hand on Amy's shoulder. "We can do it sis. Just like we did on the isle, except of course we're aiming for a red gem instead of a wasp." Amy never did understand why Maleficent always had them shoot the spray on the wasps. She assumed it killed them but she still didn't know why they did that way. She assumed it was their mother's idea of toughening them up.

Ellie shot a burst of ice at the three heads. The first turned away from Alex. The middle head reared back in annoyance, which made it too high for Mal and Amy to attack it. The last head seemed to glance around at the ranger's surrounding it. The gaze fell upon Evie and Melody finally and the two blue colored rangers opened fire on the red gem on the head of the monster.

For a moment it was hard to tell just how accurate the hit was. It did seem as if Melody had hit with the trident and that was in fact the reason the aqua ranger chose to use that weapon, so she had more room to maneuver. They were all too far away to actually tell if the red gem on the forehead shattered, their first clue was when the three headed dragon let out a shrieking sound. Then the head just seemed to disappear into the ether.

Gauntula kept trying to connect with the Highlands ranger but she could already see any hit would hurt and so she took to dodging the attacks. She had to grant though that he was great at the follow up, making it impossible for Miranda to retaliate. The shrieking of the dragon drew his attention and Miranda moved in and struck him hard.

Gauntula rose and glared at the new ranger. "You and your little friends haven't won yet." He spat at her. He then summoned Ice Guards. "Stop the rangers from attacking Trishula." He ordered before moving in and striking Miranda in the chest hard.

She stumbled back, feeling the wind knocked out of her lungs. She was only barely able to dodge Gauntula's follow up strike.

"We'll take care of the Ice Guard M." Evie called out to her chosen sister. "Melody and I will deal with the minions."

"Somehow I think they just got the easy job." Amy said jokingly, giggling just a little.

Mal laughed a bit. "Yeah, you can say that again." She agreed. "Maybe we should draw straws?" Privately the purple ranger hoped that meant that with one head down the dragon monster wouldn't be as deadly. If anything it seemed more so as the one that the two girls had been aiming for suddenly lashed out at them. It would have probably swallowed them whole if Amy hadn't grabbed her elder twin's arm and made them intangible just as the jaws would have otherwise snapped them up.

"Mal!" Carlos called out. "Amy!" That drew Melody and Evie's attention. Thankfully the head pulled away just as quickly to see that they were okay thanks to Amy's magic ability. Evie quickly turned around, directing the energy blast from her mirror force shield at some of the Ice Guards.

The other head unleashed a blast at the yellow and black ranger's and sent them rolling back on the ice. Then the head lashed at Carlos and he gasped just a bit as he barely scooched back further on the ice to avoid the attack.

"Hey, eyes on me!" Ellie called out as she unleashed another blast of icy energy at the dragon. This time Trishula ignored the attack and continued to focus on the two groups of rangers as if finally understanding their plan.

Alex unleashed another stream of fire energy at the dragon and the tail was swiped at him. The fire knight dodged under the attack.

Mal leaned down to be at eye level with her twin sister, who was still shorter than her despite their near identical age, and as the two sisters touched hands and blasters Mal channeled an impulse spell that locked the two burst of blaster energy onto the gem on the middle dragon's forehead and struck, shattering the gem. Moments later the middle head disappeared into the ether.

"Almost done." Jay said with triumphant.

Trishula seemed to take exception to that as it now rose in the air and unleashed a huge burst of icy wing from its wings and sent them all flying backwards hard. The last head opened up its mouth and then unleashed a huge burst of energy, striking into the middle of the team hard and sending them all sprawling around hard.

"I think we've pissed it off." Alex noted rather calmly considering what had just happened. It was an attitude under normal circumstances that Amy would have admired because it was far different from her mother's attitude. Right now she didn't have the time to notice it.

The Ice Guards were now converging on the group below the formerly three headed dragon.

"This doesn't seem to be going so well." Carlos noted.

"I think it's going great." Evie now said with what the isle kids could tell had to be a wicked smirk on her lovely face. "I have an idea on what to do. Get ready boys." She then raised her mirror force shield again.

"How will taking out the Ice Guards help us?" Ellie asked.

"I don't think that's her plan." Mal replied.

Evie unleashed a storming mirror force attack, but aimed the attack not at the minions below but at the flying dragon above them. With a shriek of pain and annoyance the monster lost its equilibrium and crashed down hard, taking out the Ice Guards by its sheer weight compared to the guards.

"I think it's paralyzed or something." Amy said to them. "It's not moving."

"Makes our job easier then, right bro?" Jay asked.

"Totally easier." Carlos agreed as the two male rangers fired at the last jewel on the last head of the monster. This time the entire body faded into the ether.

"Yer dragon is gone, Gauntula." Miranda said to the general. "So are the minions, though I suspect ye could easily summon more if ye got the chance." She moved in and raised her blades to bring them down on him. "But I'm not going to give ye the chance."

"Did you forget your lesson so quickly girl?" Gauntula questioned with a smirk as he raised his gauntleted hands and blocked the descending blades.

"Not at all." Miranda responded. She released her blades to let herself fall to the ground, and as she did so she brought her feet hard into his chest. Since he wasn't really armored all that well he lost his grip on the purple ranger's blade as he fell back and she caught the weapons. "Anyone care to finish the job?" She called out.

"I think it's time to let the isle brats go for the win." Melody said with a giggle.

"Brats?" Jay questioned.

"Sounds right to me, now get to it." Ellie said with a giggle of her own.

"You heard them, let's make it so." Mal announced. She, Evie and Amy stood shoulder to shoulder. Jay and Carlos leapt onto the girl's shoulders and the yellow ranger almost lost his balance since Amy was the shortest of them all but he recovered it and the five isle rangers formed their blasters and unleashed the Auradon Triangle Spark at Gauntula as he tried to rise, destroying him.

"That should have been called the Isle Triangle Spark or something." Carlos said with a laugh as he and Jay joined the girls back on solid ground. "It was the isle 'brat's' who did it after all."

"Speak for yourself." Mal said. "I happen to think that I…that we…that, well that Amy happens to be a very respectable young person." She finished with a small laugh of her own. For her part the younger twin wasn't entirely sure if she should find that a compliment or not. Mal might not be mean to her but she sure knew how to be sarcastic enough to keep Amy curious.

"That was very well done." They heard someone say and they turned to see Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, approaching them. She was limping slightly. "I'm very proud of you all."

"Aunt Elsa?" Alex asked a bit shocked.

Jay and Mal held out their weapons as if prepared to fight again but Amy placed her hands on each of their arms to stop them. "No it's okay. It's really Queen Elsa. We rescued her when we fought Ryu." She said to them.

"Mom was forced to be that Icesha monster, we're not entirely sure how. But we were able to free her." Ellie added as both daughter and nephew moved to support the queen of that land.

"Glad to see you're okay your majesty." Mal said to Elsa with a small bow. "Forgive me if we skip the formalities, we have your kingdom to save and friends to find."

Elsa laughed lightly. "Think nothing of it, I get it." She promised. "But how do we do that?"

"How did you find us?" Carlos asked Melody.

"That was Amy's idea, using her own magic and the power of the trident to home in on her sister's magic." Melody explained.

Mal nodded as she understood her little sister's idea. "Then let's follow that one up." She decided. "Amy, Alex, Melody and I will draw our magic together and focus it on the trident to find the others."

"How does that work?" Miranda asked now. "I mean Amy focused on you, her sister. That isn't something you can use there."

Some part of Mal hoped her love for Ben would factor into that. But it was almost a false one. Her other reasoning's were more realistic. "Alex has the cold fire which we need to fight Ice Queen and I'm willing to bet anything the others are together, including Aquiella."

"You're hoping I can find my cousin the same way that Amy found you." Melody realized. She held out the trident. "It's worth a shot. Everyone, move in closer together and hang on."


	118. Frozen Fights Part 10

Ben had no idea what Mal and the other rangers were going through but if he did he would have been even more surprised than he already was to find himself in a grand dining room. It was a bit of a shock since it wasn't the one in Auradon but he knew the look well enough. He figured they were in Arendelle. "What in the…" Ben started.

It was then he noticed that it was cold around him. But he didn't feel it through his armor because he wasn't in his armor. He didn't remember powering down or being forced too. Then he heard a door open and he turned to see Ice Queen standing there. "Where are we?" He asked.

"The banquet hall of my castle in Arendelle." Ice Queen said simply. "I did have the notion that we could talk this out before all of you paid the price."

"You're joking?" Ben questioned. "Not only would it be stupid to let you keep Arendelle, a kingdom you forcibly took from its rightful queen, but it would be really ignorant to think that you wouldn't go any further than that."

"Arendelle is mine now yes." Ice Queen acknowledged simply. It was on Ben's tongue to point out that was why any 'deal' wouldn't work. "But we can still negotiate the safety of the rest of your kingdoms. And let me give you some proof of my sincerity." She snapped her fingers. Ben turned to see Audrey, Lonnie, Aquiella and Will brought into the room by several of the Ice Guards. They didn't look worse for the wear at least. "You see, I could have killed them all and yet I didn't."

"That's because you know that you'll be in even more trouble when Jay, Mal and the others get here." Audrey said to her coldly.

"One can only assume they're still alive." Ice Queen said with a dismissive wave of her hand as if she didn't care if they were still alive or not. And she probably didn't, Ben would wager. "My generals are entertaining them right now." Now she gave a cruel grin. "Of course if you handle this negotiation with all do speed you might get them back alive. If not…" She again shrugged dismissively.

"You can't expect any of us to willingly sacrifice a kingdom." Will commented with a glare of his own.

"I'm sorry, the royals were talking." Ice Queen said with a derisive glance at Will. "You're simply the son of a peasant, lucky to be where you are." Will looked ready to retort and one of the Ice Guards hit him in the back of the knee with his staff and he fell to knees. Audrey and Lonnie looked ready to try to defend him but stopped themselves. The Asian princess contended herself with checking on Will.

"He's right you know." Aquiella now said. She figured it was 'safe' for her to talk since she was a princess of Atlantica. "You can't possibly expect that we would sacrifice a kingdom."

"Even at the expense of your friends," She looked to the Asian princess. "Family." She looked to Aquiella, referring of course to her cousin Melody who could be a princess of Atlantica and of course was still a princess and heiress to her father Eric's kingdom. "And loved ones." She looked at Ben and Audrey, referring to Mal and Jay.

Ben thought she was selling Mal and their friends short. To that end he decided to take a chance; enter into 'negotiations' with the Ice Queen in order to give their friends time to defeat the generals and find their way here. "Even if we were to release Arendelle to you, you would still have to release the people that live here."

"Of course." Ice Queen seemed to agree too easily. "I don't need them, take them. Place them wherever you desire. I have my own people waiting."

Audrey noticed Ben seemed taken aback and guessed that was not what he was expecting to hear. She knew her best friend and former flame well enough to know he was going for a stalling negotiation and that had just seemed to backfire on him. Then she had an idea. "That includes the former Queen of Arendelle Elsa." She said. They had no way of knowing she had been forced to become Icesha or that she had been freed from that state of being.

"I'm afraid that's not possible." The Ice Queen announced a little too easily. "She has other obligations."

"Excuse me?" Audrey questioned. "Her obligations would be to her kingdom, which you robbed her of. Her obligations would be to her people, who have lost their homes to you. Her obligations would be to her sister, daughter, and nephew." She thought to mention Kristoff but thought it better not to give the Ice Queen more to use against them if she didn't already know.

"She has no kingdom now, no people." Ice Queen replied hotly as she turned to face the brunette princess imperiously. "Her only obligation now is to me and the ice barrier." Ben knew she had to be talking about wherever she had been resurrected and came from.

"What do you care about this ice barrier thing anyway?" Audrey now questioned with as much force as their opponent. Ben noticed from the other doors came Grunard, the last standing general and more Ice Guards. "You didn't come from there. How did you even get there anyway, the power rangers destroyed you?"

It was clear from the smoldering look in her eyes that she remembered her defeat at the hands of the original seven power rangers. Lonnie wished that her own smoldering anger and hot temper would be enough defeat herself. "Enough of my essence collected in the ice barrier after those pesky teenage brats defeated me in the ice caverns." She told them. They of course had no idea what the ice caverns were. "The generals were able to solidify that essence and it was strong enough for me to reshape myself."

"Then what are you doing in Auradon, Arendelle in particular?" Aquiella asked now.

"I learned that after destroying me the ranger's went on to end the Shadow King's reign. I had nowhere to go to, to regroup. Arendelle presented that place." Ice Queen answered with an odd combination of amusement and scorn. "A launching place where I could get my revenge on the power rangers."

It occurred to Will to wonder if she realized how much time had passed on Earth. There were more than seven rangers now. He wasn't quite clear on the numbers but was pretty sure they were in triple digits.

"You can forget it." Ben said to her calmly yet with full conviction. "We won't let you have Arendelle and we won't let you have Queen Elsa. We won't let you make this your stronghold on your way to taking over Auradon and then leading a massive force to Earth."

"So be it young king." Ice Queen replied. Grunard drew his sword and started toward Ben. He formed his sword and shield but realized he didn't have time to transform.

Will moved, striking one of the Ice Guards in the stomach hard and knocking him back. Aquiella and Lonnie drove hard kicks into the Ice Guard around the three girls. They all stood back to back, ready to fight but with no chance to improve their odds by transforming.

"This doesn't look too good." Audrey noted. "What do we do now Ben?"

"We try to fight until we can't." Ben answered. He was already planning on attacking some of the Ice Guards until the Praeleanthor sword responded. Then he would strike at the Ice Queen or Grunard and hope for the best.

"It doesn't look at all for you heroes." Ice Queen said menacingly. "The five of you are surrounded and can't morph. You don't have the cold fire to defeat me either. You are done." They started to advance on the surrounded team.

"Thanks for answering so many questions there." They heard Mal say from above them. They all looked up, the five teens gasping with relief as they saw their remaining team members standing behind the balcony that overlooked the dining hall. They were fully transformed. "You better hope your essence holds together again or you won't be coming back from this fight."

"Will, look." Lonnie said as she pointed up to the two things they didn't know about. Ellie as the fully restored Ice Dame and the Highlands Ranger, who they could only assume was Miranda. "Looks like we have more surprises than we thought."

"Where did she come from?" The Ice Queen demanded to know as she looked up at the Highlands Ranger, who had not been there as far as she had known.

"A long way from here." Miranda said. "But I had to come down here in order to help my friends take ye down once and for all and free Arendelle."

They leapt down and landed in front of their friends. "And I have another surprise for you." Alex said as he took out the cold fire. The Ice Queen took a step back as Grunard and two Ice Guards took steps forward to protect her. Alex didn't want to point out he had no idea how to use it.

"Time to get to work guys." Mal said to Audrey, Lonnie, Will, Aquiella and Ben. The young king nodded and combined his sword and shield as the four teens took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed into power rangers.

"You're other two generals and that Trishula dragon are gone." Miranda said to Grunard as she approached him with her grizzly blades raised. "You and the Ice Queen are the last thing keeping us from rescuing Arendelle."

Grunard tried to lash out at Miranda and she dodged the attack. He then unleashed an energy blast from his sword at Mal, Alex and Evie. The two girls flinched and fell to the side as Alex was knocked backwards, and the cold fire went flying back to the back of the dining hall.

"We have to get that." Ellie called out to the other rangers. The Ice Guards seemed to have multiplied even further, making it even harder to get to the only weakness the Ice Queen had.

"Looks like you're all butterfingers." Ice Queen said as she was now in front of Alex. She struck him hard in the chest, making him tumble back into Ben and Will. She then raised her arms and summoned a huge blizzard that shattered the windows around them in order to get into the building. It was enough to blind them all for a moment.

"Mal?" Amy called out. "What do we do now?"

"We need that cold fire." Mal announced. "Ellie, Melody, Aquiella, Alex, Amy, try to get by the Ice Guards to get it." She noticed Grunard seemed to have the same idea. "Miranda, Ben. Stop Grunard from doing the same thing." She looked to Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Will, Lonnie and Jay. "We have to keep the Ice Queen at bay until we have the cold fire."

"Right." Her team mates acknowledged before going off on their assignments.

"How very ironic." Ice Queen said contemptuously as the seven rangers approached. It reminded her of her confrontation with the original rangers, at that time Tommy had been the green ranger, his powers verging of failing because of the pressure Lord Zedd would put on them. "It's time to avenge my loss."

"She does know that we're not actually the power rangers who defeated her before right?" Carlos questioned rhetorically.

"It doesn't matter." Evie answered him anyway. "We're here to defeat her now, and clearly the color combinations then and now haven't eluded her grasp. We just have to remember we're fighting someone who sees us as more than who we are and that makes her dangerous."

"She can see what she wants." Jay commented. "Just as long as she doesn't look past us."

"Without that cold fire, I don't know if it will even matter." Lonnie reminded them all simply.

"Then let's hope the rest of the team gets a hold of it." Mal said to them. "Let's get this started." They each formed their weapons and got ready to fight the Ice Queen. Jay and Carlos were the first ones to move in to strike her, and as they had been warned the Ice Queen seemed to teleport backwards and then unleashed a stream of icicles at the two boys, knocking them backwards.

"Okay, have it your way." Audrey declared and raised her elemental bow. She formed fire arrows and aimed them at the Ice Queen before unleashing them. Lightning quick their adversary dodged behind a pillar. Then she was out and unleashed a beam of frozen energy that slammed right into Audrey and made the red ranger collide with Will and Lonnie.

"M, I have an idea." Evie said to her chosen sister. "But I can't have her paying attention to me."

Mal nodded. "I'll keep her distracted E." She promised her. "But whatever you're going to do, make it fast. She's a hit and runner, and I emphasize the runner part." Mal approached her with the dragon's eye staff but refrained from a direct charge, having already seen what she would do based on how she handled Jay and Carlos.

Ice Queen watched the purple ranger approach with amusement. "The daughter of Maleficent. How interesting that you would be in the side of good." She said snidely.

Mal couldn't help but roll her eyes even if no one could see it. "Yeah, yeah. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that one." She drawled. "Can we just fight already or do you want to run and duck this one too?"

"Those who know when to strike and when to avoid are the ones who live to fight another day." Ice Queen said. "Unless of course you rely on luck, like all of you have done your entire careers."

"Let's see who has that strike and avoid thing down then." Mal said to her. She moved in toward the Ice Queen, who practically teleported away. She appeared behind Mal, but the purple ranger anticipated that one and rolled to the right as the Ice Queen tried to stab her in the back with a large icicle. She tried to follow up and Mal blocked with her staff.

It was actually not entirely what Evie was hoping for as she didn't want to risk hitting Mal. Still, she didn't think she'd get another opportunity and was determined to try and take it. She activated her mirror force shield. In any other circumstance she would have gone with what was the best attack, in this case her blazing mirror force attack. But for the potential safety of Mal, she had to go with another attack; in this case her radiant one.

Ice Queen saw it coming though and twirled herself and Mal around so that the purple ranger took the impact. She fell to the ground, coughing just a bit at the impact. "Nice shot blue ranger." She said and then was in front of Evie. She slammed her in the chest hard and sent her crashing to the ground hard.

As they were fighting the rangers tried to get to the cold fire but the Ice Guards were relentless, as if they knew that if they lost this fight their hold in Auradon was finished. One of them almost gutted Amy, and she let out a gasp of fright even as she made herself intangible. If she hadn't seen it coming she might have been on the ground right now.

"Be careful." Aquiella said to her as she used her tidal boomerangs to take out that Ice Guard. "We can't lose you now."

"I know." Amy replied. "Thanks for the help."

Grunard slashed by Melody and by Ben. Alex was right behind him and stopped in shock as Grunard stopped abruptly. "No." He growled. "It flew here when the Fire Knight lost his grip. I know it was." He then turned and tried to slash at him while asking, "What did you do with it?"

Alex blocked the sword attack with his tonfa's. "You're kidding me, right?" He questioned the general. "Even if I did know I sure wouldn't be telling you."

"We have to find it." Ben said to them. "Mal, Lonnie and our friends need it to defeat the Ice Queen."

Amy kicked an Ice Guard aside as she and Aquiella came to Melody's side. "We don't even know what we need to do to make it work." She reminded them.

"One step at a time." Miranda said to her. "Let's find the thing before we worry about using it." She took out a couple of the seemingly endless Ice Guards.

"I'm so sorry M." Evie said as Mal came to her side. Behind them their chosen isle brothers, Will, Audrey and Lonnie weren't far behind them.

"Not your fault E." Mal promised her as she and Audrey helped their leader stand.

As Ice Queen started toward them from the shadows Elsa stepped out of them, surprising Lonnie and Audrey since they didn't know the Queen of Arendelle had been restored. "Thera." The blonde said simply. "Or that's what you called yourself when we first met. Who was she?"

The Ice Queen seemed shocked to see her there. "A goddess, the goddess of Earth to be precise." She finally said hatefully. "The same wretched goddess who brought those power rangers to stop us the first time."

"It must have been a source of amusement to you then, to gain my trust with the name of a goddess." Elsa commented with ice in her voice. "I know what you planned. To take my kingdom, and use it as a springboard to attack Auradon, to attack my world. Then attack Earth and get revenge on the rangers. I won't let that happen."

"And you were going to force Queen Elsa to help by making her Icesha." Carlos added. "Plan on using anyone else for your ridiculous revenge fantasy?"

"It doesn't matter." Elsa said to the yellow ranger simply. "It ends here. It ends now."

"You know better than anyone else that I can't be defeated." Ice Queen said to her. "They don't have what it takes."

"They will." Elsa promised her. "After I use this." She let the cold fire finally show up in the palm of her hands. "They might not know how to use this, but I do." She revealed. It was an instinct she didn't understand, but it was the same instinct that had told her Anna had managed to get to Auradon safely. "Consider this my revenge for what you did to me, to my people and to my family." With that she held the cold fire up in her left hand, with her right hand she unleashed her own ice power to shatter the cold fire, where the fragments were then blown up and directed right into the Ice Queen.

They seemed to hone in on her and slam right into her. She went flying back with a howl of pain and when she stood again she was smoking all over, it was clear she had been weakened.

Elsa looked to Mal. "Finish it up guys." She said to them. "Show her why the power rangers are still the best."

It was then that each of them felt an unusual sensation, like they weren't alone. It almost, but not quite, felt to Mal and Jay like the kindred enchantment spell that Lonnie had suggested when they were being held captive in the Black Sands of Agrabah that Evie had to direct. Except this time it wasn't their team mate's powers they were feeling. Instead Mal felt Amber's energy, Audrey felt Jason's energy, Evie felt Billy's energy, Carlos felt Aisha's energy, Lonnie felt Kimberly's energy, Jay felt Zack's energy and Will felt Tommy's energy.

With this seeming influx of extra energy an idea formed in Mal's mind. "Let's finish this off guys, not just for us, but from our friends, who I know she's glad couldn't be here, even if they are when it matters the most." She said. "Let's form the Auradon blaster."

"Um, only the six of us can do that Mal." Lonnie reminded her.

"Trust me." She said to the pink ranger and then looked to Audrey. "You and I are up first."

Audrey nodded. "Alright." She replied. As Mal placed her dragon's eye staff, Audrey placed her elemental bow underneath it.

Evie was about to place her mirror force shield when her chosen sister held up her hand. "Wait a minute E." She said to her and looked to Will. "Your turn." When the green ranger looked at her curiously she explained to him, "Trust me on this. Place your recursive sword underneath Audrey's bow, the sharp end pointing out." He nodded and then did just that. It surprised them all to see that the weapon stuck. "Alright E, guys. You know what to do."

Evie placed her mirror force shield in the back, where the compacts folded out. Then on top of Jay placed his soul scimitar, Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens and Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers.

"Hey check it out." Carlos said as they took a hold of the Auradon blaster. "The Auradon Blaster 1.2 version." He laughed a bit. In his mind the 1.1 version was the one where Amy would place rose lance on top with the other three weapons.

"Think there's a 1.3?" Evie now wondered. She saw no reason why they couldn't have this formation with Amy's rose lance on top of it.

"That's something we'll have to try when another time." Mal said to them. "Right in the here and now, this is for us to do." Again they felt it; it was almost as if it wasn't just them doing this but the original seven who had stopped the Ice Queen so long ago.

And as the Auradon rangers took aim and it wasn't just them the Ice Queen saw. She saw in her mind's eye the seven power ranger's aiming their own power blaster, the dragon dagger uniquely fixed on top of the power sword, and in her mind's eye it was two teams of ranger's that fired the finishing shot that would again destroy the meddlesome queen witch once again.

"Looks like you've lost." The future queen of Arendelle said to Grunard as she approached the last standing ice barrier general backed by Melody, Alex and Ben. "Surrender."

"The day is indeed lost." Grunard said with anger in his voice. "But I will not surrender without making sure one of you pays." With that he double slashed his way past Alex and Ben. Alex crashed hard into Melody and furthermore into Aquiella. Ben lost his footing on a patch of ice and fell hard, the wind being knocked out of him as hit the floor. The Praeleanthor sword landed on the ground.

"Our Queen is lost, and now so to shall the princess of Arendelle." Grunard declared and slashed at Ellie. She moved to block with her ice chakrams only to have them knocked out of her possession. He slashed her hard and Ellie fell, her powers choosing that moment to go out on her. "Goodbye girl." He growled as he moved to bring his sword down on her.

"No!" Miranda yelled out as she slid in between the general and her fallen friend. She blocked with her grizzly blades. The force of the attack disarmed both the general and the Highlands ranger. She moved in to get her weapons back but Grunard moved and brought his elbow down hard on the small of her back.

"You'll regret getting in my way." Grunard promised as Miranda painfully moved to sit up.

Grunard moved to bring his fist down on her, while she brought her arms up to try to defend herself. Then there was a singing sound of sorts and then in her right hand she held the Praeleanthor sword, which had intercepted the attack that otherwise would have hit cleanly against her. "What?" Grunard questioned.

"Wasn't counting on that little trick." Miranda replied though in truth it was as much of a shock to her as it was to the general. Then she moved, kicking him back hard and then flipping to her feet. She powered up as much of her own energy as she could into Praeleanthor sword before bringing it down on him. As she turned to face Alex, Melody, Amy, and Aquiella checking on Ellie the last remaining general of the ice barrier was destroyed.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked Ellie as she and Melody helped her up.

"Yes, thanks." Ellie said with a smile. She then smiled at Miranda. "And thank you again. It seems this adventure has me doing that a lot lately."

"I'm sure ye'll get to return the favor at some point." Miranda promised her with a laugh of her own. Then she turned as Ben came over to them and offered him the Praeleanthor sword. "I believe this is yours, your majesty." She said. As Ben took it she added, "That weapon sure gets around."

"It does at that." Ben agreed with a small laugh of his own. "That's what happens when it's somewhat intelligent." With that he sheathed the sword as they all turned to see the seven rangers approaching. Jay and Audrey were hand in hand, as was Lonnie and Will. Mal rushed up and threw her arms around Ben. They embraced happily for a moment, Ben planting a few kisses on the top of Mal's head. Then he let her go so she could check up on her twin.

Ellie was able to get up and hug her mother again. "It's all over. We won and you're okay." She said as she and her mother embraced and the young princess placed her head on Elsa's shoulder, finally allowing her tears of worry and fear to flow a little.

"I'm okay. We won." Elsa agreed as she hugged her daughter. When Alex approached she held out her left hand for her nephew, who took it and squeezed it gratefully.

The doors burst open, startling them all. But it was only Anna rushing in. "You're all okay." She gasped happily and then ran over joining her sister and her niece in the family reunion, this time bringing Alex in as well. "You're all okay." Anna repeated quieter with tears falling down her cheeks.

Ben came over and placed his hands on Mal's shoulders, kissing her cheek gently. She meanwhile had her sister's hands as they watched the happy reunion. "I'm glad we were able to set things right." He said. "You did great Mal, all of you did."

"It wasn't just us." Audrey now revealed to him as she had Jay's arms around her waist. "I felt like we had help. From Jason, Kim, Tommy and the others."

"I felt it too." Mal said. "It almost felt like that kindred enchantment you told us about."

"This isn't over though." Elsa now said to her family. "We have people to set free and a kingdom to rebuild." The others agreed wholeheartedly as they left the ruined hall to start just that.


	119. Cooling Down

"I'm glad you made it there in time Miranda." Fairy Godmother said on the screen they had gotten working. They had patched in the new monitor in the command center so that they could have visual communication as well. They could see Doug, Jordan, Ally, Aziz, Jane and Grant as well. It was clear the command center was coming together nicely. "And I'm glad to see you're all okay too."

"Where are Alex and Ellie?" Jordan asked them now.

"Spending some time with their mothers." Mal answered, she had Amy and Evie sitting next to her on the couch. Ben stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. "We'll spend another day or so helping out to get Arendelle going again before returning home."

"The sooner the better." Aziz said. "We miss you guys. And quite honestly we're defenseless here." Fairy Godmother had already told them that Donnie, April, Rockwell, and the visiting rangers had had to return to their Earth as they had trouble brewing there. Tommy had promised to keep them all informed and also promised to let them know if they needed help.

"And Dude really misses you Carlos." Jane said as she glanced at the little dog sitting beside one of the consoles in the command center. "I've been taking really good care of him though."

"Thanks Jane." Carlos said with a smile. "I appreciate it a lot."

"Who would have thought that you four would be performing humanitarian aid?" Jordan teased with a smirk at Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay. She could leave Amy out of it; this didn't surprise the genie girl much after she had gotten to know her.

"Them?" Audrey questioned with a laugh of her own. "Who would have thought I'd be performing this kind of humanitarian aid?" She admitted.

"The times have certainly changed all of you." Fairy Godmother said to them. "Though for the better at least."

"Your parents are already arranging a nice family dinner for all of us in Auradon upon your return." Ally said to Ben. "Snow White, Rose Red, Aurora, Mulan, Wendy, Callie, Whitney, They're all working on it right now."

Evie laughed a little. "I don't think we need such a lavish affair." She said.

Audrey swatted her arm gently. "Speak for yourself." She joked.

"I can't wait to see everyone again." Amy now said with a smile. "I miss you guys all so much, and I miss them too."

"I just wish we could have been able to say goodbye to the others." Lonnie said. "I hope we can see them again soon and thank them for all they did for us." They had told Fairy Godmother what they had felt when fighting the Ice Queen. She didn't know how to explain it precisely but like them she seemed to agree it had been a good thing.

"I hate to ask this, but…" Jordan bit her lip. "Will Alex and Ellie be coming back with you guys?"

Amy bit her lip. In truth she had wondered that as well. Their family and their kingdom seemed to need them now more than ever. It only made sense to her that they might choose to stay behind.

Miranda seemed equally uncertain about that answer. "Well, we don't know exactly." She confessed and then tried to shake it off. "But they haven't said anything to us about not coming back or anything."

"They'll make whatever decision they think is right." Fairy Godmother said to them all. "And all we can do is support whatever decision they make."

"Of course." Mal agreed. She glanced first at Audrey, then at Evie, and then finally looked up at Ben. Then she looked back to the screen. "We better let you go. We still have a lot to try to do before we leave to come home."

"Of course. Take care." Fairy Godmother said to them. The screen went blank.

The purple haired girl gently patted Ben's hand and then stood up, going to where the screen was. Then she turned to her friends; Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Will Miranda, Amy, Ben, Aquiella and Melody. "We need to talk." She said to them softly.

The last thing that Kristoff expected to see was Arendelle being rebuilt upon his return. He had expected to see Anna waiting for him at the docks and she had not disappointed as she ran up to him and kissed him on the lips lovingly. Elsa's presence was a bit of a surprise but not unexpected. What was unexpected was to see his niece Ellie and his son Alex there. "Hey dad." Alex said when he came forward.

"Hey Alex." Kristoff said as he shook his a bit. Father and son embraced then and then he shook his head again. "Weren't you two off at Auradon Prep, or did I miss a memo again?" He asked.

Elsa laughed a bit. "No, you didn't miss a memo." She said to her brother in law lightly. "Just everything else." She gestured around them. "It will however explain what happened to Arendelle."

"Yeah, I was going to ask about that one." Kristoff said as he placed his hand on Sven II's head. Ellie happily took the reins of the reindeer as they started in. "What did happen here anyway?"

And so Anna and Elsa started to explain to him all that happened. The appearance of their mysterious guest in Arendelle who told them about the upcoming invasion without mentioning she was the ring leader of it. Anna mentioned her attempts to ingratiate herself to Elsa and how much it annoyed her, drawing a small giggle from Elsa and Ellie. They told him about the night of the invasion that left Anna running to their children.

At that point Elsa told her sister and the children what they didn't know. The Ice Queen's decision to force her to work for them rather than imprison or kill her by allowing some mysterious organism, presumably from the ice barrier, to meld with her and make her into her most lethal general Icesha.

Anna recalled as much as she could about trying to get to Auradon, including the mystery life form that had helped her and somehow delivered her to Auradon. She couldn't help but recall the pride she felt at seeing her son and niece with their friends and their desire to help free Arendelle from the Ice Queen and all of her forces.

"So is this ice barrier thing still a problem?" Kristoff asked after Ellie and Alex recalled their recent fights against the Ice Queen and her generals.

"We don't know." Elsa answered honestly. "We're going to step up patrols in case something slipped by us or is still out there. Or is still ready to show up."

What they didn't see were Mal and the others approaching. Amy flinched at the comment they had overheard. For Amy it made what was to come that much easier to accept, if not to like. "Hey speaking of." Anna finally noticed. "Hey guys." She called out.

"Is everything okay?" Elsa asked them.

"Everything in Auradon is fine." Ben answered the Queen. "We just wanted to give Fairy Godmother an update on what was going on." He placed his arm around Mal's shoulders and hugged her close to him. "Our friends took off toward home, some kind of emergency. Hopefully it's nothing big though."

"Is the command center active? Do our friends have their powers back?" Alex asked now.

"The command center is good." Amy said to him a bit shyly. He noticed though she could not meet his eyes, and that seemed a bit weird to him. She was usually pretty good about that with him and Mal. "And Doug says the rest of the team should be up in by the end of tomorrow."

"Finally, we'll be back at full strength." Ellie said. She looked to Miranda. "Would have been nice if you weren't the only one who got to play late hero to the party huh?" She teased the red headed Scotts girl.

"Yes, that's true." She had to admit. "Though we still made it work rather well."

Alex and Ellie made the introductions to Kristoff. Finally Alex placed his hand on Amy's hand and said, "And this is Amy, the younger daughter of Maleficent. But she is absolutely nothing like her mother at all. She's sweet, and kind, and caring." He squeezed her hand softly. "She's a really great girl dad."

Mal tried hard not to snicker. Not because of Alex's assessment as he was right about all that he had said. She had found it humorous that it sounded very much like a son trying to win a dad's approval of his girlfriend. It made her wonder if Ben had ever tried to sell Adam about her.

"Thank you for helping my family." Kristoff said as he smiled at all of them, especially Amy. "Glad you could help my friends when I wasn't here."

"Don't feel bad about that." Anna said to him as she squeezed his arm reassuringly. "You were needed elsewhere, and it was very helpful." Then she frowned a bit. "Besides realistically odds are you would have been captured just like everyone else."

"Or turned against the world like I was." Elsa added softly. Ellie hugged her mother gently. "Or Olaf for that matter."

"Where is the little guy anyway?" Kristoff wondered.

"He wanted to go to the mountains." Elsa answered. "You see it wasn't just Arendelle that was affected; it was just affected the most. The Ice Guards were hunting Marshmallow, probably to turn him against the world too if they had succeeded."

"And that monster Ice Queen sent after me to try to bring me back." Anna added. "I wonder what she had planned for me if our favorite rangers hadn't stopped them from taking me back."

"I'm glad we didn't have to find out." Jay said pointedly.

"Hey, if you really want to help out though, we still have lots of rebuilding to do." Anna said to Kristoff.

He nodded. "Whatever it takes." He said.

Mal found it kind of refreshing to see people working together like this. The truth was not only was it not like this on the Isle of the Lost but even under normal circumstances people didn't usually work that well together.

Ellie had just finished helping to get the fountain in the middle of town fixed and running again. She leaned back and took a deep breath of relief and then looked up to see Miranda lean down next to her with a bottle of apple juice. "Thanks." She said as she took it and opened it up to take a sip.

"Anytime." Miranda said as she sat down next to her.

"I saw you helping with the wall that that Snowrachnid thing destroyed." Ellie noted as she rubbed her neck gently. "I don't know how you handle that kind of strain. I could barely manage the fountain."

Miranda laughed a bit. "I helped my uncles maintain the walls around the castle growing up. It was kind of like preparation for this in a roundabout way." She answered. "I was definitely not the normal princess growing up. For a while I was worried about that until my grandmother told me exactly how my mother was at my age."

"I can only imagine." Ellie said with a giggle. She took a small drink of her juice again. "My mom too tried to raise me the opposite of how she was raised." Ellie revealed. "Mom told me that when she and Aunt Anna were younger they got along really well. Then one night she had accidently injured her with her powers and from then on she tried to suppress her powers. And my grandparents didn't stop her, they even encouraged her."

Miranda had to think about that a moment. She tried to imagine her grandparents or her mother trying to suppress who she was when she was growing up, doubly more as her mother had been so similar to her. "Sounds kind of bad if ye ask me." She admitted.

"It was all concern for Aunt Anna's life and mom's future. I mean, they couldn't know how mom would eventually be accepted by the people like she is now." Ellie replied. "And it did still nearly kill Aunt Anna not long after the coronation."

"None of our parents were ever rangers," Miranda reflected softly. "And yet they still faced their own set of challenges."

"Those challenges would make them who they are, the people we've come to know and love." Ellie replied. "And it's helped to shape us into what we've become." She looked over at Miranda now. "You came all the way from Auradon on your own to help me, help us rescue my mother and save Arendelle. That speaks a volume about you that I don't personally think you understand yet." The blonde confessed.

"Don't sell yourself short." Miranda chided her gently. "I came out here with my powers. Ye came out here without any powers to keep ye safe. Alex too." She placed her hand gently on Ellie's arm. "That takes a certain something too."

Mal, Amy, Alex, Ben and Evie were part of the group responsible for putting the meeting hall back together where they had had their final stand against the Ice Queen. "I think I'm going to make a painting of the cold fire when I have some free time." Mal revealed to them. She then looked to Alex. "Maybe we can convince your mom and aunt to put it up in here, kind of as a symbol for its part in helping to restore your kingdom."

"I don't see a problem with that." Alex said with a small laugh. He went over to help Amy lift up one of the side table, which if he recalled right had been knocked down when Ben had been hit by Grunard after they had discovered the cold fire had been found but before realizing Elsa was the one who had found it and subsequently released it on Ice Queen to allow the rangers to destroy her.

"Thank you." Amy said to him shyly. Again she didn't seem able to meet his eyes. "Maybe Mal is right and I should try to eat better, put some meat on my bones." She said in an effort to try to stay busy. "That way I can lift things like this side table."

In truth Alex thought it might be healthier for her. No person beyond their pre-teens should be one hundred pounds soaking wet after all. But he wasn't going to tell her that, not if that was a battle her older twin sister had been fighting and basically losing for who knows how long. It didn't erase this simple truth though; "I think you look perfect just the way you are." He told her.

Amy felt her cheek getting a bit warm at the comment. She had to turn around to pick up the scattered scarves that had fallen off the table to try to stop Alex from seeing her blush. She didn't even know what to say but the prince of Arendelle heard her try to sputter out a response.

"Tongue tied?" Alex asked her with a smile in his voice.

"I…sorry." Amy said lamely.

"It's alright." Alex promised her.

"Hey Alex." Ben called out. They turned to see the young king standing by the main table with two of the guards. "Can you give us a hand here? We're going to try to get this thing back up to its upright position…and hope that it stays intact." He said.

"Sure, be there in a sec." Alex called back and placed his hand gently on Amy's shoulder. "It'll be alright Amy. I promise." He said to her and then walked away.

Mal and Evie came over and kneeled down beside Amy. "Are you okay?" Mal asked her softly as she placed her hand on her sister's back.

She looked over at her twin sister and the purple haired girl could see the tears glistening in her eyes. "I'll be okay Mal." Amy replied softly. "I just hate that we have to do this. I…I really like him."

Evie stroked her hair softly. "I know sweetie, I know." She said softly. "I wish there was another way to keep Arendelle safe."

"Maybe someday soon…" Mal started before she let the thought go and hugged her sister closely.

They day wore on and Arendelle was slowly getting closer to what it had been before Ice Queen and the ice barrier denizens invaded the kingdom. The team met Anna, Elsa and Kristoff for dinner though it was pretty clear to Elsa that most of them didn't seem to have much of an appetite for some reason, which was odd considering that they had spent most of the day working hard manual labor. Jay and Carlos ate pretty well though.

"Is everything okay you guys?" Anna now asked them.

"Just tired." Audrey said softly. "Aside from the obvious we don't normally work this hard."

"We're pretty sure there's something about the transformation experience that gives us extra energy." Melody added kind of lamely as she reached for her glass of water. "That we don't get during normal work."

"Huh, I never really thought of anything like that. I mean it does feel different when we transform but actual additions of energy seem…" Carlos said absently before Evie nudged his leg hard with her own to keep him quiet.

Elsa noticed that Amy couldn't meet Alex's eyes, and in fact she seemed to be spending most of the time staring down at the table. What was even weirder was that she had made sure Amy had gotten French fries and chicken strips with strawberry soda, which Belle had said was one of her favorites. She had also contacted Merida and found out the girl liked teriyaki pork chops and cheesy mashed potatoes and yet she had hardly eaten at all either.

Truth be told though, Elsa had taken time to contact all of the one-time princesses, may now queens, to let them know she was alright and to find out what their children liked. She had not been surprised to find Belle knew Amy and Mal's favorite foods but had been slightly surprised to know that Jasmine had known what Jay liked. Of course for Evie she had had to contact Snow White. Jane had provided her with Carlos's favorite food.

To the adults surprise they had all declined dessert and soon afterwards decided they should call it a night and try to catch up on sleep. They left as Anna, Elsa and Kristoff stayed behind.

"Did we miss something?" Kristoff asked his wife and sister in law.

Anna bit her lip in thought. "I don't think so." She mused as she picked up her mug of hot chocolate and took a sip. "I guess they really could just be tired. All the fighting they went through just to save Arendelle, and then to help us start to rebuild. It has to be exhausting."

"Yes, but I feel like it might be more than that." Elsa replied as she leaned back in her chair with her own mug of hot chocolate. "I look at them, and it seems as if Alex and Ellie are just as lost as we are. If it was simple exhaustion then why would they be acting differently? I also remember seeing Amy and Alex interacting in Atlantica, and it was far different from how it is now."

"I remember it too, but from our journey here to Arendelle." Anna said.

"Maybe they're worried about leaving Arendelle undefended if there is any chance anything from ice barrier realm is still here or could come through?" Kristoff suggested to them. "I mean they had to pull out a lot of stops to win and they won't be here next time."

Elsa raised her mug to her lips and took a small sip, and then her eyes widened as an idea hit her. She set it down and stood up. "I just had a thought." She looked to her sister. "Come on Anna. We need to have a talk with our children."

Jay had found a small space on the roof top and was practicing his katas, something Leonardo had taught him while they had been visiting Auradon after Maleficent had tried to deprive the team of both their powers and their magic. He heard Mal, Evie, Audrey and Carlos approaching long before he saw them. "Not to stealthy guys." He said with a halfhearted joke.

"Oh, shut up Jay." Mal said a bit irritably before sighing. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Jay said to her. "I get it."

"Guys, are we sure this is the right thing to do?" Audrey asked as she leaned against the railing. A little too close to the edge in Jay's opinion. "I mean…just look at us."

Evie leaned against one of the small pillars. "Look at Amy. She can't seem to keep focus on anything. She ate even less than usual. She's just not being her perky self." She added as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Even Miranda seems rather out of it." Carlos added.

Mal sighed. "I know that." She said. "But what else are we supposed to do?" She asked as she looked at them. "Arendelle needs this. I don't need Queen Elsa or Princess Anna to say anything to think about the fact that the ice barrier realm could still be a threat, and they need the protection here."

Jay looked to Mal. He could see how restless she was. "Care to spar?" He asked her. The purple haired girl nodded and they spent a couple hours exchanging punches as their friends watched.

Then Audrey narrowed her eyes just a little in amusement. "How often do you four sneak out to be on our own?" She asked them.

"Not too often." Evie told her. "The first night we were in Auradon, after we failed to retrieve the wand." That was no secret to anyone anymore, at least to those who were part of the Auradon ranger team. "Not long after we decided to stay in Auradon. The day we all became rangers."

"Discussing me no doubt." Audrey interrupted simply.

Evie looked a little embarrassed about it. "Yeah. It was before we really got to know each other. The four of us managed to get along well for the most part but we barely knew you and at that time it hadn't been long ago that we'd been having problems with each other." She admitted.

"Don't feel bad." Audrey said to her. "That first night I wrote a diary dictating all the ways I thought that my partnership with all of you could go wrong, and some of them were far from generous." She confessed and then she patted Evie's arm gently. "But I haven't written in that thing for a long long time."

"The last time we did something like this was also about you." Evie replied. "But for different reasons. It was after things went south with Chad and we were worried about you and Ben. Especially since he hurt you so much to get where he is now."

"After I turned Jay down for the first date." Audrey said with a small frown. She remembered it well and as much as she hated to say it she knew what Chad had done to her so far would haunt her for years to come. She only hoped nothing worse would happen that would make it even harder for her to get past.

"We don't blame you." Evie promised her. "We all understand. Some of us more than others, I admit." She sighed a bit. "Things were never pretty on the isle, but Amy and I were pretty…undervalued around there unless Mal and Jay were around to say otherwise."

Audrey sighed in understanding and the two girls stood together in companionable silence for a few minutes as they watched Mal work out her frustrations by sparring with Jay, who could easily handle her strength without powers to back either of them up.

Finally Mal stopped and let out a breath. "Okay, I need to catch a shower and then we should all try to get some sleep so we can leave in the morning." She said. They all agreed with her and returned inside the castle.

Amy had barely slept and was wide awake and as ready as she could ever be when Mal came for her the next morning. Mal, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Ben, Amy, Will, Miranda, Melody and Aquiella left the castle.

They had just left the gates of the town of Arendelle where they received a shock. Ellie and Alex were sitting there waiting for them. "Well, I guess mom was right." Ellie remarked a bit coolly. "You were going to leave us behind."

"It's not what it looks like." Lonnie said to them.

"So you weren't trying to leave us behind?" Alex inquired.

"Yes, we were trying to leave you behind." Mal admitted. "We had to. Arendelle needs to be protected from any ice barrier stuff remaining here and it needs its ruling family intact during this crucial time."

"As intact as it can be anyway you mean." Ellie corrected them.

"We didn't mean…" Aquiella started.

"I know what you meant." Ellie promised her. "But that isn't your call guys. Auradon, and the world, needs us to stay with you." She looked at them all now, her gaze stopping at Miranda. "We need to stay with all of you."

"She's right." Alex agreed as he looked at them all. His gaze stopped at Mal and Amy. "This is where we belong."

"Jane said they're going to have a teleportation system at Billy's suggestion." Ellie now said. "If Arendelle or our parents need us we can be back here with a snap if we need to."

Amy found her voice. "That also means you could stay here…and you could come back if you needed to." She said softly.

"We're still enrolled students." Alex pointed out. "And I for one am not okay with dropping all of my classes."

"Neither am I." Ellie said. "Looks like you're stuck with us for another few years at least."

The rangers all looked at each other. Then Ben said, "Are you sure? I know how I would feel if this was Auradon and my parents were talking about."

"You also know this is your friends you're talking about too." Alex replied. "You would go with the best compromise. And that's what we have to do."

Mal sighed. "We're sorry. It's just…we might have been wrong but we thought it was the best thing for you and your kingdom, to have you return." She said.

"And what about what's best for you guys?" Alex asked as he looked at Amy. "And best for the world?" Now he looked at all of them. "We're a team, and that will never change."

"Alright then, team." Mal said. "It's time to go home."

As they approached the two of them Amy stepped up to Alex and threw her arms around his neck, then leaned up on the very tips of her toes and kissed him gently on the lips. He felt his arms wrapping around her back, lifting her up very gently as he pressed her body against his.

Mal gave them a minute and then just because she could she then cleared her throat loudly, making the two of them end their kiss with a small blush on Alex's cheeks and a full on blush on Amy's cheeks. "When you two are done." The purple haired girl teased them. That made the rest of them laugh just a little bit.

"Come on you guys, time to go home." Audrey declared.

As they started toward Auradon Ben approached Alex and said teasingly, "Dude, we need to have a conversation…"


	120. Fully Restored

"I can't wait." Ally said happily as she sat down with her cheese Danish and chocolate milk. "Mal and the others should be home by this evening at the latest." She even giggled happily, much to Aziz's private delight.

"And our powers should be ready to go not long after that." Jane agreed with pride. "We'll be up at full power." She smiled. "I can't wait to see Carlos and the others again." She revealed as she cut into her cheese omelet. Beside her Dude seemed to bark happily at the idea.

"So where are Grant and Jordan now?" Aziz asked them as he picked up a slice of bacon off of his plate.

"Jordan's with Doug, making some of the final adjustments needed." Jane answered as she set her fork down. "She wants a magical battery on our powers, so that way if the technology goes out on us our powers will be okay temporarily."

"I haven't seen Grant since yesterday." Ally said softly. "You know, so much has happened since we found him and Rose Red on Schadel Island that he hasn't had a lot of time to properly adapt to his new surroundings. From Paradias's final stand to rebuilding our powers and the command center and now this rescue mission to Arendelle."

"How long does that take?" Aziz asked. "I mean he grew up on Schadel, how do you adapt to civilization?" The two girls didn't seem to have an answer to give him. In an effort to try to lighten the mood he looked to Jane. "So how does it feel to be out of the hole in the ground?" He teased.

"The command center is far from a hole in the ground." Jane said with a snicker.

"No question." Aziz agreed. "But you, your mother, Doug. The three of you have spent so much time getting things done down there that you guys haven't been around campus recently. If your mom weren't headmistress you and Doug would be in a lot of trouble right now for missing so many classes."

"Okay, just for the record Doug and I could skip most of our classes for the rest of the semester and still have passing grades." Jane said pointedly. She poked Aziz's arm. "Unlike you, who attends his classes and still barely manages to pass."

"Oh, ouch." Aziz pretended to flinch and laughed as Ally giggled and kissed his cheek. "But good point none the less." He conceded. "I guess it's not as big a deal for you guys."

"At any rate we'll be back to what passes for a normal schedule for us by next week." Jane finished as she picked up her buttered toast. "So no big deal."

"You know in truth I don't know how much the teachers are even worrying about it right now." Ally pointed out. "There's still so much reconstruction going around after Paradias's final stand anyway that it seems like the best course of action would be to repeat this semester."

"Best course of action huh?" Aziz snickered. "Still, I get what you're saying. I don't know how much any of us can really do right now for our classes. At this point we're just all grateful to have electricity in the classrooms."

They were a bit startled to hear their iPhones going off. Jane was the first to reach hers and she answered it to find her mom on the other end. She listened for a moment and then responded, "Okay mom, we'll be right there." She hung up and looked to Ally and Aziz though the couple could guess what she was about to say. "We need to go to the command center."

"Let's get a move on then." Aziz decided as the three of them got up. Jane motioned for Dude to follow them to the command center.

Jane felt the command center was extremely empty. Their visiting friends had been forced to leave Auradon early due to some crisis that they hoped would be easy enough for them to deal with and their friends were still traveling back from Arendelle.

Grant gave them a friendly but reserved wave from beside one of the consoles. Jordan and Doug were hard at work and didn't have the chance to really acknowledge them. They did however notice one relatively new face in the command center; that of their friend Ruby the daughter of Rapunzel and Flynn.

"I hate to ask this of you." Fairy Godmother said to them as she turned to face them. "But there is some kind of weird disturbance at crystal waterfall that should be checked out and it's not even close to the route that the others are using to return from Arendelle."

"No problem mom. We'll check it out." Jane said. She motioned for Dude to stay there with Doug and the two women.

Jordan moved to join the three of them, as did Grant. Ruby meanwhile moved over to try to help Doug as best as she could with the cleanup work. "Be careful out there." Doug said to them. "I'm almost done over here, hopefully if you get into any trouble your powers will be ready to go."

"Try to double time it dude." Aziz said. "It's still a long way off before the others get back home. If we run into a problem we'll need whatever edge we can get." With that he lead Grant and the girls out of the command center and toward crystal waterfall.

As they started toward their destination Ally wondered if Mal knew that crystal waterfall ultimately lead toward, among other locations, the enchanted lake where Mal and Ben had their first date. Somehow she doubted that one as the purple haired girl didn't really care about that kind of thing. That was more Evie's thing with the sustainable urban planning thing.

"Jordan," Grant questioned. "My understanding is that you can fee magical residue of some sort. Any chance your picking something up now?" He asked the genie girl.

She frowned a little. "I feel something." She admitted. "It's not magic. Not anything I recognize anyway. But the world is full of unknowns like that." She looked back at Jane, Ally and Aziz. "I think we better stay on guard here."

"Good advice at any time in our line of work." Aziz reminded her simply. Jordan gave him a mock snide look which he returned before they both chuckled faintly. "Man, our relationship has changed since we started doing this." He acknowledged.

"We already learned firsthand how different things would have been had we not met Mal and the others and been rangers together." Jordan agreed as she thought about the spell Maleficent has cast to rid the world of the Auradon rangers. Knowing what might have been, arguably not a good alternative, and bringing Amy to Auradon had been the only perks of that incident, and of course meeting some of the other rangers.

Grant had not heard about this one of course. "What happened?" He asked them.

"Maleficent cast a spell that essentially reversed time. It place Mal, the two boys and your aunt back on the Isle of the Lost." Like everyone else Ally was still kind of processing the fact that Grant and Evie were basically the same age and yet she was essentially Grant's aunt. "That meant that we never became power rangers and most of us would have never met or gotten to know each other."

"Lucky for everyone we weren't one of them." Aziz said to Grant even as he stroked Ally's long blonde hair. "We would have still ended up together regardless which meant the spell didn't work on us. We had to convince all of our friends here the truth so we could go the isle and get Mal and the others."

"And that was where we met Amy." Jane supplied now. "When they were first brought to the isle Maleficent took their memories of her away as 'incentive' to get the job done. We brought her here, brought her home."

"Kind of like what you guys did for me and my mom." Grant admitted after thinking about it a moment. It was true that they didn't know he existed. But Snow White had known her sister Rose Red was out there, hoped she was still alive, and when she confessed it to Evie, she and her team had done everything in their power to bring her home, and him along with.

"Yeah, kind of like." Jordan replied with a small laugh. "It's what we do after all."

They approached river that was formed from crystal waterfall. It had several side paths that lead into Auradon, including the enchanted lake. Jane knew there was some debate about how the water went from here to the lake and became enchanted, the most popular theory being some sort of magical crystal in the waters around the lake but no one had really bothered to find out to date.

"Anything from the magically gifted?" Aziz questioned them as they started to look around.

"It feels wrong." Jane answered. "At least that's my opinion. I'm really still in the beginning phase of magic after all."

"Nope, not wrong." Jordan verified for them all. "Something has changed. I don't know what, but something has changed."

"I think it's time to call Mal and the others and let them know." Ally said to Aziz. "Maybe they can somehow speed up their return."

"Hopefully that teleportation system will be up soon." Grant mused. "Maybe we should have seen if we could get access to this Iconian gateway thing that the Earth rangers use to travel between their word and Auradon."

"Yeah, I'm going to contact them right now." Jane agreed. She had just taken out her iPhone, something she could carry with her without a problem since her powers were based on the wand her mother Fairy Godmother once used, when they heard a chuckle that sounded like broken glass being walked on. It startled Jane and made her accidently dial the command center instead.

"Don't bother kids." They heard a voice say. From the lake rose a monster. Jordan thought he looked very similar to the a really old monster of Rita Repulsa's named the Dark Knight except for rather than looking like a smooth black knight he was instead brown colored and literally looked like a bunch of broken glass cobbled together. His red eyes shone with a certain maliciousness in them.

"Wow." Jordan gasped. "What the heck?"

"I think we have a problem." Grant announced as they all took fighting stances.

"I'll say." Ally agreed. "We have a Glass Warrior to worry about."

The monster took a step forward. "So you're the power rangers." He said with a laugh. "Or at least the ones that are left."

"What are you talking about?" Jordan demanded to know.

With another grating laugh like walking on broken glass he swept his hand back and behind the waterfall several boulders fell back to reveal the rest of the ranger team. They stood their frozen solid, but they could tell from the reflection it wasn't ice they were trapped in, they had been trapped in glass.

"Oh my." Ally gasped in shock.

"Let them go right now." Aziz ordered the monster.

"Like you're in any position to be giving me orders." Glass Warrior, for lack of a better name as far as they knew, reminded Aziz. "Once I do the same to you my mistress will finally be in a position to take what belongs to her."

From the command center Fairy Godmother, Doug and Ruby had heard every word that had been spoken. Ruby looked to Fairy Godmother and said, "That thing must have been sent down by Maleficent."

"Perhaps." Fairy Godmother replied. "It's the most logical conclusion but we cannot rule the possibility that monster could have come from Undine, or some other as of yet undefined evil." It wasn't worth pointing out that, recently defeated or not, they had spent the last week or so worrying about their friends fighting the Ice Queen. "Either way, unless we can restore their powers to them we have a major problem."

"We might still have a problem." Doug pointed out to them. "Even if can restore them, this monster has already somehow gotten the better of all but five of the rangers." He couldn't help but look back at the screen, searching for Evie. He wasn't sure if he should be glad he found her or not. "I don't know what their odds would be."

"Can you even restore their powers?" Ruby now asked Doug.

Doug took a deep breath. It wasn't really as ready as he would have liked it to be, but he didn't see any other choice right now. "I can try to activate them right now. It's untested though. Doing so right now will either completely restore their powers or it could fry their gems." He warned Fairy Godmother.

"I'm afraid I don't see any other choice." She said to him simply. Then she touched button and called out, "Jane, guys. Prepare to transform. And hope for the best."

The five teens exchanged brief looks before getting ready. Jane formed the magic wand as the others took out their iPhones. Being told to hope for the best was not all that encouraging but staring down Glass Warrior clearly showed them their alternative. "Let's get to work." Jane announced. They all activated their power and transformed.

"My wings." Jane exclaimed happily as she saw the feather light white wings appear on her back.

Jordan laughed a little as she held up her lamp cannon. "Who would have thought I'd be happy to have my house become a weapon again?" She questioned.

"You mean your house became as big as a house?" Aziz asked with some laughter.

"Ah save it." Jordan responded with a snicker of her own.

"Things have never been so clear." Ally reflected as she held up her crystalline cards. "I can't believe how much I missed this."

"Then let's celebrate our new found appreciation by taking down Glass Warrior and freeing out friends." Grant declared. The others nodded in agreement and echoed, "Right."

"Five rangers against me?" Glass Warrior questioned in amusement as he drew a wicked looking sword. "Bring it on then kids." He moved in and slashed at Aziz, who blocked with his spiral spear. He pulled back and then dodged an attack from Jane.

Ally threw some of her cards at him, but the pointed ends all around his body made it so that trying to hurt him that way was all but pointless. He tried to slash Ally and she dodged underneath the attack.

"Stand back." Jordan called out. Grant sidestepped with Jane while Aziz pulled Ally out of the way. The gold ranger then let loose a blast from the lamp cannon that knocked him backwards, though it also sent some of the glass like pieces around his body in different directions.

"Can we just blast him to pieces, sort to speak?" Aziz asked.

"I wouldn't count on that as a viable strategy." Jordan answered him simply. "We need something a bit more direct."

"If we could free Will we could try our weapon." Ally suggested.

"If we could free our friends we wouldn't be in this predicament." Jordan reminded her.

"Then free them." Grant said. "Jordan, you're the genie here and Jane, you have magic of your own. Figure something out. Aziz, Ally and I will just have to figure out how to distract him until you do." He had drawn his axe and got ready to fight.

"Let's do it." Aziz agreed. He looked to Jordan, who might as well be his cousin by association if not by blood, and the daughter of their headmistress. "But you might want to hurry it up."

As the gold and white ranger's hurried off Ally and the two boys approached him. Glass Warrior swung his sword at Grant and he blocked it. He lashed out a kick that struck Aziz in the chest hard. Then he turned to Ally and swung his sword toward her.

Ally was prepared to try to dodge it when her powers flickered out, and he slashed her in the arm hard. She let out a scream of pain as she fell onto her right side hard. Then it flickered again and she was the crystal ranger again.

"What just happened?" Aziz questioned.

"Doug said it could fry the gems." Grant remembered. "Obviously it didn't fry them but they must be struggling to maintain their cohesion for our use."

Aziz moved in and used a spiral spear strike attack on Glass Warrior and it slammed into him, knocking him back hard. It again forced little glass pieces off of the monster's body, as Aziz's powers flickered now and some of the glass slashed the arm holding his spear.

"Having trouble rangers?" The glass constructed monster questioned with amusement.

Grant was about to move in to attack now but Aziz stopped him. "Hold up man. If your powers give out like mine just did you'll be hurt worse since you have to be in so close." He reminded the gray ranger. Then he said into the helmet intercom, "Doug we have to get this dealt with. This is the probably one of the worst monsters to have this happening with."

The response actually came from Ruby. "He's working on it right now. He said something about recalibrating the energy matrix that makes your powers flow into the morphing grid or something." She told him. "Just try to keep that thing at a distance somehow."

"Our blasters." Ally said as she came up to the two boys, holding her own. "We have to work with our blasters then."

"I don't see any other way." Grant agreed as he let his axe fade and pulled out his own blaster. "It won't have much impact but it seems to be our only shot."

Aziz followed suit, switching his spear for the blaster. The Glass Warrior started toward the three of them and they let loose a barrage at him. Many of their attacks seemed to be deflected, much like it would have with Evie's mirror shield except it had no direction, which was actually better for them. He then slashed at them, and they rolled out of the way.

"Maybe we should try our own mini spark blast?" Ally now suggested.

"It's worth a shot." Aziz agreed. He stood by Grant and then Ally jumped onto the boy's shoulders. Together they combined their blasters, releasing a smaller version of the Auradon Triangle Spark.

The attack did hit Glass Warrior but to almost no avail. Despite the smoke coming off of his body from the attack he laughed. "Really, is that the best that you half powered rangers can do?" He asked and then unleashed a burst of energy at them. It knocked them back, with Ally taking the worst of the impact since she had been on top. All three of their powers fluctuated again for a second before coming back online.

Aziz started to stand again. "We cannot let this thing beat us." He declared.

"Right behind you." Grant agreed as he rose. He was starting to think it was worth trying to attack with his axe after all.

Glass Warrior responded by unleashing a torrent of sharp edged glass pieces right at the three of them. Ally drew out her cards and tossed them out, catching many of the sharp edged pieces in the middle and knocking them off course. The two male rangers moved in with spear and axe in hand and slashed the monster back hard.

Glass Warrior lashed out and knocked the weapons from their hands and then slashed them hard across the chest, knocking Aziz to the right and Grant to the left. He then moved in and slashed Ally hard. His foot landed hard on her chest as he turned to face Aziz and Grant. "Looks like her time is up boys." He gloated. "But don't worry, you two won't be too far behind."

"Leave her alone." Aziz said as he reached for his blaster again. It was at that point that all three of their powers had to flicker out again, and this time they didn't come back. "No, not now." He moaned.

"Say goodbye." Glass Warrior said as he started to descend his sword toward Ally's throat.

"Goodbye." They heard Will call out as he kicked the monster in the chest hard and knocked him off of Ally. As the green ranger helped her up he added, "And good luck." Right before Jordan blasted him in the chest hard with her lamp cannon, though a moment later her powers went out too.

Aziz could see that Jane was still working on the others, though they seemed far more real than they had the last time he had been able to glance at them. The two boys made their way to the two girls and Will. "Man, am I glad to see you." Aziz said to Will. "Glad you're out of there."

"Me too." Will agreed. "That monster ambushed us in the forests. We're not sure who sent him, but as you could tell he was awful intent on capturing us to lure you guys out. The running theory is of course Maleficent but we don't know that for sure."

Then their powers reactivated and from the helmet intercom they heard Doug say, "I just reinitialized the power matrix. That should do it; there should be no more fluctuations."

"Thanks Doug." Ally said.

"Yeah about time dude." Aziz added. "A few minutes ago would have been nice too, but better late than never. It may be science but it's hardly an exact science after all."

"Then show this monster who he's messed with." Jordan said as she reformed her lamp cannon.

"They say breaking a mirror is seven years back luck." Ally noted wryly.

"Sometimes I'm not sure we have much good luck to worry about losing." Aziz noted with a smirk. "So let's just increase those odds, shall we?"

"Don't forget about me." Jane said as she landed next to Will and Jordan. "I just got Mal and Amy free. They're going to take care of the others so I can help you finish that monster off."

"Let's do it then." Will said.

Jordan extended her arms, holding out her lamp cannon. Ally placed her crystal cards into the spout of the cannon. Jane placed the magic wand in the top of the lamp cannon. Will's recursive sword and Aziz's spiral spear underneath the lamp cannon. Then they took aim at the Glass Warrior and destroyed him, literally showering him into a million pieces.

"About time." Mal said as they started to their team mates. "Somehow I think that was one of the most aggravating monsters we've seen in a while." She smiled softly as Will and Lonnie hugged each other. She herself had an arm around Amy even as Ben had his arm around her.

"Looks like your powers are finally up and running." Audrey noted happily.

"They are." Ally agreed. "It looks like we're one hundred percent again."

"After Doug reinitialized the power matrix." Aziz added.

"It must have caused some kind of feedback surge when he reactivated all of your powers at once." Carlos hypothesized. "I remember that being a concern when we were getting close to reactivating our powers."

"Mom will be really glad to see all of you again." Jane said and then looked to Carlos. "And so will Dude." He seemed happy to hear that one.

They made their way back to the command center, which the others were glad to see was finally operating again. Carlos sat down on the ground to embrace his little dog friend. Evie meanwhile happily embraced Doug and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Welcome back." Ruby said to them all with a smile.

"It's great to be back." Audrey said to her. "I can't believe how much we missed school."

"I'm so glad you've all returned safely children." Fairy Godmother said.

"Despite some best efforts otherwise." Ellie said with a mock glare at Mal and Miranda before they all giggled a little. "Mom is okay and Arendelle is going to be back on its feet soon." She now said with a more serious expression.

"When we're all together this evening I'm going to talk to mom and dad about sending some relief down to Arendelle for a while none the less." Ben said to Ellie and Alex, both of whom smiled gratefully. He then looked to Fairy Godmother. "We still have no idea if the ice barrier is still a threat to them or Auradon."

"It might be advisable to get some sort of warning beacons out there." Doug supplied.

"Yes, that would be a very good idea. I'm sure your parents will approve of relief aid in Auradon Ben, and we can make that one of the things that needs to get done." She looked to Melody and Aquiella. "In that regard, it might not be a bad idea to have something set up in Atlantica as well, we still have the Neptune Kingdom down there, and we don't know where they stand in all of this."

"I guess next time we call home we should discuss that with our parents then." Melody said.

"I don't think grandfather will have a problem with it." Aquiella noted.

"Well you can discuss that tonight." Fairy Godmother said, and the two of them looked at her in shock. "Queen Ariel is here in Auradon and is eager to see you two again." That made Melody very happy, and Aquiella almost as much. The orange ranger already knew her mother would never be here as she didn't want to leave the sea. Aquiella personally considered it a victory that she was allowed to come here at all.

Doug looked over at Evie. "Are you okay?" He asked her as he placed a hand on her arm.

Evie tried to give him a reassuring smile, though it wasn't as reassuring as she would have liked. "Yeah, I think so." She said and sighed a bit. "It's just…something about the magical energy behind the Glass Warrior. It was naturally alien and yet, yet somehow it seemed kind of familiar. I can't put my finger on it."

"Whatever it is will expose itself in time." Doug assured her. "And we'll work it out together, all of us I mean, then." He squeezed her arm gently and the blue haired girl leaned her head against his shoulder.


	121. Shades of the Underworld

Again please take the time to review, it is much appreciated.

"This has been so wonderful." Amy said as she took a small forkful of the strawberry cheesecake that she and Mal were splitting though it was reluctant on her older twin's part as she personally thought, and not for the first time either, that Amy needed to put on a little weight. They were all sitting around a very large rectangular table where all of the ranger's and their families, be it parents or siblings or other relatives, were enjoying the return meal.

Amy sat in between Mal and Belle. Ben sat beside his purple haired girlfriend as he enjoyed a slice of chocolate cake and was smiling at them. Adam had been sitting next to his son earlier but had since moved on to socialize a bit.

"Sometimes it's hard to remember what life in Auradon was like before we all became power rangers." Ben noted with a mixture of amusement and regret. He could remember when his biggest problems were how he would do as king and how his first proclamation would go over. While the latter eventually seemed to work out the ultimate jury on his time as ruler wasn't even close to being decided.

"Is that really a bad thing? I mean for the most part at least?" Lonnie asked as she reached for her glass of grape juice. From the corner of her eye she could see Will and his sister Whitney enjoying their ice cream sundaes. Cinderella and her daughter Callie, who was also Whitney's best friend, had been there earlier but had ended up leaving early.

Mal knew that everything associated with them was kind of bitter sweet for both girls as well as Callie's father Charming as it had also lead to Chad's turning on his family, friends and all of Auradon. It might have been his choice to do so of course but as Mal had heard Amber say the last time the earth rangers were in Auradon it wouldn't have mattered if Paradias hadn't opened that door to start with.

"I don't think it is." Audrey voiced now. It might have been an ironic statement considering Chad's betrayal had made the brunette princess one of the most prime targets. Still, she was able to provide reasons on her belief easily. "I mean think about it; I probably never would have bonded with all of you 'isle brats' the way I have." Mal rolled her eyes in amusement as Amy and Evie giggled just a little and Jay rolled his eyes as his girlfriend bumped shoulders with him.

Then she continued on. "We never would have made such great friends." She looked to Miranda, Melody, Aquiella, Ellie and Alex. "And I don't mean just here in Auradon, we have friends outside of Auradon too that are part of that." She then looked to Lonnie. "You might not have a great boyfriend and I certainly don't think it would have been Will." She now pointed out as she also included Will in that glance.

She again looked to Mal. "And you may have never gotten Amy back after that spell Maleficent cast." The purple haired girl had to grant that one. When she and her chosen siblings had chosen to stay in Auradon they had not realized they had left one of their own behind.

She looked to Evie now. "Would you and Doug have gotten so close without this?" She had the son of Dopey sitting with her right now though as seemed to be normal his father and his uncles were unable to be there. Still, Evie granted she might have had a point. Then she gestured to her other side. "You may not have gotten the relationship you have with Snow White." The blue haired girl glanced at her middle step-sister, who her mother had tried to kill with a poison apple so long ago. "And you two most likely wouldn't have found Rose Red or Grant."

"You know I probably would have never gotten the chance to even come to the surface, let alone Auradon Prep, under any other circumstances." Aquiella admitted.

"And I have to agree too." Snow White said. "I spent a long time mourning because I didn't know she wasn't killed but exiled." She smiled softly at her older sister. Rose Red smiled back at her. Things had been so hectic Evie wasn't entirely sure how much her older step-sisters had really been able to reconnect but at least it didn't seem like anything had blown up in their faces.

Aurora looked over at her daughter. She would never say it out loud but she knew that her daughter too had changed so much for the better since becoming a power ranger. She reached for her own glass. "I'd like to propose a toast." She said and everyone looked to her. "To our family, to our friends, and to the knowledge that not just our children, but all of us, can handle anything we have thrown our way."

"I'll drink to that." Ariel said with a laugh.

They all took a sip of their drinks. "We still have to acknowledge that this has come at a price though." Audrey now acquiesced. "People have been hurt, some badly, during all of this. We're lucky no one has gotten killed." She took a breath. "Chad…well we know what happened there. Maleficent is loose again."

"And we have a bigger threat than Maleficent or anyone on the isle." Ben reminded them all grimly as he stood up. He formed the Praeleanthor sword in his hand and turned to face his friends and family. "As awesome as we all know this sword is, it came from a civilization that was in a war with demons."

"And the forces behind those demons are the same forces that Chad got the Maledict's blade from." Miranda recalled.

"It's worse than that." Ben said. "Because that conflict was so bad that according to Tommy and Jason that civilization didn't win that fight. Whoever didn't evacuate their home, which I was told was a planet in their system called Mars, was used to create a weapon that could only seal off their portal to the underworld, not destroy it."

"And that's the power that Chad's wielding." Mal reflected softly. She shook her head. "But it doesn't matter. We'll find a way to stop the demons if we have too. Just like we stopped Paradias, just like somehow we'll stop my mother. And we already know the other rangers will be there to help us with that." She looked to Audrey. "As you just pointed out we have lots more friends than we ever expected."

"We all have to remember, Chad turned on us. It was his choice." Miranda said. She looked now to Will. "Ye had the chance to turn on us too and ye didn't do it." The green ranger had to nod in agreement. "He could have taken the same path ye did Audrey but he didn't. Again, that was his choice. And some of that was going on before all of this happened as well."

"As for everything else, just look around." Ellie said. "I think it proves Audrey's point that this has all been for the better." She smiled softly. "And what isn't for the better. We just have to change."

"As Ariel said, I'll drink to that." Mal said and took a sip of her grape soda. Amy meanwhile took a sip of her strawberry soda. When Ben sat back down she kissed her boyfriend on the cheek. "We'll figure it out, I know we will."

"I know." Ben said with a soft smile.

Then the power went out. That made everyone stand up in mild alarm. It wasn't that power outages were unheard of in Auradon but they were extremely rare. Then an eerie orange light started to flash around them, traveling the entire room before disappearing and then restarting again; this was followed by a noise that almost seemed like the high pitched gasping of a frightened girl.

"What is this?" Ruby asked them.

"Don't know, never heard it before." Jay responded.

"Yes, we have." Audrey corrected him. "At least…"

"Audrey and I have." Aquiella finished. "This was part of Chad's intimidation tactics that he tried to use on Audrey back at the castle the night we stayed with you Aunt Ariel." She said as she looked to her and Melody. Chad had done something to knock out the female rangers so he could attack Audrey, but at that point she had not been a power ranger and had recovered on her own, defending the brunette princess from who she thought of as a depraved lunatic. Marcellus meanwhile had taken the chance to try to attack Aziz, knocking out the other guys.

Ben realized he had not returned to the Praeleanthor sword, and now he could feel it thrumming anxiously in his grip. "It has to be Chad now." He said. "And he's up to something big."

The windows shattered into uncountable fragments. Ben formed his shield and stood in front of his family, but it didn't stop Belle from pulling the girls closer against her. The fact that Amy could have gone intangible to avoid it didn't cross her mind, though to be fair it hadn't occurred to Amy herself either.

The guys did their best to protect their girlfriends though with a slight noise of annoyance Jordan simply brought up a field to protect them all. "Genie in your midst." She said simply.

"Is everyone alright?" Miranda asked as she looked around, stopping to help Ellie up, who had tripped over the chair in an attempt to get up. The blonde ice princess smiled in appreciation.

"It looks like it." Ally noted.

It was only then they noticed the darkness outside seemed unnatural. On instinct the rangers started toward the broken window to look outside. Their families had to resist the urge to stop them, it was after all their jobs but that didn't cancel out their protective instincts.

"What is going on out there?" Grant asked.

A portal flared up and they saw Chad, already armored up, standing there. He seemed to be alone. "Hello 'friend's'." He said mockingly. He looked at Audrey. "Don't you look lovely tonight, I look forward to tearing that lovely dress of yours into shreds."

"I look forward to taking your head off of your body." Jay said menacingly as he took a step in front of Audrey.

"What do you want?" Mal demanded to know. "Aside from the obvious, which you won't get anyway."

"Time will tell Mal." Chad answered derisively as he looked at the purple haired girl. "But I've come today to show you something quite special."

"We don't want to see anything you think is special." Lonnie bit off sharply. She too had taken a step closer as if to protect Audrey and she could feel Will beside her.

"Well that's just too bad." Chad said with a dismissive wave at Lonnie. Truth be told he had never thought too much of her, something that would have angered Will if he knew that opinion. "Because you're going to see it whether you like it or not, so be ready."

For just an instant Amy had several flashes in her mind; more like repressed memories. Memories of small spiders with big mouths, a large female spider with a vaguely humanoid face and telekinetic powers, a large demonic creature with metal legs, several large bipedal creatures that vaguely looked like skinned oxen, large bulbous potato looking monsters with cannons on their arms and floating skulls on fire. She suspected they were some repressed memory from either April or Jennifer, friends of the Ninja Turtles, and that that was only the a small idea of what they'd seen. "I think we better get ready." Amy said to them in a soft voice.

A/N: for the full story check out my story the New Ninja Turtles Adventures

Mal could only wonder right now what her twin sister had seen. "Let's get to work." She declared. As Ben summoned his shield and Jane summoned the magic wand the rest of the team took out their iPhones and input their numbers. Then they all transformed. As ranger's they could do some things that they couldn't do otherwise, such as jumping out of the broken window to land in front of Chad.

"Oh, how sweet." He said mockingly. "You're all together as one again after such a long time." He looked to his former friend Ben the Auradon Knight and the purple ranger Mal with hatred. He looked to his former flame and current obsession the red ranger Audrey and her boyfriend Jay the black ranger. He basically overlooked the blue ranger Evie and the yellow ranger Carlos though he glared with annoyance at the pink ranger Lonnie and the rose ranger Amy. He did spare looks of annoyance for Aziz the silver ranger, Ally the crystal ranger, Aquiella the orange ranger and Jordan the gold ranger while he passed over Will the green ranger, Melody the aqua ranger, Miranda the Highlands ranger all decked out in purple, Grant the gray ranger, Ellie the Ice Dame and Alex the Fire Knight.

"And I see you're all alone as…well, as always." Mal said with a smirk in her voice. "Makes you think, doesn't it Chad?"

"Do I look alone?" Chad questioned her, and it seemed to everyone else besides Audrey and Aquiella who had heard that tone of voice before, again back at the castle in Atlantica when he had attacked Audrey after knocking out the others. "If that's what you think you've never been more wrong daughter of Maleficent."

Carlos seemed just a bit nervous. "Did his voice get deeper and maybe more, I don't know, demonic?" He asked.

"Audrey and I have heard that once before in Aunt Ariel's castle." Aquiella answered softly.

"Chad must be embracing whatever demonic powers he access to thanks to that blade of his." Lonnie speculated. She knew it wasn't a stretch, Ben had tapped into the Praeleanthor sword in the past and truth be told so had at least half of them.

"Tap into whatever power ye want Chad." Miranda called out to him. "The numbers can't lie and they're still on our side."

"On your side for now." Chad corrected her, sounding more like himself. "But numbers do lie, because even one number can change the equation." Thunder rumbled so loudly that if adrenaline and tension hadn't already been so high it might have made most of them react. Then a very large, zord sized creature appeared behind Chad. It was an all four horned feet for the moment with horns gleaming and almost scaly skin. "And now the tide changes. You're not the only ones with zords anymore. This is mine, the Guardian zord."

"Oh my pink." Amy whispered. She realized she had seen this creature before in the visions she had had. Mikey, Casey Jones and Rockwell and fought one in some area with trees, she was sure it was a park of some sort. Except she didn't think that was a zord but Chad said this one was.

The dark knight jumped onto the things head and only then did they realize they could see the cockpit. "Ready to play?" Chad asked.

"We need the Auradon Megazord." Carlos said.

"No argument here." Audrey agreed as she got ready to summon the zord.

Mal pulled out her crystalline dragon and Ben pulled out his crystalline horse and the two of them summoned their zords. She looked to the others. "Let's hold off on the other zords for the moment and see what happens. If we don't have to play every card in our deck, I'd rather not." She said.

"You got it Mal." Aziz answered. Amy however suspected they wouldn't have much of a choice but to ultimately use the Auradon Ultrazord, and even then she hoped it would be enough.

The Steed zord charged the Guardian zord, turning to slam its powerful rear legs into the it but the head moved and caught the hooves in its horns before tossing the Steed zord hard. Ben had to hold onto his console to avoid going end over end.

Mal's dragon zord moved in and moved to bring its tail down on Chad's zord but it took a massive step backwards and unleashed a stream of energy from its horns that struck the dragon zord hard. It floated back and then unleashed what Mal thought of as the dragon pulse but another burst of energy from the horns collided with it and the two attacks dissipated. Then the Guardian zord charged forward and slammed into the dragon zord with devastating force.

The Guardian zord turned around just as the Auradon Megazord approached it. "Let's see how you do against us Chad." Jay said.

"This hardly seems fair." Chad noted with amusement. "Time to grow up then." With the twist of a very organic looking switch the Guardian zord ascended upward, going from four hooved legs to two. The two former hooves became arms with cloven hands. "It's the Guardian Battlezord." Then those newly formed cloven hands began to glow green.

"Is it me or did that thing just get more muscle?" Carlos questioned. No one had a real answer for him but Lonnie had to admit it seemed as if the yellow ranger had made a very good point. As Jay and Lonnie combined their weapons to make the their sword Evie placed her mirror force shield for their own shield.

The Guardian Battlezord moved in and slashed at them. Evie raised the zord's shield but despite it being formed from her weapon it lacked the actual versatility and as a result Chad was able to easily knock it aside before punching the Auradon Megazord in the chest hard.

"We're not done yet." Audrey warned him as they swung the sword at the Guardian Battlezord. It made contact and even drew some sparks but it didn't seem to be enough. The fists of the Guardian Battlezord again struck and sent the Auradon Megazord sprawling.

"Guys, it's time to form the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord." Mal announced. It was their last option before having the others get involved. She was starting to see what Amy had already feared though; they might very well need their best.

The Auradon Megazord combined with the dragon zord and then combined again with the Steed zord to form the Champion Defender. Mal and Ben found themselves in the cockpit between Audrey and Evie. Together they charged up their sword and charged right at the Guardian Battlezord.

"Impressive." Chad sai and the Guardian Battlezord brought out its hands, still coated in green, and caught the sword as they moved in. The battlezord then tossed them up in the air before unleashing that same stream of energy from the horns right at it.

"Time to step in I think." Jane observed.

"Agreed." Aziz said. "We need the Auradon Megawing Battlezord now."

"Mal, they're calling the Auradon Megawing Battlezord now. Hang in there." Amy informed her twin sister. "Say the word and we'll come in with the Auradon Warzord."

"Stand by. Let's see what happens here." Mal replied but Amy could hear the new uncertainty in her older sister's voice that hadn't been there originally.

Even as the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord landed hard on the ground the Auradon Falcon Battlezord stepped up. "That's enough out of you Chad." Jordan said. "We've had it with you and your demonic things."

"Jealous genie?" Chad asked her rudely. "Because the demonic forces are stronger than anything you could have expected. That Maleficent and I are tapping into that enormous power?" The Guardian Battlezord moved in and clashed with the Auradon Megawing Battlezord. They exchanged several quick punches before the demonic looking zord reared back and smashed its horns into the chest.

"We should try and take to the skies." Ally suggested to Aziz.

"Good idea." He agreed. With a push of a button the Auradon Megawing Battlezord soared into the skies and then turned around to unleash a barrage of missiles from the wings straight at the demonic zord.

It struck and took a few steps back before sending a massive beam of energy straight at the battlezord. This didn't come from the horns as they would have anticipated but instead from the glowing green hands of the demonic battlezord. The impact forced it to land beside the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord.

"Before we try the Auradon Warzord, let me see if I can take him." Miranda said to them. She doubted her Battle Bear could do so but the only other cards they held were the Auradon Warzord and the Auradon Ultrazord.

"Go ahead." Will said. He stood beside Amy, Alex, Ellie, Grant, Melody and Aquiella. "We'll be waiting just in case."

Miranda summoned her Battle Bear and immediately went into the Battle zord formation. She moved in with the zord's bear blades and slashed at the Guardian Battlezord. Again in struck but seemed to have little impact. Chad turned and slammed the demonic battlezord's fists into the battlezord hard.

"I think it's time to stop playing around." Melody said to Will.

"Agreed." He replied. "Time for the Auradon Warzord to make the scene."

Chad was not at all surprised to see the zord he had once used after Gregory had stolen it show up. The Auradon Warzord swung the extendable blades attached to its wrists at him. The Guardian Battlezord was able to parry those attacks with the glowing cloven hands and then kicked the Auradon Warzord backwards.

"Let's try a different approach." Grant suggested and then pressed a button to unleash the side missiles at the Guardian Battlezord.

They saw the demonic battlezord lean down and then jump high into the air just as the missiles would have connected and then descended down with its glowing green fists hard on the Auradon Battlezord. It shook them all hard and it even forced Aquiella out of the warzord and onto the ground hard.

Miranda had just gotten the Auradon Battlebear to its feet as Ally and Jane had gotten the Auradon Megawing Battlezord to its feet. Carlos and Lonnie meanwhile had almost gotten the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord standing as well. Then Aziz let out an, "Uh oh." As the Guardian Battlezord turned toward the three already damaged zords.

"That's not good." Carlos noted.

"Try a double barrage." Jay suggested.

From one side the Auradon Megawing Battlezord unleashed a barrage of missiles from the wings. From the other side Grant released another barrage of missiles from the shoulder pockets. It struck the Guardian Battlezord and it went rolling. The downside was when the smoke cleared it didn't seem to have enough damage to make it worthwhile.

"What does it take to scratch this thing?" Jordan wondered.

"I've never heard Amber or any of the other ranger's mention using zords against those demons before." Mal recalled. "Now I guess we might know why."

Amy bit her lip as she combed through the brief flashes of visions she had had about the turtle's encounters. Nothing like this was there either. "I think we're in unknown territory here guys." She commented.

"I think it's time for the ultrazord." Melody stated.

"Agreed." Mal said.

"On it." Aquiella replied as she summoned the giant Clam zord that had been found in a cave not far outside of Atlantica. In fairness that had not been exactly found by the ranger's as they had been busy. Instead a group of their parents, including Belle, had found it and activated it for them.

The three battlezords drew together even as the Guardian Battlezord unleashed another attack from the horns. The three zords fell backwards from the blast. Chad then powered up another energy blast from the glowing green cloven hands and shot it right at them.

The Clam zord appeared in front of them as Aquiella was the first inside. She saw the zord take the impact, though it did far more damage to it than any other attack had done to their well armored zord to date. "It's time to go for the Auradon Ultrazord everyone." Aquiella called out.

"Let's make it so." Mal agreed. The three battlezords flew into the mouth of the Clam zord and took their places within even as the mouth of the clam closed. They all joined Aquiella in the cockpit. The blasters extended from the shell of the Clam zord as the mouth opened up again for the weapons of the other zords to take aim.

"Do you really think you can destroy me with that?" Chad asked them.

"We better hope so." Audrey noted softly. "We don't have anything else at our disposal."

"We can do it Audrey." Evie tried to say encouragingly though at this point they had all started to develop their doubts.

"Auradon Ultrazord, lock on and fire!" The nineteen Auradon warriors called out. All the weapons and blasters were unleashed directly on the Guardian Battlezord and they saw it fall back. But to their horror when the smoke cleared it was still standing. "Did we even scratch that thing?" Jordan wanted to know.

Chad would never admit it but despite what it looked like the last assault had indeed left a mark on the demonic battlezord as its energy readings were critical. "This isn't over. You don't even know the full capabilities of this battlezord." With that Chad and the Guardian battlezord vanished.

As they let their zords return to their hiding places, or roam as was the case sometimes with the Steed zord and dragon zord, they were met at the bottom of the castle by their families. As Will lifted Whitney into his arms she remarked, "That was kind of scary."

"Yeah, it was." Will had to agree as he hugged his mother.

"Our best shot seemed to barely scratch that thing." Jane lamented softly as she hugged her mother.

"I imagine it had to have done more than that or Chad wouldn't have retreated." Fairy Godmother consoled her daughter and all of their friends.

"That may be." Mal allowed as she and Ben hugged each other. She saw Belle embrace Amy gently. "But our best shot certainly didn't destroy it."

"And he seemed to imply that we haven't seen that zords full capabilities yet." Ellie reminded them all grimly.

"Aye, and I for one wish we wouldn't have to see it either." Miranda commented.

Evie swallowed a bit nervously. "Do you really think…that that's a true indicator of these mysterious demon's powers?" She asked them all softly.

"I sure hope not." Audrey answered just as softly. For her it was a bit more personal. If they couldn't overcome it and Chad won, the others would likely die. But for the brunette princess Chad had made it clear he had worse intentions for her than death.

"How much of that do you think mom is able to tap into?" Amy asked her older sister as she looked over at her, still wrapped in one of Belle's arms. It was kind of hard for Amy to drop the name despite the fact Maleficent had made it clear that she didn't consider Amy or Mal her children anymore, if she ever did at all.

"I don't know Amy." Mal answered her honestly. "But whatever mother can get access too, we both know she'll do it."

"Maybe it was the demonic powers that were responsible for that glass warrior thing at the lake?" Ally suggested to them.

Evie shook her head as she stood beside Doug and Snow White. Beside Snow was Rose Red and her son Grant. "I don't think so." The blue haired girl said. "Some part of that power seemed so familiar. If I didn't know better I would swear it was my mother."

"But she's on the isle." Grant noted simply. If he cared to think about it that made the Evil Queen Grimholde his grandmother in law, if such a thing existed.

"Is she?" Jay wondered. "For that matter, we know Undine left the isle as did Maleficent. How do we know your mom isn't free?" He frowned a bit. "Or my dad for that matter?"

"Or my mom." Carlos added.

"I think your mother is a bit small time compared to everything else we've seen there dude." Aziz reminded him simply.

"We need to check in on that." Belle said simply as she rubbed Amy's back gently. "If anyone else has left the isle we need to know about it. If they've allied with Maleficent and have any sort of access to that demonic power, we need to know that too."

They all couldn't help but wonder what else Chad's new battlezord could do, and what they would be able to do to stop it.


	122. Toward an End

"The zords will be repaired by the end of the day." Doug announced to the team as they met for breakfast the next day at the new and improved command center. It was somewhat unusual for a breakfast table to in a command center but it did serve as a meeting place too. In this case that included Ruby's presence for what that was worth.

"Any chance of getting their power amped up?" Ruby asked as she picked up her apple juice to take a drink of it. She had been there last night when Chad's Guardian Battlezord had shown up on the scene. It had taken the Auradon Ultrazord to even make it run away. It hadn't been destroyed.

Fairy Godmother shook her head minutely. "I'm afraid as far as we can tell there is nothing we can do to increase any of the zords powers." She answered. "Not without finding another zord, which might be very difficult as they've all come of their own accord with the exception of the Auradon Megazord."

"I talked to mom yesterday after what happened." Ellie revealed as she set her glass of orange juice down on the table. "And told her about our history with zords. She's trying to see if something is in Arendelle that we can use but I haven't heard any follow up on it."

Audrey sighed. "We have to come up with something before Chad attacks again." She said to them. "Or we might be defeated the next time he shows up."

Mal sighed. "It just never gets easy does it." She said sarcastically. She took a deep breath and wished she had a better idea of what to say.

"Don't worry Mal. We'll figure it out. We always do." Ben assured her as he kissed her on the cheek softly.

"Sometimes I just wish we could plan better instead of always having to be doing things on the fly." Mal admitted with a shrug. "I know we've had great results with that so far but all it takes is that one time for it to go south."

"It never will." Amy said to her older twin sister. "Because I know that we can all do anything, together." She smiled at her friends, which in this case included Audrey who had proven herself well in the rose haired girl's eyes even if she would never say it out loud. "Even if we sometimes end up being separated for it."

"She's totally right." Lonnie agreed. "We can handle anything, with all of our friends. Here and far."

"Here and far." Mal said softly. She looked to the command panel that held one new function. Communications with galaxies outside of Auradon. She then looked to all of her friends. "What's going on? What could have made Jason, Tommy and all of them have to leave so abruptly?" She wondered.

"I don't know M." Evie replied with a frown. "I wish I knew. I know we have a lot going on here, but they've done so much for us since we became rangers. My mother would yell at me for saying this but I owe them all so much."

"WE all owe them so much." Jay emphasized, knowing Jafar would be just as unhappy to hear that as Grimholde the Evil Queen. Audrey smiled proudly at her boyfriend. "And if there was anything we could do to help them, I feel that we should."

Fairy Godmother wanted to remind them they weren't safe here as it was. But she knew how they felt. And it didn't hurt that so many of them had known Zordon, had been his champions. "They know to call us if they need us." She reminded them instead.

"Would they though?" Aziz now questioned. "I mean, no offense ma'am but when they've been here to help it's because you've called them. We've never done that ourselves."

"They would do so unless they have the same egotistical pride that all of you seem to have." Ruby said, perhaps a little snidely. Despite the comment they all knew she had a very good point. But Aziz also suspected that they had that same 'egotistical' pride that Ruby pointed out to them though and that they would never ask for help unless their world were to end.

Any further discussion was put to an end when the alarm went off, the familiar monster alarm. The sensors automatically pinned it to the beach where they found Sermaya, Chiron, Ben's clone and the two forest baboons at one of the sand bluff's that overlooked the ocean.

"What are those clowns doing there?" Carlos wondered. "And where did Ben…Ben, whatever come from?"

Jordan had to think only a moment about it. "The last time we tangled with Sermaya, and he awakened the beast in Ben. All they needed was some strand of DNA and they could have made a physical body." She started.

Aquiella picked up on the rest . "When Mal shattered the essence of that beast, it might have known to transfer itself into wherever they made that clone. Several forms of magic would probably allow them to make the merge successfully." She finished.

"Except this one would most likely be evil." Melody added.

"Are you okay?" Audrey asked Ben. She already had a pretty good idea of how she would feel if someone had made an evil clone of her and she didn't think Ben would feel much different.

"Sure, just fine." Ben said softly. "Just peachy."

"Let's go shut them down then." Mal said as she rubbed Ben's arm softly. "Let's get to work." As Melody and Jane took out their items and Ben formed his shield and Praeleanthor sword the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.

They made their way to the beach just to overhear Chiron the centurion like mage tell their leader, "This is not the place. We must follow the sands further on into the main city."

Sermaya laughed just a bit. "Good. I look forward to causing more destruction within Auradon. It will make tearing it apart to rebuild my world that much easier." He said.

"Sorry but mass remodeling day has been cancelled." Mal said as they stepped up to face off against the four beast monsters. "But we'll send you an e-mail when it's been rescheduled."

"E-mail?" Chiron questioned, which caused Carlos to laugh a little.

Lonnie couldn't help but seem shocked as she looked at Ben's clone. "Ben?" She wondered. "You look so much like him…you can't possibly be evil."

"That's what you think bright eyes." He said with a fiendish laugh and then charged over there with fingers that ended in claws before gashing her across the chest hard and sending her flying backwards. Will and Aquiella were right beside her. "Some of your friends used to call yourself rotten to the core, well they're nothing compared to me. You can call me Krona, the one who is truly rotten to the core."

"Thanks to Sermaya's tampering no doubt." Aziz noted distastefully.

"This may not be the right spot." Sermaya commented, making the Auradon team wonder what exactly he was talking about. "But I see no reason why this place cannot be the one where you all meet your end, opening up the path to my victory." With that he looked to Chiron who opened up black swirling gateway.

"What's that?" Ally asked.

"It comes from your own books." Sermaya stated. "More accurately the one we stole from your library a while ago." He then shot a venomous glance at Miranda. "When your little friend slayed my weapons master, which I have not forgotten at all girl."

"Isn't that a book on mythical creatures of Auradon?" Will wondered. He thought he had seen Whitney check it out not long after they had arrived at the school. She was in fact probably the last person to read the book before it was taken from the library.

"All myths have their basis in reality boy." Sermaya answered him with a laugh. "And if they're beast related the odds they were once one of my countrymen are great. And now you get to meet one of them now." As he finished speaking a creature stepped through the black portal, which closed afterwards. The creature itself had a vaguely feminine head with long reddish violet hair. The body itself however was not human, more like that of a lion or a sphinx more accurately. Short wings were on its back and a tail swung angrily. "This is Sphinx Telia."

"That is so disturbing." Melody noted. "It's a monster with a human face."

"Kind of like some others we could name." Miranda couldn't help but comment as she thought of Chad or Marcellus. She wasn't sure that Ben's clone Krona would find himself exempt from that thought either.

With a roar Sphinx Telia leapt at the team, the roar ended with a huge blast from her mouth that sent them all sprawling around the beach. "Oh my pink, that was a huge blast." Amy gasped. "Is everyone okay?"

"That wasn't fun." Alex noted as he stood up headed toward Amy. "But I'm alive."

Aquiella and Melody got up now too. "Wow." The aqua ranger noted. "That was not a good landing at all."

"It almost reminds me of that manticore thing I fought alone that time, at least until Lonnie showed up." Audrey mused. This time though there was no scorpion tale to try to use as a target.

"At least you're not alone this time." Will said to her. "You're not the only child of Auradon anymore."

"True, you humans have been so abundant." Sermaya noted with some disgust. "And apparently not just here but in other places as well." His thoughts turned to annoyance at the rangers of Earth that had shown up when he had unleashed Simorgh on them. "At least this is one world where the rule of humanity will come to an end."

"Don't count your roses before they bloom." Ellie advised him. It drew a small giggle from Amy who liked the saying.

"Wow, incoming." Aziz called out as he rolled out of the way of the forest defender when he tried to bring his fists down on him. Grant dodged out of the way of the forest archer as he tried to slam his massive arm into his chest.

Ben found himself face to face with his alter ego Krona. "Let's see who's the better king here Bennie-boo." He said with a gleeful laugh.

"You're not a king." Ben said as he got ready to fight, the Praeleanthor sword gleaming in the sunlight. "But if you want to prove who's the best then let's get to it." The Auradon Knight started toward his clone.

With a growl Krona shifted to look like the hairless beast he had appeared as in the nightmarish vision world that he and Mal had fought him in the first time. Ben tried to slash him with the Praeleanthor sword but he caught it and tossed it downward before hitting him in the chest hard.

"Ben." Mal started.

Carlos grabbed her arm firmly. "Mal, we have our own problems." He reminded their leader firmly.

Audrey stepped up now. "Mal, go help Ben." She told the purple ranger. She knew how she would feel if it were Jay. Fortunately there were advantages to having a bigger group. "Jane, give us a hand dealing with the sphinx freak." The white ranger nodded. "Amy, Melody, Aquiella, Ellie, Alex, take one of the baboons. Will, Ally, Grant, Aziz and Jordan take the other one."

Alex lead the four girls toward the archer baboon while Jordan lead the guys to the defender baboon. That left Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie, Lonnie and Jane to fight Sphinx Telia. Mal headed over to help Ben as Miranda got ready to fight against Sermaya.

Defender of the Forest raised his axe and swung at the ranger's that had come to challenge him. He swung the massive axe at them. Will and Grant were barely able to block it with their respective weapons, and Jordan was sure it was a strain on them. Ally took out her crystal cards and unleashed the barrage on him, though it didn't seem to bother him too much.

"You are the only one of these rangers to have beaten any of my generals." Sermaya growled at the Highlands ranger as he started to stalk her. "I don't how you did it but I will tear you apart for it."

"I see ye know how to hold a grudge." Miranda commented. "I don't know if I should be impressed by that or not." He swung at her and she did the only thing she could; she rolled under the attack. She already knew that her opponent had more strength than she did. He was fast as well but the Scottish girl was banking on being faster. He tried to brings his massive fists down on her but she jumped over the attack and then kicked him in the face as hard as she could.

"I kind of thought that shaved gorilla look was just in the mind, but apparently I was mistaken." Mal noted as she came to Ben's side. "What is with the look anyway? Can't find anything more appealing?"

Krona growled. He lashed out at Mal and Ben and they both rolled to the side to narrowly avoid the attack. Mal would never say it but she could see the advantage as there was no resistance to wind or anything like that; it was almost like pure muscle. "Come on Ben, let's see if we can put this rabid animal to sleep." She said.

"Right." Ben agreed as he again twirled his sword. Together the couple started to fight Krona, who was proving as agile as he was strong.

Sphinx Telia again unleashed a beam of energy at the rangers. It struck the two boys and Evie backwards even as Lonnie, Jane and Audrey dodged it and moved in close. The monster proved though that it wasn't just a long range monster as one of its paws lashed out and slashed Jane in the chest hard, sending her sprawling. Lonnie brought her tessen's down toward its back only for the wings to flutter upwards and block the attack before flipping her over the monster's body with a thudding sound that Audrey was afraid could break bones.

Then the monster pounced and crashed into Audrey hard. She felt the wind knocked out of her and she lost her grip on her elemental bow. She felt the massive five fingered paws of the monster practically crushing into her chest as Sphinx Telia lowered her jaws right toward the red ranger's head.

Jay and Carlos lashed out at the monster with their weapons and with a growl of annoyance Sphinx Telia took a step back. Carlos slashed his earthquake claw daggers at the feminine looking monster as Jane moved in to help him. Jay helped Audrey up and handed her the elemental bow. "Any bright ideas?" He asked the red ranger.

"I wish we could use the Auradon blaster without Mal." She admitted. "Our next best idea is the triangle spark but I don't think the five us can do it alone and I don't know if Jane can distract that thing on her own."

Lonnie had moved in now and they had the creature somewhat boxed in. With a roar Sphinx Telia lashed out with her paws and gashed the three of them back, sprawling to the ground. Evie stepped up with her mirror force shield and unleashed a storming mirror force attack that the creature bounded away from before hissing at them.

"That thing is just so disturbing." Evie commented as the rest of the team joined her. "What do we now?"

"I'm certainly open to any ideas." Audrey replied as she looked at the five of them, specifically Jane and Evie, who were kind of the smart ones of the team.

"The Auradon cannon." Jane supplied automatically. "We don't need everyone to use it, it's power output is simply better the more people we have. But the six of us together should be able to weaken this thing and take it out."

"And how do we weaken it?" Jay asked.

"The neon armor." Lonnie answered simply. "Attack with the neon armor, weaken it up with the triangle spark and then finish it off with the Auradon cannon."

"Let's do it." Audrey decided as the six rangers lined up and then activated the neon armor, glowing slightly now.

The archer of the forest slashed his bow at Amy and Alex and they both ducked out of the way. Melody and Aquiella moved in and struck him with their weapons; the trident and the tidal boomerangs respectively, and he fell back.

Ellie moved in with her ice chakrams and brought them down, destroying the baboon's bow. He swung at her and sent her flying backwards onto the ground. She rolled to her knees as she got ready for the next attack that was never able to come as Alex brought up a wall of flames to protect his cousin.

"It's time to put this monkey down once and for all." Aquiella declared.

"Grand, any idea how we do that?" Ellie asked her.

"I might at that." Aquiella replied. Amy got a small glimpse of her friend's mind and couldn't help but give a small very unlike her devilish grin. If it worked it would be a good plan. "First off I think it's time to heat up his blood pressure."

"More than one of us will have that happen." Amy couldn't help but muse softly even as she came over to Alex and took his hand. The spark was there the instant they touched and the rose haired girl for one knew the fire magic was only half of the spark that was there, even if the other half was taking a while to fully blaze. With one set of hands held the two raised their other hands and unleashed a powerful stream of fire right at the forest archer baboon that sent him back. His fur seemed to be slightly ablaze.

Melody thought she knew where this was going. First he needed to be damaged and that was fire's job. Next he needed to be weakened and that fell to the two mermaids' and Amy. Knowing what she was thinking Amy stepped in between the two cousin's and took one each of their hands into hers before unleashing a huge wave of water that slammed right into him, very literally like a tidal wave. It took care of his singed fur and he growled at them as he got ready to attack the three girls.

"You know, being wet in the cold is a really bad idea." Ellie noted as she caught on to what the orange ranger must have been planning. "And here's why." She unleashed the strongest blizzard that she could possibly could onto him and to their surprise she ended up freezing their adversary.

"I didn't see that one coming." Aquiella admitted.

"I doubt he did either." Melody said with a bit of a giggle. "But the good thing is he won't be aware of this." She twirled the trident in her free hand. Then she aimed the tri pointed object straight at him and gathered as much energy as she could into it and was not too surprised when she felt Amy's hands over hers, adding her own magical powers into it.

Melody released a huge burst of powerful magical energy that struck the ice encased archer of the forest and an explosion followed, the ice shattering and destroying the ice encased beast monster.

"Oh my pink." Amy said to herself in shock. "We did it, we really did it."

Sermaya had been trying to pound Miranda into the ground with the Highlands ranger expertly dodging but not able to get in hits of her own when that happened. He turned at the sound of the explosion to see the results. "Our brother." He growled.

Miranda took that chance to slash him as hard as she could. He was knocked back hard.

The defender baboon also noticed what happened and turned his back just in enough time to get struck by Will's recursive sword, Aziz's spiral spear and Grant's axe. He was knocked back hard too and collided, having the wind knocked of them.

Jay and Carlos moved in and around their adversary, slashing Sphinx Telia with the soul scimitar and earthquake claw daggers. She roared in anger as she reared back on her hind legs. Lonnie and Audrey moved in and under and slashed with the hurricane tessen's and elemental bow and then quickly dodged to either side to avoid the magical blow of Evie's mirror force shield attack and energy from the magic wand Jane used.

"Time for stage two Jane." Audrey said to the white ranger.

"You got it." The daughter of Fairy Godmother replied as she used the delicate looking white wings on her back to soar up and aim for Sphinx Telia in a dive. The slightly dazed monster was still able to avoid the attack but the attempt to claw the white ranger only resulted in hitting air.

Meanwhile Jay and Carlos jumped onto Evie, Audrey and Lonnie's shoulders and all five of them drew their blasters and unleashed a neon boosted Auradon Triangle Spark at the recovering monster, sending her flying backwards.

Jane landed beside the team as Carlos landed in front of her and Jay in back of her. On their right side were Lonnie, Evie and Audrey. They raised their arms as Evie said, "Time for the Auradon Cannon Doug." Her crush sent them the weapon and the six of them charged it with their neon boosted powers and fired on Sphinx Telia, destroying her as well.

"Looks like yer down by half of yer forces Sermaya." Miranda noted triumphantly. She noted though that Mal and Ben were having a hard time dealing with his duplicate, who had named himself Krona.

"I wouldn't be so confident rangers." Sermaya warned them. "As much as I'd hoped that Sphinx Telia would destroy you, her failure still brings with it a heavy price." First they noticed a claw from the destroyed monster rising into the air before shooting off into the skies.

"What…" Grant started to question.

"And now for the second step." Chiron said to them as Krona twirled around hard and knocked Ben and Mal backwards before joining what was left of his brethren. "We'll meet you all there, if you can find out where there is." With that they all vanished.

"What did he just do?" Audrey questioned.

"What happened to that errant claw?" Lonnie wondered.

"Maybe destroying Sphinx Telia summoned something stronger somewhere else." Evie speculated. She remembered a few instances of that happening, Dark Mist coming immediately to mind. That reminded her of something else. "And if we manage to destroy whatever that is, that could lead to something even worse." She recalled that destroying Lightning Skull and the Dragon of Destruction had resulted in Skull Destructor Dragon.

"Whatever it is we'll have to face it head on." Mal said to them ."And we will do so, together."

"Together." The whole team agreed in unison.

"Together?" They heard someone question scornfully. "Hardly." They turned to see Undine standing there. "I don't really know what those big apes are up to but I could care less. What I do care about is getting my revenge."

"You really want to fight us now?" Mal questioned her.

"Not really." Undine answered simply. Then moving far quicker than they really expected her too she lashed out and slammed her arms hard into Aquiella and Melody, forcing the aqua ranger to drop the trident. Then her tentacles wrapped around their necks and their waists. "Catch me if you can power rangers." She called out as she dove into the water.

"Melody! Aquiella!" Amy called out in horror as she started toward the water, Ellie right behind her. Miranda knelt down to pick up the fallen weapon.

Mal stepped up to her little sister and placed her hand on her back. "Don't worry Amy. We're going after them." She was about to ask Jane what the best way was to chase down their water bound nemesis when the iPhones went off.

They heard Doug say over the helmet intercom, "Guys, you really need to see this…"


	123. Divided Forces

"Melody, Aquiella." Amy murmured softly as she stared into the depths of the ocean in front of them. She felt Ellie take her right hand as Alex placed his hands over her shoulders comfortingly. She heard her twin sister say they were going to go after them and get them back from Undine together when Doug interrupted.

"I think we just found out what Sermaya sent out." Carlos noted as he looked at the screen on his iPhone. Most of the others followed suit, Amy glancing at Ellie's screen as the Arendelle princess rose her own iPhone up. This newest monster didn't look even remotely human, unlike Sphinx Telia who had had a vaguely feminine face. This one seemed like a large lion. And he was heading toward Auradon Prep.

Miranda looked to Mal. "We have to stop that thing, but we can't leave Aquiella and Melody either." She said to the purple haired purple ranger. "We're going to have to split up our forces."

Mal knew she was right. They had to stop the monster and they had to save their friends. They couldn't do together now though, they would have to split up and count on the fact they could still do their jobs.

She went to Ben and took his hands into hers. "Ben, I know Krona is your problem more than anyone else here." She said to her boyfriend softly, speaking of the clone of him that Sermaya had made. "But I need Audrey with me to fight that monster, and that means I need you to lead the team that goes after Aquiella and Melody." She knew she could to it herself but she suspected they would need as full of a team as they could get. And Amy would no doubt want to go after her friends, no matter what she would say to Mal.

"But if Sermaya can be believed, he'll be with that monster, as well as the last forest baboon and Krona." Ben tried to protest gently.

Mal nodded. "I know." She replied. "And we'll have to deal with it. But someone needs to lead the rescue mission, and you're the best candidate since I can't do it myself." Ben gave off a soft but resigned sigh as he nodded in agreement.

"Mal, what do we do?" Jay asked her now.

The purple haired purple ranger turned to look at her team. It hit her just a bit that two of their people were gone. She hadn't realized how much she had come to rely on having her entire team with her; despite they had only just gotten everyone up and running again after Paradias had destroyed the command center during his final stand.

"Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Will, Miranda, and Jane." Mal said. "You guys are with me. The rest of you go with Ben and find Aquiella and Melody."

"But, but don't you need me?" Amy asked her softly. "And what about Krona? Without Ben he might not be defeatable."

Mal touched her sister's arm gently. The truth was that she pretty much figured it would be easier to have her younger twin sister there. But the flip side was that she might be too distracted worrying for her friends. "You need to worry about your friends Amy." She said to her instead.

"You're all my friends too." Amy reminded her. She looked to Audrey. "Even you are." They all laughed just a little.

"We're all friends. We're all a team. We're all family." Mal promised her. "But I also know that Melody, Aquiella, Ellie and Alex are special to you in ways that are different than we are. And you need to be focused on how to help them, not divided like it would be if you were with us."

"Hey look at it this way." Alex said to Amy cheerfully. "We could be two time heroes. We can rescue Melody and Aquiella and make it back in enough time to rescue Mal and the others."

"Don't count on it." Will warned him with a chuckle.

Mal was about to tell her sister to go but the rose haired girl nodded. "Okay." She said. "We'll see you back in Auradon, with our friends."

"Ye might need this then." Miranda said as she handed the trident to Ally. "This is Melody's and on top of that it might help all of ye out." The blonde crystal ranger nodded in thanks.

Mal nodded softly and with that Mal's half of the team went off toward Auradon. Amy looked toward her part of the team. Whatever her older sister was going to ask Jane about no longer mattered since they were both headed toward Auradon. "So, um, how do we find Undine out in the ocean?" She asked.

"Getting out there is simple enough." Jordan answered. She summoned speed boat; no one was sure if she had conjured it out of nowhere or if someone was now lacking a speed boat of their own. No one thought to press it.

"Can we track them with this?" Ally asked as she held up the trident.

Jordan reached out and took the trident from Ally. It was no surprise to Jordan that she could feel the power from the trident, certainly one of the most powerful objects in Auradon and undoubtfully the most power item in Atlantica. But Melody had also been using the trident since her appearance as the aqua ranger and some of her essence was intermixed within that power.

"Can you use the trident to track the girls?" Grant asked the genie girl.

The gold ranger nodded. "Yeah, pretty sure I can. Everyone aboard." They followed Jordan onto the boat where the genie girl proceeded to place the trident next to the helm and started to take off in what seemed to be a random direction.

Alex took Amy's hand softly. "We have to trust that Jordan knows what she's doing. We'll find Aquiella and Melody." He said to her gently.

Mal's team found their way to Auradon and saw the monster starting to attack the walls of Auradon Prep. It wouldn't take long at all for it to break through. They drew their blasters and fired at the monster. The attack drew its attention.

"Remind me again why that was a good idea." Carlos commented.

"Its focus is off of the school, that's what matters." Evie replied.

The monster started toward the ranger team. "Yeah, its focus is on us." Carlos said.

Sermaya, Krona, Chiron and the defender baboon now appeared behind the newest monster. "A little light right now aren't we?" Sermaya questioned. "Did the rest of your team actually gain some common sense?"

"Not likely." Krona noted. It was somewhat disturbing to both Mal and Audrey how much he looked like Ben, the boyfriend and best friend respectively. "I of all people know how much sense Ben lacks and yet he isn't here."

"You only say that because Ben didn't give up to your will." Mal said with a glare at the clone. "Ben and I so took you down." The end result of course was that they weren't going to tell these guys that two of their team had been abducted by one of their other enemies.

"I'll take you down once and for all girl." Sermaya vowed to Miranda. He looked to the defender baboon. "Take out the brat daughter." Now he called out, "Sphinx Andro. End the rest of these power rangers."

The purple ranger didn't like the fact that Sermaya had Krona stay behind, but none of them had the time to worry about it since the attack was now starting.

Melody felt a sharp pain slap her cheek. She finally woke up to find Undine towering over her. It was dark enough that she suspected they were in a cave in the middle of the coast. She was bound, ironically enough, in sea weed. It was much stronger than most people thought especially when backed up by magical energy. She could barely see Aquiella next to her, also bound but still unconscious.

"Glad to see you're awake brat." Undine said contemptuously. "This wouldn't be nearly as much fun if I were alone." She slithered around the two girls, making Melody just a bit nervous. "If only my mother could see what I've accomplished. And if your mother could see how much you've failed."

"This isn't over Undine." Melody promised her. "It's barely started. Our friends will come after us and take you down."

The sea witch laughed. "You think they'll choose you over Auradon?" She questioned. "Yes, I know that beast thing likely sent another monster to attack. In fact if he's doing what I think he's doing you should hope your friends lose that battle before the final assault takes place." Now Melody was sure Undine was behind her now. "Even if they did choose you two first, I'll still take them down."

Melody started to struggle against the sea weed wrap and Undine slapped one of her tentacles against the side of her head, making her flinch in pain and it hurt a lot. She was almost sure Undine could have broken her neck.

"We're far enough away from water that you and Aquiella's control over water will be useless." Undine taunted her with a laugh. She was now back in Melody's line of sight. "The trident was left at the beach; you can't morph even if you were freed. Your cousin is bound and can't get free. And the next step will be showing Amy and the rest of your friends your broken bodies." One of her tentacles shot out, suddenly looking sharper than it had any right to be and jabbed Melody in the shoulder hard, eliciting a scream of pain from the mermaid girl.

"Melody." Aquiella whispered. The scream had started to wake her up.

"Patience orange ranger." Undine said with cruel amusement in her voice. "First her, then you."

One of the cave walls shattered and they could feel a cool breeze along with it. Then Amy and Ben came through and kicked Undine in the chest hard enough to send her sprawling off of Melody. The sea witch looked up to see Ellie, Alex, Grant, Jordan, Ally and Aziz coming in with them.

"Oh my pink! Melody!" Amy gasped as she leaned down toward her friend.

"What happened to her?" Ally asked now.

Before Melody or Aquiella could respond the rose ranger replied, "She stabbed her with one of those tentacles. She can make them pretty sharp when she wants too." She then added softly, "I learned that one from personal experience."

"Nasty little witch." Ellie said through what sounded like gritted teeth.

Ally threw out two crystal cards, one of which freed Melody and the other of which freed Aquiella. Alex handed the daughter of Ariel the trident that her grandfather bestowed upon her. "Can you fight?" Alex asked her.

Melody was clearly in pain and Jordan stopped her. "Let me get you something to drink." She instructed her, which went back to the healing potions she made.

Aquiella had no such compunctions and now that she was free she input her numbers, 9999 and transformed into the orange ranger. "You hurt my cousin." She said coldly as she summoned her tidal boomerangs. "I will make you pay for that."

Amy saw where this was going. "Aquiella, wait." The rose ranger called out.

She didn't listen. She leapt out at Undine and slashed her with the tidal boomerangs. Undine growled in anger at the attack and then slapped the weapons out of her hands. The sea witch then tried to wrap the orange ranger up but she kicked two of them away and then slapped another two away.

"Aquiella." Amy tried again. She didn't want her to get injured or killed because she was blinded by the protective emotion she had for her cousin.

"Time to lend a hand." Aziz declared. He was about to go forward with Ally but Alex stopped him.

"No." He said. "She has to do this."

Ellie understood too. Ellie then looked to Ben. "She has to do this on her own. But she doesn't have to do this alone."

Ben immediately understood. "Aquiella, take it!" The young king called out and tossed the Praeleanthor sword toward her.

Sermaya tried to slam his fists down on Miranda hard but the Highlands ranger dodged out of the way, long expecting that kind of tactic from him and his beasts.

Defender baboon swung at Mal and the purple ranger dodged under the attack. She didn't like this turn of events as she thought the other members of her team would need her to take out this newest sphinx wannabe.

Sphinx Andro shot out a massive beam from his mouth and it struck all of them backwards. Just as Jay and Audrey were about to stand up the monster sprung up and clawed the two of them hard. Jay rolled into Carlos as Audrey rolled into Evie.

Lonnie, Will and Jane moved in and tried to attack and the monster brought up one of its huge arms to block the attack. He then let out a horrendous roar, but to Evie's surprise it wasn't just horrendous to the ears but it seemed to damage the three of them, forcing them away with a burst of power.

"Lonnie, spark time." Audrey called out.

"You got it." Lonnie said as she got up to join the Audrey and the three isle kids. Jane and Will were up as well. The white ranger placed the magic wand on top of Will's recursive sword and they unleashed a blast of energy that did little more than annoy Sphinx Andro.

As Lonnie stood in between Evie and Audrey, Carlos and Jay jumped onto their shoulders. They combined their blasters to unleash the Auradon Triangle Spark against Sphinx Andro. Unlike his counterpart Sphinx Telia, this monster didn't even flinch.

"You guys just aren't strong enough." Jane said to them. "I don't even know if Mal would be enough to help you out here."

Evie glanced at her chosen sister to see that she was holding her own against Forest Defender, but wasn't getting anywhere else in that fight. "I hope Amy and the others rescue Melody and Aquiella and get back here soon. We need their help after all." She remarked.

Aquiella did a couple of cartwheels backwards and as she got her balance back she caught the Praeleanthor sword in her right hands and brought it around to face Undine. At the moment all she could see was Undine's tentacle stabbing into the flesh of her cousin's shoulder.

Undine seemed to realize that too. She loved nothing more than to get under her opponents skin. She raised the tentacle that she had stabbed Melody with; it was still dripping blood. "Your cousin has a bit more bulk, more room to aim for than the last time my tentacle wore blood. More precisely the blood of your rose haired friend." She looked to Amy. "You remember that, don't you?"

Amy flinched just a bit. She did indeed remember it. She had stabbed Amy in the shoulder too but had also managed to get near her heart. If it hadn't been for Evie she probably would have died. Even then Mal had had to spend a few days taking care of her. "I remember." She confessed softly.

"You really are a witch." Aquiella said coldly. She ran toward Undine. The sea witch lashed out her tentacles again. The orange ranger dodged the first two, kicked the third one aside and as a special form of justice she used the Praeleanthor sword to take off the tentacle that wore Melody's blood, and had at one point worn Amy's.

Even as Aziz commented, "Ooh, that must have hurt." Undine let out a growl of pain. She tried to slap Aquiella away and the orange ranger dodged it.

Melody had finished the healing potion Jordan formed for her and transformed again into the aqua ranger. It was good timing as Undine finally landed a tentacle hard against Aquiella's chest. As her cousin fell backwards the sea witch wrapped a tentacle around each of her legs. "I'll teach you to injure me." She threatened. The one remaining tentacle descended toward her.

Melody blocked it with the trident, entangling it within the points of the trident. "I don't think so." She said simply. She kicked Undine hard and then brought the trident down on the sea witch as hard as she could, forcing her toward the hole in the cave the Ellie had made. "That's for what you did to me." She said. Then she powered up a blast of energy in the trident. "And this is for what you did to my friend." With that she unleashed that blast of power that sent Undine flying out of the cave and into the ocean.

"Wow." Aquiella gasped. "That was impressive."

"Very." Amy agreed.

The orange ranger handed Ben his sword back, though she reflected wryly that it seemed like it was starting to become a team weapon almost as much. "We need to go back to Mal and the others." Ben said to them. "They're facing something else from Sermaya and if it's even half as bad as Sphinx Telia they'll need all the help they can get."

"Then let's do it." Melody replied.

"Luckily getting back to the others will be a bit more of a snap than finding you two were." Jordan joked wryly. "And by that, I mean it quite literally." With a snap of her fingers she used magic to disappear.

Sphinx Andro unleashed another beam of energy at them. This time it struck all seven rangers and they slammed into the ground. He then started to charge right toward them. Will and Jay were up first and moved in to attack with their bladed weapons but he saw it coming quickly enough to jump back from the attack.

"Maybe we could all try to combine our powers." Carlos suggested, indicating Will and Jane as well even though the magic wand couldn't combine with the rest of their weapons.

"We can't form the Auradon blaster without Mal." Lonnie reminded him.

"You're very good at the dodging game aren't you?" Sermaya questioned Miranda as he now paced her. "Let's see how you do with a change of plans." With that he moved in as if he were going to bring his fists against either side of her head, but when the red head moved to dodge it he swept one of his legs out and slammed into Miranda's shins hard.

She fell to the ground. As she tried to roll back up he placed one of massive hands down on her chest and abdomen. "Now let's see how long it takes for me to apply enough pressure to crush your body." Sermaya said with glee.

Miranda placed both of her hands on his foot and tried to use her strength to pry him off. She was the strongest girl on the team but not strong enough to force him off. "Even if ye…kill me, ye…ye won't win…my friend's will stop you." She got out through gasps.

"Miranda!" Ellie yelled out in horror. She then powered up one of her ice chakram and tossed it straight toward Sermaya. It twirled round and round, even sparkling a bit in the sunlight as it struck the leader of the beast monsters hard in the chest. He was then kicked off of Miranda fully by Ben and Grant.

"I knew you didn't have the sense to stay away." Krona commented as he stood in front of Ben now. "Looks like I can finish what I started now." He shifted again to the strange beast form that reminded the young king a bit of a shaved gorilla.

"Feel free to deal with him." Aziz said to Ben. "We'll deal with the rest of these clowns."

Ally couldn't help but again wonder, "Where is Chiron? Why does he keep staying behind?"

"We'll have to worry about that later." Melody replied.

"She's right." Aquiella agreed. "Aziz, Ally, Jordan. Get that baboon off of Mal so that she can help the others." She said and the three nodded. "We'll deal with Sermaya."

Ellie helped Miranda to sit up though at the moment she wasn't sure that the red headed Scotts girl should be standing. "Are you alright?" She asked her.

"I'll will be." Miranda assured her. "Thanks for the help Ellie." She reminded herself to thank Ben and Grant too.

Aziz struck the defender baboon with his spiral spear as Ally unleashed a crystal card barrage on him. Mal took a breath of relief and then turned into Amy's embrace. She hugged her little sister back and said, "Guess you got your friends back safely."

"Not entirely." Amy replied. "But I can tell you about that later. Right now let's go help the others."

Mal nodded in agreement and the twin daughters of Maleficent headed over there even as Jordan unleashed a burst of energy from her lamp cannon at the Defender baboon.

"Glad to see you're okay Amy." Evie said happily as they approached. "And I'm glad that you found Melody and Aquiella alive and well." She and Amy hugged each other. She then looked to Mal. "We have to finish this off M."

"We do." The purple haired purple ranger agreed. She looked to Jane. "Go help Jordan, Aziz and Ally deal with the Defender Baboon." The white ranger nodded in agreement and headed off. "Remember our earlier conversation about the Auradon blaster?" She asked them now.

"Yeah." Carlos said. "What about it?"

"I think it's time to see if we can make the Auradon blaster 3.0." Mal said with amusement.

"What's that?" Amy asked her sister.

"If it works you'll see." Mal said to her. "Just get ready to place your rose lance when we place the rest of the weapons." She looked to Will. "And of course Will, place yours after Audrey."

Sphinx Andro blasted at the rangers again. Evie brought up her mirror force shield and barely managed to reflect it away from them but he was strong enough that the blue haired blue ranger was unable to control where it reflected too.

Sphinx Andro immediately moved in to try to attack them directly. Carlos slammed his earthquake claw daggers into the ground even as Evie unleashed a quaking mirror force attack. It unbalanced him just slightly.

The slight unbalance was enough. Mal and Amy attacked him with the dragon's eye staff and rose lance respectively. That was followed by Jay and Will with their soul scimitar and recursive blade. Audrey and Lonnie were behind them with their elemental bow and hurricane tessen's. Sphinx Andro hit the ground hard and rolled a moment.

"Let's bring them together." Mal called out.

Mal set her dragon's eye staff. This was followed by Audrey's elemental bow underneath and Will's recursive sword with the four bladed edges pointing outward. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind them and the compacts folded outwards. In the center Jay placed his soul scimitar and then on either side Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers, Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens and Amy placed her rose lances.

"Oh my pink, it really worked." Amy noted in awe. She could feel the strong power coming from their newly assembled Auradon blaster and she was sure her friends could feel the same power.

"I know Doug, Jane and I didn't have plans for this one." Carlos commented in shock. "But still it is totally awesome."

"And let's put this power to good use." Jay said to them. "By taking out this sphinx freak."

Together the eight rangers aimed the Auradon blaster at Sphinx Andro as he had gotten up and roared at them before charging again. This time though the rangers were too quick for him and fired. The combined firepower was enough to overwhelm and destroy the newest sphinx.

Defender Baboon swung at Aziz and he was barely able to block it with his spiral spear. Then Jane came in like a comet with the magic wand and forced him away from the silver ranger hard.

"It's time to finish this guy off too." Jane said to Aziz and the two girls.

"Any ideas?" Aziz asked her. "We have less people and I don't see any upgraded weapons around for us." They had noticed the Auradon blaster 3.0 in action after all.

"I do have an idea." Jane said. "With only one modification we can have the power we need to finish this fight." She looked to Jordan. "You're up first, then Aziz. Ally and I will be the final pieces of course."

"Sounds like a regular strategy to me." Jordan noted simply but shrugged, deciding to trust the 'genius' people as Audrey had once noted about Jane, Evie, Doug and even Carlos. She formed her lamp cannon and took aim. "Whenever you're ready guys."

Aziz was just as uncertain about this new idea of Jane's that had apparently come from out of the blue and was about to place his spiral spear where he normally would but Jane said, "Oh, wait. Aziz I need you to place the spiral spear where I normally place the magic wand." She looked to Jordan. "You can reform the lamp to allow it to come through the other side right."

"What are you trying to make a top now?" Jordan asked only half-jokingly as she never the less did as Jane requested so that Aziz could then follow through as well. "You are so lucky this is a house and not a prison."

"So what are you going to do?" Aziz asked Jane.

"Ally, place some of your cards around the magic wand after I get it into the lamps spout." Jane told the crystal ranger who nodded in agreement. The white ranger placed the magic wand in the spout, as much in the middle as she possibly could. Ally followed through with the cards which were magically enchanted enough to slip around automatically.

"Taking aim." Jordan announced. She saw Aziz and the two girls place their hands on the lamp cannon to help steady it and power it up. "And firing." She fired her weapon. The magic wand shot out like Mal's dragon's eye arrow would from Audrey's elemental bow when they were using their battlizers and it was surrounded on all sides by the launched crystal cards. They drew together into what could easily be called a ball of light and struck the Defender baboon, destroying him as well.

Sermaya growled as he took a step back and glared at the rangers. His fight against Alex, Ellie, Miranda and Grant had not been going the best, in part because of the two mystical power wielders. "Murderers!" He spat angrily. "Seeking to destroy my family, my people."

"Excuse me?" Audrey questioned. "You were the one who woke up and decided to destroy our civilization to restore yours."

"She's right." Lonnie said now. "We could have worked together, we could have helped you to restore your people and rebuild a place you could call your own. Instead you insisted on trying to conquer villages." They now knew that Will, Wendy and Whitney had been in that invaded village before transferring to Auradon Prep. "You tried to get rid of us and turn Ben against us."

"You brought this on yourselves." Jay agreed simply. "You started this fight, we're just ending it."

"So you say now." Sermaya said. "We'll see if that is your belief when this world as you know it is finished and my empire flourishes once more. When all of my brothers that you have killed rise from the ashes and bring your people to their knees."

"And just how do you plan on doing that one?" Grant asked dubiously as he twirled his axe in front of him. Aside from Ben who was dealing with Krona the rest of the team had the beast general surrounded. "You have no one left to help you."

"Guys." Evie interrupted. They noticed that the mane of the Sphinx Andro floated up into the air just as the claw of Sphinx Telia had. Then before them in the forest Chiron appeared.

"It's time." Chiron said. "It has been an honor to serve you Lord Sermaya."

"You will return in short order my brother." Sermaya said. "A noble sacrifice and rebirth is no death at all."

"What are you going on about?" Jordan questioned.

With that Chiron turned his staff on himself. "The last magical ingredient needed to do what needs to be done." Then a burst of energy blew himself up, leaving nothing but vapor. For just a moment the rangers were stunned as to why he would do that, and then the skies started to darken…


	124. Sermaya's Stand

"What have you done?" Mal questioned in shock as she looked to Sermaya. "You just allowed one of your own people to sacrifice himself, and for what?"

"For this." Sermaya said gleefully. "I suppose it should have occurred to me long before now that the heart of what was my civilization would be buried very near the heart of yours." The ground started to shake. "All it took was a massive burst of magical power, provided by Chiron, to generate what was needed to bring it to the surface."

"Then what?" Will asked. "It's still you against all of us."

"With the heart of my civilization restored, so too will my people." Sermaya stated. The trees around the area started to split and crash as a huge temple, very similar in shape and size as a Mayan temple from Earth started to rise up. It quickly became clear though the base of the temple tapered off to be very similar to a pyramid.

"That is one massive pile of stone." Aziz noted.

Then the oxen warriors started to appear in waves, very quickly turning the ranger's numbers advantage into a huge disadvantage. "Mal." Amy started.

"Oh this is so not good." Carlos noted.

"They're only his version of soldiers." Jay said as he raised his soul scimitar. "We can take them."

Then from the front of the temple that Chiron had raised they could see a door that started to open. And behind it were uncountable amounts of beast creatures behind it. They could see Gottomas the weapons master, Simorgh the bird monster that had wanted to eat the mermaid girls, both forest baboons, both the swamp and lava guards and several other creatures they had not noticed before.

"That could be bit more problematic." Melody pointed out fearfully.

"Hold on a moment." Aquiella said to her cousin. "I can see some sort of membrane like barrier in front of the door." They could all kind of make it out now as Simorgh pressed his beak against it as if trying to cut through it and get to the mermaid girls. "They can't come out yet."

"No they cannot." Sermaya agreed. "But this can." From the darkened skies some of the dark clouds parted and a large creature started to descend down. They could see the upper body of Sphinx Andro combined with the wings and lower body of Sphinx Telia. "Meet my guardian; Great Sphinx Thenien. He will be my emissary as he destroys you all and welcomes my people back to this world."

Then to their horrors they saw a huge group of oxen warriors heading toward the school and the rest of Auradon. They moved out to try to intercept them only to have more of the oxen warriors in their path, and even worse Great Sphinx Thenien hit the ground as well.

"This isn't looking good." Ally noted.

"Mal?" Evie questioned softly.

The purple haired purple ranger hated the odds as well. Ally saying it wasn't looking good was an understatement in her opinion. But she didn't see any choices in the matter. "Let's get to work." She declared, and the Auradon team dove right into the oxen warriors.

Guards surged around Auradon as they did their best to fight off the oxen warriors that were invading their kingdom. They did their best to keep the people safe. It didn't seem to be enough as they started to try to invade homes and castles.

Several oxen warriors invaded Belle's library where she was with Cinderella and Wendy. They forced the two queens and Will's mother to stand near the window until they received further instructions. The plan was to use the parents as bait.

"I guess that weird temple thing belongs to Sermaya." Cinderella noted softly. "Belle, are the others okay?"

"I don't know." Belle answered softly. She feared for Ben and her surrogate daughters. She hoped her husband Adam was safe wherever he was.

One of the oxen warriors growled at the three women as if warning them to be quiet. Belle gave him what she hoped was a menacing look in return but he didn't seem perturbed in the least.

Then several plates flew out of nowhere and slammed into them. They turned to see a little girl standing there, Cinderella recognized her as Callie. "No, don't hurt my daughter." She called out.

Two of them started toward her and Callie shoved the door as hard as she could, slamming it into the body of the nearest one. It sent him reeling backwards hard, out of the fight.

Two others moved in toward her and then the other door was moved aside as Whitney appeared. In her hands she held a broomstick and she hit one of them in the stomach hard, as it gasped in pain she knocked it out by smacking him in the back of the head. She moved to the next and shot the wooden handle into the shin and then to the chest for another knockout.

"Impressive." Belle said with a small smile as she thought of her own children out there and probably fighting at this moment for their survival.

Whitney gave a glorious smile to her mother Wendy. "Told you it was a good idea that I start learning martial arts." She said. "Can I learn anbo-jitsu now?" She was referring to the blind fighting martial arts that her brother Will the green ranger knew.

"We'll discuss it after we know everyone is safe." Wendy said as she placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders.

Cinderella embraced her own daughter and complimented her on her bravery.

Then several more oxen warrior showed up but before they could do anything more they were attacked by more palace guards, these ones lead by Adam. After that was done he embraced his wife and then looked to their friend's and their daughters. "Come with me, we need to get you someplace safer." He said.

Phillip and the guards fought bravely but in the end were overpowered by the oxen warriors. He now sat by his wife Aurora, both of them fearful about Audrey's fate, who they were sure had to be at the heart of the invaders. In one corner was shattered porcelain, the tea set that had been set out for the guests Aurora had been waiting for before the attack. She now feared for them as well.

Then something seemed to change among the oxen as if they were becoming more irritated. Phillip took Aurora's hand softly, ready to protect her if need be. A few of them started to turn toward them but at that moment Aurora glimpsed a figure clinging to a curtain a moment before using it to swing down and kick two of them aside.

"Aurora! Phillip!" Mulan called out as she landed and reached for one of the oxen's swords. "Are you alright?"

"Look out!" Aurora called out as more of them started to approach her.

The door was kicked open and Shen entered. He picked up one of the battle axes and started to help as well. "It's not over yet." Shen said. "We can't give up fighting any more than our children will."

"He's right." Phillip agreed, ramming into another oxen soldier hard and taking his sword away from him. He turned to face another oxen warrior. "I fought Maleficent to keep you safe, and I will fight whoever I need to in order to maintain your safety, as well as that of our daughter." He declared.

Mulan laughed a little as she used her smaller size to flip over an oxen warrior. "If your daughter has picked up half of your determination, they'll all be fine." She said. She was glad she had taught Lonnie so well.

"And she has Jay with her." Aurora said. "He loves her as fiercely as you love me." She started to stand as well but not sure what to do to help out.

The point became even more moot as more palace guards showed up, being led by Rapunzel the mother of Ruby. The oxen were taken down easily after that. "Are you guys alright?" Rapunzel asked.

"Yes." Mulan said. She had not dropped the sword she had appropriated.

"I'm glad you three are okay." Aurora said to the two girls and Shen. "I was afraid that you guys would have been injured or killed out there. I didn't expect this to happen on the day I invited you all for tea."

"Not your fault." Rapunzel promised Aurora. "But what do we do now?"

"We should find King Adam and Queen Belle. Or Fairy Godmother." Phillip suggested. "See if we can find out what we can do to help our children, who are undoubtfully at the heart of this invasion."

Any of the Auradon Rangers with families in town had reasons to worry about those they loved. Out of all of them though Grant was the one who had to the least to worry about, after all his mother Rose Red had raised him on Schadel island and made sure they both survived, most of what he knew ab out survival and fighting came from her.

It was a lucky thing for both her sister Snow White and Alice Liddell, the mother of Ally that they were both with her when the battle oxen entered the store they were at. Some of the guards started to defend the people but there were a lot of them. When they started to lose the lines Rose Red snapped her booted foot out at a long wooden railing to create a short staff she could use.

One of them approached her and she shot the palm of her hand out and smashed it in the snout, making it recoil automatically. She then leaned down and lashed out her leg to trip up the oxen and to pick up the staff. She then was up and slapping aside the oxen as they were coming toward the three girls and the some of the children.

"Wow, she is good." Alice said to Snow White. She looked a bit uncertainly at her. "Um, how exactly did she…get pregnant with that skill?" She asked reluctantly. It wasn't exactly a widely discussed topic but it was obvious to those who were close to her or her son that Rose Red had not been planning to have a child when she did.

Snow White shook her head. "I don't know." She admitted softly. She didn't want to imagine the kind of guy that could take advantage of a girl like her older sister. In a way it made her that more worried about Audrey's situation with Chad.

Rose Red slammed the makeshift staff into the chest of an oxen and then twirled around to slap another one in the snout. A third dove right by her and headed toward Snow and Alice. With a shriek of shock Snow picked up a glass jar and threw it. It hit him right in the head and he glared at her angrily.

Alice picked up a piece of the shattered glass from a window and tossed it blindly at the oxen warrior. To her surprise as much as anyone else's it struck him in the chest and he disappeared.

"I didn't know you could do that." Rose Red said, sounding impressed even as she took out another oxen with the staff's end to the face.

"That…that makes two of us." Alice admitted.

Before Snow realized it the guards and Rose Red had forced the oxen warriors to retreat. "I hope Evie is okay." She said softly. She knew their step-sister, her nephew and their friends had to be in the heart of the proverbial storm. She looked to her sister and her friend and knew they were thinking about their children.

"I know one way we can find out." Rose Red said to her. "Let's get to that command center place."

The oxen were trying to swarm the command center. Doug had an experimental blaster out and was shooting them as they tried to come down the stairs. Only Fairy Godmother was with him and he was sure he had to protect her and the command center. Then one of them appeared with a shield that blocked the shot from the blaster. "Oh, not good."

"We'll find a way Doug." Fairy Godmother promised him.

"We will." Doug agreed as he dropped the blaster and headed over to fight him. The oxen swung the shield at him and he moved away from it before grabbing his arm and tossing him onto the ground as hard as he could. His work with Will, Ben and Jay served him well at that point.

Fairy Godmother recovered the blaster and fired at another one coming down the steps. She took out two others as another got past the blaster attacks and got taken out with a kick to the stomach and an elbow from Doug.

Yet more appeared, as if they knew this was the center of power for the ranger team, and the blaster's energy ran out. Doug was on the verge of getting overwhelmed when what seemed like a long yellow whip lashed out and struck them hard. But it was no whip as Doug learned.

Ruby slipped under several of the oxen, knocking them aside. "Coming through." She called out. She stopped in front of Doug and gathered her long blonde hair as a weapon. "Glad I decided to come find out what was going on after all."

"You and me both." Doug said. "Sermaya's raised some sort of temple, probably the heart of his once thriving culture. Now they're invading. Evie and the other rangers are fighting more of these guys and some large lion sphinx thing." He explained.

Ruby couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Grand." She remarked. She tossed her hair out and slammed several of them back like they were bowling pins. "I can't keep these guys back forever."

"Just another moment then." Fairy Godmother called out as she went over to one of the consoles and activated it. A large metal looking door slammed down in front of the oxen.

"Can we call for help?" Ruby asked though she had a feeling she knew the answer.

"Auradon has been isolated by some mystical energy from that temple that showed up outside." Fairy Godmother said. "We're on our own here." She turned to another one of the consoles though. "We do have an emergency backup plan though. I had hoped not to pull this off as there may be no way to ever do it again but I don't see that we have a choice."

"What do we need to do?" Ruby asked.

"There is nothing you can do right now child." Fairy Godmother said to her. "Except to use that console to help find the others." She looked to Doug. "Meanwhile, you know what we have to do for this to work."

"On it" Doug said. He just hoped with so many of these factors being experimental that it this would work the way they wanted it to.

With a flap of Thenien's mighty wings the team almost lost their footing. It made it easier for the monster to unleash a huge blast of energy straight at them, scattering them in all directions. As they started to get up the oxen warriors descended upon them.

"I think it's time to jump directly to the neon armor." Carlos suggested.

"No arguments here." Mal agreed. "Let's do it." The ranger team activated their neon armor upgrades and formed their weapons, then moved in to engage the oxen warriors. The combined powers of their weapons and the increased speed and strength of the neon armor allowed them to take out the oxen warriors as they came forward.

"Anyone else noticing that for each one we take down it's like two more seem to take their place?" Lonnie asked as she took out an oxen warrior with dual slashes of her hurricane tessens.

"Yeah, I've noticed that too." Evie replied as she blocked an axe attack from one of them with her mirror force shield and then shot in with her own blaster. "That's why I haven't used any of my attacks, I don't want to take out twenty of them and end up with forty."

"I don't know if it would even matter." Aziz noted as he took out one with his spiral spear strike and then knelt down to flip another of the oxen creatures over his back. "We're already getting swamped. They're invading Auradon right now."

"I hope the guards are up to the task." Ally noted worriedly as she unleashed several crystal cards on some of the warriors. On their own they weren't enough to take any of them down but it was a great distraction for Audrey and Jay to finish the job.

"This doesn't add up." Melody reflected as she struck down two with the trident. "No minions can just self-replicate like this." She didn't know that Rita Repulsa had once used Super Putties that did just that without a special blaster. One of them grabbed her by the arm and twisted hard and the aqua ranger let out a gasp of pain before kicking it in the shins and then flipping it onto its back. "And we can't keep this up forever."

"She's right, at least as a rule." Jordan agreed as she tried to dodge an axe strike from an oxen. "Hey, watch the edges. That is still my home." The gold ranger snapped at the oxen for all the good that it would do. She then remembered what Sermaya said. "They're not replicating, they're coming from that temple. It's bringing them back as quickly as we can take them out." She realized.

"So we take out the temple and we end the horde then?" Audrey asked.

"That's my thought on it." Jordan answered.

"How do we take something that big out?" Grant asked.

"We need the zords." Ellie concluded simply.

"Then let's make it so." Mal said and raised her hand where the crystalline dragon that right now was her zord resided. She was about ready to summon it when Thenien lashed out and slammed one of its paws hard into the purple ranger. She fell back hard and to her horror the crystalline dragon disappeared into the brush. "No!"

Ben was about ready to summon his own zord but Krona slammed into the young king hard and like Mal's zord his was lost among the brush near the forest. "Not today brother." Krona said to him mockingly.

"It's up to all of you." Mal called out to Audrey. The red ranger nodded and was about to summon the Auradon Megazord but one of the oxen slammed into her. She rolled to a hard stop by Jay.

"I don't think we're going to get the chance here M." Evie cried out in alarm. "We need to come up with a plan b."

Ellie powered up an ice beam and lashed out at Thenien, but to her annoyance the large sphinx monster basically brushed aside the attack and then slashed her across the chest, sending her landing next to Aquiella and Alex.

"Mal!" Amy called out in alarm as she saw Simorgh's beak push against the barrier and pop out. The monster itself was not able to come out just yet but it proved the barrier was weakening. "We're running out of time here!"

"I know." Mal responded. She looked to Jane. "Can we shore that barrier up with our own magic?" She asked the white ranger.

Jane bit her lip in thought even as she dodged what seemed to be a sloppy clothesline from one of the oxen. "Maybe, I don't know enough about that temple to know what kind of effect our magic would have on it. But even if we do, that means its less people we have fighting out here." She finally answered.

"No offense, but is it even worth it?" Grant now questioned. He wasn't sure Mal, Amy, Jordan and Jane could stop it. Jordan notwithstanding they were all still novice magic users and Evie still refused to work much in the way of magic despite it being in her blood, and the elemental magic that Aquiella, Ellie and Alex used weren't going to be much help in that situation. Melody might be able to help with the trident but wouldn't be able contribute much beyond that.

"If it gives us even a few minutes to turn the tide…" Amy started. But she wasn't even sure that would be enough.

"Mal, if there is any chance, we have to take it." Ben said to his purple haired beloved. "Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, and Will have to try to handle Thenien so we can try to put this to an end." Although in general he wasn't sure if ignoring her magical background was a good thing or not, in this case Ben thought it might be a good thing that Evie wouldn't be helping to stop the barrier since there were only so many ways that they could improvise the base team.

"I'll help you guys too." Aquiella said to Audrey and then looked to Melody. "Use the trident to try to help them from the magical end." She looked to Ben. "That means the rest of you will have to do all that you can to deal with the oxen warriors."

"Will do." Melody said.

"Then we'll do our best too." Ally added.

"Then let me start by clearing a way." Jordan announced as she aimed her lamp cannon at several of the oxen warriors blocking the way. She unleashed a huge burst of energy that took them down and then said, " Go." Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Will and Aquiella did as she instructed.

Ben tossed his Praeleanthor sword toward oxen emerging from the temple area and then said, "You're up." Mal, Jane, Amy, and Jordan then started toward the temple as the sword returned to the Auradon Knight.

Thenien leapt up into the air, aiming to come down on the four magic wielding rangers but that was a mistake on his part. Evie raised her mirror force shield and unleashed the storming mirror force attack on Thenien, knocking him out of the skies and onto the ground.

"Quick, while it's down." Audrey said to them. "We have to destroy that monster."

Jay and Carlos leapt out and struck the lion sphinx monster in the chest. This was followed immediately by Lonnie and Audrey. Aquiella was the last with her tidal boomerangs. It fell back but still stood.

"Too bad we can't use the Auradon blaster." Jay noted. Without Mal and her dragon's eye staff there was no way to form either version of the Auradon blaster.

"Then we'll have to go with the next best thing." Audrey replied. "Let's use the Auradon Triangle Spark." There just wasn't enough room for the cannon, it was a miracle that the oxen warriors were being kept at bay.

Mal, Amy, Jane and Jordan touched the force field, as far away from the monsters pressing against it as they could. "This magic feels so strange." The purple ranger reflected. She didn't know if they could contain it.

"I sure don't recognize it." Jordan admitted. Coming from the genie girl that said something as she was the most magically adept of the team. "But we're going to have to try to infuse our magic into it." She laughed though it lacked humor. "Hey genie magic, evil fairy magic, light fairy magic and the trident's magic combining with unknown magic. That should go over really well."

"Yeah, let's bring Evie over here and add witch magic for an even bigger bang." Melody lamented with the same lack of humor. "Possibly literally."

"Let's see what we can do." Mal said. The four of them started to focus their magic on the barrier that kept the monsters in the temple, the aqua ranger keeping a good distance away from the Simorgh's beak which already seemed ready to snap at her.

Lonnie, Evie and Aquiella lined up side by side. Jay and Carlos jumped on the girl's shoulders and then Audrey jumped on the boy's shoulders. They drew their blasters and aimed the Auradon Triangle Spark at Thenien and fired. It struck him back but he roared as he moved out of the ensuing smoke.

"Oh come on." Carlos said.

"No way." Lonnie gasped.

Ben didn't like the looks of this fight at all. Thenien was strong enough that the triangle spark didn't work, they didn't have the room for the Auradon cannon and they couldn't form the blaster without Mal. They couldn't spare the purple ranger if they wanted to try to keep the barrier up. And the oxen just kept coming, they would all become exhausted.

"If you have any ideas now would be a good time." Grant said to Ben. The young king figured that might have been directed more at the semi sentient Praeleanthor sword that sometimes seemed to pull off miracles than it was at him.

"What do we do now?" Ally asked them. The oxen warriors seemed content to close around the gray, Highlands, gold, silver, crystal ranger and the Auradon, Fire and Ice Knight/Dame.

"We have to keep fighting." Melody said. "We can't give up." She wished she could offer more than encouraging words, but the truth was what they needed was what it seemed they didn't have; more help. She was sure those who weren't hiding scared were already trying to fight the oxen warriors that were invading Auradon and were in no position to try to help them even if it was a good idea to do so.

Thenien started toward the five rangers again even as the oxen warriors seemed to have yet another surge of numbers. Melody gasped just a bit as Simorgh's beak tried to snap at her.

"This is over rangers." Sermaya gloated. "You've lost. I will accomplish what both Paradias and even your own mother could not. You have no allies coming to help you win this fight." He remembered hearing about Maleficent casting a spell to strip the rangers of their power only to have the spell backfire and get back up from the Power Rangers, Zeo Rangers and Space Rangers and draining magic and powers from Auradon only to run afoul of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their allies.

"This isn't over as long as any of us are still standing." Evie warned him. So far they hadn't been defeated yet, just put at a serious disadvantage. She hated to admit though that in the long run he could be right.

"I wouldn't say that they don't have any allies coming to help them either." A man said. They turned to see the last people they expected coming from the woods; it was their families. "Mom, dad." Both Ben and Audrey said as they saw Belle, Adam, Aurora and Phillip. Audrey also heard Aquiella gasp, "Aunt Ariel."

"How'd they get here?" Ellie asked as she looked between her mother Queen Elsa and her aunt Princess Anna.

"I'd like to know that too." Miranda said in shock as she saw her mother Merida with them as well. She hadn't seen her mother since she had come to Auradon; her home wasn't exactly close after all.

"That's what I want to know." Aziz said as he saw his parents Sultan Aladdin and Queen Jasmine. Then he thought he knew when he saw Jordan's father Genie. "Magic."

"What kind of foolishness is this?" Sermaya questioned as they had ultimately found themselves joined by Cinderella and her daughter Callie, Rose Red, Snow white, Phillip, Belle, Mulan, Wendy, Whitney, Doug, Merida, Aurora, Aladdin, Jasmine, Alice, Adam, Anna, Elsa and Ariel.

"It's time to end this." Mulan said to Sermaya. "You've put our world and our children in enough danger.' She looked to the ones she came with. "Ready?" She asked and they all nodded.

"And what can all of you do?" Sermaya asked with amusement. Each of the rangers hated to admit it but they were wondering the same thing.


	125. Auradon Alternate

"What are they doing?" Evie couldn't help but wonder as she looked at her two older step-sisters. She knew Snow was tougher than she looked and knew for sure that Rose was a fighter, but the blue haired girl feared they could be biting off more than they could chew. She suspected Grant shared those feelings.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Audrey wondered. Jay touched her arm softly.

"If you wish for your children or whoever to watch you die, then by all means, do your very best." Sermaya said to Mulan and the others. "Because that is all that you will accomplish by coming out here."

"We can barely manage this sometimes." Amy said to Mal. "What are they thinking?"

"I don't know." Mal admitted.

"Like my older adopted daughter would say," Belle started as she looked to her friends and the three younger ones. "Let's get to work."

The Auradon rangers had no idea what she was referring too. Then they all raised their wrists and they saw watches, similar in size to the communicators they had noticed on the Power Rangers and Zeo Rangers. They flipped up the top and seemed to press down on something inside. Then to their shock they all transformed.

Callie the daughter of Cinderella was now in purple, her mother was in white which was somewhat appropriate considering the dress she had worn to the ball the night she had first danced with her future husband.

Rose wore red, which seemed somewhat ironic to Evie given her name. Snow meanwhile wore blue just as her younger half-sister did, which brought a smile to her face.

Audrey saw her father in the black, the same color as her boyfriend wore. Her mother Aurora meanwhile wore the same rose color as Amy.

Amy meanwhile saw that Belle wore yellow, which was very appropriate since that was what they all usually saw her in. Adam was 'following' in his son's footsteps, looking like a knight similar to Ben.

Lonnie saw her mother Mulan in pink, just as she wore. Will saw his sister Whitney wore green just like he did, his mother Wendy meanwhile wore orange.

Miranda saw that her mother Merida wore a suit very similar to hers.

Aziz saw that his father Aladdin was in gold like Jordan did while his mother wore silver just as he wore himself. Alice meanwhile wore crystal like her daughter Allie did. Likewise Ariel wore aqua like her daughter; Elsa looked to be decked in ice armor like her daughter Ellie and Anna was decked in fire armor like her son Alex.

Mal then noticed one other detail. They looked similar on the surface to her team but their colors were much lighter, almost like a pastel color. Not that she had much experience using pastel colors in her artwork but she sure knew what they looked like.

Then Genie popped up beside the twin daughters of Maleficent. "You two get over there and help your team finish off that mean lion thing. I'll take over here and we'll make sure those beast freaks don't make it back into our world." He said to them.

"Dad?" Jordan wondered. "What is going on here? What's going on?"

"We're here to help you put this little chapter of your lives behind you." Genie said to his daughter with a smile. "So let's make some magic."

"I don't care how many rangers there are." Sermaya declared. "I will wipe all of you off the face of this planet and reclaim my empire." He pointed to them all. "Destroy them!"

Adam raised the sword he had, though it wasn't nearly as unique as the Praeleanthor sword his son used. "It's time to finish this." He said.

"Once and for all." Mal agreed as she and Amy joined their friends. "And the first one to go is the lion sphinx."

Thenien growled at them and started to approach them. Even as Audrey drew back on her bow to unleash some arrows but before she could do that Mal raised her hands. The red ranger didn't quite know what was going to happen and she doubted that even the purple haired purple ranger knew what to expect either.

Instead what looked to be fire shot out of Mal's hands and struck Thenien hard. He rolled back and started to stand with an angry growl in his throat. The brunette princess looked to their leader and commented, "You have fire power now?"

Amy shook her head. "I didn't feel any fire in that attack." She revealed. "I felt dark energy."

"Dark energy?" Lonnie asked. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

The rose ranger shook her head. "No, not as in evil energy." She replied. "I…I don't know how to describe it exactly."

"We can classify it later." Mal said to her sister gently yet firmly. "Right now let's take this thing out and then show Sermaya whose boss." Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Will, Lonnie and Am stood beside the purple ranger. "Let's remind these clowns who we are."

Thenien watched the rangers more closely as he recovered. This time when Mal tried to use her new found power on him he leapt above the attack and unleashed an attack of his own from the wings that sent them sprawling onto their backs. He then landed and charged right at them.

Will, Lonnie and Carlos rolled one way. Jay, Audrey and Evie rolled the other way. Amy quickly grabbed a hold of Mal's arm and she made the two of them go intangible as Thenien approached, which was the only thing that stopped them from being rammed into by the giant lion sphinx monster.

"Quick, while it's trying to recover." Jay said. He motioned for the others to join Mal and Amy at the center. "Let's bring our weapons together."

"Good call." Mal replied. "Let's do it."

Mal placed her dragon's eye staff, followed by Audrey's elemental bow underneath it though it didn't stay that way as Will's recursive sword was placed underneath the bow, the four blades extended outwards. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind and the compacts expanded outwards. Then on the top Jay placed his soul scimitar and on either side of that weapon went Carlos's earthquake claw daggers, Lonnie's hurricane fans and Amy's rose lances.

"We did it." Carlos said. "We made the Auradon blaster 3.0." He laughed just a bit. It was sort of an inside joke as the original blaster required the first six rangers, adding Amy's lance had been called 1.5. The original blaster with the recursive sword had been called 2.0. After that the yellow ranger had made the joke about a 3.0 version, which had just been pulled off.

Together the rangers fired the blaster at Thenien. It struck him and he fell back, they could already see the beginning of the explosion that usually follows the destruction of a monster. "No!" Sermaya shouted out and ran toward the explosion himself.

"Is he nuts?" Audrey couldn't help but wonder.

"Who cares, two for one." Carlos replied.

Amy suddenly had a horrible feeling about it and was about to say something to the others but the point became moot as the smoke cleared enough for them all to see Sermaya merging with the remnants of the lion sphinx monster.

"Like I heard Raph say when they were here, 'ah shell.'" Jay muttered.

"This is it rangers." Sermaya said. "Now is the time to end the reign of humans on this planet." Then to their horror as the merging was finishing up the new monster started to grow until he was as tall as the temple.

"I think it's time for the zords." Will commented.

"Jordan, you guys need to go." Genie said to his gold ranger daughter. "Take down Sermaya once and for all. I've got this."

"Are you sure dad?" Jordan asked him.

"Yeah, no offense but the five of us barely contained this." Jane added.

"It'll be fine." Genie promised her. "I've got more magical experience in my hand than all of you combined."

"Well when you put it that way." Jordan said with a roll of her eyes that was classic of teenagers and their parents. "Then let's get going guys."

"But…" Melody started.

"Go." Jasmine said to her, with Ariel at her side. It was a little weird to see pastel silver and pastel aqua. "We'll be backing him up as well."

"Just be careful of the bird mom." Melody said to Ariel. "He seems to have culinary taste for mermaids."

"I'll be fine sweetie." Ariel promised her. "Just go help you friends and let's put these monsters down."

During the fight with the oxen warriors Ben had noticed that Krona had disappeared. That would have to be a problem for later though because the young king was sure they would need all of the zords to stop this newest beast monstrosity.

Audrey summoned the Auradon Megazord, Mal summoned her dragon zord, Ben summoned his stallion zord, Jordan summoned the Auradon Battlezord, Jay summoned the Auradon Falcon zord, Will summoned the Auradon Warzord, and Miranda summoned the Auradon Battle Bear.

"Ben, combine with the Auradon Megazord." Mal said to her beloved. "Jay, combine with the girls. Miranda and I are going to combine our zords."

"Right." Both boys acknowledged.

"I've never seen these things in action before." Anna commented. "This should be very interesting."

"Yeah, but don't lose focus Anna." Elsa said to her little sister as she used an ice beam very much like her daughter's to take out an oxen warrior. "We still have our own problems down here."

Aladdin hated to admit it but that was almost putting it mildly. The oxen warriors seemed to have no end in sight and he could just see Jasmine taking out her blaster and shooting back the clawed hand of a strange bird monster as it swiped at Ariel.

"This could be going better." Aurora said to him as she fought alongside Snow and Rose.

"They can do it." Snow commented. "I know they can. All we have to do is hold the fort until they do."

On the surface it appeared to be four zords against one monster. But they all had the distinctly uncomfortable feeling that appearances would be very deceiving. Sermaya the Great Sphinx flapped the large wings and summoned a huge gust of wind that sent the zords crashing back.

"Wow." Alice gasped.

"That's some gust of wind." Merida had to grant as she dodged under an oxen warrior. "Are they going to be alright?" She asked as she thought of her daughter in her zord, she had never actually seen Miranda use it.

"They should be fine." Mulan assured her. She had seen them fight in their zords…once in Atlantica, from very far away. The reassurance lacked some confidence.

"They'll be alright." Doug promised as he blocked an attack and then slashed his attacker down. "They and their zords can handle much more punishment than that." He didn't voice the fact that he suspected they would have to before this fight was done.

"You really think you and your pathetic zords can take me down?" Sermaya asked in a voice far deeper than they had ever heard him before. Ben suspected it had to do with him fusing with the almost destroyed Thenien. "Then try and take me rangers."

The Auradon Defender Megazord moved in with Jay trying to jab the spear at the beast king. Sermaya caught the tip in between his hands and then shoved the back of the spear into the chest of the zord. Then the wings lashed out and slashed the zord back.

"Let's see what he thinks about this." Aziz declared and took the Auradon Falcon Battlezord into the skies and unleashed a burst of missiles from the tip of the wings. Sermaya took the air and allowed the missiles to hit the ground. Then he flew up and rammed his body as hard as he could into the zord before taking a hold of the arms and body slamming it to the ground.

Will moved in with the Auradon Warzord as Melody and Aquiella extended the blades on the arms. They moved in to try to attack Sermaya but he looked up and unleashed a roar that caused a quick disruption of the systems, long enough to then slash the warzord with his hands hard.

"Don't suppose that means we have a good chance?" Miranda questioned her fellow purple ranger somewhat dubiously.

"Not likely." Mal conceded. "But we have to try anyway."

"Or you could just stay down." Sermaya said and then unleashed a blast of energy that struck their zord hard, causing it to crash to the ground. "You can't beat our combined powers."

"What if he's right?" Jane couldn't help but wonder. "What do we do now?"

"We could summon the clam zord and try to destroy him with the Auradon Ultrazord." Lonnie suggested. "But…if that fails I don't know what we do then. That's our trump card."

From the command center Fairy Godmother and Ruby monitored the battle, which was not going as well as they would have liked. "Even if we could contact the others I'm afraid it wouldn't do us much good." The head mistress said to Ruby.

"Why is that?" The daughter of Rapunzel demanded to know. For what it was worth it was times like this she wished she could be out there on the field with them.

Fairy Godmother sighed just a little. "Because so far neither they nor we have figured out how to get their zords through the Iconian gateways they use to travel here." She answered.

"We have to do something." Ruby sighed softly. "We're losing out there."

"I know that child." Fairy Godmother reassured her. "We have no choice. Send them the clamzord…and pray for the best."

Ruby nodded. "Alright." She agreed and pressed the button to make it happen. Then she started a scan for anything that would help them turn the tide, as fruitless as it might seem to be.

The four battlezords were starting to rise again. Sermaya unleashed a stream of energy that he was certain would destroy the zords once and for all when the heavily armored clamzord appeared in front of them. The beams hit, luckily it barely scratched it. "Lucky for all of you." He grunted.

"I guess mom agrees this is our only option." Jane said.

Mal bit her lip and then called out, "Auradon Ultrazord online." The clamzord opened up its shell and the four battlezords jumped into the shell, which then closed around them. Cannons and lasers then emerged from all around.

"Give me your best rangers." Sermaya taunted.

"Oh we will." Mal promised him. She looked at all of her team mates. At that moment she didn't need to possess the empathic abilities that her twin sister, Aquiella, or their earthen friends Jennifer and April to know they were all nervous. It was either do or die now. "Lock on and fire." She declared.

All of the weapons unleashed their strongest attacks on the Sermaya and a huge explosion followed, but when the smoke cleared they saw him reforming in front of them. He let out a harsh laugh. "If that's your best shot then this fight will soon be over." He declared.

"Oh my pink." Amy moaned softly. "What do we now Mal?"

"I…I…" Mal stuttered as she stared in shock. Then she softly answered, "I don't know."

"You guys can do it." Belle tried to encourage her son, adopted daughters and friends as she took out an oxen warrior. "I know you can."

"I don't know how much longer I can keep them down Jaz." Genie called out to the Queen of Agrabah as the barrier holding back the monsters flared again. "The opposing forces behind it are just too strong."

"Do the best you can." Jasmine said as she took out an oxen warrior.

Simorgh started to push through. "Let's see if wine and mermaids have something in common." He said as he looked to Ariel.

"And what does that mean?" She wondered as she aimed her blaster at him.

Whitney was in front of her now and slammed a blade about half the size of the weapon that her older brother Will used with an uppercut to the face and then kicked him back in. "I heard someone once say that wine tasted better with age." The girl filled in. "I think he was saying mermaids might taste better that way too."

"Not that he'll ever know." Mulan added.

"Come on, let's blast him again." Jay stated. "Second time might be the charm."

"And it might not be." Lonnie replied. "We don't have an infinite amount of energy to use here."

"We have to try something." Audrey said.

"Like what?" Carlos asked now.

"I don't know." The brunette princess admitted in exasperation. "But stopping isn't an option."

"If only we could get more power." Jane mused. "Or direct it somewhere else or something."

From their intercom helmets they heard Ruby exclaim, "Jane, did you just hear yourself? That's a great idea, hang on a second."

"Where are we going to get more power?" Ally asked.

"Maybe from Auradon's electrical plants." Jordan suggested. "It'd short out everything but it's better than the world as we all know it ending." She shrugged. "We'd have power restored eventually."

"Nope that's not the plan at all." Ruby said. Jane, who had started out working with her mother in the command center when it had been under the room the isle kids had taken Remedial Goodness 101 in before becoming the white ranger, could imagine the longest haired blonde pressing buttons as she spoke. "Remember when he commented on combined powers?" She asked.

"Yeah." Evie replied.

"What about it?" Jordan questioned.

Jane's mind ran through it and she said it at the same time as Ruby did. "His powers coming from the temple that Chiron summoned from the ground." The two girls said.

"So if we attack the temple then we can destroy Sermaya's source of power and send them all back where they belong." Miranda said. "I like it."

"If it works that way." Jordan cautioned.

"I think it should." Ruby said. "Besides, what do we have to lose?"

It was a rhetorical questioned but their leader answered it anyway. "Nothing." Mal stated bluntly. "Let's get everyone away from the temple and then give it our best shot."

"I don't suppose everyone down there has intercoms built in?" Amy wondered.

"Doesn't matter." Aquiella said. She closed her eyes and called out _Aunt Ariel! Get everyone away from the temple entrance; don't worry about whatever tries to come through that doorway._

The statement surprised the pastel aqua ranger but she wasn't going to question it. "Everyone fall back!" She yelled out. "Forget about the monsters."

"Go! Go! Move it!" Genie called out in case they hadn't heard Ariel yell out. He formed a hat on his head that had a large red siren like what was found on emergency vehicles and it started to flash as he opened his mouth and the sound of a siren wailed.

"I'm coming for you, and your little girls too." Simorgh stated as he started to push through.

"Not if we can help it." Belle said. "Not if they can help it."

Mal only hoped they could, but Ruby was right; they had nothing to lose. "Once more with feeling." Mal declared, which drew a brief small giggle from Amy. "Auradon Ultrazord, lock on and fire!"

Sermaya laughed. "Waste your energy all you like fools." He taunted. "You'll never defeat me."

The Auradon Ultrazord unleashed its destructive barrage again but this time it was aimed right where Ruby suggested; at the base of the temple. By the time Sermaya realized where it was directed at there was no way he could have intercepted the attack, even with his increased size and large wingspan.

To the surprise of everyone, friend and foe alike, the temple started to implode, collapsing in upon itself. Even as Simorgh tried to break through some unknown force started to pull him in again, along with all of the oxen warriors that had been causing so much trouble since the temple had first risen to the surface.

Husband grabbed onto wives, friends grabbed onto friends, sister grabbed onto sister as they all did their best to make sure that no one on the ground was taken, accidently or otherwise, into the growing maelstrom before them.

"This isn't over." Sermaya threatened even as he was fighting the maelstrom that was taking in all of the oxen that had been causing problems. "We will have our revenge, you will all pay for this."

"Yeah yeah." Mal said with a roll of her eyes. "You and your friends have worn out your welcome. Don't let the door hit you on the way out." She gave a wicked grin. "In fact, let us show you the way out." As the temple had basically imploded, the maelstrom sucking in the oxens, the Auradon Ultrazord released a final blast on Sermaya, who lost his footing and was absorbed along with his brood. Then it closed behind him, leaving the rangers and their zords.

The pastel colored rangers powered down even as the Auradon rangers returned to the ground themselves. "You did it!" Snow exclaimed and ran over to hug Evie. Behind her was Rose, who hugged her step-sister before going to her son. Doug was right behind them

Belle picked up Amy with one arm even as she reached out to hug Ben. Adam approached Mal and hugged her softly. "You did great Mal. As usual." He said to her.

"Thank you." Mal said a bit uncertainly. She and Amy had never known their father and this was completely new territory for them all.

Will picked up Whitney and kissed her on the forehead. "You did great sis. Really great." He praised and then smiled as their mother Wendy came over to them. "You both did."

"Are they really gone?" Mulan wondered as she released Lonnie from the embrace they had been sharing.

Jasmine released the embrace she had surprisingly had on Jay even as Aladdin released the embrace he had on Aziz, clapping him on the shoulder lightly. Genie set Jordan down from his embrace as well and answered, "Well it's hard to say for sure. This kind of thing is WAY too common to be written off, but I think we've got a breather from them for a long while if nothing else."

They all came to the command center where Doug started to collect the watches that they had used. "So, are they like power rangers now?" Mal asked Fairy Godmother.

She shook her head. "No. At least not on a permanent basis." She answered. "With all the power losses and overwhelming problems like we just had, with no guaranteed way to contact the other rangers or their allies, I thought it prudent to develop back up powers."

"The pastel powers." Audrey said with a small smile. "Kind of pretty."

"It's linked into the backup generators of the command center." Doug commented.

"They take a while to charge and piggyback, for lack of better terms, off of your own powers. They're only temporary solutions." Fairy Godmother continued on. "Without your powers they cannot exist."

"Just as well." Aurora noted. "I don't think I'd want to do that on a long term basis." She stroked Audrey's back gently. "It makes me respect all of you even more for what you guys normally do."

"Well, at least if we need you we know we can rely on you to help." Audrey said with a smile at her mother and father.

"How did ye get here so fast anyway?" Miranda asked her mother. Her homeland was not exactly close to Auradon.

"Fairy Godmother activated the teleporter system that she said Billy installed when they were here." Merida explained. "It was an emergency, and my daughter needed me. Anything else just didnae matter."

Mal frowned. As much as motherly concern still shocked her, her real thought went to the reference of Billy. He and several others had shown up to help them rebuild their command center and then had to take off without saying goodbye over an emergency. She only hoped they were able to take care of whatever had happened.

Ben wrapped his arm around her arm softly. "Are you okay Mal?" He asked her

"Just worried for our friends." Mal answered. "When we get it cleared up again we need to contact Earth and make sure everything is okay." She looked around to see resounding nods of agreement from her team, all of whom had grown to care for the rangers they had met as well as the Ninja Turtles and their allies.

"That's another good reason for these." Fairy Godmother said, indicating the bracelet that Belle was giving to Doug. "If the rangers need you on their world, we aren't defenseless in ours."

"It's always good to have help from those we love, and to be able to help those we love in return." Evie said as she hugged both of her step-sisters.

What Ben didn't want to remind anyone was that Krona was still out there, he was sure of that despite the fact he had been created by Sermaya.

"Well this is just a drag." Krona muttered as he stood where the temple had been before its implosion and subsequent return to the ether. "I'll make sure Ben and those rangers pay for this."

"Something you can't possibly achieve alone." He heard from behind him. He turned to see Maleficent standing there with Chad, Marcellus, Undine and Jabberwock. "But something we can achieve together." Krona let out an evil laugh as he started toward the small group.


	126. Gang Up

It was early the next morning as the team made their way down to the beach. "I still can't believe our parents are power rangers, even on a part time basis." Aziz said with a shake of his head, clearly impressed. He had one arm around Ally's shoulder. Though the out of town parents had gone back to Auradon that night after dinner with the teleportation system up and running it was that much easier for them to keep in touch and even more so if an emergency rose as they could take those powers on again.

"Believe it." Jane replied simply. "And really it's rare but not unheard of." She walked hand in hand with Carlos, which Mal suspected was an unconscious reflex on their part and would embarrass them if anyone pointed it out, so she chose not to. "Cam was saying that one of the Mystic Force Rangers Nick has his mother Udonna as the white ranger and his father Leanbow as an ally called the Wolf Knight." They didn't know that Tyler the red Dino Charge ranger's father James had become the aqua Dino Charge ranger.

"I think it's cool." Mal admitted with a laugh. "Who would have thought that they could all do that? It was so awesome."

"I still kind of think it's too bad Doug can't hold permanent powers." Evie said. "He's proven on more than one occasion that he can handle it." The son of Dopey would join them a little later, after he had finished working on the communication problems.

"Is he going to use those temporary powers again if the chance arises?" Lonnie asked as she had her arm wrapped around one of Wills.

"He said he might." Evie admitted. "But I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to find an alternative."

"Too bad." Evie again lamented.

"I know E." Mal said. "But you heard him. He wants to be where he is, to be able to help us out in his own way." She sighed a bit. "I really wish that we had something for Ruby. I can tell she's been chomping at the bit to help us out."

"Wishing is dangerous around a genie." Jordan teased Mal with a laugh. The purple haired girl gave the genie girl a mock glare before they both shrugged it off. "Not that I could create these kinds of powers. Maybe my dad could. Hey, any chance that Ruby could take that?'

"Probably." Mal said. "Again, it's just not permanent. Which is what she would prefer."

"I could give up my powers." Amy threw out. She didn't necessarily want to but Mal knew that was just the kind of selfless girl that her younger twin sister was.

Before Mal could say it though it was Audrey, who was leaning against Jay's arm, who cut that train off. "No way Amy. You've earned those powers plain and simple. If Ruby is meant to have powers, and I admit she's proven herself more than capable, a way will present itself."

"She's right on both counts." Alex agreed as he stroked her arm softly. "But I'm sure Ruby would appreciate the sentiment."

"And it would be such a pain to break in a brand new ranger if we didn't have too." Jay teased Amy, who was very much the little sister of the group, and certainly the little sister of the isle kids.

"Yeah, we still haven't broken in some of our longer term rangers." Lonnie added with a teasing smile at the black ranger. Jay stuck his tongue out at her and they all laughed a little.

"You really want to talk about wishes?" Jordan asked. "I know we all wish Doug would find a way to clear up the communication system so we could contact the others." She shivered just a bit. "Most of you weren't there, but some of us were." She glanced at Grant, Ally and Aziz, who had also been there when they had been contacted. "When Leo contacted Donnie it sounded urgent. I swore he said something about an invasion."

"An invasion?" Amy asked. "Those Kraang things that April was talking about?"

Jordan sighed. "I don't know Amy." She answered. "They didn't specify exactly."

"I thought I heard something about dinosaurs." Ally added.

"When Cam's father contacted him Ruby said she heard something about the wind academy being attacked." Aziz said now. "That hadn't happened since Lothor first attacked them."

"I think they've been lying to us." Amy revealed as she looked up into the sky. "I mean, not evil lying or anything. I think they've been trying to shield us from the things that happen in their world so that we don't feel bad about needing to get them to help us."

Mal frowned as she thought about. "Karai said to me she worried that Shredder would increase his pressure on the turtle's and everyone because of the fact she chose to go back to her birth father rather than remain in the Foot clan." She said now. "What if the Foot found a way to attack them?" That just made Amy remember the vision she had had of the man she assumed was Karai's adopted father Shredder stabbing Splinter in the back.

"Man that's ridiculous." Carlos said dismissively. "All of the rangers and the turtles could so take out the Foot without much more than blinking an eye. In fact not a single sect of bad guys could possibly take out their combined team forces."

"What if it's not just one?" Audrey asked now. They glanced over at her, some even ignoring the sun that threatened to blind them so they could keep their eyes on the brunette princess. "Karone talked about that Dark Specter thing forming the United Alliance of Evil. What if someone found a way to continue on with his vision?"

"It wouldn't be impossible." Jay conceded. "But pretty hard. I mean there are very few villains in any world that can have such influence as to form that kind of alliance. I mean here the only one still alive to do that might be Maleficent. No one on the isle could now amass that kind of support."

They arrived at the beach and set up blankets and umbrellas. Melody, Amy and Aquiella went to play around in the waves. Ben, Mal, Aziz and Ally started a volleyball game against Audrey, Jay, Will and Lonnie. The rest of the team sat around and started to talk.

Jordan looked over at Grant, who had stayed mostly quiet. "I guess beach days weren't exactly a common occurrence when you grew up." She commented, not entirely unkindly.

Grant shrugged. "Not really. The beaches on Schadel were common raider territory. And relaxing was not really something people have time for if they want to survive." He said.

"It's got be really though for you." Jordan noted. "I mean at least your mother grew up around normally for like half of her life, but all that you know you learned from that horrid place." She reached for the bottle of water she had at her side. "So much of what we do must seem so…foreign I guess."

"Some things." Grant admitted. "But that doesn't make it a bad thing." He looked to the genie girl. "Having friends like all of you. It's a nice thing to have."

Evie watched as Carlos and Jane took out a couple of programming books and opened them up, then started to discuss something on those pages. It amused her just a bit and she was tempted for a moment to tease them about working while on the beach but stopped herself. If Doug were here she suspected they'd be having some sort of scientific discussion.

"Are ye okay Evie?" Miranda asked her as she looked up from rubbing sun tan lotion on her arms. "Ye seem kind of…I guess concerned is the best word."

"I was just looking at Carlos and Jane." Evie answered quietly. "They seem so perfect for each other but most of the time I see them together it involves computer work of some kind. But then it makes me think of Doug and I and the fact that we usually have chemistry or something around us." She looked to Miranda. "Does that make us a bad couple?"

Miranda laughed lightly. "It means ye're thinking too much." She scolded lightly. "Look, every couple has something that draws them together in the first place, be it programming or chemistry." She set the bottle down. "What happens after that will just form as it's meant too."

"I guess you're right." Evie conceded with a sigh. She now gestured to the makeshift volleyball court. "It's just I look at Mal and Ben for instance and they act way more romantic than we do. Same thing with Ally and Aziz, or Jay and Audrey."

Miranda shook her head. "I think ye missed my point." She noted. "My point is that ye can't compare the relationship you have with Doug to anyone else's relationship, be it your chosen sister's, one of your chosen brother's, or any of your team mates."

Evie thought about it a moment. "Yeah, I guess it makes sense. It's kind of hard not to make that comparison though." She agreed.

Miranda laughed at that. "Imagine how hard it can be for those of us not in any relationship what so ever." She replied.

"I guess you have a point there." Evie granted. "Although I have to say I was starting to think…"

Whatever Evie was going to say was interrupted by Amy letting out a scream. It distracted everyone as they turned to the water in concern. The rose haired girl looked embarrassed as she had only let out a scream of shock from the large wave that crashed onto the beach though in fairness it had been just big enough to knock the three of them onto the sands.

"Are you okay?" Mal asked, trying to sound concerned but it was hard to really convey that in between her giggles.

"Did you attract any vicious star fish?" Jay now asked and then laughed.

"You guys are mean." Amy said as she started to laugh and stand up. She wiped some of the excess water off of her head. "That wave was a killer." She tried to add in between her giggles.

"So," Melody said trying to sound perfectly non chalant, like they hadn't just gotten creamed by a huge wave. "Who's winning?"

"I guess we know who won between the ocean and you three, including the two mermaids." Carlos said with a snicker.

"Okay okay, that's enough." Mal said as she herself tried to stop herself from laughing again. "Let's just move on." She leaned down to pick up the volleyball that she had failed to hit when she had heard her twin sister scream and thought something had really been wrong.

Alex picked up a couple of towels and tossed them to the three girls as they came over to the area the team had taken over for the day. Amy started to dry her hair as she sat down by Alex while the two mermaid girls took a longer time to dry themselves off, as they kind of missed the feeling of water on their bodies, something that they and Aquiella in particular, had grown up with.

"Alright, back to the game." Mal decided. She got ready to hit the ball up in the air again and then felt a dizzy spell rush over her. Ben was at her side in a moment, though he felt kind of dizzy himself.

"I think the heat's getting to us." Audrey now said as she placed her hand against one of the poles holding the volleyball net to stop herself from hitting the sand. "I feel kind of dizzy."

"I hear you." Lonnie said as she took a hold of Will's arm to steady herself. That seemed to work fine for him as it stopped him from worrying about falling himself.

"I think we should take a little break." Ben said to them. No one really argued that and they headed toward the group. "Everyone here doing okay?" The young king questioned them.

"It feels a little warm all of a sudden." Ellie admitted and then frowned. "Which is almost kind of weird for me." She never quite understood how it worked but because of her ice powers she found it almost impossible to end up too warm. Even the hottest summer days never seemed to have that kind of effect on her.

"Maybe we're all just still worn out from last night." Ally suggested as she laid her head against Aziz's shoulder after they had sat down. "I mean that last fight against Sermaya was rather intense, to say the least. And the celebration did follow right after, when we had all just had that intense fight."

"Yeah, could be." Ben agreed.

"If you're that exhausted from a fight then destroying you all should be really easy." They turned to see Reviveslime standing there with his sword drawn. "Don't you think?"

"What? No way." Carlos gasped. "He's gone, he can't be here."

"We saw him die." Evie agreed. "Or destabilize or whatever."

The slime creature, a former general in Paradias's now scattered army, moved forward to attack Amy but Ben was up and had summoned the Praeleanthor sword, blocking his attack.

Everyone was now getting up. "I don't know how you're back but it's time to get to work." Mal said as the team picked up their iPhones from their bags. Jane summoned the magic wand and Melody brought the trident up to its full height.

"Don't you want to try to fight us without powers?" Another voice asked. They turned to see Dark Mist forming in front of the ocean. "Not that it helped you guys out that much."

"Dark Mist?" Lonnie questioned. "He's back too?"

The mermaid girls and the Arendelle heirs exchange looks of uncertainty as they had never met the monster that had shown up just after Will and Gregory had transferred over to Auradon Prep. Unlike the former general this one didn't really require any sort of discussion.

"All the more reason." Mal said. "Let's get to work." With that the rangers input their numbers and transformed except for Ben, Jane and Melody who transformed with their items. With that Mal indicated that Amy and her starting team mates should go help Ben deal with Reviveslime while the others should deal with Dark Mist.

Audrey formed her elemental bow and beside her was Jay with his soul scimitar. They had only taken one step forward when several stingers stuck in front of them. They turned to see the first monster they had ever fought, the manticore that had been specially designed to paralyze the isle rangers, coming toward them.

"What is that thing?" Will asked.

"The first monster that I fought after becoming a ranger." Lonnie answered. "Jane recruited me because Paradias tried to isolate Audrey after discovering she was the only Auradon born ranger of the team at that time."

"Boy has that changed." Carlos couldn't help but note. If they wanted to be honest the Auradon teens far outnumbered the isle teens.

"I'm glad to see that you remember me." The manticore creature said. He looked to the pink ranger. "That means you'll fully understand why I'm looking forward to tearing you all apart."

Jay approached Reviveslime and slashed him as hard as he could only to see the slime monster pull off his old trick of reforming himself. "Nice try black ranger." He said even as Ben moved in now.

"I've got more where that came from." Jay said and started toward him only to get rammed into hard. He looked up to see another of their old adversaries, this time the Heartwrecker standing there. He remembered this monster as the one who been made after the potion that spelled Mal into falling in love with Chad long before he had turned to the dark side.

Mal remembered too. For an instant she felt the guilt of turning her back on Ben combined with slight guilt at the thought that if this monster hadn't used Chad in their war then maybe he wouldn't have turned out the way he had. She forced that thought down quickly though, as they had told Audrey many times no one was ultimately responsible for the former prince's actions but himself.

"Oh that is disgusting." Ellie noted as Restrict Eyes appeared beside Dark Mist.

"Careful." Jordan said to the Ice Dame. "That thing can absorb us and then unleash our powers against our friends."

"Where are they all coming from?" Grant wanted to know. "Why didn't we get any warning from our alarm system?"

"That's a good question." Jane admitted even as she saw Exxod and the Infernal Flame King appear now. "I don't understand how this is even possible."

Exxod released several large brick like objects that forced the team to scatter. Amy turned just in enough time to block a direct claw attack aimed at her from yet another monster, this one was from Chakram the clawed crab like monster that had forced Lonnie to reveal her identity to Will in the first place.

"How many more of these things can we possibly deal with here?" Aziz wondered as he blocked an attack from Infernal Flame King with his spear.

"How many more do we need to take you pathetic rangers down?" The fire monster questioned as he then lashed out and kicked the silver ranger in the chest hard.

"Mal is this some kind of spell?" Audrey questioned their leader as she narrowly dodged the manticore's scorpion tail that was aimed right at her chest.

"It can't be." Mal replied simply as she used her dragon's eye staff to block Reviveslime's sword from its downward spiral. "None of these guys were ever magically skilled and if my mother were responsible for this she would have stepped in to brag by now."

"Then where are they coming from?" Evie wondered as she unleashed a mirror force attack on a huge stone that Exxod had thrown at her.

"Oh snap." Melody gasped as the water now stirred and from the depths emerged Spider Spear Shark, Shark Drake and Nightmare Shark. "Looks like we're getting even more trouble coming our way."

"This is just impossible." Jane tried to reason. "All of these monsters can't possibly be coming back like this."

"Don't you believe what you see with your own eyes rangers?" Dark Mist said tauntingly.

"Or what you feel with your own bodies?" Restrict Eyes added as he slashed Ally and forced her to hit the sand hard.

"Or smell up close and personal, yuck." Audrey added with disgust as the manticore monster tried to pounce onto the red ranger.

The three sharks immediately got together and Spider Spear Shark leaned down on the appendages and extended its blades. Nightmare Shark lowered its cannons and Drake shark extended its blades. Then they fired at the rangers.

Though it wasn't quite as lethal as it was when Undine had been part of the formation, it was still strong enough to send the team sprawling and the monsters started to move in to encircle the team.

"What are they trying to do?" Evie wondered as she raised her mirror force shield to block a blade attack from Nightmare Shark. "Why are they trying to corral us like this?"

"I don't know." Mal replied. "But we have to try to break free of this." She kicked out at Reviveslime who merely took the attack and laughed.

Manticore dove his tail down at Lonnie as hard as he could, something the pink ranger could only barely dodge with a back flip that only placed her closer into the circle the monsters were trapping them in.

"Are we making this too hard for your power chumps?" Dark Mist asked as he shot out and struck Ally and Jordan hard, making them fall back.

"Maybe we should take it easier on them?" Restrict Eyes said mockingly as he unleashed a beam of energy on Ben and Miranda.

Spider Spear Shark slashed Amy across the chest and she let out a gasp of pain as she fell back hard. He moved in with a follow up attack but was blocked by Melody and Aquiella. They were able to knock him back but couldn't get him to move any further.

Exxod moved to bring a huge chunk of what seemed to be concrete onto Jordan. She moved to grab her lamp cannon but realized she wouldn't get the weapon up fast enough. Then Grant moved in and shattered it with the axe, making him take a step back. "You okay?" Grant asked her.

"Yeah, thanks." Jordan said after taking a moment to realize what had happened.

"Maybe it's time I wreck your love lives, at least in the short time before while you two are still alive." Heartwrecker mocked as he slammed his fists hard into Alex and Ellie's chests.

"What love life?" Ellie couldn't help but wonder as she rolled a little unsteadily to her feet. "I mean Alex has a thing for someone but I'm fully single."

"Really?" Alex asked as he looked to his cousin. "Because honestly I was starting to think that…"

"Oh, shut it both of you." Heartwrecker snapped. "None of you will live long enough for it to matter."

But despite their best efforts the rangers were unable to break out of the circle they were being corralled into. When they were surrounded each of them unleashed their strongest blasts that sent the rangers flying around and landing in all the enclosed directions.

"You can't take us all on rangers." Reviveslime gloated. "Your time is up."

"Keep it together guys." Mal instructed. "There's a weakness around here somewhere. We just have to find it."

Ruby made her way down the ramp into the command center with her bag slung over her shoulder. "Hey, come on Doug!" She called out. "Let's get a move on if we want to join the others at the beach and have any time to actually relax." Despite her every attempt to keep her blonde hair from falling too far behind it was almost impossible to do. She figured it was some magical effect from her mother despite the fact that any magic seemed to have left Rapunzel a long time ago.

"I know, I know." Doug said. He had his own small bag set on one of the side chairs that were available if someone needed to sit down or if they had breakfast in the command center, something that hadn't happened yet since the new one was rebuilt but had occurred plenty of times in the original command center. "Give me just a minute while I finish up this last diagnostic."

Ruby set her bag down and came to stand across from him. "Any ideas yet on why we can't contact the other side?" She asked him.

Doug shook his head. "Not yet. Truth is I'm lost, everything seems to check out fine." He answered as he reached for another tool to make an adjustment on the test he was running.

Ruby strolled around the command center's consoles. She had learned a great deal about their operation since she had not been able to do anything more than work on the sidelines and the occasional fight without powers, but there were still functions she hadn't learned more than the very basics about. She however did notice an indicator on one of the consoles that she was familiar with and started toward it.

Doug hadn't noticed she had drifted off as his test concluded and his expression clouded up a little. "Wow. How could…" He started to say to himself but quickly changed his direction. "Hey Ruby, I figured out what's going on with the comms but…"

"Doug." Ruby interrupted him. He turned to look at the longest haired blonde. "This indicator says that Evie and the others have transformed. But why would they do that? Why isn't the monster alarm going off?"

Doug dropped the train of thought for something more important. "What? But they never went off?" He stated as he went over to another console and began a scan of Auradon. He glanced over at Ruby. "See if you can pinpoint their location and find out what they're fighting."

"We already know they're supposed to be at the beach, which is where we should have been going now." Ruby said with slight exasperation as she never the less went over to find the others. She easily found them and brought them up a screen. Her eyes widened. "Doug, what is going on?" She asked him now.

Doug came to stand beside her and immediately saw what was confusing her. "I don't know." He said, slightly in shock. He moved to one of the consoles and began running sensor scans of the area. It didn't take long though to find out what the problem was. "Ah ha! This is what's going on out there." He said as he showed Ruby.

Ruby quickly ran through her memories of what she had been told about what their battles. "Okay, so I guess I get that. But what do we do about it?" She asked him. She glanced at the screen and was already certain there was no way Mal and the others would be able to deal with the threat that they were seeing, not as it stood right now.

"We have to stop it." Doug answered simply as he went over to one of the wall panels and pressed a couple of buttons to bring the panel down. "There's only one way that I know of. And after that's done we can tell the others about the communication problems we have. But first we have to save the others."


	127. Final Girl

Ruby ran toward the beach, which involved a brief run through a small forest area. She brushed a branch out of her face as she did so. "I don't know how much time I have left." She said to herself as she ran. She could already feel the undergrowth and the branches in her hair, not that it was hard to do considering her hair was even longer than her mother's had been at her peak. That length would hopefully be a great asset when it came down to it but she had to make it to her destination first.

The last thing she had seen before leaving the command center to help her friends was all of them being surrounded by several monsters that had been destroyed in the past. Manticore, Reviveslime, Heartwrecker, Restrict Eyes, Chakra, Dark Mist, Spider Spear Shark, Nightmare Shark and the Shark Drake the last she knew. The fact that they were currently losing the fight was all the more of a shock to Ruby given that she was now aware of what they really were.

She thought back to her question to Doug as he had presented her with his plan. _Why aren't you doing this? Not that I have a problem with it but you've been in the know for a lot longer than me._ She didn't want to point out that they hadn't even told her; she had figured out the truth on her own and had been doing what she could since then, eventually proving herself to be trusted.

He had smiled a bit at her. _This is my place._ He had told her simply. _A lot of ranger teams need that person who fills the techie and creative roll. Billy eventually took that position full time for the rangers, Cam held the position for a while before doing what Jane did. Mrs. Fairweather still does that for the Lightspeed team. Someone has to be responsible for bringing it people like you._ Again he had laughed just a little. _Just do your part, and I'll keep doing mine._

She ran as fast as she could and found herself at the beach. Before this point she had hoped somehow what Doug had found wasn't true, but now that truth was staring her right in the face. She wasn't sure how it was possible but it was. She was watching as her friends the Auradon Rangers were fought against air, against nothing. "They really are just that, illusions." She whispered. "But how?"

She noticed that Ally was closest to her and she moved to try to get the crystal ranger and try to talk her down but hit some sort of barrier that flashed green from the impact. "Ah." She gasped in half pain and half annoyance. She noticed that none of them were paying any attention to her arrival and wondered what the barrier was made of that kept them inside and unaware.

With sudden inspiration Ruby glanced around the beach for anything that didn't belong. With all the 'monster's' flying about right now she was sure another one would attract attention for as many that her friends though they were fighting. Then she spotted the long shadow that didn't quite belong in a small cove of palm trees. "Come out of there right now." She demanded.

For a moment it seemed as if she wouldn't get a response. Then she heard, almost as if from all around her, "I didn't think anyone would even think to look for me, if they even know where to look."

"What did you do to my friends?" Ruby demanded to know.

"I simply gave them back what they've been dishing out ever since they became power rangers." The voice responded.

Ruby narrowed her eyes as she scanned the terrain. The initial shadow she had seen was gone though obviously the troublemaker was still around. "You're making them see things, things that are still able to hurt them because of that barrier I ran into." She commented to herself. "Almost like magic, but…" Suddenly she understood. There were very few magic users in Auradon and even fewer that could pull off this kind of elaborate trick. Maleficent and Fairy Godmother came to mind, but the former wouldn't be playing shadow games and the latter was obviously exempt from it. Paradias could but was gone. But there was one other strong magic user that had been forgotten about due to all that had been happening. She had never met him but had heard about him. "You might as well come out Red Magi." Ruby announced.

From the sands about three feet behind her she heard him rising to up. She turned to face down one of their longest lived adversaries if one ignored Chad and Maleficent. Something seemed different about him, which was almost no surprise to her since he had been an 'old man' the last time her friends had seen him. She just couldn't put her finger on what was different.

"I was sure I'd contained all of the rangers inside my trap." Red Magi said as he folded his arms to glare at the daughter of Rapunzel. "How did you escape it?"

"I'm not a power ranger." Ruby said simply. "I wasn't with them when you set that trap."

"Then what do you think you can do to stop me?" Red Magi questioned as he unleashed magical burst of energy from his long staff toward the blonde.

She rolled to the left to dodge the attack. She found it fortunate that he had aimed for her chest rather than anywhere lower because she realized right now the extremely long hair could be a huge burden in a fight the way it currently stood. "How did you do that to them?" She asked the magician.

"I don't think even Fairy Godmother truly realizes the amount of magical resources that are around Auradon that haven't been tapped into for centuries." Red Magi said to her as he started to toward her. Ruby started to move to the side and he in turn started to pace her. "But I'm starting to learn then all, including my newest little acquisition; the power of illusion."

"Hmm, kind of ironic." Ruby replied as she started to stand up. "I guess we have something in common right now."

Red Magi had been about ready to unleash another burst of energy at her but stopped at that. "What do you mean by that?" He questioned.

"We're both learning how to use our powers." Ruby answered simply and from her jeans pocket took out an iPhone that looked just like the one the others used to transform. Where the others had gems of their color; except for Ben, Melody and Jane, she had a ruby colored gem. "Now granted, you have more experience, but I have the heart and I think that will make all the difference." With that she input her numbers 5318.

Before Red Magi's eyes he witnessed the daughter of Rapunzel transform into a power ranger. Her coloring was a darker red, very much like the gemstone she had been named after. The long blonde hair that had been all around the beach beforehand seemed to condense around her right leg, and all around her body until it ended at a long bun on around the helmet that seemed to be far too small for the amount of hair she really had. It was a feat of both science and magic that Ruby did not really want to think too heavily about the details of it to make it happen.

"A nice trick." Red Magi finally decided. "But how will that save you from me? Or your friends from their own demise?"

"I'd actually wondered that too." Ruby admitted as she let some of her hair loose and it curled around her hands. "But the neat thing is I don't have any trouble summoning my weapon. I already have it, and it's closer than even Evie's." With that statement she unleashed the end of her hair as a weapon, as straight and narrow as a whip.

Red Magi dodged the attack and unleashed another magic burst at her, which the new ranger was unable to dodge and it slammed her hard into the barrier where her friends were fighting the illusionary monsters that he had cast to weaken and ultimately destroy them. She let out a little shriek of pain as she hit it and fell to the ground.

"You don't stand a chance against me, new girl." Red Magi said with a wicked laugh. "You may have the power, but you don't have the experience to fight me."

 _He's right._ Ruby had to grant with a small frown. _I don't have the experience to fight a monster solo, especially one that has already seen the others in action._ She chanced a glance back at the field surrounding the other rangers. Then inspiration struck and the new ruby ranger got up to her feet.

"You still want to take a chance against me?" Red Magi questioned. "You must be very foolish."

Ruby shook her head. "Not at all. You're right when you say I don't have the experience. But I know how to get it." Again she wound up her hair and unleashed it like a whip. Red Magi took several steps back with a laugh, but that was okay with Ruby as the illusion magician was not her target.

She instead moved with the seemingly off throw, her hair magically extending as she went, unfurling to seem more like her natural hair length. Even she was a bit surprised as that length managed to wrap itself around the magical force field like object that trapped the others within the illusionary attack. She caught it with the end of her hair with her other hand. "Now I guess we see what this power has really done to my hair." She commented. By normal logic it shouldn't be powerful enough to do what she wanted but by normal logic it shouldn't be able to be a weapon and it was so…"Here goes nothing."

She started pulling her hair as hard as she could toward her. Red Magi watched with amusement at first as he doubted that she could use her own hair to break his spell. That amusement slowly faded as she worked and it started to pull through the field. "Stop that at once." He demanded even as he started toward her.

"No chance of that." Ruby replied as she gave a final tug, feeling almost like she was trying to get a nasty tangle out of her hair which was something she had had to do a couple times in her life and then the magical bubble shattered, and she hoped so would the illusion.

Mal was in fact moving at that moment to try to slam her dragon's eye staff into Reviveslime's chest when all of a sudden he just wasn't there. "What?" She gasped.

"Where did he go?" Aziz demanded to know as he was fighting Chakra claw to spear before he vanished as well.

Amy had been trying to roll to the side to avoid a strike from Spider Spear Shark, possibly her least favorite monster out of the ones they had seen with the possible exception of the gladiator that had almost killed Mal when, when he vanished. She however noticed the long haired ruby ranger and the other monster. The last time he had actually been seen was when Jane had become a power ranger, and so really half the team had no experience with him other than his actual existence. "Where did those two come from?" Amy wondered.

Jay looked up from where he had been fighting Heartwrecker before they had vanished. "I'm going to guess by the long hair that's Ruby, wonder when she got powers?" The black ranger wondered before he focused on the second part and his eyes narrowed. "That's Red Magi."

"We must have been under a spell of his." Ben said, somewhat needlessly at this point.

"I'd almost forgotten he was still around, we haven't seen him in a while." Audrey commented.

Lonnie and Carlos were now beside Ruby. "He was the one summoned those monsters, some kind of illusion trick of his." The new ranger said to them.

Carlos remembered the last time they had seen him as an 'old man' he had said to call him the Crimson Sage. "What should we call you now, the Crimson Illusion Magician or something?" The yellow ranger questioned sarcastically.

"I'm sure Mikey would be very proud of your ability to name things Carlos." Lonnie deadpanned as she extended her hurricane tessens and got ready to fight their long lost enemy. "Finally crawled out of the woodwork huh?"

"You should have stayed there." Mal said simply as she and Amy came to stand by Lonnie's side. "Your plan failed, and now you have to deal with nineteen…" She glanced at Ruby and had to correct herself. "Twenty irritated rangers."

"Alone." Audrey added as she stood by Carlos and Jay.

Red Magi, or Crimson Illusion Magician if they wanted to take Carlos's nickname to heart, didn't seem too concerned. "I can handle it, or rather we can." With that he summoned something they hadn't had to fight in a while now; the soldier's Paradias had used.

"No troubles." Jay said. "We got this."

Mal laughed. "You're darn right Jay." She agreed. She was just about to have him, Carlos, Lonnie, Audrey and Evie come with her to deal with Red Magi and finally put him down while the others took out the soldiers when two things happened almost back to back.

The first was that Amy let out a horrendous scream that Mal had never ever heard from her before, even back on the Isle of the Lost where most people looked at her with nothing more than disdain or as a target. Even as Mal started toward her, they all powered down.

"What just happened?" Ally asked.

Jordan couldn't help but say it. "We lost our powers." She deadpanned.

"No duh Sherlock." Audrey snapped a bit harshly, almost sounding like her old self a moment. The next point though overshadowed any argument that could have resulted from it. "The question is why did we lose our powers?"

Jane and Evie were already contacting Doug about that; Mal could vaguely hear it even as she came to Amy's side. "Amy?" She asked.

"Mal…" She whispered as she was trying to regain herself. "What happened?"

"You should tell us." Alex said as he took her hand gently. "You were the one who screamed."

"It was a psychic overload." Aquiella now said. They turned to see she was being supported by Ellie and her cousin Melody. "But I don't know why."

"Have you forgotten about someone?" Red Magi questioned angrily. "Destroy them." The soldiers started toward the rangers.

"We haven't forgotten anything." Jay said as he snap kicked an approaching soldier in the chest hard. He hadn't fought the soldiers without powers since they were initially chosen to be power rangers but times had changed since then.

Audrey dodged under one of them that tried to slash her. Then Ben was there knocking it back with his Praeleanthor sword, which stayed around because it was independent of the morphing grid.

"M! Is Amy okay?" Evie asked her chosen sister.

The purple haired girl and the rose haired girl nodded at the same time. "Aquiella felt it too, she called it a psychic overload but we don't know why." Mal answered. It worried her a little but she had to admit that first things had to come first. "What's the story with our powers?" She asked now as she helped Amy to rise to her feet.

"An overload in the morphing grid according to Doug." Jane answered her. It took her a moment even after all that had happened to remember that despite the difference in height Mal and Amy were twins. "We should have our powers back," They were interrupted as they all appeared transformed into rangers again. "Any time now." She finished anyway.

"Awesome." Jay said gleefully as he took down another soldier, this time with his soul scimitar.

"But why did it happen?" Alex asked now.

"Maybe it's related to your psychic overloads." Ellie hypothesized as she looked to Aquiella and Amy.

"Maybe." Aquiella agreed. "But we have to survive this fight before we worry about that."

"She's right." Amy said. "So let's do it."

Mal secretly worried that it might not hold. With the way things had been developed with the reconstruction of the command center Billy had told them that it would be almost impossible to short out the morphing grid again like what had happened with Maleficent's two monsters and Paradias's final attack. She wasn't going to separate them now. "Let's take down the soldiers and deal with Red Magi together."

"That'll be a new one for me." Ruby said a bit unsteadily. She had just now gotten her powers and yet it seemed for just a moment she was going to lose them.

Red Magi watched with not a lot of surprise but lots of annoyance as the ranger's managed to easily slash, blast or slam their way through the soldiers that most of them had fought pretty consistently over the last few months. He powered up a huge burst of energy and shot it at the group of rangers, sending them flying hard.

"I think he's become more powerful." Jane said as she started to get up. "And I don't just mean because of that illusionary attack."

"No I think you're right." Jordan agreed. "As a genie I can kind of read magic, and his really strong. I don't know what it was like before but this is definitely close to my level."

"It's still twenty on one." Grant said. "That has to mean something."

"Only if we take advantage of it now." Mal said. "We're moving onto the big guns here. We need the Auradon Launcher." The team quickly took two by two positions and summoned the launcher. They drew energy into it and fired it straight at Red Magi.

"A foolish choice rangers." Red Magi chided them as he formed two objects that looked to be cylinders in his hands. One collected the energy of their own attack and then as that disappeared the second one unleashed their attack straight back at them.

Evie however had not forgotten about his magic tricks. She quickly released her hold on the launcher and drew her mirror force shield. She let the attack slam into her weapon, forcing her to lose a bit of ground in the sand, before she sent it out again. Her aim was off and it flew harmlessly into the skies.

"We have to try that again." Audrey said.

Mal was about to agree with her when it just vanished. "What the?" She started.

"The morphing grid must be struggling to hold out." Jane said. "We almost overtaxed it."

"I don't get it." Carlos said. "I thought it was reinforced to the point that this shouldn't happen. It's connected to main morphing grid the other ranger's use."

"Forget that for the moment." Grant said. "We have to drive this weird magic guy off or we might be following our powers trail."

"Okay step two." Mal declared as she took her sister's hand and placed it on her dragon's eye staff. She looked to Jane, Jordan, Evie, Melody, Aquiella, Ellie and Alex. "Let's give this creep all the magical energy we've got."

Audrey wasn't quite sure that was a great idea but she didn't have anything to counter it with. "I guess this is the part where we hold our breaths." She said to Jay.

"Looks like." He agreed. He reached out and took Audrey's hand in his.

The magic enabled members of the group moved together. While the twin girl's channeled through the dragon's eye staff, Jane used the magic wand that was also held by her mother Fairy Godmother so long ago, Evie channeled through her mirror force shield, the two mermaid girls Melody and Aquiella channeled together through their grandfather's trident while Alex and Ellie just channeled their elements together. Jordan just did the best she could with her own energy gathering before they unleashed it all in the most powerful stream they could concoct to blast right at Red Magi.

He seemed stunned for a moment, unsure of what to do. It wasn't just one type of magic or one attack but a combination of several different ones. When he finally decided the best course of action was to dodge it he wasn't entirely successful. He hit the ground and rolled to a stop.

Again their powers started to flicker. Ben noticed his seemed to take longer to do so, he assumed it was because of the Praeleanthor sword and the power it contained, arguably one of the few that was older than what Zordon had used to construct the morphing grid.

"Not again." He heard Lonnie say. "This isn't good." Ben moved in, drawing whatever power he could into his sword and struck Red Magi as hard as he could. The magician monster went flying and landing into the waters of the ocean. It took a minute for them to realize he was not coming back to the surface.

"Did you defeat him?" Ally asked as she looked at Ben.

"Or did he escape?" Jordan wondered now.

Mal brushed it off. "Forget him for the moment." She said to her friends. "Right now we need to get back to the command center and find out what's going on with our powers, and find out what caused this psychic overload."

"Add to that the communications problems we've got." Carlos said. "I'm starting to think we've got a few bugs that need to be worked out." Evie and Jane started to nod in agreement.

"Oh, about that." Ruby said as she followed her friends and now team members. "Before this happened I went to drag Doug down here with us. He told me the communications systems are just fine, at least on our end."

"That's impossible." Miranda said now. "If our systems were fine then we should've been able to contact Earth."

"Unless there's a problem on their end." Aziz suggested.

"Could the Megaship have been destroyed?" Melody asked worriedly. So far all of their contact with the rangers of earth and their allies had been done with the ship where the Space Rangers basically lived.

"We are tied into a few of the other ranger's bases of operations for what that's worth." Jane answered as she picked up her chemistry book to fit into her bag. "The Aqua Base 2.0 that the Lightspeed Rangers use, the operation center of Ninja Storm, Tommy's lab though Hayley usually runs that now, and even some place where someone like Zordon who is named Gosei is."

"And Doug in fact tried to contact those areas." Evie vouched. "With the same results."

"I don't like this." Amy said to them all. "A communications blackout, regardless of where the problem is. Me and Aquiella having that psychic overload."

"Where does something like that come from anyway?" Grant asked the two girls.

They both exchanged glances. Then Aquiella answered, "If I had to guess. Something we were tied to just…just died."

"But you aren't tied to anything but your friends." Ruby said. She hoped that would include her soon if it didn't already.

"No." Amy said. "That's not true. We are connected to two other, well psychics I guess."

"You are?" Grant asked now.

It was Mal who answered it. "April and Jennifer." She said. April had psychic powers because of her family being genetically manipulated by the Kraang and Jennifer had psychic powers because of her father tampering her with some sort of demon DNA.

"So something happened to them then?" Melody wondered.

"Would you really feel it if they died?" Mal asked Amy softly.

Amy frowned. "I, I don't know." She admitted. "I guess it would depend on what happened."

They returned to the command center, dropping their bags carelessly on the floor. Evie went over to Doug and the two embraced each other for a few moments before he turned to look back at the others. "I'm glad you're all alright." He said. "That was incredibly underhanded of Red Magi to do that."

"As curious as I am about where he's getting new magic in a 'magically retired' place like Auradon," Mal started with sarcastic air quotes around retired magic portion. "I'm more interested in why our powers are going out like that."

"I've already figured that out, but I don't know how to explain it." Doug said to her. He took a deep breath as he tried to figure out how to go about it. "When the command center was redesigned our morphing grid was integrated into the main morphing grid the earth rangers use, which was supposed to make it more stable unless the morphing grid failed on their end. That should be basically impossible. Except for the fact that it seemed to have happened."

"Didn't a section fail at one point?" Lonnie asked.

"Due to tremendous pressure from a lot of enemies from what I understand." Evie answered. Some of them had heard the story from the pink Overdrive ranger Rose as she had been part of the restoration team sent to Auradon. "And it was repaired."

"We need to know what's going on over there." Ben said with a sigh. "I just wish we knew how to do that without communications." Mal reached over and wrapped an arm around his, leaning her head against his arm.

"This whole communication blackout itself bothers me." Ellie said simply as she strolled over to a console, though she didn't know what to do with it. "We have at least four ways to contact them and none of them are working." She looked to Doug and Evie. "I mean what are the odds of that?"

"Slim." Evie admitted with a frown. "I'm starting to wonder if whatever their problems are is even bigger than Maleficent."

Mal chuckled a little. "Mom would be insulted to hear someone thinks something is a bigger problem than her." She noted dryly, her voice holding no humor. Ben patted her hand gently, not entirely sure if she needed it or not but she didn't seem to have a problem with that.

"I better talk to mom and see if she can figure out where Red Magi is getting these powers from." Jane announced as she stood up and stretched, trying to work out the small kink that was forming in her lower back. "Then we can see if somehow we can figure out what's going on with our friends."

There was a massive flash of light and the team immediately scrambled for their iPhones, though it took Ruby a moment longer to follow that reaction since she was very unused to that option. "How are we getting attacked here, again?" Audrey wanted to know.

But as the light faded they realized they were not under attack, it actually been a time door opening. They could just make out the slim figure of the time mistress Renet Tilley emerging from the portal, followed by the realization it was actually too high up. Before they could react she fell from the doorway and hit the ground on her knees.

"Nice landing." Jay remarked, which earned both a giggle and an elbow to the arm from his girlfriend.

"Renet." Amy started but stopped as she felt it. She glanced to Aquiella who could feel it too.

That did nothing for Mal and Ben who were the first over to her. "Renet, what's up? What are you doing here?" Mal asked conversationally. That tone, and her stomach, dropped when she looked up at them. "What's wrong?"

Her eyes were red and full of tears, her face tear streaked as well. "It's over…" She whispered softly, hoarsely. "They're gone…our allies, our friends…the power rangers, the turtles…Mikey…they're all dead, the Earth…it's gone."

And there was total silence.


	128. Into the Breach

Renet sat on one of the cushion backed chairs, her arms around her legs. Beside her was Melody who felt somewhat shocked herself as she tried to process what she had heard. They all were.

"That…that would explain why our powers shorted like that." Evie now tried to explain though her voice was going in and out as she fought her sorrow. "Our powers were adjusting to…to what happened."

"We're the morphing grid now." Doug added softly.

Mal suddenly pulled away from Ben to pace the command center anxiously. "No." She declared. "No way, there is NO way that everyone and everything there is just gone." She thought about her fellow purple rangers Amber and Serena. "I refuse to believe that." She finished, her voice slowly getting harder.

"Mal." Amy interrupted softly but firmly. She had tears rolling down her cheeks as she thought about their friends too. "I can feel it in Renet's mind. She's telling the truth. That would also explain the psychic overload Aquiella and I felt, the total snuffling of life on a planet like that, including April and Jennifer."

Fairy Godmother had shown up at the command center, having been texted by Jane after Renet's horrific announcement. She handed the time mistress a glass of water. "I think it would be a good idea to explain this from the beginning child." She advised softly.

"Yeah, please do." Mal agreed hotly. "Explain to us how Earth was destroyed with all life on it even though it's full of tons of ranger teams, plus the Turtles and Mutanimals and who knows how many others." Ben tried to take her hand to calm her but the purple haired girl was in no mood to be calmed down and took her hand back.

"M, stop." Evie said to her. "Calm down, we have to approach this calmly if we want to even try to find a solution."

Audrey laughed harshly. "A solution Evie? To a planet's destruction? What do you think we're going to do, rebuild a world from scratch?" She questioned.

"All of you, enough." Fairy Godmother ordered as she shot looks at each of them to hold off any further speculation. She looked to Renet. "Go on."

"I'm not entirely sure how this started." Renet started as she set down the glass of water and picked up the time scepter she used to travel to other times and dimensions, the latter of which Auradon was considered by Earth standards. "Someone, and I don't know who, started to rally the remaining forces of evil."

"What does that mean?" Ruby asked. "I thought the ranger's defeated all of them."

"We already know that's not true." Lonnie filled in. "In the past Amber has mentioned people like Scorpina and Bladerunner."

"Defeated doesn't always mean destroyed." Jane added. "Cam told us that his uncle Lothor and his minions weren't killed, they were sealed in the Abyss of Evil originally."

"And someone knew that. They started to rally the remaining forces into one. But not only that, they turned around and started bringing the fallen ones back." Renet said. They all gradually stood aside as Renet made her way to the center of the room. She raised her staff and projected an image on the screen in the command center. "They started to attack the ranger teams one by one."

On screen they saw large bird creatures that Mal remembered where called Tengas attacking the rangers. She recognized the six power rangers that had come to Auradon to help the Auradon kids rescue the Isle kids. To their surprise they saw they had the Green ranger again and there was a purple ranger as well. That knowledge saddened Mal even more.

"Is Tommy the white ranger?" Jane asked curiously.

Renet shook her head. "No, he still has the black dino powers. That is…was, Amber's friend Amy." She looked at the screen sadly.

Then they saw the ones leading the attack. Lonnie had a feeling the Asian looking woman was Scorpina, and beside her was a large golden creature with wings and in the sky was a large headed creature. That monster unleashed a huge beam that struck them all down. "Those are Goldar, Scorpina and Lokar." Renet clarified. "All former minions of Rita and Zedd."

"What about the purple and green rangers?" Miranda asked now. "Who are, er…were they?"

"Both of them are old friends." Renet answered. "The green ranger was Richie, who like Emily worked for Ernie at one point. He used to have a thing for the original yellow ranger Trini." That drew some attention as they thought Aisha had always been the yellow ranger; she had been the one to hold the powers on when they had come to the Isle. "And the purple ranger was also an old friend named Alexis Darling."

A/N: I did not create Alexis Darling, she was created by Rachel West and was borrowed with permission for another story of mine a long time back. A while ago she left the ranger community. For what it's worth this would not impact her series "Streaks of Purple".

The screen flashed again and they saw the six Zeo rangers that had also helped with that rescue being attacked by monsters that Evie remembered were called Cogs. On top of that was another ranger in gold and black. "That's Trey the King of Triforia and the Gold Zeo ranger." Leading that charge was three machine monsters. "That's Gasket, now the king of the Machine Empire and his wife Archerinna." Renet said. The third monster looked robotic and had blades in lieu of hands.

"That must be that Bladerunner monster Kat was talking about." Carlos said.

The three heads of the newly resurrected Empire unleashed a similar attack on the Zeo rangers as well.

"Is this going to be the same scene on everything we see?" Jordan questioned with a sigh. "This is really depressing alright."

"Someone did their homework." Aziz admitted ruefully.

"Something you would have no notion about." Jordan couldn't help but try to tease her longtime companion. This time it fell flat considering the circumstances.

Next came the moment Mal dreaded; the Space Rangers losing battle. The first thing they saw was a seemingly unlimited number of Velocofighters pursuing and shooting down the Astro Megaship. They weren't sure where exactly it landed once it was finally taken down.

She was relieved to see Karone as the white ranger fighting alongside Amber. She had had the dreadful feeling that they would see Astronema instead. Amy gave her older twin an understanding smile. Instead they saw the attack was being led by someone Renet identified as Darkonda. He was backed up by the Psycho Rangers and the minions that Renet called Quantrons.

Lonnie flinched as she saw Cassie struck by Psycho Pink and grabbed by Quantrons. "How much more of this do we have to see?" She asked.

"Each of the teams were overwhelmed by their enemies and stripped of their powers." Ally remarked softly now. "Horrible." None of them had met the Lightspeed Rangers yet or heard of their demonic enemies, in this case Queen Bansheera as they defeated them. Mal did not see a purple ranger among them.

"Why is it that Scorpina, the machine guys, and Darkonda are using their minions but Bansheera isn't?" Carlos asked.

"That's a good point." Renet admitted. "I don't know."

"Evil is not known for working so well together." Fairy Godmother said. "How did this coordinated strike even happen?"

"Dunno, it was like a total surprise to all of us." Renet admitted, almost sounding like herself now. That wasn't belied at all by the sight of seven rangers fighting and losing to some kind of metal monster and another group of minions the Cyclobots. "Those are the Time Force Rangers." Renet supplied. "That monster is the pink ranger's old partner Steelix, not to be confused with the awesome iron snake of the same name." That drew looks of confusion from them. "Never mind."

"Another purple ranger." Miranda said softly to Mal. She nodded and said, "Yeah."

"Her name is…was Kelly, she's the purple Quantum Ranger. Her powers are like Eric's but she joined with the ranger's instead of the Silver Guardians at that time." Renet provided for them softly. "It must be like a repeat to Wes, this is what happened when Ransik made his final invasion."

"This was going on the WHOLE time they were helping us?" Audrey asked, now feeling tremendously guilty.

"No." Renet said. "Most of this was very recent, aside from some of the escapees like Scorpina and Bladerunner."

"How does all of this result in the Earth's destruction?" Ellie asked. "Where were the Turtles or the Mutanimals?"

"She'll get to that." Mal guessed. Her tone of voice had changed and Amy suspected she knew why. She wasn't sure what to think about it but if she was guessed her twin's thought process right she knew it had to happen. "Show us what happened to the rest of the ranger teams."

Renet nodded. She showed the six Wild Force rangers losing to an Org that Evie wasn't familiar with, making the blue haired girl surmise it was a new Org that had not shown up during the initial attack. "Just what they needed." She mused. Again for some reason this one did not have the minions that Master Org had used.

She showed the six Ninja Storm rangers getting defeated by Zurgane, the number one henchman of Lothor. He was accompanied by the Kelzak Furies. They also saw a purple samurai ranger. "Serena?" Miranda questioned.

"No." Renet corrected. "The Ninja Storm team actually consists of three different types. The wind rangers, the thunder rangers and the samurai rangers. Their purple ranger Clara is…was, from the last category. Carly was kidnapped by one of Zurgane's monsters and brainwashed to help him fight."

Next they saw Tommy and his team mates, which also included a purple ranger. "That's Lindsey." Renet filled in. "She briefly dated Connor before he started to date another girl Krista." On the opposite side of that was a black monster. "That's Zeltrax and his Triptoids along with the Tyrannodrones, used by Mesogog originally."

"He doesn't seem to like Tommy or the yellow ranger." Aziz noted.

"He and Tommy have a history from his time before becoming the black dino ranger." Renet supplied. "In the end he and Kira destroyed him, and I'm pretty sure he didn't forget that. In his time he also targeted both Kat and Kim because of their connection to him."

Next they saw the Mystic Rangers in a fight against what seemed to be a mix of monsters. "That never existed before, whoever decided to make this final stand created that by combining a group of monsters called the Ten Terrors. It called itself the Nightmare Terror." That monster was accompanied by Hidiacs. There was no purple ranger there.

Next they saw the Overdrive rangers, in this case eight of them. "The orange ranger is the mercury ranger Tyzonn's fiancé Vella, powers that were specially created for her once the Armada started to surface." The time mistress filled in. "The purple ranger is…was…" She sighed at the continued mix up. "Stacy. She's a budding anthropologist, specializing in extra-terrestrials, a topic that has become popular since everything started a while ago."

On the opposite side were not one but three monsters. One was a male fire monster, the other a female ice monster. "That is Volcaron, Moltor's older brother and that is Glacia, Flurious's daughter. They put their families' history aside to work with Kamdor to overwhelm the Overdrive rangers." As if to prove the point they saw Lava Lizards and Chillers with them.

Next they say the five Jungle Fury rangers and the three Spirit rangers in a losing fight against a Chinese dragon monster. "That's Dai Shi, who became resurrected by whoever set this up. He's already injured his former host Jarrod the lion warrior and his former general Camille for what he saw as their betrayal the first time." Renet said.

"Lots of that going around." Audrey said. "I hope he wasn't half as bad as Chad has been."

Another one they dreaded came up next; the Samurai rangers. Amy noticed one thing immediately, "Where is Serena?" She asked now. "Was she forced to turn against her friends like Clara was?"

Renet shook her head sadly. "No. The first thing the Nighlok's did was to speed up the sickness that was weakening her, to keep her out of the fight. That was done by the new Nighlok leader Umbral Masquerade, a shape shifter who can use any source of water as it were from the Sanzu river." Along with that monster were lots of Moogers.

They saw the Mega Force rangers overwhelmed by Armada minions. At the head was a vaguely female monster. "That's Lisra, the Empress of what remains of the Armada fleet, out on something else at the time of the attack. I think she might have been the one behind the organization but I don't know that for sure."

They then saw the Dino Charge rangers in a losing fight against Snide and a bunch of his minions.

"This has even gone beyond Earth." Renet said. She shifted views to Mironi where six Galaxy rangers and the Magna Defender were in a losing fight against a monster. "That's Deviot, an old friend of Darkonda's. Like the others I don't know how he came back but he usurped what was left of Scorpius's powers for this."

"And the purple ranger?" Miranda asked.

"The yellow ranger Maya's friend Shondra. The purple quasar saber was embedded in a cave on their world but wasn't discovered until after their world was revived." Renet said.

Next she showed them the RPM rangers. "They are actually on a different time stream, but somehow the revived monster Venjix was in on what happened, probably to stop them from going to the others aid in any way, plus he wants revenge for them defeating him."

"Okay, so all of these monsters banded together to strip the rangers of their powers." Audrey said with a small frown of sadness. "But what does that have to do with the Turtles and the Mutanimals?" They had noticed in all instances rather than destroying the former rangers the villains had chosen to leave them to worry about their next moves, not realizing that Earth was set to be destroyed.

"They cleared the way for the Triceratons." Renet answered. She showed them what looked to be bipedal aliens that looked like Triceratops. "They're aliens that are at war with the Kraang after they destroyed their home world."

"The dinosaurs in the sewers that Raph and Jennifer were talking about." Ally said softly.

"Can't blame them for that." Jordan pointed out.

"No." Renet allowed with a nod. "But part of their agenda in stopping the Kraang is to wipe out anything they want. And that included Earth, where the Kraang have invaded twice before."

"So some monsters with vendettas against the Power Rangers remove their powers so that the Triceratons can destroy Earth virtually unopposed." Evie surmised.

"It's a bit more than that." Renet said. "Watch."

They saw the Turtles, April, Casey, Jennifer, Karai and a Latina girl confronting what looked to be Kraang drone. "Who is that?" Grant asked.

"That's a new friend of theirs that you haven't met. Her name is…was…" She sighed. "Angel and she fights with a suit of alien armor that she dubbed Nightwatcher armor. It's powered by a crystal called the Eye of Sarnath." She then switched views to the Kraang. "He was a one of handful of good Kraang who call themselves Utrom and came to help them stop the resurrection of the Technodrome."

"It almost seemed as if it they might fail, but it became moot when the Triceratons invaded. They destroyed the Technodrome before working to destroy Earth." Renet now told them. "The Armada destroyed the Megaship, as well as someone who was coming to help stop them, a scientist trapped in a robot body named Zayton Honeycutt."

"How did they destroy Earth?" Jane asked.

Renet showed them three ships carrying three large circular pieces. "Those are the pieces to the Heart of Darkness, which is a portable Black Hole Generator. As far as anyone knows, those pieces are indestructible." She answered.

"Uh, missing something here." Jay said.

Mal glanced back and saw the look of horror on the faces of Evie, Doug, Jane and Carlos. "They didn't miss anything." She commented.

"A black hole would destroy the planet with ease. And everything on it." Doug said. "If they activated that successfully it would take out everything. The morphing grid, our friends." He shook his head. "Everything."

"The Turtles went to stop it. They were joined by all of the Mutanimals." Renet said. They saw the giant turtle Slash that Raph talked about fondly, along with Rockwell, who had shown up to help them rebuild the command center. They were accompanied by a giant alligator, a pigeon mutant, two lizard mutants, two fox mutants and a garbage looking mutant. "That's the other members of the Mutanimals; Leatherhead, Pigeon Pete, Mondo Gecko, Alliyah's friend Candy, the white fox is Alopex and the brown fox is Ninjara, and that is Muckman." She filled in since they had not met all of the Mutanimals.

"In the process, well see for yourself." The screen showed Karai in snake form, Jennifer, Casey and the Mutanimals captured in force field bubbles along with all of the Mutanimals. "The leader of the Triceratons Admiral Mozar abducted Mikey." She looked down sadly at that, Amy could see her choking back tears. "Aaliyah and his brothers went after him. Splinter decided to seek help from a very unlikely source with April and Angel."

Mal felt her stomach tighten. She could only think of one thing. "No way." She commented.

"What?" Ben asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Splinter went to ask the Foot Clan for help." Amy realized.

Renet nodded. "Yes." She confirmed. "It seemed as if Shredder agreed to it." She showed the two girls and Splinter returning to the site of the Black Hole generator. They now had the masked bladed leader of the Foot Clan, along with his minions. The tiger mutant Tiger Claw. The fish mutant Xever aka Fishface. The large thin looking wolf monster Chris Bradford aka Rahzar. The mutant warthog Bebop aka Anton Zeck. The mutant rhinoceros Rocksteady aka Ivan Steranko. And some other bizarre mutant.

"Mikey named them all himself, except for Tiger Claw." The time mistress lamented sadly. Despite the best attempts and they saw the return of the five turtles the attack against the Triceratons still failed. Angel and April managed to free Jennifer and Casey. But the Triceratons activated the black hole generator and teleported away.

Even worse though, even though it looked like they may or may not have made a difference in the long run, when it seemed as if they were going to lose Shredder turned around and stabbed Splinter in the back as they were going for the generator. Amy gasped in shock, it was her vision come true. "No." She whispered.

"The rangers weren't there to help repel them. Fugitoid was destroyed by the Armada and wasn't able to come rescue the turtles, April, Casey and Jennifer like he had planned as back up." Renet said softly. The Auradon rangers watched as the five turtles and their friends gathered around Splinter's body. Mikey hugged his father, Jennifer cried as she kissed his cheek. Moments later the black hole that was created started to swallow both friend and foe alike, followed by the city of New York and then the whole planet Earth.

"No question that caused the psychic overload." Aquiella said softly. "And the shortage of the morphing grid."

Mal looked at her friend's tear streaked faces, blurry through the tears in her own eyes. That was mirrored again by Renet. "Mother would be so proud of them." Mal said bitterly. She shook her head. "I am not."

"All of those people. All of our friends." Audrey said softly as she laid her head against Jay's chest as she cried. "Gone."

Jane looked to Renet. "Can't you go back and fix this?" She asked now.

"I could go back." Renet said. "It would be breaking like a million time codes and junk, but I would do it. If it mattered." She looked to them all now. "I can't change anything on my own."

"It's time to go back." Mal said with determination in her voice that Amy recognized all too well. "And we're going with you." She looked to her team mates but saw no arguments in any of their faces, not even from Fairy Godmother who knew they were taking a substantial risk even with the temporary powers that their parents and friends had access too.

"How do we go about this M?" Evie asked her chosen sister.

Mal looked to Ruby. "You just started here. We can't ask you to.." She started.

"No you can't." Ruby agreed. "I'm volunteering. I'm a power ranger just like all of them, like all of you. I won't shrink away from that responsibility."

She looked to her friends. "We go back and stop the Earth from being destroyed by those Triceraton things, and we stop Shredder from being killed by that creep Shredder." Mal told them. "Then we work to help restore the ranger's powers, find out who orchestrated the alliance with the Triceratons and bring that down too."

"We're all with you Mal." Ben said as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "We owe them all so much. This is our chance to pay them back for all they've done for us." He smiled softly. "Besides they're all honorary citizens of Auradon and we don't turn our back on our people."

"Did you see the size of those dinosaur things, those Triceratons?" Audrey now asked Mal and Ben. "Don't get me wrong, I agree we have to help them but please tell me we have some kind of plan."

"Your ranger powers and the neon armor, which should still be functional despite the fluctuations in the morphing grid." Doug replied. "That should give you the strength to match up with those Triceraton things."

"I hope so." Jay commented. "Those things were bigger and stronger than those two giant mutants Slash and Leatherhead."

"I'll contact all of your parents and tell them what's going on." Fairy Godmother said to them. "I'm sure they will want to say goodbye and they will need to come claim the pastel powers again."

"I should go with them." Doug said to her. "They might need some technical assistance during combat and right now I'm the only one who can give that to them."

"Agreed." Fairy Godmother replied as she went over and placed an arm around her daughter's shoulders. "We'll find someone to take up the pastel gray powers if we need them."

It wasn't long before Belle, Adam, Aurora, Phillip, Snow, Rose and Mulan showed up. "Everyone else will be on their way here soon in case we're needed." Adam said as he went over and placed an arm around his son. "But judging by what Fairy Godmother has said you don't have much time to wait."

"You're right dad." Ben replied simply. "I don't know how much time we have."

"Well technically I suppose we have all the time in the world." Renet said with a shrug. "I mean, time mistress and all." She frowned a bit. "Still I suppose the sooner we get going the better off it will be…hopefully."

"I can't say I like the idea of all of you leaving Auradon and jumping into such danger." Aurora admitted as she took Audrey's hands into her own. "But I know it would be wrong to not help your friends out after everything that they've done for us."

Belle placed one arm around Mal's shoulder and the other around Amy's shoulders. She looked to them and then to her son. "Promise that all of you will come back in one piece." She said to them. Amy wrapped her arms around Belle.

"We promise mom." Ben said with a smile. He hoped none of them would end up breaking that promise.

Evie gave Rose and especially Snow an apologetic smile. "Seems like I keep running out on you guys, right?" She questioned only half-jokingly.

"We know you're doing what needs to be done sis." Rose Red promised with a smile and stroked her hair softly. "We're not going anywhere."

"Rose is right." Snow White said with a reassuring smile. She kissed Evie on the cheek gently. "We're family and we'll be here for each other forever, or at least as long as time allows." She then took her hands gently. "But Rose and I do have a going away present for you, you might need it." The blue haired girl felt her oldest sister behind her now as Snow announced, "As of this moment, with the blessings of Ben's parents, you're royal status has been restored to you. You are a true royal of Auradon."

Mal smiled at her chosen sister. "Awesome E." She said happily. The purple haired girl knew that she was all but a royal herself since she was with Ben and being her sister Amy could easily be considered that way herself.

"Normally this kind of thing should have gone through you Ben." Belle said with a small almost apologetic smile at her son. "But we wanted it to be a surprise, plus your father and I both knew where you would stand on that proposal."

"It's fine." Ben said sincerely. "I understand."

"Congratulations Evie." Audrey said to her with a small but genuine smile. She remembered the day that the four had first shown up to the school and she had rudely remarked that neither her mother nor Evie had royal status there. That had been long before she had gotten to know and like the blue haired girl. But the circumstances themselves just didn't warrant that much in terms of celebration.

Mal looked to all of them now. "I just wish we didn't have to leave you guys with such a problem." Mal said with a frown. "If mom were to do some of the things to you that she's done to us, and with your powers being temporary and all, well…I just don't like it."

"We'll be fine Mal, don't worry about that." Adam said to her as he went over to Belle, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Worry about your friends. About our people." They were all honorary citizens of Auradon after all.

Mulan hugged Lonnie even as she reached out to take Will's hand. "Wendy and Cinderella are going to get Whitney and Callie right now. Your mother wanted me to tell you to be careful and that she believes in you. She wants you to come home as soon as you can." She kissed Lonnie on the top of her head. "And that goes double for me."

"We'll be fine mom. Once we repel an invasion and start restoring powers we'll have help setting things right." Lonnie said softly.

"You know that sounds far easier than it really will be." Carlos pointed out nonchalantly. Audrey gave him a sharp look to try to keep him quite even as Jay punched his friend in the shoulder hard.

"Your friends aside, you are all going into an unknown land and unknown territory." Adam now said seriously as he looked to his son, the girl he had chosen despite all of his parent's initial doubts, and all of their friends. "Look after each other and be careful."

Mal hated to admit it but she knew both Lonnie and the former king had a point as she looked at the holo screen Renet had projected from her time scepter. Stopping the Triceratons from destroying Earth with the black hole generator was a small but vastly necessary step. Then they had to chop their way through who knew how many enemies, not to mention find the unknown mastermind behind the thing. They were all quite tall orders. She took a deep breath and kissed Belle on the cheek before walking up to Ben.

She took her boyfriend's hands in her own and the two squeezed reassuringly. She then looked to all of her friends and Renet. "It's time to get to work." She announced firmly. Her team mates and the apprentice time mistress nodded in agreement.


	129. Protection:Earth

"I'll get you guys out in no time." April said as she leaned down toward the pyramid looking devices that held force fields around her friends Casey, Jennifer, Karai and the Mutanimals. She tried to smash it but had no luck.

Angel, decked out as she was in the Nightwatcher armor, had better luck as she freed the lithe blonde from her confinement. A moment later April was able to free Casey. "Thanks April, you rule." He said even as Jennifer hugged Angel.

"Incoming Triceraton." Candy said to the four of them from behind her force field prison.

Rockwell could already feel it. "There's no time." He said to them.

"Just go guys." Slash told the four freed humans.

Casey really didn't want to leave Karai trapped there but the shots fired by the incoming Triceraton soldiers made it so that they had very few options available to them.

Jennifer noticed that Splinter was fighting with the Foot Clan against the Triceratons. Tiger Claw had blasted one of the Triceratons with his ice blaster and then ordered them to run. "You're going to have to tell me how that happened." Jennifer said to her red headed friend.

"Father." Casey heard Karai gasp. It was kind of a mystery to some whom the kunoichi was addressing as Splinter was her biological father but Shredder had raised her. It didn't really matter at that point.

"End those meddlesome freaks already!" Mozar shouted out as the Triceraton admiral raised his blaster and shot at Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Donnie swung his bo staff and tried to hit one of the Triceraton soldiers. He raised one massive arm and blocked it, shattering his staff. "Looks like you need a bigger stick." He said to the purple masked turtle mockingly.

"Like this?" They both heard the question. Then the tip of the dragon's eye staff slammed into the forehead of the Triceraton, right between the horns, and he fell to the ground with a loud crash. Donnie turned in astonishment as he saw Mal standing beside him now.

Evie unleashed a storming mirror force attack from her shield that started to push some of the Triceratons away and give their friends a bit of breathing room. "Princess Evie of Auradon at your service." She said teasingly, which got some laughter from her friends.

"You are going to let that go to your head aren't you?" Lonnie teased her as she kicked another soldier away from the trapped Mutanimals and their human friends.

"Sir, power rangers." One of the Triceraton scientists stated the obvious as he looked from the black hole generator to Mozar and then to the seeming flood of twenty teens that had just shown up from seemingly out of nowhere; in this case Renet's time door had brought them down safely and quietly as if something knew they needed that.

"Impossible." Mozar growled. "We were told there would be no rangers to stand in the way of our attempt to eliminate the Kraang."

"Mikey!" Renet said happily as she hugged the orange masked turtle. He didn't quite understand where the rush of affection was coming from as he didn't know that she had basically seen him and the entire world destroyed, but he wasn't about to argue it either.

"Nice to see you too." Mikey said to her.

Whatever they were told didn't change the results as Audrey drew her elemental bow and unleashed several electrical arrows straight into the tips of some Triceraton lasers. They imploded moments later. Before they could react further Jay, Aziz, and Will kicked them in the chest hard, making them stumble back. "They sure are solidly built." Aziz said.

"Let's get some more help on the scene." Ally said as she took out her crystal cards and tossed them at the pyramid objects, shattering them and dissolving the force fields. The Mutanimals hit the ground with a cry of joy.

"Let's hit it guys." Slash said as he picked up his giant mace and clocked one of the Triceraton soldiers with it as he started toward them.

"Right with ya boss." Mondo Gecko said as he dove for his skateboard.

"I must say you have nice timing." Rockwell noted to Jane. "But we're still running out of time. The black hole generator is only moments away from being activated."

Jane held back a small gasp. They had seen from Renet what would happen if the Triceratons successfully activated the weapon. And this time they would die right along with the planet. "We have to stop that thing then."

"What we need is more time." The brown fox mutant Ninjara stated as she dodged out of the way of a Triceraton and then kicked it as hard as she could in the face. It didn't seem to have much effect and Ben was sure only their powers were giving them the added power they needed to do the damage they were doing.

"You're time has run out." Mozar barked. "Rangers or no rangers you can't stop the clock now."

"Don't count us out yet." Aaliyah warned him as she dodged a laser blast from a Triceraton soldier that was tripped up by Venus and Ally moments later. "Our friends have given us more time and together we're going to save the Earth."

"Stop the clock." Jordan said and though no one could see it she had rolled her eyes. "Why didn't any of us brilliant magic users think about that?" She looked to the ones closest to her, in this case Grant, Leatherhead and Ellie. "Cover me, I know how to help us out here." The three nodded and the gold ranger genie girl raised her lamp cannon.

Splinter still wasn't sure if that would accomplish the desired results. He used powder to blind a Triceraton before knocking it out. His arm hit the ninja master on his way down but he quickly recovered and then called out, "Hurry Saki, we have no time." He then started toward the black hole generator.

Jennifer glanced back at the dimming counter. She made out Splinter as he got up and Shredder turning as well. The blonde then had a very horrible feeling in her stomach as if she had the flu or food poisoning, but this had nothing to do with a virus. "No, wait." She started.

Splinter ran toward the black hole machine with Shredder behind him. Deciding he wanted to see Splinter die first he thrust his left arm out and extended the blade. Then there was a flash of pink and he felt a grip on his arm. Then he watched as the blade thrust right through Splinter but not pierce him as he had intended.

That was enough to draw his attention as he turned to see what had happened; Amy had gotten a hold of Shredder's wrist and turned herself and him intangible. The moment passed and with a curse of, "You little brat." The leader of the Foot clan pulled away from the rose ranger and slashed her back. It was strong enough that if Amy had not been transformed it would most likely have killed her.

But the moment was lost. "Saki." Splinter growled and then started to fight his arch nemesis.

Mal's eyes flashed green in anger as she saw the attack but could do nothing about it as she took out one Triceraton soldier with a kick to the chest, backed with the strength of the neon armor, and was immediately beset upon by two more. Then she realized it just didn't matter; her sister was already starting to stand and Splinter would make Shredder pay for it, something she knew she couldn't do without using magic and maybe not even then.

A Triceraton was about to step on Amy when Angel slammed into the soldier hard and sent him sprawling backwards. The armored warrior then looked to her. "Great job, I think you saved his life." She remarked. She held her hand out to the rose ranger.

"I did." Amy replied as she accepted the help up. "Thank you for saving me."

Angel had never met the Auradon rangers as she had not been part of the team at that point but she had heard about them all, except for the newest ranger because Ruby had not had powers the last time the turtle team had been in Auradon. "That's what family is for." She said.

Jordan unleashed a blast from her lamp cannon, but instead of destroying something as was the norm she instead had combined her own magic to hit the black hole generator and enveloped it in a time freezing spell. " I don't know how long we have here." She told them all.

Leo called out, "Donnie, Rockwell, Jane, Carlos, Evie. We need to stop that thing." It was only natural that the smartest ones had to try to figure out the solution. "The rest of us will find a way to keep the Triceratons busy."

"I don't think we need should forget about the peanut gallery." Raphael pointed out as he was about ready to go sai to knife with his longtime adversary Fishface.

The large lizard mutant looked to Jennifer with a horrid leer that reminded Audrey of the looks she had gotten from Chad as of late. "I think it's time that we get reacquainted." Hector said lustily as he started toward her.

Then he was kicked back by Miranda. "I think she'd rather avoid that particular reunion." She replied as she twirled her grizzly blades in her hand.

"Careful he can change shape." Jennifer said to the Highlands ranger.

Even as she had said that he had formed a scorpion tail and tried to stab Miranda in the chest with it, but she rolled to the side and slashed the tail with her blades, making him growl in pain and recoil as he turned to face her.

Splinter dodged an attack from Shredder and jabbed his adversary in the chest hard several times, followed by a kick to his face that knocked off his helmet the Kuro Kabuto and sent it flying. With a growl he swiped at Splinter who did a matrix style dodge before taking his arm and flipping him over onto the ground. As Shredder went to rise the rat master struck him on the side of the neck and knocked him out.

Tiger Claw was there immediately. Splinter got ready to fight even as he felt Melody and Aquiella step up on either side of him.

"What do we do guys?" Carlos asked. He didn't know Triceraton tech or whatever this was at all.

"I don't know." Donnie said. "We were kind of going with damaging it until it shut down."

Evie came over with Doug and the two took a look at it now. "I don't think anything we have can destroy it." Doug revealed automatically. "It would require something like a combination of dark matter and fusion energy."

"Where do we get that?" Carlos asked.

"We don't I'm afraid." Rockwell answered simply. He didn't want to get into the fact that technically dark matter was only widely theoretical. There was no concrete proof that it actually existed.

"Wait a second." Evie said as she remembered some of the conversations she had had with Andros and TJ. "I remember something about a dark matter nebula outside of the milky way that was just discovered, at least according to TJ."

"Grand, but how does that help us?" Donnie wondered.

"Incoming." They heard Jay shout out and even as they turned to see a Triceraton soldier approaching Lonnie and Will intercepted, the green ranger chopping the blaster in half and then the two rangers double kicked the soldier in the chest hard.

"It won't destroy the pieces." Evie said after her glance confirmed they were still safe. "But it should damage it enough to stop this for now. If we separate the pieces before we send them then it'll make it even harder to reassemble and use."

"Between myself, Jennifer and April we might be able to psychically disassemble the black hole generator, but how will we get it to this 'dark matter nebula'?" Rockwell asked now. To him the idea still seemed like a fantasy but right now if it would save Earth that was what mattered.

"Magic." Jane now replied simply. "At least as long as this thing isn't magic proof."

"Well if we want to try this we better hurry." Carlos said now. "I just saw the timer blink down again. We're losing the spell."

Rockwell closed his eyes and for a moment Jane was tempted to ask why but then noticed April and Jennifer turn to them now and realized he was calling them over telepathically.

Miranda noticed it too out of the corner of her eye as she dodged a nasty claw swipe from Hector. "Go on, I've got him." She told the lovely blonde. So far the shape shifting mutant hadn't managed to lay a hand on the Highlands ranger.

A Triceraton stepped in April's way and raised his blaster. As she got ready to try to dodge Ruby whipped out her hair and slapped the blaster hard, knocking it to the ground and shattering it. As he turned toward the newest ranger she pulled back and then around so her hair whip slammed against him hard, which she followed up on with a kick to the chest for the takedown.

"Thanks um, whoever you are." April said though she thought she might know who the newest Auradon ranger was after all.

"Anytime." Ruby said and then clarified, "And yes it is me; Ruby. New addition, we'll explain later. Now go see what our resident geniuses have cooked up while we still have time."

April nodded and joined Jennifer, Donnie, Rockwell, Doug and the three rangers. "Focus girls." Rockwell said to them. "We need to separate the three pieces of this weapon." The two nodded and they all focused on the generator.

"You might need a bit more magical assistance." Jordan said as she came up to Evie and Carlos's side. "Do you want me to grab Mal and Amy too?"

Evie glanced back. Mal was on a roll, taking out each and every Triceraton she was going up against. The blue haired girl suspected that her chosen sister was determined to make sure Earth and their friends wouldn't be lost, especially after all they had done for Auradon. Amy meanwhile was working with Ally to stop them as well. "No, we can do this on our own." She decided.

Carlos snickered. "We? I'm not magical, you don't practice yours. How do we do this without Mal and Amy?" He questioned.

"We can channel Evie's inherent magic into our magic." Jordan answered for the blue ranger. She frowned. "But yeah, we might need some back up. Let's get Amy and Melody to help us out then."

Mozar noticed what they were doing and bellowed out, "Stop them, they must not disassemble the black hole generator."

Mal glanced back. "Everyone fall back to the generator." She heard Leo call out before she could make the same call herself. "We have to protect them at all costs." She looked to Amy now. "Help them out." She saw that Tiger Claw approached Splinter and the mermaid girls.

Aquiella got her boomerangs ready as Melody pointed the trident at the mutant tiger assassin. But all he did was pick up the helmet and Shredder's unconscious form. "If this day is won, do not think that you have heard the last of the Foot clan." He warned Splinter. "Foot vanish." Rahzar, Fishface, Bebop and Rocksteady had no problems with the order.

Hector glared angrily at Miranda but when Angel also stepped up to help he fell back as well. Then Angel looked to Miranda. "Let's help our team out." She declared. Miranda nodded and the two headed toward the black hole generator.

Splinter looked toward the mermaid girls. "I appreciate the assistance." He said sincerely and then looked to Melody. "I believe the others need you." She nodded and went over while the other two moved to defend them.

Karai landed in front of a Triceraton and kicked him as hard as she could, but his immense size only made him look at the small kunoichi oddly. "Oh for…" She started with an eye roll. "Fine then." With that she shifted into her mutant snake form and hissed at him. She lashed out her snake arms and slapped him in the shoulders.

"I think it requires a bit more than that." Mal said to her friend as she kicked him in the chest hard and laughed a little. "Though that's a wicked look for you Karai."

"I'm glad that you guys showed up when you did." Karai said, with only a slight hiss to her voice because of her current form. "Sadly you're right, this is more than we anticipated." The kunoichi turned to another of the approaching Triceratons. "I hope whatever your chosen sister and the others have planned they get it done quickly."

Mozar couldn't help but let anger overcome as he saw their perfectly crafted plan to stop the Kraang from taking this world as their own falling apart in front of him. He had been promised that there would be no power rangers to stop their plan and he hadn't known about the mutants. "I will make you all pay!" He roared and swiped a massive arm at Raph and Lonnie.

"Wow." Lonnie gasped even as she and Raph ducked out of the way. "Talk about a short fuse."

Raph delivered a kick to Mozar, though his size made the impact very minimal. Will was the one who followed up with a leg sweep and then a shoulder ram as the Triceraton admiral fell. "Whatever the plan is, we need to make it happen pretty much now." Will said as they were all working to keep the Triceratons at bay, but that also meant they were very much on the verge of being surrounded.

"Its…almost…done." Rockwell promised them. Both monkey mutant and teenage girls were sweating with exhaustion but they were forcing the pieces apart. The loud clang as the black hole generator fell into three pieces was very audible despite the battle.

"Looks like endgame for you pointy." Mal gloated a bit coldly to the recovering Triceraton as she twirled her staff and started to approach him.

"The heart of darkness." Mozar growled. "Retrieve the pieces!" He ordered.

"Get going on the second part you guys." Carlos called out even as he used his earthquake claw daggers to shake up a few Triceratons coming toward them. It wasn't quite as effective as it would have been on creatures half their sizes.

"Let's see if this slows them down any." Ellie said and raised her arms, her hands still grasping her ice chakrams, and unleashed a huge wall of ice in front of several Triceratons. It seemed to hold them at bay for a moment until they could make out a mix of blaster firing and large fist pounding against the ice, and it was starting to splinter. "Not by much." The Arendelle princess lamented.

"We want to send these things to the dark matter nebula that TJ was talking about the last time they were in Auradon." Evie said to Amy. "And hope inertia does the rest, at least for the moment." Amy nodded in understanding.

Amy took Melody's free hand, the other being used to hold the trident. Her other hand reached out to clasp Jane's hand. Jane had her other hand held by Jordan. The rose ranger hoped that she could make a spell as effective as her sister's.

A couple Triceratons started toward the young rose ranger and the genie gold ranger. Grant and Alex moved in. The gray ranger chopped the blaster in half with his axe and then delivered two back to back roundhouse kicks against his opponent. Alex meanwhile all but melted half of the blaster and then brought his fists as hard as he could into the soldier's chest, which at least caused him to fall back a little.

"These pieces three; destroyers of the Earth be; take them to the embrace, of the dark nebula's grace." Amy recited as loudly as she could, which was a bit of a challenge since she was soft spoken more often than not. She began to repeat that spell.

Just to cut it off any comment Audrey snapped at Carlos, "Not one word." Even as she used her elemental bow to barely block an incoming fist from a Triceraton. She was surprised, albeit a pleasant one, that her weapon held up to the impact.

"I wasn't going to say anything." Carlos protested halfheartedly though in truth it was on his tongue to again mock the structure of the spell, something he in theory should have known better than to do but it never seemed end.

"Yeah I bet." Raph remarked as he jumped over a Triceraton and kicked him in the head as hard as he could, which wasn't nearly as much as the red masked turtle was used too. Little did he know he had simply beaten Jay to that exact same remark.

Whatever Carlos or anyone could say about the words of the spell, it seemed to do at least the first part of the job as the three pieces of the black hole generator/heart of darkness had small portals appear behind them and then were sucked into them, where the portals closed moments later. It was anyone's guess where they went.

"It's over Mozar." Leo said to the admiral of the Triceraton Empire as he pointed his katana at him. "The black hole generator is gone and you've lost."

"We will find those pieces." Mozar vowed. "After we destroy you and all of your little friends."

"You think we're the only ones?" Mal now said as she stepped up next to the leader of the Turtles. "Whatever plan you had cooked up with…with whoever to stop the power rangers from helping has failed and the others are on their way to help us take you down."

"Um, Mal…" Ally started uncertainly. The only other ones who could potentially help were their parents. If Mozar called their bluff they might be in a bit of a jam.

Mozar seemed uncertain for a moment and Audrey was afraid that the Triceratons might just call the purple haired girl on her bluff. But it seemed as if it would not happen. "This is not over. We will return and we will be victorious. For the Empire!" With that the Triceratons teleported off the planet. Had they been able to do so they would have seen the departure of the Triceraton fleet from Earth's atmosphere and back into the stars.

"Father!" Leo said as he came to Splinter. "Are you alright? I saw what…the Shredder almost…"

"I am fine my sons." Splinter said his other three children approached him. "And my daughter." That was still kind of new to him as he spent a long time thinking she had died with her mother Tang Shen in that fire so long ago. He placed his hand gently on Karai's shoulder. Then he looked to Amy. "Thanks to you young one."

"And thank you for handing that razor armored creep a beat down after struck down my sister." Mal said to Splinter. If not for the Triceraton threat Audrey was sure that either the purple haired girl or Alex would have made Shredder pay for attacking Amy.

"Yeah." Karai said as she looked to Amy. "It's…not easy for me to say it but…you saved my father's life." The kunoichi mused how odd it was to realize her biological father had almost been killed by the man she had spent well over a decade thinking of as her father. "So, thank you Amy."

Mal placed her arm around Amy in a hug. "That was so brave of you sis. Pretty sure you saved his life there." She said affectionately. All of this attention was making Amy blush almost as deeply as her ranger suit color though no one could see that.

Aaliyah gasped. "Sis…oh my gosh Adelita is probably waiting for us in the lair." She said with alarm. "We have to make sure she knows everything is okay."

"You're right." Leo agreed simply. He looked to the Auradon rangers. "Let us show you are home, and then we can discuss why you guys are here." He shook his head. "I mean not that we're not grateful, it's just…"

"You figured we wouldn't be the ranger team to be here." Ben said diplomatically. They all got it, they all understood. The young king sighed just a bit. "You're right, we have much to discuss."

None of the Auradon team were all that thrilled to discover the turtles lived in the sewers and were not too reassured to hear from April, Casey and Jennifer that they would get used to the smell and such. Still despite it not being up to Auradon standards it was hard for the team not to be impressed by the lair itself.

"Aaliyah!" A brunette girl gasped as she got from the couch and ran over to give her white masked sister a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay. I had this horrible feeling that the world was going to be destroyed, that I'd never see you again."

Aaliyah hugged her back. "We won, thanks to our friends." She motioned toward the Auradon Rangers, who had not powered down but had removed their helmets upon entering the lair. Angel had removed her helmet as well and Adelita smiled at her softly.

"Their relationship was strained for a lot of years." Jennifer told them all softly. "But Adelita recently came to New York to find her and tell her that their parents were….were murdered. They're all they have left, as far as blood family goes."

"We do kind of know the feeling." Mal said with a small frown as she stroked Amy's hair. In many ways with Maleficent having disowned the two of them and no clue who their father was, the two twins were the only blood family they had. As much as they loved all of their chosen siblings and even in some cases their parents as well, it wasn't the same thing.

Amy even thought it kind of ironic that she and Mal could easily sympathize with the thoughts and feelings that Karai must have had though hit pretty well when it came to Shredder and Splinter. She was almost sure the kunoichi would never talk about it though.

"So what are all of you doing here?" Slash asked as he placed his large black mace down on the turnstile entrance in front of the lair. "I mean Leonardo is right I would have thought it would have been someone of the others, like the Zeo or Space rangers."

"Wait, what did that Triceraton guy mean when he said that there were supposed to be no power rangers?" The white foxed mutant Alopex questioned now. "What deal?"

"We don't know what kind of deal they were talking about either." Ben told them all. "But as for the other rangers well…" Ben bit his lip and Mal gently patted Amy's shoulder before going over to take her boyfriend's hand. "Well, coming here to help with the Triceratons was only a part of it."

"Are the others okay?" Donnie asked as he and April sat on the couch. The red head curled her legs under her and leaned her head against the purple masked turtle.

"No, no they're not." Jordan replied simply. "We have a lot to share with you and I don't know how much time we have to work now that," The genie girl cut herself off, realizing that they did not know the world would have been destroyed. So instead she placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder and then said, "So sit back and relax while we fill in all the blanks."


	130. Fight For the Ship

Learning how Ruby had become a ranger, albeit a slightly disturbing event was the only good thing the Turtle team and the Mutanimals learned about. The rest was very upsetting. "Dude, that is so messed up." Mikey summed up, rather succinctly in Mal's opinion.

"So someone made sure that none of our friends could come to our aid during the invasion." April mused softly. "I wonder if they knew that the Triceratons were hoping to destroy the Earth."

"It is likely." Splinter said to them all as he paced the living room. He would have liked nothing more than to retire to the privacy of his room and meditate on what they had learned but he agreed with Jordan when she had said they may not have much time to start changing things. "In the past the enemy has always wanted to either take over Earth or destroy all life on the planet as it currently stands."

"Yeah but who could possibly organize all of these villains for this kind of task?" Leo wondered as he paced himself with Aaliyah watching him from her position on the couch beside her sister Adelita. "No one since Dark Specter has been able to get that kind of alliance going."

"So what's the plan?" Slash asked now.

"Uh, in truth we don't really have one." Mal admitted, feeling a little embarrassed about that since she was the leader of the Auradon Rangers. In truth she had been determined to come and change things but she was slowly starting to realize that the task was far more overwhelming than she had first thought.

"M, I think our first step should be to acquire a quick way to get around." Evie said to her. "The ranger teams aren't localized to one kingdom after all."

"City." Alopex corrected them all. When they looked at her the white arctic fox mutant elaborated, "Here on Earth there are no kingdoms. They're called cities. In fact most are so far apart that they're separated by counties or even states."

"Um, yeah." Jay said uncertainly. "Great, good to know." In truth he was only half listening as he was also playing with the Space Heroes pinball machine that they had in their lair.

"Some are even separated by different worlds and even times." Amy added. "Really only proves what Evie is saying Mal. We need to figure out a way to get around quicker."

"Any bright ideas?" Ellie asked the group at large.

Raph looked to Donnie. "Any bright ideas there genius? Something better than a blimp in a water tower hopefully?" He questioned. That drew some looks of confusion from the visiting ranger team.

Then Audrey snapped her fingers as an idea occurred to her. "The megaship went down during the attack. We have to find it and repair it. That technology could help us get around and help the others." She declared.

"How do we track the Megaship though?" Ruby questioned.

"Oh, that's fairly easy enough to do." Donnie answered as he stood up and headed into his lab. He emerged a moment later with his lab top and sat down beside April to set to work. "See when Karone, known then as Astronema, used mind control to try to fight the rangers, we took over the Megaship. I learned a lot about the ship in order to do that. Since then of course the ship has been upgraded and stuff but I've received updated schematics just in case."

"Isn't the same ship that was destroyed by Trakeena at Mirinoi?" Angel asked a little dubiously. Since returning to the lair she had powered down the Nightwatcher armor. Jane, Doug, Evie and Carlos had been delighted to see her armor retract into a watch and the Latina girl had reluctantly allowed them to examine it and cross reference with Donnie's own research to learn about it. Now she was dressed in a purple tank top and blue jeans.

"That was the very first Megaship." Audrey corrected her. "It was rebuilt not long before some of the red rangers went after the remnants of the Machine Empire at that time to stop them from rebuilding that zord of Zedd's, Serpenterra." She had heard the story from Jason, Tommy and Andros not long after they had helped them escape the isle.

"And retrofitted again as Andros realized how much the rangers were going to need it in order to continue doing good outside of Earth, to accommodate more people." Donnie followed up on.

"Maybe next time they do an upgrade on the ship we could see it." Doug mused.

"Maybe we could even help them out." Jane added with some excitement.

"That would be cool." Carlos agreed even as Evie added, "It would make sense, we'd know so much after helping to repair the ship this time."

Neither Audrey nor Mal could help the smirk on that passed their lips as they saw their friend's geek out about this. It was one of the similarities that Ben noticed his best friend and ex shared with his girlfriend but he knew better than to point that out.

"Anyway, I think I can track it down." Donnie said to them. "Then we can set to repairing it and helping the others before something disastrous happens."

"When Donnie finds it, I'll take whoever wants to go to it there." Renet volunteered. She actually knew where it was, being apprentice time mistress and all, but she knew they had to do some things on their own.

"I just hope that our friends can hold on." Amy said with a small frown. "All of those monsters now know that the Earth is going to continue on, and they will want to get their revenge on their own."

"And we'll make sure they won't." Mal promised. "We saved the Earth; we can certainly save our friends, as many of them have done for us time and again."

"Man it's still kind of weird to think all of your parents are power rangers, or at least temporary ones." Casey said with a small shake of his head. "I mean I can't imagine my dad being a power ranger." He looked to April. "How about your dad red?"

April laughed a little as she shook her head. "Not at all." She answered simply. "He still has trouble dealing with some of the stuff here." After he had been rescued from the Kraang he had tried to keep April in constant sight, at least until his accidental mutation. He had briefly passed out during the second Kraang invasion in which he and many other citizens had been mutated briefly and used as slave labor in their home dimension, Dimension X. Undoubtfully the Triceraton attack had not helped matters, but aside from calling to reassure him she was fine after they had returned to the lair she had not done anything more, right now the power rangers needed them all, including her.

"And for it's worth I couldn't see our parents doing that either." Adelita added.

Karai laughed a little. "At least I know my dad could easily be ranger if he wanted." She gloated and Mikey laughed in agreement.

"My dad would rather destroy the power rangers than be one." Jennifer added softly. Raph reached over and stroked her hair softly. She looked to the five isle kids then. "But I guess you guys understand that pretty well."

Jay snorted despite the fact he was still playing the pinball game. "You can say that again. Heck, my dad would probably still be okay with turtle soup, no offense guys." He said. He now had Carlos leaning over his shoulder watching who kind of just nodded in half agreement.

"No question on this end." Mal said as she wrapped her arms around her sister's shoulders. The purple haired girl in turn had Ben place his hands on her back softly. "Mom basically disowned me for choosing good, and she would have disowned Amy if she hadn't already basically done so long ago." Both twins exchanged another knowing glance with Jennifer.

"And my mom would most definitely not be doing it either." Evie agreed. "The truth is neither the boys nor I have had the chance to find out what our parents think like M and Amy has. But we can certainly guess based on how Maleficent reacted."

"Your own birth parents may not be proud of what you have become, but I have no doubt that those that truly care for you could not be prouder." Venus said to them.

Amy laughed. "You're right about that. And sometimes that means more than parental approval." She replied as she thought about Belle. Both sisters had never really said it out loud but they both knew they preferred to win Belle's approval over Maleficent's any day. She knew in an odd way Jay felt the same way when it came to Aladdin and Jasmine over his own father Jafar.

Evie did not have that necessarily but the thought was similar when it came to her step sisters, especially Snow White. She had to repress a frown as she had to remember again that Carlos did not have that aspire to.

"Got it guys." Donnie announced. "The Megaship crash landed in the Rocky Mountains."

"That would be in Colorado." Jennifer filled in for the Auradon rangers, who were not familiar with the sights of Earth.

"Isn't that the place where they filmed that creepy movie in the hotel with those ghosts and stuff? Where the dad went psycho on his family?" Angel questioned with a bit of a shiver.

"You mean The Shining, that was filmed in Estes Park." Adelita answered her. "Not the same place."

"Come again?" Mal asked with some doubt. "What movie was shining again?"

"No, the movie is called The Shining." Aaliyah said. "If we get the chance we'll have to all watch the movie together."

"Yeah, movie." Renet echoed somewhat oddly and then shook her head. "Okay, so who am I taking with me to the Megaship?"

"April and I have to go for sure." Donnie said. "To help get the ship online. Once that's done we can start effecting repairs and helping the rangers out."

"I've never been on the Megaship before." April pointed out. "How can I help?"

"I know you can do it April." Donnie said to his girlfriend. "And I'll be able to help you along the way."

"Ben, Evie, Jane, Audrey, Will, Lonnie, Carlos and Jay with us." Mal said. She looked to Amy. "The rest of you stay here in case something happens while we're doing this." She hated to say it out loud but she also wanted Amy to take bit of break after Shredder's attack, which was only not fatal because of her ranger powers.

Amy couldn't help the slight flare of annoyance, being fully familiar with Mal's protective tendencies with her. Then Melody came up to her friend's side and said, "Good idea Mal. We need to be ready if the bad guys move faster than we anticipated." The rose haired girl let it drop, admitting that was a good point though. Most ranger teams didn't have the numbers the Auradon team did.

Renet stepped forward and twirled her time scepter. "Okay then, let's get going." She declared and then turned somewhat unexpectedly to kiss Mikey on the cheek. "I'll be back soon." She told her rapidly blushing love interest. With that she opened a time door and the chosen team members reattached their helmets, along with Donnie and April, stepped through the glowing white door she had opened.

It was a stark contrast to go from the bright light of the time door to the practical darkness of the interior of the ship. "The ship must be running on back up batteries or something." Carlos guessed.

"Auxiliary power." Donnie supplied. "It's good for about twenty four hours, though it might be longer in this case since this is one of those few instances where maintaining life support isn't a consideration."

"Let's find the bridge already and get the ship going." Audrey said.

"Hang on Audrey." Evie said. "I'd bet anything that we're going to have to go restore the power somewhere else first, and not on the bridge."

"She's right." Donnie said. "We're going to have to head toward the engineering section to restore main power before we can go to the bridge and get the ship running again."

"Lead the way Donnie." Mal said to him. The purple masked turtle nodded and started on the way to the engineering section with April and the rangers behind him. Even the technology disinclined rangers couldn't help but be impressed at how the ship looked.

"Where are the doorknobs?" Lonnie wondered as they walked by a door that was basically smooth. She wondered if that had to do with the lack of main power.

"They're activated by sensors around the door frame, which are in turn linked into the main computers systems." Donnie answered as they turned a corner of the ship. "The main computer itself is called DECA."

"Wouldn't DECA have been destroyed when the ship was lost at Mirinoi?" Jane asked curiously.

"Every month Andros, and later the green galaxy ranger Damon, would make a backup of DECA's main systems. Andros still does that today." Donnie explained now. "Alpha had to catch her up on events between the destruction of the original megaship and the reconstruction of the mark two version."

April had a bad feeling pass through her mind and she glanced around. "Guys, we're not alone here." She revealed. "Something else is here, and I don't mean any of the rangers."

"Could it be Alpha?" Donnie asked her.

"I don't think so." April answered. "Unless he's become evil."

A compartment overhead burst open and with a mechanical squeal of sorts a Quantron emerged slammed down hard on April and Lonnie. It swung at Donnie and he back flipped out of the way.

"Quantron." Carlos stated somewhat needlessly.

The Quantron held in its hand its bladed weapon, which actually looked very similar to Will's recursive sword. The green ranger moved in and slashed at the robotic minion, who raised its own weapon to block the attack.

Mal moved in with her dragon's eye staff and jabbed it as hard as she could in the chest, which was enough to disable it. "Everyone okay?" Mal asked.

"I'm okay." April said even as Donnie was helping her up.

"Me too." Lonnie said as Evie helped her up.

"Think that was the only here?" Audrey wondered dubiously.

"Highly doubtful." Jane answered anyway. "We better pick up the pace."

They approached the engineering section. The door was closed as well. "Probably an automatic lockdown procedure." Donnie speculated.

"Open up the door Donnie." Mal said. "Audrey, Evie, Jane. Head in cautiously and we'll be right behind you." The three nodded in agreement. The red ranger prepped an arrow, the blue ranger got ready with a mirror force blast and Jane prepared to release a magical burst from her wand.

As soon as the door opened the three rangers stepped in. A moment later the rest of the team followed. A Quantron appeared from the other side of the room and Audrey shot it down. Another emerged from the side which Lonnie took out one of her hurricane tessens.

Donnie moved to one of the consoles and immediately began working on it. Carlos was kind of amazed that the purple masked turtle could work as quickly and efficiently as he did with three larger than normal fingers. "We're going to have to replace some of these circuits if we want to keep main power." He announced. "But just another connection or two and…" The main power reactivated. "Here we are."

"Uh guys, we have a problem." April said. They saw one of the screens which linked to auxiliary sensors had a monster on it that was approaching the megaship. It almost seemed to be some kind of mechanical humanoid thing. It had some kind of gold wings on its back.

"Shoot." Jay muttered. "It's always something." He looked to Mal. "We can't all go. What if there are other Quantrons on the ship or something worse?"

"But it might take all of us to beat that thing." Will reminded him.

"No problem." Donnie said. "You guys go deal with that monster. I'll contact Renet and have her send some of the others here to help us get to the bridge and get the ship online."

"Then let's take the expressway to that monster." Jane said. "I think I can replicate Renet's trick, at least to a degree." She waved the magic wand and was able to open up a doorway similar to what the apprentice time mistress had conjured up to bring them to Earth and the megaship. "Right this way."

"Your magical powers are getting better." Carlos said as encouragingly as possible as he touched her arm gently.

"Thanks." Jane said, glad that her helmet didn't show her blush at the compliment or the touch.

The Auradon rangers stepped through and found themselves only a few feet away from the monster, who seemed to be slightly surprised to see them but he recovered quickly. "Well, well. It seems the ship isn't nearly as abandoned as I had thought." He remarked.

"It's not." Jay said. "So go away."

"What he means," Ben interrupted somewhat sternly. "Is that this ship belongs to our friends and we're here to get it for them. It would best to just turn around now." Mal was amazed how that tone turned diplomatic and wondered how long he had to work to make that happen.

"Then we have a problem." The monster said. "I was ordered to bring this ship back and I won't disobey that order."

"You have no idea who you're dealing with." Audrey warned him. It wasn't really a diplomatic response but it was pretty clear that proverbial ship had basically sailed away.

"I am Shinato and I don't care who you think you are, you're in my way." With that the metal gold winged monster unleashed a flurry of energy from those wings and blasted the rangers hard.

The team flinched and fell back just a little, which is what Shinato had expected. He moved in and slammed his fist down hard on the Auradon Knight before turning one hundred eighty degrees and slashing everyone except Evie and Audrey to the ground.

Audrey aimed her elemental bow and released an electric arrow. The mechanical monster caught it in between his hands, the electrical energy having no effect on him. He tossed it to the ground. Having seen that Evie raised her mirror force shield and unleashed her quaking mirror force attack, but the monster simply jumped up and unleashed energy to strike at the two of them.

Jay, Will and Lonnie recovered quickly and the two boys clasped their arms together. The pink ranger jumped up onto their arms and they tossed her up towards Shinato. Lonnie extended both of her hurricane tessens and hooked them into Shinato's wings. "Let's see if we can't bring you back down to Earth." She commented.

"I agree wholeheartedly." Shinato replied. He gave a small twirl in the air and then dive-bombed toward the ground.

"Lonnie, get out of there." Will called out to his girlfriend. It looked like the Asian princess was about ready to do just that, but the winged mechanical monster grabbed a hold of her wrists as they descended and slammed her down into the ground hard.

"Hey hang on a sec." Jay started as he saw Will moving in to attack the monster in a noble but somewhat doomed attempt to stand up for his girlfriend.

His caution fell on deaf ears as he moved in and tried to bring his recursive sword down on Shinato, but the mechanical monster brought his arms up and blocked the attack in his hands just as he had caught Audrey's arrow. He then brushed the sword aside and slashed Will across the chest to send him flying back.

Carlos and Mal were up now and moved in to try to attack him now. Shinato flapped his wings and sent Lonnie's weapons right at the yellow ranger and knocked him down. He then turned and caught Mal's dragon's eye staff as the purple haired purple ranger swung at him. He looked ready to crush the jewel in the center when Ben moved in and slammed his shield into the mechanical monsters arm, forcing him to break his hold on the staff.

"Thanks, don't want to have to replace that again." Mal said to her boyfriend, and especially since to restore it her twin sister Amy had basically taken an unintentional dive into the volcano around the mountains of Auradon.

"Anytime sweetie." Ben replied and then moved in with the Praeleanthor sword. Ben slashed and Shinato grabbed the blade like he had Will's recursive sword and Audrey's arrow. But the sword was something none of the other weapons were; semi-sentient. As if the artifact of the ancient Martian civilization knew what was going to happen, a small circular blade extended from the hilt just over Ben's hand before shooting out and ramming right into him.

"Wicked." Jay said with a laugh.

"I think it's time to end this Mal." Jane said to their leader. "Ben and I will keep Shinato distracted while you guys form the Auradon blaster."

Mal nodded. "Good idea." She said to the white ranger as she saw Evie and Audrey checking on Will and Lonnie even as Jay was helping Carlos up. She ran into the center of her six friends and said, "Let's make it so guys."

Shinato unleashed a barrage of energy from the 'feather's' of his wings, this time all of it aimed squarely at Ben, but the young king raised his shield to protect himself from the assault. Jane used her wings to soar above the explosion and kicked him in the chest, making him stumble back just a little.

Mal brought up her dragon's eye staff, and underneath that Audrey placed her elemental bow. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind it and the compacts expanded outward. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle with Lonnie's hurricane tessen's and Carlos's earthquake claw daggers on either side. Will placed his recursive sword underneath the full blaster.

"Somehow it seems to be lacking something without Amy's rose lance in the formation." Evie noted simply.

Jane rolled to the right as Ben rolled to the left. The seven rangers unleashed the power of their Auradon blaster on Shinato, who raised his hands and caught the beam. "No way." Carlos gasped.

Mal only narrowed her gaze at the mechanical monster. "Keep firing." She instructed. "Our power can overcome his defenses."

Aziz, Ally, Raph, Jennifer and Grant had joined Donnie and April and together they left engineering. They thought crossing the mess hall would be a good short cut only to find the place full of Quantrons.

"They probably reasoned that anyone hiding on the ship would have to come here eventually." Jennifer reflected softly. "All of the rangers have to eat after all." She looked to Donnie. "Right?"

"Pretty much." Donnie confirmed. The Overdrive red ranger had been a robot most of his life, and there were oddities like Roboknight and Sentinel Knight but the purple masked turtle didn't think now was really a good time to go into that one.

April raised her tessens. "I guess we have no choice but to fight our way through this." She said. "Even if we find an alternate route they will have to be dealt with eventually."

"Don't worry about that one." Ally said as she withdrew all of her crystal cards. She was fairly certain she could use them all to take out the Quantrons, like sharp vicious little fireflies. She extended them all in her hand which almost made them look like a tessen as well before throwing them all out.

The crystal cards shot out and at the daughter of Alice's thoughts split out and about to cut down the Quantrons in a flurry of blurs. All of the cards returned to her after the mess hall cleared.

"I know Casey would say how metal that was." Jennifer said with a smirk.

"Because in all fairness it was." Raph replied.

"Alright come on guys." Donnie said. "We have to hurry up. We can only hope Mal and the others have killed off that monster, but if not we might have to use the ship to help them." He lead them out of the mess hall.

It only took a few minutes more to reach the bridge where Donnie lead April to one of the consoles in the back so they could restore the power while Raph, Jennifer, Grant, Ally and Aziz looked around the bridge.

"Even the command center pales a bit compared to this place." Grant commented. "What hope do we have being able to use this to help the others?"

"I guess we'll be doing a lot of that work initially." Donnie admitted with a small shrug. "But as we start finding the other rangers they'll be able to help out around here too. And I think you guys could learn this stuff pretty easily."

"Yeah, even Mikey knows how to use a few consoles on this ship properly." Raph added with a smirk. "Plus the food synthesizer." He stepped around to one of the longer consoles in the center of the bridge. "Looks like most of these systems are simply on standby. How's that main power coming Donnie?"

"Should be coming on in a minute." Donnie answered. "April, how's the circuit board?"

April poked her head out from under the console. "It needs a new breaker." She looked to Jennifer. "There should be one in the cabinet over there, can you grab it please?" The blonde walked over to retrieve it and brought it back to her red headed friend. "Thanks." She said and then a moment later called out, "We should be good to go Donnie."

Donnie pressed a few buttons and the consoles hummed to life as the power came back on throughout the megaship. "Booyakasha." Donnie stated.

"Guys, look." Ally said. They turned to the main viewer just in time to see Ben and Jane dodge to the side as Mal and the others unleashed a burst from the Auradon blaster that the mechanical monster was holding at bay. "It looks like a standoff, we have to do something."

"Let's get out there and lend a hand." Aziz said.

"Hold up." April said. "It will take more than just a couple extra hands to stop that thing or else Ben and Jane would have already done it."

Grant glanced around the bridge. Then he revealed, "Hey, I've got an idea."

"How much longer can we keep up this stalemate?" Carlos wondered as they focused all of their energy into the blaster.

"As long as we can." Mal answered simply. The solution was simple if one really thought about it. They continued until Shinato lost his hold or until they couldn't go on anymore. She was starting to have a horrible feeling about which side would be forced to give in first.

Then the megaship's lasers opened up and unleashed around Shinato. Caught between a rock and a hard place the mechanical monster raised one hand to try to stop it only to lose the focus on the Auradon blaster, where he ended up being destroyed by both barrages.

"And that is that." Jay said as they disassembled their weapons and slumped to one knee beside Audrey, who leaned her head against his shoulder and took a small breath to steady her nerves.

Ben came over and kneeled next to Mal. "Are you okay?" He asked his girlfriend.

"That took more out of me, and all of us, more than it ever has." Mal answered softly. "We've never had to hold the beam for that long of a time."

They turned as they heard the sounds of a door opening but it was only the ramp of the megaship where Raph, Jennifer, and Ally were descending. "Hey come on board." Raph called out. "We've got the ship up and running again."

A half hour later Leo, Aaliyah, Casey, Karai and Mikey were on the ship now along with the rest of the Auradon Rangers. Donnie and Mal briefed them on the Quantrons being present and the Shinato monster. "Looks like we've got a few repairs to make around here." Leo noted. "But the sensors are working, so a couple of us should start trying to find the other rangers."

"The sooner the better I suspect." Ally noted.

Mal nodded. "You're probably right. And I think I realistically know where we need to start." She announced as she glanced around at her friends and team mates. "So let's get to work."

Unknown to the rangers, Shinato was not a monster sent by the Machine Empire, or by any of the factions that had reared their heads as the Triceratons had planned to destroy Earth to stop the Kraang. Rather, Shinato was a threat closer to their home.

"So my ungrateful little brats and their pathetic friends have indeed left Auradon." Maleficent mused softly. "One can only imagine what precipitated this decision to essentially leave this world defenseless."

"Not defenseless." Undine reminded the evil fairy. "Those pastel rangers are probably waiting around just in case."

Maleficent waved that off. "The powers that they use are temporary. It would be easy enough to overwhelm those powers and shut them down." She stated simply.

"Then let's do it already." Chad declared impatiently. "When they show up again they'll see what kind of mistake they truly made by leaving."

"You idiot." Undine stated. "If they succeed there, don't think for a moment that every single ranger and ally they have there won't return the favor by coming to Auradon and helping them take it back."

"At any rate, it seems to me we have some more important questions to worry about. Is whatever going on there a threat to us?" Maleficent reflected. "I think keeping an eye on things there could be very interesting. And we have our own seeds to plant while the bugs are away."


	131. Legacy Mighty Morphin' Part 1

A portion of the industrial district in Angel Grove had been sealed off. All attempts by the police force and even visiting members of the Earth Defense Force (EDF) had been unable to penetrate the barrier that surrounded the area. Even now authorities were trying in vain to break it…though it had not been noticed until after the Triceraton invasion had been repelled in New York, basically on the other side of the United States.

What most people didn't realize was that some residents of the city were trapped inside that barrier. Tenga warriors searched mercilessly for the now powerless Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The other ranger teams were in similar straits and could not come to their aid.

"I don't know how much longer we can keep hiding from them." Kimberly whispered to Jason as she brushed some hair out of her eyes. Normally she hated having her hair so messed up but right now as they hid behind a large cargo container now was not the time to worry about that.

Jason nodded. "I know." He agreed. "I haven't seen any of the others in hours now. With the other rangers dealing with their own problems and the Triceratons," None of them had any way of knowing the invasion had been stopped. "Attacking New York, the Turtles won't be coming here either. We're on our own."

Then they heard a very familiar voice. "Come on out powerless rangers. It's time to face the music." It belonged to the mysteriously resurrected Goldar, the longtime henchman of both Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd. Word was that he had been vaporized when Zordon had sacrificed himself. And yet here he was. "You're the last ones Jason, Kimberly. The others have been apprehended. It's over."

"Do you think he's telling the truth?" Kimberly questioned softy; desperately.

"I don't know. I hope not." Jason replied somberly. He grit his teeth in the silence that followed as he recalled what had happened. They were more than willing to back up the Turtles after they were told about the impending invasion from either the Kraang or the Triceratons; until Scorpina, another former henchman of Rita's resurfaced.

It should have been easy enough; she had shown up with Tenga's but they quickly assumed the bird brains would be easy enough to deal with. But then she had played her trump cards. The first was a blue scorpion monster which had a green entity that Aisha had jokingly called a fairy on its back, Scorpina had called it Nemesis and it was still out there. Also at large was the second card the large headed entity known as Lokar, who had also ambushed the rangers. Goldar 's return had been the third.

The overwhelming power behind the surprise attacks had overwhelmed the rangers and Lokar had forcefully stripped the team of their powers before Lokar had erected the barrier trapping them in the industrial district.

Their current white ranger Amy had been sure that only strong magic could penetrate that barrier. It was something that none of them had and that they weren't sure anyone possessed except for possibly the white mystic ranger Udonna, who had her hands full protecting her family and friends.

The container was blown to the side and Goldar proclaimed happily, "Found you humans." The Tenga swarmed in. Jason rose and round house kicked one of the closest ones. Kimberly rolled gracefully to the side and then cartwheeled to her feet. Both stood ready to fight. "I told you two it's over." The gold warrior proclaimed.

"It won't be over until we can't draw breath anymore." Jason retorted.

"Fine with me." Goldar replied and pointed his sword at them. "Tengas, get them."

One Tenga received a kick in the chest from Jason before he turned and delivered a kick to the stomach and elbow to the back of the head from the two time red ranger. A third tried to grab his arms but he shot his head back into his chest and flipped the bird monster over him.

Kimberly dropped to her knees and lashed out to trip one Tenga coming her way. She then used that Tenga has a bouncing off point to perform several cartwheels past the approaching monsters. She stopped and kicked a Tenga in the chest and turned to deliver a palm strike to the chest of another, but the Tenga caught her wrist and twisted, sending her off balance. Two more grabbed a hold of her arms and shoulders and forced her to her knees. "Jason!" She called out as she saw Goldar approaching him now.

Jason saw Kimberly apprehended and then he saw Goldar. For an instant he wasn't sure if she had been warning him or asking him for help, but by then it didn't matter. Goldar swung his sword at him and he dodged under it. Jason tried to follow up with an uppercut to the winged warrior's jaw but he brushed Jason's arm aside and then slammed his fist into his chest, making him sprawl back.

"No!" Kimberly yelled out as she tried to break free from the Tenga's but was unable to do so. "Get away from him Goldar." She tried to threaten him.

"This has been a long time coming Jason." Goldar said gleefully as he raised his sword to stab Jason in the chest. "Goodbye red ranger, know that Tommy will soon follow in your footsteps." With that the sword started downward.

Two katana blades blocked the strike and the leader of the power rangers looked up happily to find that the strike had been blocked by none other than the leader of the Ninja Turtles Leonardo. "I don't think so Goldar." He said.

"What, no. Impossible." Goldar growled.

Two tessens shot out and struck the Tenga holding Kimberly. She expected to see April but was perhaps more delighted to see they had come from Lonnie as the pink Auradon ranger. As the Tenga turned several of them were struck back by a blast from Mal's dragon's eye staff. "Miss us?" The purple haired purple ranger asked sweetly.

"You're a sight for sore eyes." Kimberly said with a small delighted laugh.

Leo lashed out and kicked Goldar way from Jason. "There aren't supposed to be anymore rangers." He insisted and then looked to Leo. "And what are you all doing here?"

"Saving our friends." Mal was the one who answered as she swung her staff at him. He blocked it and tried to slash her but the purple ranger raised her staff to block the attack. Leo jumped over the raised staff and kicked Goldar in the chest hard. "But don't worry about it because you won't be the only one to fail today."

"We shall see rangers. We shall see." Goldar vowed as he stood up and vanished with the Tengas.

"Are you alright?" Leo asked as he helped Jason to his feet.

He nodded. "Yeah, thanks man." He said. "What are you doing here though? I thought the Triceraton invasion thing had you guys pinned in New York."

"It did." Leo replied and then nodded toward Mal and Lonnie. "Renet brought the Auradon rangers here and they helped us repel the Triceraton invasion so that we could start helping all of you out." None of the Turtle team had known for sure how close they had really been to having the Earth destroyed by the Black Hole Generator but they had a pretty good idea.

Just like they knew that same machine was still out there and could be reassembled at some point in the future. A problem they would all have to address after all the ranger's powers had been restored.

"We've got to find the others." Jason said now.

"Don't worry, I have people on it." Mal replied.

Amy shrieked in shock as she barely dodged the attack from Scorpina. The former white ranger turned to see their green ranger Richie fighting off some Tenga's and on the other side was their purple ranger Alexis Darling. Zack was fighting Tenga's in between them. As much as she adored Alexis she kind of wished her childhood friend Amber was there with them now.

Richie was an old friend and at one point the first yellow ranger Trini had shown a mutual attraction for him. That thought made her miss their friend dearly but Amy pushed that grief to the side. When the green ranger powers had been discovered whole just before the Armada attack Tommy had used the powers once more but then gave Richie the chance to become the new green ranger. Richie had accepted in to honor Trini.

Alexis Darling was a girl that Jason had met after he left Angel Grove after the Turbo rangers had been created and they had become good friends. When Zhane had discovered the power coins Alexis had been chosen to become the purple ranger as Amber was still a space ranger. Unknown to them at the time that choice had given Alexis something truly unique. Not that it helped them if they couldn't morph.

"Come on white ranger." Scorpina taunted Amy as she paced the girl. "Pull some rabbit out of your hat and stop us." She laughed cruelly. "Tommy would have."

She couldn't help but flinch. Although a monster called Brain Drain had forced Amy to confront the truth that being the white ranger didn't mean she was expected to be the leader, sometimes that comparison sometimes still affected her. "We'll figure out something Scorpina. Together." She promised.

"You're out of tricks." Scorpina stated simply. "All of you are powerless. No one else can even come to your aid. You have no magic to save you." She kicked Amy in the chest hard and sent her sprawling back hard.

"They're not out of tricks yet." Amy heard. She saw Aaliyah flip over her and attack Scorpina. The female warrior blocked the mutant turtle as she tried to strike with her bunrei's.

Amy started to stand but a Tenga grabbed her arm. She rolled with the twist and landed on her feet to kick the Tenga away. Four others moved in and tackled Amy hard, she hit the ground and she felt the air knocked out of her. The Tenga reached down for her.

Then they squawked in annoyance as they were slashed off and Amy looked up to see a rose colored power ranger standing above her, though that term barely applied as she could already tell that when she stood she would actually be taller than the rose ranger. "Thanks." She said.

"You're welcome." She said. Then she giggled a little. "Amber told us your name is Amy." The girl nodded confused until the rose ranger added, "My name is Amy too…well it's actually Amelia but everyone calls me Amy."

Amy had heard the stories. "You're one of the Auradon Rangers. From the fairy tales." She said a bit amazed.

"Not just me." The rose haired girl said. At that Amy turned to see that another one like Amy had jumped in, this one was in green and he was helping Richie. Another in black was helping Zack.

"Hey Jay." Zack said happily. "Man, am I glad to see you."

"Glad you're okay man." Jay said to him. "Where are the power coins?"

"The Tenga gave them to Scorpina after they got the drop on us." Zack admitted somewhat embarrassed. He pointed to a black satchel on her waist. "I think they're in there."

"That's all I need to know." Jay promised.

"Cool." Amy said. "The son of Jafar."

Now Auradon Amy laughed. "Not as cool as what's going to happen next. Don't blink or you might miss it." She said. Then time almost seemed to stop except for the sudden blur of purple that seemed to approach from the hills and seemed to casually run through the battle. Then it seemed normal and the Tenga fell in squawks.

"Was that your sister Mal?" Amy asked.

The rose ranger shook her head. "Nope, Mal is doing something else." She responded with a small laugh.

Amy looked now. "The Highlands ranger." She stated. Miranda had indeed stopped at the other end of the attack. That had also drawn Scorpina's attention as she had never seen that before. The only one who could duplicate the effect used by the Scottish princess was the gold samurai ranger Antonio.

"Didn't you think magic would be needed to get by Lokar's barrier?" Richie asked Amy.

The girl nodded. "That was my theory." She agreed. "Something I think the daughters of Maleficent can easily meet."

"Don't forget the daughter of Genie and Fairy Godmother." Amy commented.

"Where did all of you come from?" Scorpina demanded as she saw a black, rose, green and purple ranger. "There aren't supposed to be any ranger's on Earth!"

"I guess ye bet on the wrong horse then." Miranda answered as she stepped forward with her grizzly blades and attacked her. Scorpina dodged it only to get attacked by Aaliyah now. Then Jay was flanking her as Will joined both Amy's and their friends.

Scorpina swung at Aaliyah and she rolled out of the way. Jay motioned to Miranda and the Scottish girl nodded. She brought her grizzly blades down toward her and she raised her arm to block the attack. Jay moved in with his soul scimitar and tried to attack. She twirled out of the way to dodge his strike even as she forced Miranda to take a step back.

Will moved in and tried to attack Scorpina but she flipped out of the way. But when she landed she had to take stock and admit it didn't look good. Four rangers she had never seen before now, the newest female turtle and four of the former rangers. The odds were not in her favor. "This is only beginning. Count on it."

"No." Alexis called out as she started to run toward her, but the scorpion warrior vanished. "Dang it, she has our power coins."

"Um, no." Jay said casually as he now lifted his left hand which held a black satchel. "She HAD your power coins." He gave off a hearty laugh as he tossed them to Zack. "Being a thief pays off guys." He exchanged high fives with both Zack and Will. "Now let's see how our friends are doing."

"I just hope that Cestria and the Aquatians are okay." Billy said as he ducked under the window in the warehouse that the rangers had been using as a temporary base the last few hours when they needed to take a moment to collect themselves.

"They seem to have mainly been after Earth." Aisha pointed out. "They might be okay."

"Tell that to the Galaxy Rangers." Billy reminded her solemnly. Then he pushed the thought out of his head. "Nemesis is still lurking around there. So are Goldar and Scorpina. There is no sign of the others." He shook his head. "Without our power coins I don't know what we're going to do."

"If we could just find the others…" Aisha started.

The windows shattered as Tenga's dove into the room. Billy and Aisha couldn't do much more than take fighting stances before they were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. "Looks like we finally caught two of the rangers." One Tenga noted happily.

Another chirruped happily. "Let's take them back to Scorpina, maybe we can use these two as bait."

"Let us go bird brains." Billy demanded. Then he heard something. He looked up but saw only shadows. But then he realized it seemed as if some of those shadows were moving. "You're going to regret this." He now said, though Aisha though it sounded like an unlikely promise.

"Oh yeah?" Another Tenga demanded. "What are you going to do?"

"Booyakasha!" Mikey exclaimed as he dropped down on the Tenga that had spoken and slammed his nunchuck's against the bird monsters head hard.

"Way to blow our cover Mikey." Raph said as he and Casey landed behind the Tengas holding Billy and knocked them out.

Donnie didn't say anything even as he and April landed behind the ones holding Aisha and knocked them out. "Awesome." She said. "Thanks guys." She now understood where Billy's threat had come from.

"Let's save the thanks for later, after we get out of here." Billy said to Aisha. "We still have to fight our way past all of these Tengas first."

"We got it covered dude." Casey promised as he took out a hockey stick. "I know it's not exactly a lance, but maybe this will help you out." He accepted the proffered weapon from the hockey masked vigilante with a nod of thanks.

April handed one of her tessen to Aisha. "I know it's not something you're used to but…"

She nodded and finished the thought. "Any port in a storm." She agreed. She then looked to Raph, who she assumed was leading the team in wake of the mysterious absence of Leonardo as she didn't know he was with Mal and Lonnie helping Jason and Kimberly. "What's the plan?"

"As odd as it sounds, time to get us cornered." Raph said. He pointed to the one farthest from the door. "Right there." Though Billy and Aisha had their doubts they didn't argue and followed the three turtles and their human allies to that corner. The Tenga followed eagerly and several who got to them first were promptly attacked.

"So what's the next part of the plan Raph?" Billy asked the red masked turtle as he swatted a Tenga in the head with the hockey stick. "What do we do?"

Raph gave off a devilish grin. "We don't do anything." He answered with a laugh as he kicked one of the bird minions away from him and April. "But the Tenga are about to make a run for it."

"How can you be sure about that?" Aisha asked as she kicked a Tenga in the chest.

"Because the fun is about to begin." Mikey said as he saw April nod and close her eyes.

A moment later the door on the other side slammed open with a magical flourish and the Tenga turned to see Jordan, Ellie, Alex, Audrey, Evie and Aquiella standing there. "You rang?" She asked April, responding to the psychic call. Then she looked toward the startled Tenga. "Don't mind me," The genie gold ranger stated simply. "I just needed your attention for the floor show."

"What is this?" One Tenga demanded to know.

Billy caught on and was pleasantly surprised to see some of the Auradon rangers. "Time for you to see what power are still out there for you to worry about." He said.

"Why don't what we see which element these bird brains hate more, the ice or the heat?" Audrey suggested as she raised her elemental bow, which held an arrow of fire and an arrow of ice. "I've got both of you covered."

"We'll turn up the heat on this side." Alex said as he prepared a burst of fire from his tonfa's, Evie meanwhile powered up a blazing mirror force from her weapon. They unleashed their combined powers.

"And we'll chill them to the core." Ellie said with a small laugh as she placed her hand on the trident that Melody had loaned her cousin for this mission. She channeled her ice energy into the magical weapon, which then shot out a huge burst of icy water.

Audrey unleashed her arrows at the same time and together the magical attacks hit all around the Tengas.

"I think that froze my wing." One of them complained as the Tenga tried to shake the ice off it. "Is that frostbite?"

"Oh I hate being soggy." One of the other Tenga said.

"That singed my feathers." Another griped as it tried to shake the flames off of the feathers on its wings. "That's going to leave a mark."

Some had been in the middle of the attack and got both ends of the spectrum. "Ah, I hate temperature extremes. I hope I don't get a cold" The Tenga said.

"I think maybe we should turn it up a notch." Evie said as she powered up her mirror force shield with another basic attack. Audrey loaded up her electric arrows now. Aquiella joined with them and the three of them unleashed their bursts of energy at the Tengas. They all fell backwards.

"We don't get paid enough for this." The seemingly lead Tenga decided. "Let's get out of here." They all took off as fast as they could, getting as high as they could since they had been in a warehouse and then took off through the broken windows. None of them dared to try to leave via the door the five Auradon Rangers stood at.

"Those were minions?" Aquiella couldn't help but ask. She was far too used to the almost as dumb but silent and relatively tough ones that Paradias had used. As far as the Atlantica princess was concerned they were far too weak and clownish.

"Not even like those Quantrons." Audrey said with a disgusted shake of her head that was a bit of a reminder that she was still a high ranking princess at heart. "How pathetic." She looked to Billy and Aisha. "Are you two okay?"

"Thanks to all of you." Billy said. "What about the others though?"

"Leo took Mal and Lonnie. Mal had a little spell that would allow her to track Kimberly via the same color line they share." Ellie explained. "Aaliyah took Miranda, Jay, Will and Amy to find the power coins."

"Oh no." Aisha gasped. "That will lead them right to Scorpina. She was given the power coins when they were stolen from us."

Then they heard their iPhones go off. Jordan was the first to look. "That's Mal. She said it's time to meet up. And she already spoke with Amy. Jay got your coins. So let's get you guys powered up again." She declared. "Come on, follow us."

Another warehouse looked old and abandoned, almost destroyed. There was no reason for Scorpina, Goldar, Nemesis or even the Tengas to suspect anyone would hide there. But that was just the cover that was being used now while Venus, Carlos, Jennifer, and Jane were holding up with the meeting place for the power rangers and Auradon rangers to regroup and decide what the next move would be.

Carlos had just set his iPhone back down. "All three teams are on their way." He announced to the girls. "Then we can deal with sending Scorpina and the others packing and free Angel Grove."

"And to think this is only the first restoration mission we have to run." Jane said with a small sigh. "Who did such a scary job at making sure there would be no rangers around Earth?" She wondered.

The first one to show of course were Kimberly, Jason, Mal, Lonnie and Leo. Carlos and Mal exchanged high fives at seeing each other, each more worried than they would ever let on. Lonnie gave Jane a quick hug too.

A few moments later Billy, Aisha, Raph, Mikey, Donnie, Casey, April, and the five Auradon rangers came in. Evie and Mal exchanged hugs. Audrey exchanged hugs with Lonnie. Kimberly and Aisha exchanged hugs. Donnie wrapped his arms around April and kissed her softly. Jennifer wrapped her arms around Raph and kissed him on the lips.

"I hope Miranda and the others get here soon." Ellie commented softly. "Who knows what else might be out there?"

"Don't worry about it." Mal tried to reassure the princess of Arendelle. "They'll be here." She still couldn't blame her for being worried though. Her twin sister Amy was part of that team that hadn't shown up yet. She hated being separated from Amy almost as much as her sister hated being separated from her.

"Amy and Amy." Carlos said. "That's going to be confusing."

"We'll be sure to remember that when we go help Carlos and the space rangers, Carlos." Jordan replied with a smirk.

"Just watch the hair." Kimberly advised them. "Our Amy is a sunny haired blonde, while your Amy has that dark warm colored rose hair."

"Yeah, it's actually rather soft." Audrey noted. Only she and Evie had ever brushed Amy's hair which was kind of a surprise since the rose haired girl had not exactly started on good terms with the brunette princess nor was the younger daughter of Maleficent all that inclined toward her looks the way she or Evie were. Sometimes Audrey suspected she just sometimes liked the attention from someone besides Mal which Audrey could not blame her for given the circumstances she grew up in.

"I'd still feel more comfortable to have the others show up." Leo admitted. The fact that Aaliyah was part of the team they were waiting for wasn't said but it didn't take much to figure it out. Mal suspected his discipline was the only thing stopping him from pacing. It was taking everything she had not to pace herself and she was surprised that Alex appeared to be taking the mystery so well.

Audrey however wasn't nearly so worried about it as she paced and worried about Jay. She never imagined a couple of months ago that she would find herself so worried about Jay, or Mal, or Evie. Of course she was practically a different princess a couple of months ago. "Where are you guys?" She implored quietly.

Venus perked up suddenly, which drew the others attention except for Aquiella. "They're almost here." She revealed to them before glancing at Mal and adding, "Your sister's empathic abilities are like a beacon to me." That explained why the mermaid girl had not reacted as she would have felt Amy as well.

Moments later the last team made their way in. Amy rushed over and hugged Mal for a minute before Alex approached her and wrapped her in a hug. Amy went over and hugged Kimberly even as Jason and Alexis gave each other soft smiles.

"Are ye alright?" Miranda asked Ellie.

The Arendelle princess nodded. "Yeah, the Tengas didn't like our elements at all." She answered. "What about you?"

"I'm fine, not to worry." Miranda replied.

"Miss me?" Jay asked Audrey teasingly even as he saw Aaliyah and Leo take a moment to embrace.

"Not at all." Audrey replied though it sure didn't sound convincing. "I knew for sure that you could totally take care of yourself." Her actions betrayed her words as she hugged Jay only a moment later.

"Glad to see that everyone is okay." Richie said as he high fived with Billy. "And some of come baring gifts." He added as Jay held up the same object that held the power coins.

"Oh my gosh, our coins." Kimberly exclaimed happily.

Jay shook the bag a moment as if to confirm that said power sources were inside before tossing them over to Jason. "What about the morphers?" He asked now.

"We still have those." Billy answered the black Auradon ranger. "Scorpina wasn't worried about taking those away, without the power coins they might as well just be paperweights."

"I don't know how much time we have." Jennifer pointed out to them. "I'm sure Scorpina and whoever else she has is looking for all of you right now."

"She's right." Mal agreed. "Time to power up guys."

Jason nodded in confirmation and opened up the bag and let the power coins drop into his hands. He kept the Tyrannosaur coin for himself naturally. He passed the Mastodon coin to Zack and the Triceraton coin to Billy. Alexis took the Stegosaurus coin from Jason's hands along with a few that she handed out herself; the Dragon coin for Richie, the Pterodactyl coin for Kimberly and the White Tiger coin for Amy. Aisha reached over to take the Sabertooth Tiger coin from Jason.

"All of that power in those small coins." Ben mused with some amazement.

"It's not much different than most of us having our powers come from gems." Jane pointed out reasonably, though somewhat shyly since she was addressing the king of Auradon. "Or two in the cases of the battlizers."

"Technically it might be more considered half a gem." Mal now commented as she held up her iPhone. "It was one gem that split into two for Audrey and I." Jane nodded as if acquiescing the point.

Each of the rangers took out their morphers and reaffixed the power coins back into their proper places. Their morphers glowed in their colors and it traveled up their arms and over their bodies before fading.

"I'm sure you guys are glad to be back in top shape." Mal commented wryly, having remembered what it felt like to lose her powers. "Now then, we just have to get Scorpina and her forces to leave Angel Grove."

"The only way I see that we can do that is to find and defeat Nemesis and Lokar." Aisha said. "Nemesis is their big gun and Lokar is the one holding the field up around this part of the city."

"Then let's find them and get it done." Jason decided and as the respective leaders of their team both Mal and Leo nodded in agreement.

One side of the warehouse was blasted in and the team scrambled to avoid getting hit by the rubble. No one was particularly surprised to find that Tenga's were entering the area, being led by Goldar and Scorpina. And behind them was the large scorpion monster with the almost sickly green fairy like creature that was hovering over its back. They heard Amy whisper, "That's Nemesis."

"I knew they wouldn't wait to reactivate their powers." Goldar commented.

Scorpina pointed her blade at Jay. "I'll make you pay for stealing those power coins from me ranger." She vowed. "All of your ends have come."


	132. Legacy Mighty Morphin' Part 2

"We'll see whose end has come." Mal responded to Scorpina's threat as she, Audrey and Ben stood in front of Jason and his team. "We came here to set things right and that's exactly what we're going to do."

"Right." The voice they hadn't heard before came from the creature that both Jason and Amy had referred to as Nemesis. "What an interesting concept coming from the daughter of Maleficent."

"How does it know that?" Zack asked.

"I didn't think anyone here knew about that." April agreed. The Triceratons and the Foot Clan certainly hadn't known who they were.

"It doesn't matter what you think." Mal said to them all.

"That's right." Jason agreed. "But one thing I do know," He looked to his teammates, regardless of whether they were long term like Kimberly and Zack or new ones like Richie and Alexis. "It's morphin' time." Together the eight rangers extended their coin enabled morphers and made the call.

"White ranger power!" The blonde Amy called out. She could recall long ago when Amber had been the purple ranger that she instead had been the orange ranger and had used a different morphing call, but for reasons no one understood the orange ranger powers had not been reformed with the others.

"Purple ranger power!" Alexis called out.

"Green ranger power!" Richie called out.

"Black ranger power!" Zack called out, though he was still getting used to that since he had primarily used the Mastodon call to morph during his initial stint as a power ranger.

"Pink ranger power!" Kimberly called out. Unlike Zack she, Billy and Aisha had been around for the alternate morphing call, courtesy of the upgrade to ninja rangers after seeking out Ninjor's temple when Rito Revolto had first arrived, and had gotten used to it.

"Blue ranger power!" Billy called out.

"Yellow ranger power!" Aisha called out.

"Red ranger power!" Jason called out. While he had not been red ranger when the initial morphing call had changed, he had temporarily taken the gold ranger mantle from Trey and had gotten used to having more than one morphing call.

Goldar let out an involuntary growl. He had quite a few memories of confronting both the white ranger, though the holder had been Tommy at the time, and the red ranger as both Jason and Rocky though the former had always been the one that rankled him up every time.

"We took those powers once and we can take them again." Scorpina said to them. Then she lifted her sword and aimed at them. "It's time to finish this, get them."

"Let's do it rangers." Jason said. He looked to Mal. "Let's get to work."

Goldar leapt out at Jason, the red ranger immediately summoned his power sword to block the attack. The two riposted for a moment before he stepped back. Leo jumped over his shoulders and kicked Goldar in the chest, then leaned down so that Jason could roll over the blue masked turtle's shell and slashed him back.

"Let's start plucking some wings." Kimberly said as she summoned her power bow.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Audrey replied as she summoned her elemental bow. Together the two archers began to release arrow after arrow at the Tenga's as they tried to come into the warehouse. It was impossible to stop them all but even cutting down the ones they managed reduced what the rest of their friends had to face.

"Booyakabunga!" Mikey exclaimed as he leapt into the fray with the Tengas, tripping one up before turning and slapping his nunchuck into the face of another approaching one.

"What?" Carlos questioned as he slid under a Tenga and kicked it in the back. He then got up and twirled around to slash two other Tengas.

"He combined his own catchphrase with that of Mondo Gecko." Zack explained as he kicked a Tenga in the chest and then dodged another only to basically clothesline the bird minion. Carlos remembered the skateboarding gecko that had been part of the Mutanimals when they met them while stopping the Triceraton invasion.

The yellow Auradon ranger laughed. "Man, he comes up with some the strangest things. I bet he even named Mondo Gecko." He flipped over a Tenga and brought his feet down on his shoulder.

"Of course I did." Mikey replied. "No one names like them like Doctor Prankenstein."

"I thought your name was Michelangelo." Amy said a bit confused as she used her rose lance to trip up two Tengas and then dropped down to allow one to literally sail over her head.

"Just one of his nicknames for himself." Zack replied. He decided not to confuse anyone further by mentioning his 'secret identity' as Turfyltle.

Scorpina found herself going up against Mal and Alexis. Mal herself found it a weird matchup since she had never met Alexis before now and didn't know her fighting style. By the time she and Amber had fought together she had at least seen her in action.

Scorpina swiped at Alexis and she dodged under the attack, and then tried to kick Scorpina but their opponent dodged out of the way. Mal moved in and tried to strike with her dragon's eye staff to be blocked by her blade and then slashed back hard.

"Careful." Alexis advised Mal. "She's not easy to get a hit on."

"Yeah I noticed." Mal replied.

The metallic tentacles around Nemesis twirled around and blasted out at the rangers, striking at several of the rangers who had to dodge out of the way. "That sure is a strange looking monster." Jane commented. "And considering some of the ones we've seen that's saying something."

"We couldn't agree more." Zack replied.

The tentacles withdrew and rose up to blast at them all. They all fell back hard even as Scorpina and Goldar came to stand beside their monster and more Tenga's showed up.

"I think it's time for a plan b." Mal said to Jason and Leo.

"I agree." Jason said. He looked to Kim, Aisha, Alexis, Zack and Billy. "You guys come with me. Mal, choose who you want to come with us. We'll be going after Nemesis." He looked to Richie and Will. "You guys distract Goldar." He looked to the Turtles. "You guys go after Scorpina. The rest of you, deal with the Tengas."

"Audrey, Carlos, Evie, Jay, Lonnie, with us." Mal said. "Let's show this fairy scorpion hybrid thing what we're all about."

Nemesis raised his tentacles again and fired at the approaching team of rangers. They did their best to dodge abut it ended up striking most of them hard. Jason and Audrey just barely managed to move ahead of it and brought their weapons down on the monster though to little effect.

"Another too big for us but too small for the zords." Carlos said. "Why do they do that to us?"

"I figure amusement." Evie guessed sarcastically. As the tail struck the two red rangers hard Nemesis then turned and fired again at the other rangers. Evie raised her mirror force shield and reflected it back at him though he didn't seem to be as effected as she would have liked.

"I think it's time for the Supreme Bomb Attack." Alexis called out to Jason.

"Good plan." Carlos said absently.

Kimberly on the other hand didn't react that way at all. "No way. We have to find another solution." She said.

"Kim's right." Jason agreed as he looked to the purple ranger. "We'll find another way."

"What is a Supreme Bomb Attack?" Lonnie now asked. She of course knew what a bomb was and was already leaning toward agreeing with the pink ranger.

"It's an attack that might be strong enough to hurt Nemesis." Alexis answered simply. "It does kind of have recoil though."

"Which basically means that it'll hurt you too." Evie supplied. "I can see why they don't really like this idea."

"I don't see that we have much choice." Audrey voiced, sounding resolute but reluctant.

Mal hesitated as well. She thought about what it would be like if one of her own team mates had such a devastating but self-damaging attack like that. How often would she be willing to take that risk? Even worse, what if that belonged to Ben or Amy?

"Jason, I get it." Zack now said. "But Nemesis is kind of being a real pain in the neck here."

"He is." Mal agreed. "But no. I agree with Jason. We will find another way." She understood fully, but she couldn't help the sudden feeling that letting someone hurt themselves to accomplish a goal would be exactly what her mother Maleficent would do and she found she could not do so.

"But Mal…" Billy started. He hated it too but logically he could see the need for the attempt. They had had to use the bomb attack on a few occasions when nothing was available.

Despite admitting she didn't see other choice moments ago it was Audrey who now said, "You heard Mal. We find another way." The brunette princess couldn't be sure that Mal was right but backing up her leader unless absolutely necessary was part of a second in command's job as far as she was concerned.

"So what's plan b?" Alexis asked her with a bit of an understandable challenge in her voice.

Mal looked to Jason. "We use our armor and see if that helps. If that doesn't work we have our blasters. Audrey and I have battlizers too." She said.

The red ranger nodded. He looked to his team as Mal looked to hers. "Metallic armor and Neon armor time." Jason declared.

As the power rangers activated their metallic armor the Auradon rangers activated their neon armor. It was enough to blind Nemesis for a moment. Aisha and Carlos moved in with their small dual bladed weapons and slashed him hard. A tentacle slapped the two yellow rangers back.

"Mal, I'm thinking Cybertech Overhydra." Jay suddenly called out.

"Say what?" Zack questioned.

But the purple Auradon ranger got it. "Forget the monster for a second everyone. We need to take out the tentacles." She announced.

"Of course." Billy exclaimed. "That's Nemesis's main offense. If we take that out then we limit its ability to strike out at us. The armors should give us the physical presence to back up our attacks."

"Great suggestion guys." Jason said. "Audrey, Kim, give us cover." The two bow wielding girls nodded. He looked toward the two black rangers, the two yellow rangers, the two purple rangers, then to Lonnie to indicate the Asian princess should work with him.

The two bow wielders unleashed arrows, not at the scorpion portion of the monster but at the green fairy monster at the center. The tentacles moved as if trying to defend the core of the monster instead of attacking the rangers, which was their intent.

The four teams of two rangers moved in. It took a moment of hacking but the yellow rangers easily took out a tentacle. The two black rangers required less hacking to do the same thing. Lonnie tangled the tentacle in between her tessens so that Jason could take it out at the center. Mal did the same thing, tangling up the tentacle in her dragon's eye staff so that Alexis could use her blade to take it out at the center as well.

"Great job guys." Evie said.

"I told you all, there is always another way." Mal said with a small laugh.

"That you did." Zack relented. "But this fight isn't over just yet."

"No it's not." Jason agreed. "So let's finish this. Rangers, let's bring them together." Zack flipped his axe over and it formed the basis of the cannon. Kim's power bow was placed under. Billy's power lance and Aisha's power daggers were placed on top with the under sides as part of the cannon. Jason's power sword was placed in the middle and they formed their power blaster.

Mal placed her dragon's eye staff with Audrey's elemental bow underneath it. Evie's mirror shield was placed behind it, the compacts unfolding. On top was placed on either side Carlos's earthquake claw daggers, Lonnie's hurricane tessens and in the middle Jay's soul scimitar to form the Auradon blaster.

"Ready." Mal said. "Aim." Jason said. Then both leaders called out, "Lock and fire." The two of them unleashed their blasts and destroyed Nemesis.

"Booyakasha!" They heard Mikey call out and Kimberly laughed.

"Not so fast rangers." Scorpina said. "You wanted bigger; you're going to get it." With that Lokar appeared in the skies and grew Nemesis, reformed tentacles and all.

"Um, is that Supreme Bomb Attack still an option?" Carlos asked half-jokingly.

"Nope, that option is gone." Billy answered seriously.

"M, we have no zords here." Evie said. "What do we do now?"

"We got you covered." Jason said. He looked to his team. "Richie, you have the Dragonzord. Amy, White Tigerzord. We'll use the Thunder Megazord." He looked to Aziz. "Use the Falconzord; I think you can handle it. Mal, take your team and use the Shogun Megazord. April, you and the Turtles take the Ninja Megazord."

"Dude, it's like my Super Robo Mechaforce Five Team Five dreams has gotten a revival." Mikey said happily.

Mal and Amy took the white shogun zord, almost paralleling Tommy when he shared the zord with Kim or Kat. Audrey actually shared her zord with Ben. Evie shared her zord with Lonnie while Carlos shared with Jane. Together with her team they formed the Shogun Megazord. Together four megazords, along with the Dragonzord and Falconzord were ready for battle.

"Wretched rangers." Nemesis growled and unleashed a barrage at them from the newly restored tentacles. It struck the zords hard except for the Falconzord which soared past the attacks.

"One good attack deserves a good response." Aziz stated and folded the wings of the Falconzord back to unleash a barrage of missiles at the fairy scorpion monster. Then Lokar was there and unleashed his own barrage, striking the Falconzord hard.

"Isn't Lokar one of those monsters that were never defeated?" Evie questioned her chosen sister.

"Yes, it is." Mal answered. "And I don't quite know how we're going to change that."

"Can we use the same strategy we did beforehand?" Kimberly now questioned.

"Affirmative." Billy answered. "If Richie and Aziz unleash another missile barrage at Nemesis, the rest of us should be able to use our swords to take off those tentacles."

"Then let's do it then." Aziz said as he reached for the controls of the Falconzord.

"Sounds like a plan man." Richie said as the green power ranger raised the dragon dagger to his lips and played a tune on his weapon. The two zords unleashed their missile barrage but this time it was intercepted by a strike from Lokar.

"Shoot, we forgot about the big dude with the bad hair century." Mikey said.

"We'll have to figure out how to distract Lokar too." April agreed. She just wished she knew how.

Mal bit her lip. Then she had an idea. She touched Amy's arm briefly and her twin sister nodded. "One more time boys." She declared.

"Jason?" Richie questioned. He was barely sure about his own team sometimes, let alone the new rangers he had only just met.

Jason was sure Mal had a plan and he hoped it paid off. "You heard her; Aziz, Richie, send another barrage Nemesis's way." He said.

Again a tune of the dragon dagger prompted the Dragonzord to unleash missiles from the paws while Falconzord did so from the wings. Again Lokar got ready to use his own energy to stop the attack when the monster head was blasted by none other than the carrier zord Titanus. And on top of the white brachiozord's head was Aquiella. "One carrier zord is just as good as another." She said, referring to what was essentially her Clamzord, used to form the Auradon Ultrazord. And behind Titanus was the Shuttlezord Tor.

Amy easily cut one of the tentacles with the Tiger Megazord. The Shogun Megazord took out another, followed by the Thunder Megazord and the Ninja Megazord.

"Leo, Richie; keep Lokar busy. See if somehow you can finish him off." Jason instructed.

"Easier said than done." Raph reminded him from the cockpit of the Ninja Megazord.

The Ninja Megazord moved in with the sword. Lokar responded by unleashing energy which Donnie moved the sword to block. A playing of the dragon dagger caused the Dragonzord to turn around with its tail and drill right across him.

"Mal, it's time for you to form the Shogun Ultrazord. We're going to form the Thunder Ultrazord." Jason instructed as the Tiger Megazord moved toward Tor, the Thunder Megazord coming apart in the process to into the Red Thunderzord and the Thunderzord Assault mode.

The arms of the Shogun Megazord split to allow the merging with the Falconzord and then to merge with Titanus to form the Shogun Ultrazord. "I think we should aim for that fairy freak." Mal suggested.

"Agreed." Jason said. "You start it and we'll finish it up." The Red Thunderzord rotated its weapon and started to float up in the air.

"Oh, that is going to hurt coming down." Carlos noted.

"He's going to have other concerns." Mal said. "Shogun Ultrazord, lock on and fire."

The Shogun Ultrazord unleashed its arsenal on the Nemesis monster, and even as the creature fell back the Thunder Ultrazord came down on the monster with a blaze of destruction. Meanwhile the Ninja Megazord reflected the collected energy directly at Lokar, and there was a flash before Lokar was gone though it was impossible to tell whether he was gone or had retreated yet again.

It was enough though as the Ninja Megazord came to stand by the Shogun Ultrazord and the Dragonzord stood by the Thunder Ultrazord. Together it seemed as if the four zord combinations looked down at the remaining two generals and the Tengas.

"The master will not like this." Goldar noted with annoyance as the field surrounding the warehouse district faded away.

"This isn't over rangers." Scorpina vowed as the two warriors disappeared and the Tenga took off.

As the zords retreated back to their hiding spaces the power rangers, the Auradon rangers, and Team Turtles convened on the roof. "I have to give that a big fat BOOYAKASHA!" Mikey exclaimed enthusiastically as he high fived with Zack and then Carlos.

"And we were wrong." Zack said now. "There was a way to win without Alexis using her attack."

"We could have been wrong." Mal admitted now. "If push came to shove…"

"But it didn't." Ben said as he took his girlfriend's hand and squeezed gently.

"Again thank you so much." Kimberly said as she gave Mal and Amy a hug. "I don't know if we would have gotten out of this without you." She then grew somber. "But, if you're here…then I guess that means Kat, that Tommy, that all of the rangers are in trouble too."

Mal nodded somberly. "They are." She confirmed.

"We worked together though to restore the Astro Megaship." Donnie now said. "And together we can save the rest of our friends."

"You've got our support." Jason promised. He was just as concerned for Tommy as Kimberly was. Plus, the zeo rangers and Amber were his friends too.

"One hundred percent." Richie agreed.

The three teams returned to the Megaship where they found the rest of the Auradon rangers, Venus and the Mutanimals on the final repairs of the ship. "I am glad to see that you are well." Venus said with a small bow.

"Thank you." Aisha said. "We're here and ready to help."

"We believe we have tracked the Zeo rangers now." Rockwell said. "Interestingly enough by time standards it appears they have wound up where Corinth would be if this were the RPM rangers time."

"It would make sense." Billy agreed with a frown. "Venjix was everything that the Machine Empire hoped to be. One of the generals even shared the same name as the computer virus."

"You guys should get cleaned up while Donnie and Doug confirm those readings." Leo said to the rangers. "Who knows when the next chance will come up again." They all nodded in agreement. "We should also determine if somehow they have the same type of defense that Lokar provided for Scorpina. We may need a magical workaround for it."

A half hour later Kimberly, freshly showered and neatly dressed in a uniform similar to Cassie's now, entered the mess hall and saw Lonnie and Audrey talking by one of the windows. She watched for a moment and then felt a sudden rush of sadness.

"Are you okay?" The pink ranger turned to see Amy, Melody and Aquiella looking at her from the table. The orange ranger had felt her pain easily, especially since she was munching on a bowl of watermelon.

"Yeah, sure." Kim said as she realized she felt tears building in her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her left hand as she walked toward them. "It's just Audrey and Lonnie…well, remind me of me and my best friend."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked her.

Kimberly took the seat Melody offered. "Aisha joined the team about a year after we became power rangers. My best friend growing up was the first yellow ranger, Trini Kwan." She explained. The girls picked up the point then.

"They remind you of what you and Trini had." Aquiella realized.

Kim nodded. "Yeah. Even after all this time I miss her so much." She said.

"What happened to her?" Amy asked softly.

"She died…no, that's not right. She was murdered." Kim replied, trying to catch the lump forming in her throat before it blocked her voice. She took a deep breath. "This job is pretty dangerous." She now said, which confused the girls. They of course knew that but didn't understand why it mattered now. "Kat said Tanya replaced Aisha when she chose to stay in Africa during the quest for the zeo crystals. So when we first reformed the team we asked Trini to come back so that we didn't take Aisha from what she wanted to do."

"That was thoughtful." Amy noted with a small smile.

"Richie was also not our first choice to be the green ranger." Kim added. "It's nothing against him, it's just he didn't know our identities at that time. We wanted someone who wasn't going to be shocked and so Tommy asked his brother David to take over his mantle as the green ranger." They could see tears forming in her eyes but this time Kimberly did not wipe them away. "So not long after we get our powers back we were attacked by a returning monster; his name is Thrax and he's the son of Rita and Zedd. We knew him because Adam and Tommy's friend Kira helped the Overdrive rangers take him down. He probably came back because of whoever set this whole thing up."

"So anyway, Thrax attacks and we respond to it. He didn't come alone, but we weren't sure what the monster was that was with him. It was way powerful though. It overwhelmed us. It broke Jason's arm, it broke Zack's legs, it shattered several of my ribs…and it killed both Trini and David." They saw her flinch and wondered what she was hearing as she relieved that memory for them. "The monster itself was destroyed by Alexis's Supreme Bomb Attack but it put her in a coma for a few days as a result."

"Guess Mal was right to not want to use that option." Amy mused softly. Kimberly could only nod in agreement.

"What happened to Thrax?" Melody now asked her.

"Tommy went after him. Alone, at first." Kimberly explained. "He nearly killed him too but he was saved by his team mates; Connor, Kira, Ethan, Trent and Lindsey. It was that day that Lindsey discovered her secret elemental powers. Earth, like Carlos."

"Renet said that Richie used to have a thing for Trini." Aquiella remembered.

Kimberly nodded. "Yeah. Obviously it was hard to explain to the general world what happened to Trini and David. Richie was at the funeral and Tommy decided in her memory that Richie should know the truth and be offered the chance to avenge her murder."

"Is Thrax still alive?" Amy asked now.

"I'd like to say no." Kim answered. "I'd like to say that the combined powers of my team, the zeo rangers, the space rangers and the dino thunder rangers were enough to destroy him. But right now I'm not so sure."

Silence reigned for a few moments as the three processed what Kimberly said. Then Mal walked in with Evie and the Amy of that world, and the twin bond struck. The purple haired girl walked over and sat by her sister, who threw her arms around Mal's neck and held her tightly. Amy wrapped her arms gently around Kimberly's shoulders, offering as much comfort as she was getting.

"Hey." Audrey said as she and Lonnie came over to them. She quickly noticed the solemn look around the table. "Um, what'd we miss?"

"We're not actually sure." Evie admitted.

Kimberly smiled sadly at Audrey and Lonnie. "Be glad for what you two have." She said. Then she included her glances to Evie and Mal. "For your chosen sisters, for your friends and family, all of them." And with that Kimberly began to talk.


	133. Legacy Zeo

"Something has obviously gone very wrong my love." Archerinna observed as she approached Gasket, newly crowned king of the remnants of the Machine Empire. His father, mother and younger brother Sprocket had been destroyed by Zordon's wave many years ago but the two of them had been out of the time stream at the time and were immune to the wave.

He turned to look to his wife, the new queen of the Machine Empire. "So it would seem." He agreed. "We were assured the Triceratons would destroy the Earth, which is why we waited on the moon in the old palace of Rita and Zedd. But whatever has gone wrong, we will endure and survive." He looked to several Cogs. "That being said, have the six former Zeo rangers brought to us. It is time for them to serve the Machine Empire."

The new Machine Empire had converted a factory in Washington to serve their purposes. They saw their newly reinstated general Bladerunner overseeing the final preparations that they would require. "One has to wonder how these 21st century humans could possibly have access to the technology I desired." Gasket commented. "But we will take whatever advantage we can get." He approached is new general. "Is it ready?"

Bladerunner turned to Gasket. Affixed to his arms were the zeonizers, three on each arm that were used to morph, along with the golden power staff. "It is ready. We can convert the rangers when you're ready." He said.

"If this works, we can do that to all of the other rangers on this pathetic planet." Archerinna stated happily. "Perhaps even the entire population. The Earth would be ours."

"And perhaps more." Gasket added enigmatically. "But first, we must test this out to make sure it will work." They could hear the sounds of protests and the mechanical movements of their Cogs. "And here comes our test subjects."

The Cogs brought in four girls and three guys; the second red zeo ranger Emily, Kat the pink zeo ranger, Tanya the yellow zeo ranger, Rocky the blue zeo ranger, Adam the green zeo ranger, and Trey the gold zeo ranger. The last girl was named Jennifer and in fact looked very similar to Raphael's girlfriend except she had the build of a long time martial artist which made sense since she was another childhood friend of Amber's and had in fact been selected by current space ranger to replace her on the zeo team.

"Let us go right now." Tanya demanded even as she tried to pull away from the Cogs holding her.

"Not likely." Gasket stated simply. "I have plans for all of you."

"If only I could destroy you right now pink ranger." Archerinna said as she glared over at Kat. When the two had shown she had developed an intense dislike of the pink zeo ranger, something that no one quite ever understood aside from the obvious being a power ranger thing.

"Isn't that just too bad for you." Jennifer commented icily as she tried to struggle. "Whatever you have in mind won't work Gasket." She vowed.

"That is where you are wrong." Gasket told her simply. From the floor seven surgical tables were raised up. They all saw a large robotic monster coming out of the shadows to stand by the tables. "This is the Collective Overmind; he will be your new master."

"Yeah, right." Adam commented.

"Once we've given you these," Bladerunner indicated seven small vials of some moving gray material. "These nanites will take over your higher brain functions, effectively reducing you all too mindless shells that will only to as we order."

"You're crazy." Emily stated, though it was kind of a contradiction since as machines they should be immune to dementia and the like. "This will never work."

"I believe it will." Gasket said. "And when it does, we will use you to apprehend your other ranger companions and do the same thing to them. We will have our own ranger army to conquer this planet and the universe."

"Strap them down." Archerinna ordered the Cogs. They moved to do just that despite the Zeo rangers struggling. "It's time to start this out."

"I believe the proper phrase would be; you will be assimilated." Bladerunner supplied with an evil chuckle.

Four Cogs landed in between the Machine Empire rulers and the bound rangers. They were sparking and frizzing from the landing and they all looked up. Standing on a platform on the top of the warehouse were Jason, Aisha, Kimberly, Zack, Billy, Alexis, Richie and Amy. "What?" Gasket growled.

"The Power Rangers." Bladerunner stated. "How did they get here?"

"Let our friends go Gasket, right now." Jason ordered. "Otherwise you're going to regret it."

"I think not. Apparently the Triceratons were not the only ones to fail." Gasket retorted, knowing that Goldar, Scorpina and Lokar were supposed to deal with the power rangers. "Get them." The Cogs seemed to sprout jetpacks and fly up toward the eight of them even as Bladerunner too started up toward them, using his speed to ricochet up the walls toward them.

For a moment the Cogs seemed to be overwhelming in number and Gasket wondered why the eight rangers seemed to be so confident. Then from the sides emerged other rangers he had never seen before. Even as the red ranger released multiple electric arrows and the blue ranger opened up a large compact mirror and unleashed a huge burst of energy, the others withdrew their side arms and blasted as many Cogs as they could.

"Who are they?" Archerinna wondered.

"Oh my gosh guys." Tanya gasped. "The Auradon rangers."

"When did they get here?" Kat wondered.

"I'm just glad they're here." Rocky admitted.

"By order of King Gasket of the Machine Empire, you are ordered to surrender right now." Bladerunner said as he landed in front of Mal, Evie, Audrey and Lonnie.

"Well I guess you aren't the only one who got a royal promotion E." Mal noted sarcastically as she placed her blaster back in the holster on her hip to form her dragon's eye staff.

"At least she's not ordering surrenders." Audrey noted with a roll of her eyes though of course no one could see the brunette princess's movement.

Bladerunner charged forward to attack and Mal got in the way, blocking the two descending blades with her dragon's eye staff. Lonnie came forward and kicked the general backwards.

"We have to stop Gasket and Archerinna from whatever their plans are." Aisha noted as more Cogs started to appear and the monster that the new machine king had called Collective Overmind.

Mal looked to Jordan. "Take Ruby, Melody, Will, Miranda, Amy and Grant. Stop that robotic freak." She commanded. The gold ranger genie girl nodded and looked to the six of her team mates, who nodded in agreement though Amy hesitated a moment as she hated to be separated from Mal.

"Alexis and I will go with them to help down there." Jason said. He looked to Zack. "Keep things going up here."

"You got it man." Zack confirmed as the Cogs got within striking range.

Even as the red and purple ranger landed in front of Gasket and Archerinna, Jordan and her improvised team of rangers landed in front of the monster and the bound rangers. Collective Overmind was just reaching for one of the vials to inject Kat with when Will and Grant slammed into the monster and forced him backwards.

"Amy, free our friends." Jordan instructed. "We'll take keep this freak out of your way."

"Got." Amy said and stared to work on freeing Kat. She found the restraints were impossible to remove normally but since she had the power of fire to back her up she simply started to weld through them.

"Amy, Bladerunner has our zeonizers and the staff that Trey needs to morph." Kat told the rose haired rose ranger even as the bindings from across her arms and chest was welded off.

"That figures somehow." Amy said. "I'll tell Mal." It wasn't hard to focus her mind on her twin's and send out the message. _Mal. Kat says that Bladerunner has what they need to morph. We have to get that back from him if we want the zeo rangers to help us._

Mal had wondered what the objects on his arms were. _We'll take care of it Amy._ She promised her little sister and really the only one she could have a mental conversation with. She was already forming a plan in her mind though it had one unknown factor that she had to consult Audrey about as well. "Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Evie. Keep blade boy distracted." She ordered. Lonnie and her chose siblings nodded in agreement.

"Mal, what's going on?" Audrey asked her.

"Bladerunner has what the zeo ranger need." Mal explained to her. "We need to get them back. Audrey, can you make some kind of magnetic arrows to get the zeonizers attached to his arms?" She now asked her second in command.

Audrey bit her lip. She had never attempted such a thing. She was sure she could hit them and free them from the general but ordinarily they would simply hit the ground and with the fight going on the objects might get crushed. She knew intellectually the purple haired girl was hoping the magnetic arrows would instead draw the zeonizers toward her arrows so they could be recovered. "Well, I think if I reduce the electrical flow in the arrows it would do the trick." The brunette princess finally said. "I'm sure Evie, Jane or Carlos could give us a techie version of why I think it will work."

"We don't need to see the math." Mal said.

"But Mal." Audrey now said. "That won't work with the golden power staff."

"Do it." Ben said to his best friend as he raised the Praeleanthor sword. "I'll take a few Cogs out and then get the staff back."

Both girls exchanged glances and then looked at Ben. Then they both nodded. "Make it so." Mal said to her boyfriend. "And we'll get to work." With that she moved in to help her friends deal with Bladerunner, who had already slashed Lonnie and Carlos away from him and was currently working on Evie, whose mirror force shield was proving itself again to be tough as a defensive weapon.

Ben moved in and easily helped Kimberly take out some Cogs until he heard the familiar voice of the sentient sword. _Use us._ It implored the young king.

Audrey meanwhile formed six arrows into her elemental bow. She took a moment to thank her mother Aurora for giving her the necklace that allowed her the elemental control, though it was speculated Zordon had given them what they needed to boost their weapons. She was glad it was mostly mental on her part without the need to understand it because as she had told Mal she wasn't sure how to explain it scientifically. Six arrows formed in the bow and she took aim at Bladerunner as Mal kicked him away from Evie and held her arm up to stop Jay from advancing on the monster.

Audrey took aim and fired at her arrows. They soared out and split up as they grew closer to Bladerunner. They cut his arms and the metal of the zeonizers became attracted to the spark of electricity in the arrows, attaching themselves to the tips as they fell off.

"The Zeonizers." Bladerunner growled as he turned to the red Auradon ranger.

But by then Ben had moved in toward the machine general, the Auradon Knight's sword gleaming with the contained power of the fallen enemies imbued within. He unleashed the weapon's energy and it slashed Bladerunner hard, including the strap that held the golden power staff.

Even as Evie and Lonnie recovered the zeonizers from Audrey's arrows Mal ran forward and kicked Bladerunner in the back as she snatched the golden power staff from him and landed beside the Asian princess and her chosen sister, who she supposed was now an Auradon princess as well. "Jordan, we could use some help." Mal called out as she waved the staff.

Collective Overmind had slashed his way past the green and gray Auradon rangers and had advanced on Miranda, but he had discovered the Highlands ranger was indeed a challenging opponent as all of her predecessors were. After seeing that Ruby had moved on to help Amy free the zeo rangers.

Jordan had been trying to help Miranda fight but found herself kind of in the way. That came to an end though when she heard her leader call out. She looked up to see Mal with the staff, Evie and Lonnie with the zeonizers. She waved her arm almost absently and the items disappeared, only to appear on the floor in front of the seven zeo rangers.

"Our zeonizers." Jennifer gasped happily as she reached for the purple zeonizer. "Thank heavens."

"And they're undamaged." Adam added happily.

Emily attached the zeonizers to her wrists and her five earth bound team mates followed. "Guys," The blonde started. "It's morphin' time."

The five rangers connected their zeonizers together. "Zeo ranger one, pink." Kat called out. "Zeo ranger two, yellow." Tanya called out. "Zeo ranger three, blue." Rocky called out. "Zeo ranger four, green." Adam called out. "Zeo ranger five, red." Emily called out. "Zeo ranger six, purple." Jennifer called out. They appeared transformed, Jennifer looking like a zeo ranger except in her own purple with a six sided star in the center of her helmet.

Trey held up his staff and called out, "Gold ranger power." Then he transformed into the gold zeo ranger.

"Where did these fools come from?" Gasket demanded to know even as he clashed sword to sword with Jason. "We had everything covered. All of the rangers were removed from the picture and the Triceratons were supposed to destroy the Earth with that black hole generator to stop anymore resistance."

"I guess your boss should have done his homework better." Jason retorted as he kicked Gasket back. "Or else he would have known there were power rangers outside of this realm." He drew his blaster and shot it at Gasket, who dodged. "In fact if you want to point us in his direction, we'll be more than happy to say that ourselves."

"Dream on red ranger." Gasket said.

"So glad to be back in business." Tanya said. "Now let's help our friends take out that collective wannabe." The six zeo rangers joined the six Auradon rangers.

Jennifer leapt and called out, "Zeo six power kick." She impacted against Collective Overmind's back hard and then came up next to Miranda.

"Glad to see that ye're back in form." Miranda said to Jennifer. "That all of ye are in fact."

"You can't be any happier than us." Jennifer said. "Now let's finish this."

The seven Zeo rangers and the seven Auradon Rangers surrounded Collective Overmind. His hands turned into blasters and shot at the team, knocking them backwards. "Zeo three power axes." Rocky called. He then moved in with Grant to try to attack the monster and he blocked both attacks and round housed kicked them back.

"Zeo four power hatchets." Adam now called out. He moved in now with Will and the two moved in to attack but Collective Overmind flipped over their attacks and then blasted both of them in the back, sending them sprawling forward and into Rocky and Grant, who were just recovering.

Kat and Amy moved in next and tried to kick the monster in the chest only for him to take a step back and then slam the blasters into their chests hard.

"Let's try something else." Trey suggested as the chamber on the top of his golden power staff opened. "It's time for a gold rush."

"Good idea." Jordan said as she summoned her lamp cannon. "I think I can help out with that one." Together the two gold rangers unleashed a barrage of attacks on Collective Overmind but he dodged past the attacks and rose into the air.

"Resistance is futile Power Rangers." Collective Overmind spoke his first words as he aimed and fired at the two gold rangers, sending them falling back hard. "You are all irrelevant. You will be eliminated." He landed back on the ground.

Ruby lashed her hair out intending to wrap the mechanical monsters arms around his body but he proved stronger than she had thought and swung around to send her flying against a wall. Emily got in the way with her sword as he approached. She swung at him but he blocked it and then tossed her to the other side of the room, where she landed in an ungraceful heap.

"I don't think this is working quite as well as we would've liked." Miranda noted as she and Jennifer moved in to attack.

"Your resistance is futile." Collective Overmind repeated as he turned and shot at the two purple rangers, forcing them to land hand on their sides.

Jordan was starting to wonder what Mal was thinking here. None of them could be considered the cohesive unit that the purple haired girl was with Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Lonnie. It was even done in such a way that Will and Amy were also of that. She wasn't sure what they had.

Amy could kind of understand what Jordan was feeling too but she also knew her sister, and their arsenal.

"We have to get rid of those blasters." Amy said.

"I think I can give that thing a real jolt." Melody said. "But it might not be enough to do the job."

"If you can do that, we'll worry about the blasters." Emily said to the aqua ranger.

As Collective Overmind started again toward the rangers Melody raised the trident and unleashed a burst of magical energy directly at him. It did seem to deliver a bit of a paralyzing shock to the machine monster but it didn't do much else; Jordan suspected it had some kind of resistance to magic.

Emily and Kat headed toward the monster and powered up the zeo power punch, shattering the lasers into pieces.

"I think it's time for the Zeo cannon." Emily announced. She looked to Ruby. "Got anything that can go along side that?" She asked.

"Uh, I don't know." Ruby admitted a bit embarrassed. The truth however was that she had been in more fights on Earth than she had in Auradon and hadn't really learned what they could all do.

"We can use the Auradon Launcher." Amy filled in, looking between Jordan and Emily. "It might not be quite as strong as normal with only seven of us, but in concert with the Zeo cannon it should still do the job."

"It's going te have te be six." Miranda pointed out. "Someone needs to keep the monster busy."

"It can still work I bet." Jordan said.

"Then the two of us will keep the monster busy while you guys form your weapons." Trey said to the two teams of rangers. They all nodded in agreement and then the gold ranger and the Highlands ranger moved in again to attack Collective Overmind.

Meanwhile on the top section of the warehouse the Cogs were starting be worn down and Bladerunner found himself surrounded by the Auradon Rangers. "Hey Mal, I think we should introduce Bladerunner to our blaster." Jay said to her.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Carlos agreed.

"You guys go right ahead." Richie said as he stepped up to them with Amy at his side. "We've got you covered." Together the white ranger and the green ranger charged Bladerunner. The white ranger attacked with Saba and as the general blocked the attack the green ranger slid under and slashed him with the dragon dagger.

Mal placed her dragon's eye staff, followed by Audrey's elemental bow. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind, with the compact around it opening up. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the center. On either side Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers and Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens. Amy pulled Richie to the side with her as the Auradon rangers unleashed a blast from their combined weapon. Bladerunner was blasted off and sent down spiraling toward the floor.

The zeo rangers formed the Zeo cannon while Jordan and her improvised team formed the Auradon Launcher. Together the two teams took aim and fired at Collective Overmind, destroying him.

"Your plans are over Gasket." Jason said as he faced off against the Machine King. Beside him was Alexis as she faced off against the new Machine Queen. As if to prove that point Bladerunner landed roughly, but none the less on his feet, between the two. The red ranger and the purple ranger were joined by their team and the Auradon team that had been there.

Mal and Jay still held the Auradon blaster and the rest of the team joined her, with Will adding his recursive sword under Audrey's elemental bow and Amy adding the two pieces of her rose lance on the top to form, as it had been coined, the Auradon blaster 2.0. "I think it's time we send all three of these guys back to the scrap heap." Mal said.

Ben and Miranda were able to take Will and Amy's place with the Auradon Launcher.

"I agree." Jason said. Together the power rangers formed their Power Cannon with the seven rangers taking positions to use the weapon though in this case Richie didn't have a position within the formation. Together the three teams with their four weapons unleashed their energies at the three monsters.

The wall and part of the ceiling collapsed around the three machine monsters, making it almost impossible to tell if they were destroyed. None the less when the smoke cleared there was no sign of movement aside from the three ranger teams.

"I'm glad you guys got here in time." Emily said as she gave Jason a quick hug. "But what are you doing here? Last I knew before we got defeated by the Gasket and his minions all the ranger teams were out and the Triceratons were invading New York."

"Not all of the ranger teams were out, thank you very much." Jordan countered.

"It was Renet." Kimberly explained to her. "I don't know what was supposed to happen but I guess it wasn't good because she went to Auradon and brought Mal and the others here to help. They repelled the Triceratons and now we're all working to get all of us back in power."

"Well I have to say that was very well done." Rocky said. "Another moment and we would have been…whatever."

"I think the term that weird freak used was assimilated, whatever that means." Lonnie said.

With what little Evie had heard she had a few vague ideas of what they might have been attempting , none that were good. She was glad they had put that down before it really got started.

Amy went over and hugged her friend. "I'm glad you're okay Jennifer." The blonde white ranger said.

"I'm glad you're okay too." Jennifer said but then her voice turned softer. "Any word on Amber?" The white ranger shook her head softly.

"The Turtles, along with the rest of our team, are on the Megaship right now looking for signs of the other rangers." Evie revealed. "We had only just found you guys recently after Kimberly had told us about what happened with her friends." It brought a moment of silence as the zeo rangers realized she was talking about Trini and David.

"Come on." Mal said now. "Let's go see if our friends have found any of the other ranger teams." They all nodded in agreement and teleported out of the factory.

It was then that the rubble began to stir…

"Good thing you just finished up, we were just about to call you." Jane said as the Auradon rangers entered the bridge with Jason and Emily. The rest the power rangers were escorting the zeo rangers to their quarters so they too could clean up before the next time they were needed.

"Who did you find?" Mal asked.

"We're actually going to have to leave Earth for a while." Donnie said as he turned around to face them. "We're going to have to journey to KO-35."

"Wait, what?" Audrey asked confused.

"Andros, Zhane and Karone are from KO-35." Leo supplied to them all. "A human space colony. I Darkonda decided to take it back to a more familiar territory."

Lonnie nodded a bit. "I remember Karone saying that he abducted her from her home on KO-35 when she was younger, and that Darkonda would later confront Andros several times on that world, as well as Ecliptor."

"It was also one of the first worlds that Dark Specter had the United Alliance of Evil attack." Aziz added.

"We can't all just go though." Karai said. "We can't leave the Earth defenseless."

"Agreed." Leo, Mal and Jason said at the same time. Audrey. Amy and Evie laughed a little at that. "Okay," Mal said. "Jason, can you guys stay with the Mutanimals and watch over Earth while we go to KO-35 and help the space rangers."

"We can do that." Jason said.

"Mal, Amy will want to go with so she can make sure Amber is okay." Amy reminded her twin sister softly.

"No problem." Emily replied. "I'm sure Trey will be willing to stay behind to help out while Amy is with us."

"Alright." Jason said. "Let's get these plans confirmed and then get ready to move out."


	134. Legacy Space Turbo

Gathered in a ruined building on KO-35 were nine figures crouching down behind some rubble that had come in from the roof. Right now they were going unnoticed but no one expected that to last. The restored planet had suffered yet another invasion, though this time rather that by the hands of Dark Specter and Astronema it was by Darkonda and whoever the top monster was that organized the strikes against the ranger teams.

Those nine figures were the former space rangers Andros, his wife Ashley, his best friend Zhane, his sister Karone, and his friends Amber, Cassie, Carlos and TJ. Their final guest was an old friend of the four earth rangers Justin Stewart who had took up the blue turbo ranger powers to help his old friends for what that had been worth.

"Okay, can someone tell me where we went wrong here?" Carlos asked his team as he wiped blood from his cheek. "Did someone tell them we're the good guys?"

"If you want to be technical things went wrong when we saw Darkonda turn into Darkcliptor without Ecliptor being here." Cassie answered simply as she glanced at Karone, knowing her friend had some mixed feelings when it came to Ecliptor, the monster that was her former mentor and arguably even her father figure but was none the less basically still evil. It was hard to read the former princess of evil though.

"Any ideas guys?" Justin asked now. "We don't have our morphers anymore." Those had been stripped from them when Darkcliptor had ambushed the team and the Quantrons had overwhelmed them. In that melee the semi sentient cars Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster had disappeared.

"Why are we even here?" Karone now asked. "One minute we're on Earth powerless, hearing about the Triceraton's invasion and the next minute we're here on KO-35." Her past as Astronema had led her to believe they had been left behind to watch the planet they spent over a decade defending be destroyed as a form of punishment. She wondered what had happened to change that.

"Maybe they decided they'd rather us watch our planets invasion instead." Zhane suggested. Three of them were from KO-35 originally after all. "Or maybe…maybe the Triceratons finished with Earth and they're coming here to KO-35 with that black hole generator to do the same thing."

"This has all been too well timed." Andros said with a shake of his head. "I'd love to get my hands on the monster that organized this mass extinction."

They heard noise overhead and knew the Quantrons were searching for them. They didn't seem to care that they had served Karone as Astronema a long time ago, they had attacked her just as easily. "We can't stay here." TJ said. "We have to get going now."

They stepped outside and then a sound made Amber turn around. "Guys, we've been spotted." They turned to see a dozen Quantrons approaching them. The rangers moved in to try to make short work of them and try again to sneak away.

That plan fell to pieces when Darkcliptor turned the corner with more Quantrons. "Ah, the former rangers." He said gleefully. "Let's put this chase away, shall we?" He pointed one of his swords at the team. "Get them." He commanded.

"What do we do Andros?" Ashley asked as she kicked a Quantron away and dodged another one. "We're going to get boxed in at this rate."

"I don't know." Andros admitted reluctantly as he flipped over one and kicked another in the chest hard.

Darkcliptor tried to stab Cassie with one of his swords but Amber jumped in the way with a pile of rubble and intercepted the attack. The sword shattered the temporary shield but was enough for the two girls to slip out of the way.

Then two monsters appeared, one red and one blue. Very mechanical almost like the Quantrons. The red one leapt out and slammed hard into Ashley, a metallic tentacle like thing wrapping around her waist and chest hard. The blue one performed the same maneuver against Karone.

"Andros!" Darkcliptor called out. He turned to see the red and blue monsters keeping a tight hold on his wife and sister.

"No." Zhane gasped.

"Ashley, Karone." Cassie gasped as well and started over to try to help them only to get hit in the back of the head with the blunt end of a Quantron weapon.

"Let them go." Amber demanded. She was very much used to commands like that. Though technically she was never a leader of a ranger team she certainly had the experience to do so if the chance had come up.

Darkcliptor stood in between the two bound girls. "You have a choice to make red ranger." He said gleefully. "Your wife or your sister." He placed each of the swords under their chins next to their throats. "Who do you send to their death first?"

At first silence reigned in the area as each of the ranger's absorbed what was about to happen. They knew both girls would be dead in a matter of moments. Then perhaps the last thing they expected happened. A small bubble started to form and quickly grew before exploding in front of the five of them, releasing a massive amount of energy. They saw the three monsters land hard.

"But where are the girls?" Justin wondered.

Then they heard, "Booyakasha!" And saw Mikey holding Karone in his arms while Donnie had Ashley in his arms. They landed in front of Andros.

Several Quantrons fell from a shuriken barrage from Raph and Leo even as Venus and Aaliyah took out another small group of Quantrons.

"How did you do that?" TJ asked Raph.

"We didn't." Raph said. "That was her, though I don't know how."

"Oh my gosh." Amber said happily.

Mal lowered her hands. She had intended to release her original blast of energy that she had used, something her sister Amy had called a flare. But instead she had done something entirely different though the results were what counted. "Hey Amber." The purple haired purple ranger said. "I guess this time our roles are reversed." She had Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Amy, Jay and Ally behind her. And beside them was another welcome sight, at least to the purple space ranger.

"Amber." Amy gasped and ran over to hug her long-time friend tightly. "I was so worried about you."

"I was worried for you too Amy." Amber said as she returned her own chosen sister's hug. She looked to Mal. "That was amazing. What did you do?"

"Um, that would be a good question." Mal admitted. "That wasn't what I was trying to do but at least I helped you."

"Impossible." Darkcliptor growled as he stood up. "You're all supposed to be dead. Earth is supposed to be destroyed, the end of the power rangers was at hand."

"Guess someone messed up then. Their loss." Jay said as he aimed his scimitar at Darkcliptor. "Tell us where their morphers are you ugly little freak."

"I think not." Darkcliptor said. "My two monsters will destroy you all."

"That's what he thinks." Audrey said with a smirk as she formed her elemental bow. "Let's send these cars to the scrap heap."

"Wait." Amy said as she placed her hand on Audrey's arm gently. "I don't know if we can destroy those monsters."

"Of course we can." Carlos said dismissively. "They look pretty easy."

Amy rolled her eyes. "No, I mean I don't think those monsters are really monsters. Something about their auras…they're cloudy. It's like one is trying to overshadow the other one." She wasn't sure she was explaining this right.

But TJ and Justin exchanged looks of worry. "Do you think…?" Justin started.

"That that is Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster." TJ finished. "I have a bad feeling that they might be."

"Who?" Yellow ranger Carlos asked.

"Two sentient cars that helped us fight Divatox and her forces." Black ranger Carlos answered. "They're our friends."

"One way to find out." Evie declared. She raised her mirror force shield. "Mirror, mirror in my palms. Show me the truth behind the parts." She recited. They could easily see that Amy had been right. The two monsters were a warped version of the two cars.

"That is just messed up." Mikey commented.

"What do we do?" Cassie asked now.

Mal looked toward the monsters, Darkcliptor and the Quantrons. "We have to free the two of them and get the morphers back." She stated. She wished she could figure out where those morphers were. Then she noticed something.

But Donnie was the one to voice it first. "Something is kind of wrong with those three. Like, like they've been poisoned or something." He noted. The purple masked turtle looked to Mal. "It's like that attack of yours poisoned them."

"Ha, ha." Mikey laughed. "They got bio'ed."

"Where are their morphers anyway?" Aziz wanted to know. "I don't see them hanging onto any of them like the zeonizers were with Bladerunner or the power coins and morphers were from Scorpina."

"Wait a minute." Ally said. "When we saw the monsters were these Lighting Cruiser and Storm Blaster cars I saw a bag in Storm Blaster's trunk. I bet anything that holds the morphers."

"I think Ally's right." Evie agreed. She looked to her own chosen sister. "What's the plan M?"

"Amy, Audrey." Mal said as she looked to her twin and her second in command. "Let's provide these guys with a hailstorm." The two nodded, Audrey preparing her elemental bow for a hail of arrows as Ally withdrew her crystal cards and unfurled them.

"We can help too." Aaliyah said to Mal. "With a hail of shuriken too."

"Good idea." Mal said as the five ninja turtles pulled out shurikens. She hated to do this next part but knew it had to be done and that her twin sister would be upset if she chose not to do this merely to protect her. "Amy, get past the hail and get those morphers."

"I'm on it Mal." Amy promised as she ran toward the monsters. The turtle team and the two rangers unleashed their hail of weapons respectively even as the Quantrons charged forward. A lot of them were taken down by the barrage and those that weren't couldn't lay a hand on Amy, something that Darkcliptor couldn't understand. Those Quantrons that survived the barrage and got left behind were attacked by Venus and the other rangers.

The two monsters unleashed energy at Amy and she was barely able to dodge out of the way of that. While she had used her intangibility to bypass the Quantrons she had to balance her use so that it was strong enough to grab the morphers when she bypassed the monster.

Darkcliptor growled at her. "It's time to end your run, little rose pink." He moved in to bring his swords down on Amy but the rose ranger turned intangible again and ran right through the monstrous general. At the other end she became solid for just a moment before diving into the blue car monster.

"I sure hope this works." Carlos said as the black ranger blocked a Quantron attack and flipped it on its side. "If not I don't know what we're going to do."

"We do have backup in orbit." Aziz told him as he used his spiral spear to take out a couple of Quantrons. "The zeo are on the Megaship and ready to come down if we need them." He didn't point out that Trey had remained on Earth with the Mighty Mutanimals and the power rangers. "We also have some of our other team mates standing by."

Cassie and Ashley kicked a Quantron in the chest and it was sent rolling, colliding with a couple of others. "What happened to Earth?" Cassie asked Aaliyah.

The female turtle used her bunrei to slash a couple of Quantrons back and then turned around to slam her shell into another one, something she found she enjoyed doing. As a human she could have never done that. "We were able to repel them, thanks to Renet going to Auradon and drafting the Auradon rangers to help us." She explained. "Then we knew we had to move on to get all of the ranger powers restored."

"They are still out there." Venus added. "All we could do is take apart the heart of darkness and scatter it into a dark matter nebula."

"Great, more to worry about." Zhane remarked with a grimace even as he took out another Quantron.

Mal was just starting to worry that sending Amy in wasn't a good idea when she saw her younger twin sister slipping out again with the bag in her hand. She found herself in the very unfortunate position of being blocked by monsters and isolated from her friends. "Oh no." She whispered.

Amy saw her positon too. "Oh my pink." She muttered, wishing she had thought about that originally. She already had the two monsters turning toward her. As much as she didn't want to see any potential allies destroyed it was not looking good.

"Stop her." Darkcliptor ordered the two monsters and summoning more Quantrons.

"Ah shell." Raph muttered as he and some of the others started to try to get there.

The two car monsters fired at the rose haired rose ranger but a huge wall of ice rose up to protect her. The wall shattered and Ellie stood there with her hand raised. Beside her were Melody, Aquiella, Alex and Miranda.

"More rangers." Darkcliptor growled in frustration and annoyance. He had never heard of such a large team before. The Quantrons had moved in at the point but were easily dispatched by the fire knight and the female rangers.

Melody aimed the trident at the bag and used the energy of the trident to send it flying in the air, past the group of minions and straight into Karone's arms. "Nice shot." Aquiella said to her cousin.

Karone dumped the bag and tossed the morphers to her brother, boyfriend and her friends. "Let's Rocket!" Andros called out and then all of the space rangers morphed, as did Justin into the blue turbo ranger.

"Okay, that's that." TJ stated. "But how do we free Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster from those monster shells?"

Cassie used her satellite stunner and aimed it at the monsters. But she wasn't attacking them. Instead she conducted a scan of the monsters to confirm what Donatello had speculated. "They have some kind of poison coating on them, it's slowly weakening the monsters. It's also affecting Darkcliptor. If we can destroy the outer shells we can free Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster and send Darkcliptor packing."

"Just like we did with Goldar, Scorpina, Gasket, Archerinna and Bladerunner." Jay said happily.

Audrey looked to her team and then the space rangers. "We need to get up to where our other friends are and use the Auradon Launcher and the Quadrablaster to destroy those shells." She said to them.

"You just have to cut across all of the field of Quantrons first." Zhane drawled.

"No we don't." Mal said to him. "I've got a spell I can try to get us past that." She raised her dragon's eye staff. "Positioned we are, in the wrong places be. Navigate our way, to the true path we seek." She intoned.

"That one wasn't too bad." Carlos said.

"Glad you approve." Audrey remarked with an eye roll.

Darkcliptor was surprised to see the girls and Alex disappear. They reappeared by the turtles, and Donnie let out a gaps of, "Unbelievable." Mikey likewise said, "As Casey would say that was so metal." They joined the turtles, Zhane, Amber, Amy, Justin and Karone in dealing with the Quantrons on that side.

Even more surprising and infuriating to him was the appearance of the space rangers and the Auradon rangers. In between the transition Andros had formed his Spiral Saber booster mode, the four rangers had formed the Quadrablaster and the Auradon rangers had formed their original Auradon Launcher.

"What can we say, it's magic." Mal said simply before they unleashed the power of their three weapons. It struck the three monsters head on. As the two monsters went flying the outer coating that had made Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster into the enemy fell off like old snake skin and when they landed they were themselves again. Darkcliptor landed hard.

"Awesome they did it." Justin said happily even as Storm Blaster started to blast away Quantrons to the rangers.

"This isn't over." Darkcliptor said. "I still intend to tear you all to pieces." With that he brought his two swords together and blasted at the two teams of rangers. They fell back and their weapons were separated. He leapt right at them and forced them apart.

"I've been waiting for this a long time Darkonda." Andros reminded him and swung his spiral saber at him.

"That's Darkcliptor red ranger." The general reminded him as he blocked the attack with one sword and then slashed Andros hard across the chest. Audrey and Mal tried to move in and he slashed both rangers back.

Before the rest of the team could react Darkcliptor turned around and again combined his swords and blasted the four space rangers and the four Auradon rangers. He started to approach Evie and Ashley. "Let's thin this unneeded herd down a bit." He said gleefully.

"Not so fast Darkonda." Andros said as he got up.

"We're not done with you." Audrey added as she got up.

Darkcliptor turned around at laughed at them. "I told you that it's Darkcliptor. And what exactly are you going to do rangers?" He asked them.

"We'll show you what we're going to do." Mal said to Audrey and Andros. "I think it's time to go to the next level." She looked to Audrey. "Shiny style and dragon style." The red ranger nodded in agreement and even Andros seemed to pick up on the idea behind what they wanted.

Together the three rangers activated their battlizers. Andros became the red battlized ranger, Audrey changed into her diamond battlizer and Mal transformed into her dragon battlizer.

"A purple ranger with a battlizer?" Darkcliptor questioned in some shock. He had never seen a purple ranger with that kind of power before, despite their often extra abilities this was a new development. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"We're the Power Rangers of Auradon." Audrey said to him. "And all of you are only starting to learn what we can really do."

Darkcliptor combined his swords again and blasted at them, but Audrey raised her arms and produced a large crystalline shield in front of the three of them. Then Mal and Andros soared up into the air. Andros fired missiles at his longtime rival while Mal unleashed a draco meteor at him. Darkcliptor landed hard and lost his grip on his swords as the shield faded.

Mal looked to her second in command. "Your turn Audrey." She said and shrunk her dragon's eye staff to the size of an arrow. "It's time for you and Andros to send this creep packing." She had not forgotten that this was the fiend who had kidnapped Karone and delivered her to the life of Astronema. She had not been born evil unlike her and her chosen siblings, yet they had all followed very similar paths.

"Time to say goodnight Darkonda." Audrey said a bit condescendingly as she took the dragon's eye arrow from the purple haired purple ranger and placed in on her elemental bow. Andros again unleashed a barrage of missiles and right behind that, dragonic energy building up behind it, Audrey shot the arrow straight at him. Together the impact was huge.

When the smoke cleared they were a bit dismayed to see Darkonda had survived. But he stumbled from the smoke and had lost his enhanced form. He flexed his sword arm as if considering continuing the battle but hesitated as the three batillized rangers were joined by the rest of the space rangers, Auradon rangers, Amy the white ranger, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. "I promise you will all live to regret this." Darkonda vowed before vanishing.

The rangers all powered down to celebrate.

"You did it." Amy said excitedly as she high fived with Audrey and then hugged her twin sister. "You were all so awesome."

"That was great." Ashley agreed as she threw her arms around her husband. The two shared a soft kiss for a moment before Andros pulled away.

"He still got away." Andros mused softly. He would never forgive him for abducting Karone, and Mal understood that perfectly even as she looked at her own twin sister and remembered Maleficent taking her memories of Amy away just before going to Auradon.

"You'll get him next time." Lonnie said to him. "And we'll help you out too." She knew her boyfriend Will would be more than willing to help out, and as she thought about Whitney she realized she would too.

"You've already helped us out more than you know." Carlos said as he placed his hand on Jay's shoulder. "We would have been done without you."

"And I think I heard you say you have our ship up and running too." Zhane said hopefully as he placed an arm around Karone's shoulder.

"In orbit with the zeo rangers, Doug, April, Jennifer, Karai and Casey." Leo said as Aaliyah took his hand and the two exchanged small smiles.

Amber smiled at Mal. "I can't believe you guys are here. This is just so cool." She admitted as the two purple rangers high fived and then smiled softly at the rose haired Amy even as her blonde friend Amy smiled happily.

"We should get back to Earth." TJ said now. "The quicker we help the other rangers the better."

"He is right." Venus agreed. "Who knows how long the power rangers and the Mutanimals can hold out with everything that is going on now."

Carlos took out his iPhone and pressed the send button. "Jane, we're ready to come aboard now. And we have all of our friends in tow." He reported.

"Great to hear that one." Jane said. "Prepare to come home everyone." Moments later they were transported off of the surface of KO-35.

"Where did those obnoxious pests come from?" Darkonda demanded to know as he looked around at the surviving generals; Goldar, Scorpina, Gasket, Archerinna, and Bladerunner. "We specifically eliminated those power pests. All the Triceratons had to do was plant the heart of darkness!"

"Admiral Mozar insists they did." Gasket answered. "They were moments away from activating it. The turtles and those mutant freaks of theirs could do nothing. Then those other rangers showed up out of nowhere." He slammed his sword on the ground angrily.

"It must have been that annoying time mistress." Goldar growled. "Somehow she must have known where to get rangers that none of us have ever heard of before. There seem to be more in that group than have ever been recorded, even those Dino Charge rangers can't compare."

"What are we going to do now my love?" Archerinna asked Gasket. "How do we deal with all of these extra rangers?"

"We need to find out where they came from and figure out what to do about them." Said a voice from the darkness. "It's time to start our own investigation. When they show up to stop me, and they inevitably will, I want to be ready."

The Astro Megaship headed toward Earth at maximum hyper rush velocity. Amber greeted each of her zeo ranger friends happily. The others reunited happily as well.

"We're doing a good thing here Mal." Ben said to the purple haired girl as he hugged her tightly. "Your mother might not like it, but I know my mom will be very proud of you."

"I hope everything is okay in Auradon." Mal admitted softly as she took his hand and squeezed it gently. "That's my one worry. What if the pastel powers aren't enough to keep Auradon safe from my mother?"

Ben nodded toward the bridge. "Then we have friends who are more than willing to give us a hand to right that." He replied simply. Andros and Carlos were talking ship talk with Evie, Jane, Doug, Donnie and Carlos. Cassie was showing Amy and Lonnie how to use the navigation console. Zhane was showing Aziz, Jay and Raph the tactical console. Through it all Mikey, Ally and Jennifer were handing out pizza and soda so they could recharge themselves before the next battle.

From a console in back Aaliyah and Karone looked up. "Andros, we're receiving a distress call." Karone said to her brother. "A small ship heading toward Earth. It was tracked on a crash course on Beta XII." She informed him.

"We don't have time to be the good samaritan here." Raph reminded them all bluntly.

"I hate to say it but Raph's right." TJ agreed.

"Isn't there a way we could split up or something?" Kat asked now.

"Guys, we don't have a choice." Doug now revealed. "I scanned that ship. There are six ranger signatures onboard the ship plus another of similar power level." He brought them up on a small side screen on the main bridge screen.

Karone recognized it. There was no way she could miss it. "The Galaxy rangers." She whispered.

They all understood now. "Cassie, alter our course to that ship and maintain speed." Andros ordered. "Donatello, contact Professor Rockwell and tell them that they're going to have to hold the fort for a little while longer."

"On it." Cassie and Donnie replied.

"Hold on guys. We're on our way." Mal whispered softly to their fellow rangers.


	135. Legacy Lost Galaxy

The Megaship approached Beta XII and entered orbit. "Who do you think is waiting for us down there?" Carlos wondered as he looked at the planet. So far they'd seen several past villains show up from Goldar and Scorpina to Darkonda.

Karone bit her lip a little. "My guess would be some of Trakeena's minions. Maybe even Trakeena herself." She speculated. She looked to the others. "But there is only one way to find out."

The Space Rangers started toward the back of the bridge with Mal, Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Evie, and Will. Jordan watched them go and then looked back at the members of the Auradon Force team left behind; their king Ben, Aziz, Ally, Amy, Miranda, Melody, Aquiella, Grant, Ellie and Alex along with herself. "It kind of bites that so many of us get left behind simply because we're a bigger group." She mused.

"Look at it this way," Miranda replied. "If something happens and they aren't able to do the job, at least we can step in to back them up." She looked to the screen. "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that."

"There may not be much we can do right now." Amy said regretfully, hating to let her twin sister go into battle without her. Alex placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and she smiled softly. Still, her special empathic powers made her aware of one thing. She looked to the Turtles. "But I think there's something you guys can do." She said.

But it was not Trakeena that had pursued the Galaxy Rangers as they had made their way to Earth in an attempt to lend in a hand in stopping either the Triceratons or the other invading evil forces. Instead they had been pursued by the last general to serve both Trakeena and her father Scorpius; the treacherous general Deviot.

He lifted the yellow galaxy ranger Maya by her throat. "Finally, after all of this time I can destroy you all." He gloated as he squeezed her throat hard, making her cough as she tried to take a breath.

"Let her go." Her best friend Shondra and the recently discovered purple galaxy ranger tried to demand only to be kicked in the side hard by one of the Sting Wingers, former minions of Trakeena's army that Deviot had bestowed upon him.

Leo and Mike Corbett, the red galaxy ranger and Magna Defender respectively, tried as well and were kicked in the back by more Sting Wingers.

Deviot laughed and tossed Maya to the ground hard, next to Damon and Kai the green and blue Galaxy Rangers. Two more had the pink galaxy ranger Kendrix restrained as well. Lying in the middle of the area were the Quasar sabers and Mike's morpher. "I'll return to you later girl, after we've finished our task."

From outside stood seven Sting Wingers that had been specifically modified by his longtime friend Darkonda so that they could use the powers of the Quasar sabers. "Take up the weapons and become the dark Galaxy Rangers." Deviot told them. "And together we will begin our attack upon the rest of the galaxy and bring everyone to their knees."

"Sorry guys, but these don't belong to you." They heard a guy state as he elbowed his way past the Sting Wingers and snatched the blades and the morphers. "But I'll make sure they get passed on to their rightful owners." Jay stopped in front of Mal and Audrey.

"What is this?" Deviot questioned with amusement. But that amusement soon changed when he saw who was behind them. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to rescue our friends." Andros informed him simply.

"And send you packing." TJ added.

Maya smiled happily at seeing their friends the Space Rangers again, especially Karone. "You guys are okay." She said through a slightly raspy voice.

"But how?" Deviot demanded. "You were supposed to be dealt with."

"Plans have changed." Mal said simply. "Whoever your boss is about to see what kind of mistake he or she made when they decided to attack our friends."

The seven 'special' Sting Wingers quickly took their places to guard the Galaxy Rangers. The rest of them came to stand beside Deviot. "Let's see if you can back up those words girl." He looked to the minions. "Get them." The Sting Wingers surged forward.

Andros looked to Mal. "You know what time it is?" He asked.

Mal nodded. "I do." She replied.

Together Andros called out, "Let's rocket!" as Mal called out, "Let's get to work!"

At that point Deviot understood what had gone wrong but was unsure how it had happened. "More Power Rangers. Where did they come from?" He wondered angrily.

Amber looked to Mal now. "Come on Mal; let's show Deviot what he signed up for when he agreed to try to take all of us out." She said. Mal nodded in agreement and the two summoned their weapons before knocking Sting Wingers aside.

Karone held back because she had another important task to attend too. She needed to give her friends back their powers. The one thing they had not counted on was the unique Sting Wingers standing around her friends. "How do I get by them?" She wondered.

Seven figures moved by her and for a moment she was startled until one of them broke that silence. "Booyakasha!" Mikey shouted as he kicked the yellow coated Sting Winger. His three brothers and three female companions were more quite as Leo attacked the red one, Raph attacked the blue one, Donnie attacked the green on, April attacked the pink one, Aaliyah attacked the black one and Jennifer attacked the purple one.

"Are those giant turtles?" Shondra couldn't help but question. She had never seen the Ninja Turtles before, and even then the Galaxy Rangers had only heard about them.

"I think so." Maya answered her friend softly.

"It's okay, they're friends." Karone said as she came over and started to give her friend's their power sources back. "And I think they could use your help against those things that wanted to steal your powers."

"Then let's give them a hand." Leo the red ranger decided. They all nodded in agreement and rushed into the fray.

"Need a hand Leo?" The red galaxy ranger asked the blue masked turtle as he connected a solid kick into the insect's chest.

The name irony didn't escape the blue masked turtle. He wondered if that was how Carlos the black space ranger and Carlos the yellow Auradon ranger felt. "I'd be honored for the help Leo." He answered and they both chuckled a bit.

"Your plans fallen apart Deviot." Mal said as she tried to jab him in the chest with the jeweled end of her dragon's eye staff. "Your special little bugs are about to go down for the count and the Galaxy Rangers have their powers back."

Deviot glared with hatred at them. "Where did you all come from?" He demanded to know. "We had all of the ranger teams accounted for when we began our attack on Earth. We even accounted for those mutant freaks when we allied with the Triceratons."

"Freaks? Have you looked in the mirror lately?" Amber questioned him as she kicked him in the chest before unleashing a burst of lightning at him that he barely dodged.

"I take it fairy tales are an Earth thing?" Mal guessed with a smirk as the two purple rangers stood side by side.

"Pretty much." Amber confirmed. "Good for us, bad for them."

Mal laughed. "You can say that again." She agreed.

"Let's crank this up to an eleven." Leo said to his team. "It's time for us to morph too."

"What does that mean? Crank it up to an eleven?" Shondra wondered. Maya simply shrugged, she wasn't sure what that meant either.

"Go Galactic." The seven rangers morphed into the Galaxy Rangers, Shondra's purple ranger suit looking just like the rest of the team. "Magna Power." Mike transformed into the Magna Defender. They stood side by side with the five turtles and the two girls.

"You bugs wanted our powers? Let's see how you handle them." Damon said as he gestured toward the modified Sting Wingers. Together the fourteen of them headed moved forward to engage the monsters.

Deviot hated what he was seeing. Andros and Audrey were fighting side by side with their bladed weapons taking out Sting Wingers. TJ and Evie were doing the same thing even though the blue Auradon ranger had to use her shield and was bashing more than slashing. Carlos the space ranger and Jay were slashing with their weapons. Carlos the Auradon ranger was taking out the ones that Ashley couldn't take out with her Star Slinger. Lonnie was taking out the ones that Cassie could not take out with her Satellite Stunner.

And he still had Mal and Amber in front of him to worry about. "I'll make all of you pay." Deviot said and charged toward Mal. He tried to slash her with his sword but Mal blocked it and then tripped him up.

"The only one who will pay is you." Mal said, sounding a bit like her mother at that moment. "Not just you; your boss and everyone who has followed your boss in this destructive plan of his. For what you tried to do to my friends. For what you tried to do to Earth."

"This isn't over yet." Deviot retorted. "I would have preferred that my Sting Wingers had gotten their hands on the Quasar sabers but we can do this another way too." He raised his voice to be heard over the fight. "It's time to morph my wingers."

The seven Sting Wingers joined their claws together and shot out another energy blast at the six Galaxy Rangers, the Magna Defender and the turtle team. They all fell back hard. "That hurt." Damon noted. "I feel kind of drained from that too." He added though he saw that he was still morphed.

"I know what you mean." Kendrix assured him as she struggled to stand up too.

"I think I hit my head." Mikey said with a sigh. "My brain hurts."

"What brain?" Raph asked his youngest brother rhetorically.

"Oh guys. I think we have a new problem." April said now as the smoke cleared and she saw that the Sting Wingers had taken on a look that made them resemble Sting Winger rangers, one of them was even half covered in black armor like the Magna Defender.

"That can't be good." Red Ranger Leo said.

Deviot laughed. "Now why don't we try this again?" He asked rhetorically as more Sting Wingers appeared and charged the Auradon and Space Rangers. Meanwhile the new Sting rangers for lack of better terms attacked again.

"Well these things have gotten stronger." Shondra noted as she blocked her attacker with her Quasar saber. She tried to strike back but her opponent blocked the attack and kicked her back.

"Let's get back into this." Raph said to his friends only to have more Sting Wingers block their way. "Ah shell."

The yellow and pink Sting rangers struck the two girls back hard, and they were barely able to avoid a follow up stab. The blue one blocked the saber strike from Kai and jabbed him in the chest hard with both blades. The green one tried to decapitate Damon but he dodged under the blow only to receive a kick to his chin.

"Mal we have to get over there and help them." Will said to their leader.

"We have to get by the Sting Wingers first." Carlos reminded him.

"Looks like you should have brought more helpers Power Rangers." Deviot taunted them with a laugh.

"Wait a minute, we did." Mal said with a smile. "And in just a minute you're going to meet them."

"Impossible." Deviot responded. "I can count just fine girl. There are seven of you, as it has been for quite a long time. There are no more."

"Is that along the same thought that you thought all of the rangers had been taken care of?" Lonnie asked now. "Because if that's how you're basing your process of elimination than it just proves how foolish your assumptions really are."

"Enough talk." Deviot growled. "I've had enough of your…" Whatever he was about to say was cut off as Miranda and Grant kicked him in the chest hard and sent him sprawling backwards.

Amy was by her twin sister. "I got your psychic message Mal. I guess we can be useful after all." She said.

"You're always useful Amy." She reminded her little sister and then to all of her team mates, also reaching out to touch Ben's arm. "Change of plans guys. Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie, Lonnie and Ben with me. Let's help the Galaxy Rangers deal with those wannabe rangers. Miranda, lead the rest of the team against these Sting Wingers."

"Sounds like plan to me Mal." Miranda said.

"Melody and I will deal with Deviot." Jane said to her and the orange ranger nodded in agreement.

"Then let's get to work." Mal said and the team split up. Amy started to help Cassie out, Ally started to help out Ashley, Aziz went over to help Carlos, TJ had some help cooling the Sting Wingers around him from Ellie while Andros started to heat up the battle with help from Alex.

"Where did you all come from?" Deviot growled as he tried to strike at Jane.

Melody blocked his attack with the trident she used, originally from her grandfather King Triton. "I kind of came from the sea actually. What roach infested nest did you come from?" She questioned as Jane kicked him backwards.

"What kind of world would produce twenty power rangers?" Deviot wondered. The fact that Ben, Ellie and Alex were technically not power rangers was beside the point.

Jane wanted to respond by saying it had to be a good world but the response would not come. If a world was truly good then why did it need protecting, especially from twenty chosen warriors. But it was Melody who replied, "A world that knows it needs to be protected, and considering how many rangers have been made here it seems like it was a good call."

Mal and her team fought their way through the Sting Wingers with help from their other friends. Mal gave a wave of thanks to Ruby for her big help with that, and more importantly in some ways her hair whip. They jumped out and kicked the insect rangers. "You may have a taste of their powers, but let's see how you handle ours."

The insect rangers attacked. Mal found herself blocking both bladed attacks from her opponent with her dragon's eye staff, as did Evie with her own mirror force shield. Carlos and Lonnie were blocking and riposting with claw daggers and hurricane tessens respectively. Jay had a more difficult time doing so with only his soul scimitar but was keeping it together. Audrey used her cheerleading skills to dodge her own opponent and try to take him out with arrows from her elemental bow.

The insect ranger that faced off against kept on slashing and he kept on blocking with his shield but wasn't having much luck. Without much else to work with Ben did what he admittedly thought he should have done in the first place by pulling out the Praeleanthor sword.

Its power attracted Deviot even though his battle against Jane and Melody was about as far as they could get and still be in combat. "What? That weapon, here?" He couldn't help but ask.

"How does he know about that?" Melody wondered as she glanced at Jane. The white Auradon ranger could only shrug uncertainly.

"The civilization the weapon came from, as well as the demon race it was created to combat, is better known here than they are in Auradon." Amber explained. "It's look and architecture are similar in structure. I think that's why."

Ben started to fight his opponent and found the armor was pretty durable, much as his own was. "We need to get some kind of edge against these guys." He said to Mal. "Before they find one on us."

Leo watched Audrey as she dodged out of the way of another attack but had to switch from long range attacks to using her bow short range, which is why not for the first time she was glad that the edges were sharp enough to serve as weapons. But it still didn't seem to be enough. Then he had an idea. "Come on guys, let's get to the rangers." He said to them.

"What good will that do?" Damon asked him. "They can handle us just fine."

"Yeah I know." Leo said as they all came up in front of their counterparts, though Mal thought it looked a bit weird to see Jay and Damon, different colors but basically the same ranger positions, standing side by side. "But I don't think they can handle both of our powers."

"So we fight side by side then." Carlos deduced.

"Not this time." Leo said to them and then extended his Quasar saber to Audrey. "You can use the Quasar sabers to combine your powers with ours. You guys can temporarily become the Auradon Galaxy Rangers."

Maya, Kendrix, Shondra and Kai understood immediately and offered their Quasar sabers to Carlos, Lonnie, Mal and Evie respectively. Damon hesitated a moment but offered his to Jay. Mike wasn't entirely sure if it would work the same way or not but offered his weapon to the king of Auradon.

After a moment Mal nodded and reached her free hand out, grasping the Quasar saber. Her team mates followed and grasped the sabers and then picking them up. They could feel the power flowing through them. Around their chests everyone except for Ben had the white and black patterns of the Galaxy Rangers appear.

"You have to admit this looks cool." Carlos said. It wasn't as obvious on Jay since he was already a black ranger but on the others it was and Evie had to agree with her friend.

"Let's hope it's more than just a great fashion statement." Audrey said. She looked to Mal. "I say it's time we show those bug brains a thing or two."

"I agree with you Audrey." Mal said as the seven of them turned to the insect rangers. "One more time."

Again the Auradon Rangers went after the insect rangers. This time Lonnie, Carlos, Audrey and Mal battled with their natural weapon and the Quasar sabers. Evie found herself battling like Ben would, Quasar saber in one hand and mirror force shield in the other. Ben however was battling just like Jay was with the dual blades of their own and their borrowed weapons.

After a moment Kendrix noted that as long as they were doing this they might as well go full blast. "I bet you guys can use the lights of Orion. Just hold out the Quasar sabers and call out for them." She instructed the Auradon Rangers.

"I think it's worth a try." Lonnie voiced as she looked to Mal. "Maybe in conjunction with our neon armor it will be enough to overpower these insect creatures."

Mal nodded. "Let's do it guys." She decided. The six of them held up the Quasar sabers and called out. "Lights of Orion activate!" The lights responded to their commands and they found themselves in the same Orion upgrades that the Galaxy Rangers wore. Then with Ben beside them they turned around and called out, "Neon Armor activate." The now neon colored Auradon Orion rangers stood ready.

"Well if that doesn't do it, I don't know what will." Kai commented.

With lightning speed the six Auradon Rangers and the Auradon Knight moved in and attacked again. This time it was the insect rangers that were on the defensive, barely having the speed to block their attacks and being unable to mount an effective counterattack.

"I have an idea." Lonnie said as she looked to her teammates. "Fall back a second." She looked to Ben. "You first your majesty."

Ben nodded and with speed dashed forward and slashed them all down hard. He heard the ever present mystery voice from his weapon say _Use Us_ and he turned around and tossed the Praeleanthor sword as hard as he could where the semi-sentient weapon slashed through them before returning to the Auradon Knight.

"Now I say we move in." Jay stated.

"I say we do too." Mal agreed. They dashed toward the Insect Rangers and with the combined speed of their neon armor and the Lights of Orion they impacted with the creatures and destroyed them, emerging on the other side as the smoke and fire cleared.

"You're out of luck Deviot." Jane said to him.

"Not as long as I'm still standing ranger." Deviot retorted.

"Yeah, I plan on changing that right now." Melody told him as she kicked him backwards. He stumbled and turned to glare at the aqua ranger but that was all the distance she needed. She charged up as much power as she could into the trident before tossing it right at him. Before he could figure out what to do it cut right through him and he too fell in a blaze of fiery destruction.

"About time we got one of those clowns." Raph stated. Goldar, Scorpina, Gasket, Archerinna, Bladerunner, Darkonda and possibly even Lokar had all escaped their last encounter.

The rangers all powered down and then returned their weapons back to their rightful owners. "That's some feeling, those Lights of Orion." Carlos noted. "Never felt anything like that before."

"There's a lot we don't really know about them." Maya said. "Only that for a long while we had Furio looking for them too, as well as the original Magna Defender." She rubbed her throat a bit, it still hurting a little from Deviot all but strangling her.

"Will you be okay?" Amy asked the yellow Galaxy Ranger.

"I'll be fine." She promised the rose haired girl.

"How do you think Deviot knew we were on our way to help?" Shondra now asked them.

"It might have just been obvious." Donnie said to her simply. They had to take a moment to reprocess the large talking turtle though in truth they had seen stranger and far worse things as Power Rangers. "I mean whoever set up this large scale attack has so far anticipated every variable in the books, except for the Auradon Rangers."

"And I'd guess that's only because we don't belong in this universe. Without Renet we couldn't be here right now." Jane added.

"I think our ship is done for though." Damon noted. He looked to Andros. "Hey, I don't suppose we can hitch a ride with you guys to Earth?"

Andros laughed a little. "Consider it done guys." He said.

"So if you were out here, what happened to the Triceratons? To Earth?" Kendrix now asked them.

"We sent the Triceratons packing." Evie answered with a laugh. She was kind of overselling it since their victory had not exactly been an easy one. "So far in addition to you guys and the Space Rangers we've also helped the Zeo Rangers and the Power Rangers."

"Sounds like there's more work that needs to get done then." Leo said. "So let's hit the road."

The four various teams returned to the Megaship. Andros suggested the Galaxy Rangers take the time to clean up before they reached Earth as the ship continued on its way to Earth. Their next fight was just hours ahead of them…


	136. Legacy Lightspeed Rescue

Angela Fairweather-Rollins couldn't recall any time she had seen the sky so dark. But perhaps that was to be expected when they had been invaded by demonic forces. It wasn't the typical demons that Queen Bansheera had once commanded; these were a whole new breed.

Well new wasn't right. These demons were the same ones that the Power Rangers, Zeo Rangers and Space Rangers as well as the Ninja Turtles had faced down in their time. It was the same type of demons that had caused the need to create weapons like the Praeleanthor sword. And now they were out in force in Mariner Bay. And she knew that the Lightspeed Rangers, including her husband the Green Lightspeed Ranger Joel had been captured. Their base commander and the father of both Dana and Ryan Mitchell had also been captured. She had only narrowly escaped and Bansheera wanted her there before eliminating all of those who had stood in her way.

She heard a loud roaring sound and was barely able to stop her current speed to turn to the left just as a large creature landed right in front of her. It let out a large roar even as Angela tried to go off in another direction. Every intel she had showed these things to be dangerous but slow.

So she was very surprised when it leapt high up into the air and landed right in front of her. "I guess something has changed." She noted softly, not liking the complete silence or the screams of terror that seemed to be common in the last couple of days. She knew this demonic invasion almost made some people wish the Triceratons had succeeded in destroying the Earth.

The demon reached out to get a hold of Angela when two figures leapt out of seemingly nowhere and kicked the demon in the chest. For just a moment she wasn't sure what to make of what happened until the long haired boy and the purple haired girl turned to look at her. "Miss us?" Mal questioned her with a wink.

"Mal, Jay." Angela was shocked. Then she turned to see the other currently unmorphed Auradon Rangers approaching her as well. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Renet came to get us. So we can help all of you guys just like you did for all of us." Amy explained to her. She looked at the large demon. "What the pink is that?"

"Beyond a demon, I'm not really sure." Angel admitted. "It's called a Hell Knight, but this thing jumped at me and I thought those things were fairly slow."

"Maybe Bansheera did something to improve these demons." Ellie suggested.

"Or something happened since the last time the rangers encountered them." Jordan added. The last time they knew that the rangers had dealt with these demons was when the Space Rangers had gone to find the Praeleanthor sword to return Ben's powers.

The Hell Knight like demon ran toward them all and they all dodged out of the way. It crashed into the side of a building. To no one's surprise but perhaps a bit to their dismay the thing shook off the impact and turned around to face them again.

"We have more important things to attend to." Mal stated. "So let's finish this off." She looked to her team members. "Let's get to work." Even as Ben combined his Praeleanthor sword and shield to turn into the Auradon Knight, Melody used the trident, Jane used the magic wand and the rest of the ranger's as well as Ellie and Alex input their codes into their iPhones and transformed.

The Hell Knight turned toward them and fired a ball of green fire at them. Evie raised her mirror force shield, intending to block it and send it back but when it struck it was all she could do to stop the fireball from hurting any of them. "That thing is really tough." Evie replied a bit distressingly.

"We've never really gone up against a demon before." Carlos noted nervously. "I hope we have what it takes."

"Remember that this thing is only the beginning. We've got other demons we'll have to worry about." Ally commented.

"You're right Ally." Mal said. "So let's send this thing packing and move on." She looked to Ben, who arguably had the biggest edge in this fight thanks to the Praeleanthor sword and to Miranda who was one of the best trained of her team. "Keep that thing occupied for just a moment. "She looked to Amy, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos Will and Lonnie. "Let's show this thing the Auradon Blaster."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Miranda said as she twirled her grizzly blades. With Ben right beside her the two of them charged toward the Hell Knight.

"We've got company." Aziz announced as several gray creatures approached and let out a growl before forming fire in their hands.

"Those are Imps." Angela said to them. "The foot soldiers of the demonic world."

Ellie raised her hand and fired an ice beam just as the Imps threw their fireballs, freezing them in place. "That's turning down the heat." Alex remarked for his cousin, drawing an eye roll.

Aziz formed his spiral spear, Grant formed his axe, Will formed his recursive sword and Melody held the trident high and they moved in to engage the Imps.

Miranda leapt first and brought her grizzly blades down on the large demon, it let out a roar as she did so. It was hard to tell if it was pain, annoyance or perhaps both. Ben came in from behind with his Praeleanthor sword and slashed the Hell Knight across the chest, where it stumbled backwards.

Mal raised her dragon's eye staff up. This was followed by Audrey placing her elemental bow points outward just under it, the third layer being placed just under Audrey's bow with Will's recursive sword. Evie placed her mirror force shield just behind it and the compacts of the weapon expanded outwards. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the center, followed by Lonnie's hurricane tessens, Carlos's earthquake claw daggers and Amy's rose lances on either side. Together they got stood behind their newest version of their Auradon Blaster and unleashed upon the Hell Knight.

The Hell Knight stumbled backwards for a moment and they feared the attack wasn't going to work before it suddenly vanished out of nowhere.

"Um, did it work?" Aquiella asked.

"It should have." Angela said to them. "All of the intel we've ever gathered shows when those demons are defeated in our world that they return to wherever they come from."

"You guys fought that?" Carlos asked with some increased level of respect."

Angela shook her head. "No." She corrected him. "That was not the kind of demons the Lightspeed Rangers fought so long ago, although the leader of those demons has somehow become involved with these ones."

"Speaking of the Lightspeed Rangers, where are they now?" Mal asked her.

"They're being held by Queen Bansheera at the Aqua Base. She wants to make that her new base now that Earth is no longer going to be destroyed." Angela explained to them all. "We're going to have to infiltrate the base to find them and set them free." She then looked around a moment. "Not that you guys have small numbers or anything but where are the other rangers?"

"Those that are able are currently trying to do their best to contain the rest of the demons." Audrey explained to her. "Except for the Galaxy Rangers, who are rapidly now getting that experience, the other ranger teams and the Ninja Turtles have dealt with these things so they know what to do to stop them."

"It's up to us to stop Bansheera." Carlos said. "Or, I should say us and the Lightspeed Rangers."

"How are we going to get into this Aqua Base?" Aziz asked them.

Jordan's eyes sparkled mischievously. "I have an idea." She announced. "One that will take us right to the others."

Bansheera laughed. "I see all of that running was for nothing." She gloated to the human scientist that had provided the Lightspeed Rangers with all of the technology she had invented. Angela Fairweather-Rawlins was being flanked by nineteen Imps and the large Hell Knight was in back just in case. She didn't quite remember that many Imps going out at one time but perhaps they had to converge to capture her. "It's time for you and all of your friends to be destroyed." She turned her back on them and started toward the area where she had the Lightspeed Rangers and Captain Mitchell. The demons followed her.

She had been immensely surprised to be raised by their benefactor, who had promised that the rangers would be put down and the Earth destroyed. Bansheera had not been especially pleased about that last part as she had wanted the planet for herself but determined that as long as the planet remained the possibility of rangers rising again were great. But the new army and the new realm that she had been given would be a great compensation. They were ruthless, efficient, and powerful and they had lost only to the meddling beings of Earth. Even the Martian civilization had only been able to stand still with them and only because they had done everything they could to stop things in the wake of their defeat millennia ago.

When Queen Bansheera entered the rangers were dismayed to find that she had Angela with her. The Imps released her and she ran over to stand by her husband Joel. Kelsey sighed a bit and commented, "I guess that's it then. We've lost."

"This isn't over yet." Carter said to Queen Bansheera. "Not as long as we're still drawing breath."

"That will change very soon." The evil demon queen stated and snapped her fingers. Three demons that had never appeared in any intel Angela had ever seen appeared. Their most distinguishing feature was an arm like protrusion that glowed with red energy. "These Blazers will put all of you out of my misery. The next time I see you it will as what will soon be my reanimated army of the undead." She laughed as she walked out.

"Let's just take them down." Ryan said to his team mates. "Before those Blazers do what they're supposed to do." They had already raised their arms and were charging up the protrusion at the end. "We're dead one way or another; we should at least go down fighting."

"Dead indeed." Chad retorted as he pointed to the Imps and the one Hell Knight.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine." Angela said, drawing looks of confusion from her husband the others.

Dana was the first to notice a wavering among the Hell Knight. Then it shattered and a small dark rose colored ranger jumped up off the shoulders of a purple ranger and brought a lance made of roses down on one of the Blazers. Then two of the Imps leapt out and took out the other two Blazers, shifting into a purple ranger with small green streaks and a yellow ranger. All three demons faded into nothing. Then they were approached, and the Imps faded away to reveal twenty rangers.

"What just happened?" Joel asked.

"Wait a minute. Are these…the Auradon Rangers you were talking about?" Captain Mitchell asked Angela.

"That's them." She confirmed. She made quick introductions. "Mal, the older daughter of Maleficent; purple ranger and leader. Amy, the younger daughter of Maleficent and the rose ranger. Audrey, the daughter of Aurora and Phillip and red ranger. Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen and the blue ranger. Jay, son of Jafar and the black ranger. Carlos, the son of Cruella De Vil and yellow ranger. Lonnie, daughter of Mulan and Shen and the pink ranger. Ben, son of Belle and Adam and the Auradon Knight as well as King of Auradon. Jane, the daughter of Fairy Godmother and white ranger. Jordan, daughter of the Genie and Eden and the gold ranger. Aziz, son of Aladdin and Jasmine and the silver ranger. Ally, daughter of Alice and the crystal ranger. Will, son of Wendy and the green ranger. Miranda, daughter of Merida and the Highlands ranger. Melody, daughter of Ariel and Eric and the aqua ranger. Ellie, daughter of Elsa and the Ice Dame. Alex, son of Anna and Kristoff and the Fire Knight. Aquiella, daughter of Arista and orange ranger. Grant, son of Rose Red and the gray ranger and Ruby, daughter of Rapunzel and Eugene and the ruby ranger."

Then she did it the other way too. "This is Captain Mitchell, commander of the Aqua Base. This is Carter Grayson the red Lightspeed Ranger. Chad Lee the blue Lightspeed ranger. Joel Rawlings the green Lightspeed ranger and my husband. Kelsey Winslow the yellow Lightspeed ranger. Dana Mitchell the pink Lightspeed ranger and her older brother Ryan Mitchell the titanium Lightspeed ranger."

"Thanks for the help guys." Carter said to them. "Now we just have to find out what they did with our rescue morphers so we can clear our base of those demons."

"I've never seen Queen Bansheera or anyone under her use those things." Kelsey commented. "Where did they come from all of a sudden?"

"They didn't come from anywhere all of a sudden." Angela pointed out. "They've been around for a long, long time. Your predecessors have had plenty of experience with these demons. I just don't know how they became affiliated with Queen Bansheera."

"First things first, we need your morphers." Evie said as she held up her mirror force shield. This wasn't the items original shape and she reverted back to the magic mirror that she had been given what seemed like a lifetime ago on the Isle of the Lost before they had gone to Auradon. "Mirror mirror in my hand, show me the location of the Lightspeed morphers if you can." She recited.

Her mirror showed them the location of the morphers. Carter perked up. "That would be the command center of the Aqua Base." He told the Auradon Rangers. "Why would Bansheera put them there?"

"Mirror mirror on my hand, show me the location of Bansheera." Evie requested. They found she was in one of the main engineering areas that kept among other things kept life support going. They were also able to find the heart of the invasion, in this case almost literally. In the back corner far from the doors in, was a large stand that looked to be made of weird bio matter and in the center was a red object that pulsed and glowed. As they watched an Imp emerged and then jumped onto the ceiling.

"What is that?" Dana asked. "What did they even make that thing out of?"

Amy had had the presence of mind to record that image so that they could show that later to the veteran rangers and the Ninja Turtles, hoping one of them knew what it was. She recalled Raphael's human girlfriend Jennifer saying her father had a connection with the demons and the rose haired girl suspected sometimes she knew more than she was truly aware of to.

"We can examine it later." Carter said. "Let's head to the command area and get our morphers and then stop Bansheera and these demons before something worse comes through the portal." Together the two teams had left the area they had been held in and started toward their destination.

"Audrey, Melody, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Aziz, Jane and Miranda give them your blasters." Mal instructed her friends for the Lightspeed crew. "That way they won't be completely defenseless." She received no argument and her friends did as Mal said.

"Who knows how many demons this place is crawling with?" Kelsey mused softly. "Or what kind…"

"Too many comes to mind for me." Audrey told her simply.

As they turned the corner they ran into a large skeletal looking demon with small rocket launchers on its back. It let out a yell of some sort and fired two rockets. One was at Evie and she blocked it with her shield. The other was fired at Ally and she tried to dodge it but was unable to do so and it struck her hard. She hit the wall and moaned a moment before starting to get up. Aziz started toward his girlfriend, confident that if Ally hadn't been morphed she'd be dead right now.

Ellie got the same impression too. She held up her hands to stop their unmorphed companions from moving up. "We don't want you guys getting hurt or killed." She said.

"I recognize that one, the intel calls it a Revenant." Angela told them. "The shoulder mounted missiles can home in on targets."

"That explains its rockets." Grant noted.

The Revenant fired the rockets again but this time Melody used energy from the trident to destroy them as they were launched. "It's time someone shuts this thing up." The aqua ranger noted.

Audrey raised her bow and fired an explosive arrow at one of the mounted rocket launchers just as it got ready to fire again. The arrow lodged in one of the sockets and exploded. Jay and Miranda moved in and double slashed the skeletal demon, which dissolved just as the other demons had.

"We're almost there." Captain Mitchell said to them all. "Let's get those morphers."

They entered the command center and it all seemed clear. It seemed too easy to them all. "Something isn't right here." Jordan voiced for all of them. "I don't know how we should go about this one." She looked to Mal and Carter, the leaders of the two teams.

"Guys, there's nothing to figure out except for not looking gift horses in the mouth." Joel stated and pushed his way past them. "I'm grabbing the morphers."

"Joel wait." Dana started and Kelsey reached out to try to grab him but she was too slow and he was past them. He had made it about half way into the room when the power went out. It didn't stay dark for long as eerie red light took over and they saw a large pentagram like shape form on the ground before a moment later a large floating brown creature appeared in the middle of the room. It had two small three fingered arms and one eye along with a mouthful of teeth.

"Ah shoot." Joel muttered.

"A trap." Aquiella stated.

"Not a good one." Jay retorted and ran forward, intending to stab it in the eye with his soul scimitar. He vaguely heard Angela try to shout out a warning but then the demon opened its mouth and shot out a large flaming skull that connected hard with him, sending him flying into some of his friends.

"Glad we could break your fall." Will commented dryly as he started to stand up.

"What is that?" Lonnie questioned.

"Intel calls it a Pain Elemental." Angela started.

"Seems to be a pain alright." Mal grumbled.

They saw the Pain Elemental start expelling more flaming skulls from its mouth. "And that would be what it does. It overwhelms opposition with those things, called Lost Souls. If we don't stop that thing soon we're going to be in big trouble."

Ben knew exactly what to do. "I got this one." He stated and stood up as he drew his Praeleanthor sword. He started into the room and started to slash down the Lost Souls as they flew toward him.

"What is he doing?" Ryan wondered and leveled the blaster to try to help him.

"Hold on." Mal said as she placed her hand on his arm. "If Ben is doing what I think he's doing, he's got this."

Once the sixth Lost Soul was vaporized he heard the telltale call of the weapon; _Use us._ "Some cover would be good now." Ben called out and Mal released Ryan's arm as the Lightspeed team and some of the Auradon team started to unleash their energy on the Lost Souls.

Meanwhile Ben charged at an angle toward the Pain Elemental. Usually he would just toss his sword but this time the young king suspected that the best course of action was to attack it himself just in case a Lost Soul popped up at the last moment and ruined his plan. He moved in and slashed the demon, causing it to implode. The Lost Souls were destroyed very quickly after.

"Now we can grab our morphers." Chad said with a slight glower at Joel. The Lightspeed team handed the blasters back to the other rangers and then retrieved their morphers. "Lightspeed Rescue!" "Titanium Power!"

"Go stop Bansheera." Captain Mitchell said to the rangers. "The two of us will stay here and try to get the base operating again."

"You can't stay here on your own dad." Dana reminded her father as she placed her hand on his arm. "I mean, the two of you can't stay here alone." She amended as she looked to Angela, who Joel had gone near as well.

"They're right captain." Mal agreed. She looked to Amy, Ben, Audrey, Jay, Evie, Carlos, Ben, Will and Ruby. "We're going with the Lightspeed Rangers to the engineering section to destroy that weird thing and send Bansheera packing. The rest of you stay here and keep Captain Mitchell and Mrs. Fairweather-Rawlins safe."

Miranda nodded for her part of the team. They knew in this case no one was being left behind. The demons would start flocking here when they realized the base was starting to get repaired. "We've got them covered Mal. Send these demons back to where they came from." She stated.

The ranger assault team headed toward the engineering section, Carter leading the way. Imps appeared and tried to stop them as they made their way but they stood no chance against the combined powers of the two ranger teams. "You'll have to do better than that." Carlos called out.

"Most definitely." Damon agreed.

Then from the end of the corridor they heard a large grumbling sound and the walls began to shake. From the end of the corridor emerged a large, pale, bloated, and putrid creature covered in armor that didn't do much for its lower head or torso with devices that looked like rocket launchers on either arm. Sections of the armor and the launchers glowed green. It unleashed a stream of what looked to be green gooey stuff at them.

"You two just had to open your big mouths." Audrey snapped angrily. No one could really blame her for that.

"What the pink is that?" Amy wanted to know though her voice sounded a bit fearful.

They heard the crackle of an open channel from their helmets. "It looks like a Mancubus." They heard Angela say. They could hear the cry of a Revenant and Aziz yell out a challenge in the background, proving Dana's concern and Mal's call was justified. "But I've never seen intel with it armored up like that."

"It's gone cyber, just swell." Kelsey said. "We have to get by that thing."

"Wait a minute, Jennifer told me about this one." They heard Aquiella say from the comlink now. "The turtles fought one of these a while ago. Leonardo and Aaliyah destroyed that one though with flame units on its back, but this one seems to be different."

"That thing smells horrible." Audrey noted with disgust. "Like…like…" The brunette princess couldn't really put a name to that smell.

Dana wished she couldn't either, but being a doctor gave her some experience with it even though most of her medicinal practice revolved around pediatrics. "It smells like rotting flesh." She filled in.

"Hang on a second." Evie said, her posture being one that Mal recognized. Her chosen sister seemed to be in the process of thinking. "It doesn't have anything like that other one that Jennifer told Aquiella about. But it's still doing attacks similar to that one. That means its power source has to be from within."

"Grand, who's getting close enough to deal with that?" Joel asked.

"Well it was you and Carlos who opened your mouths and got this thing on us." Kelsey suggested, seemingly as innocent as possible for the implication.

"As much as I'd like to see that," Audrey agreed a bit snippily. "I do have a better idea." She drew her elemental bow and summoned several fire arrows. She aimed then and fired at what she was thinking of as Cyber-Mancubus. One arrow seemed to hit the armor harmlessly. Another struck its wide torso as a third made it to her target; into his mouth. The thing imploded, making a huge mess in the process.

"Gross." Ellie mused.

"Come on, let's get going then." Carter declared. They continued on their way, dealing easily with more Imps along the way.

They reached the end and were about ready to burst into the room when they heard a new voice from the rift state, "Over? Hardly." Aquiella quickly hit the audio recorder on her iPhone. "I don't know how you disrupted things, but this isn't over yet."

"Who was that? Who is he talking too?" Evie wondered.

"Have we been spotted?" Carlos asked.

"I'm sure they know we're coming here." Dana reasoned. "But still…there's no way they could know we're here or they would have attacked us already."

"Let's get in there." Joel said but Carter held up his hand.

"Not yet." Carter said. "Give it a minute."

A moment passed and then they heard the same voice. "Find the orbs and bring them to me. Then we shall have our revenge." That was followed by maniacal laugher that caused Carter and Mal to exchange looks and decided they couldn't waste any more time. With a gesture they indicated their team should attack.

"Power Rangers." Bansheera growled. She headed toward them, trying to attack. Carter and Mal kicked her in the chest hard even as the Imps were blasted back as they attacked.

"You guys finish of Bansheera." Carter said to the Auradon rangers. "We'll get past the demons and destroy that nest thing they're using."

"Are you sure?" Mal asked. "I mean, Bansheera is your enemy."

"She's changed now." Kelsey reminded them. "When she…she embraced that weird demon part that let her do all of this." She waved her hand around the room though in reality it was meant to encompass the entire aqua base and even Mariner Bay. "You guys seem to be more powerful, you stand a better chance."

"I'll gladly cut through you before getting to the main course." Bansheera interrupted their conversation.

Mal and her team stood in front of Bansheera as the Lightspeed Rangers summoned their V lancers and headed toward the demons to reach the nest. "Don't be looking past us, it's a good way to get yourself in lots of trouble." The purple haired purple ranger advised the demon. "Let's do it guys."

Bansheera charged at the rangers. Jay and Audrey were up first, dodging under her attack. Carlos and Lonnie leapt out and kicked the evil demon queen in the chest, making her stumble backwards. Mal and Amy then leapt out and struck her hard, causing her to fall backwards where she got tripped up by the black and red rangers.

"This is intolerable." Bansheera growled and shot out at the rangers. Evie raced her mirror force shield and deflected it back at her. The explosion caused her to lose her balance. Will and Ben leapt out and slashed her, the impact slamming her against the wall.

Carter and Dana were the first to reach the nest. "What do we do?" Dana asked him.

Carter hesitated only a second. He could see his other teammates were dealing with more Imps that appeared from out of nowhere. "It's up to us." He told the pink Lightspeed ranger. He raised his V lance. Dana followed suit and together they plunged their weapons right into the pulsing core before them.

A shockwave exploded from it, along with the mystery voice yelling out a protest. The shockwave struck Carter and Dana down onto their backs. Moments later it took out all of the demons as well as knocking the four Lightspeed Rangers to their knees.

Bansheera lost her footing and hit the ground hard, the Auradon Rangers scrambled to keep their footholds so they didn't meet the ground.

At the command center Alex tossed a fireball at an approaching Imp and took it out even as Aquiella tossed her tidal boomerang to strike the rockets of one of the Revenants. Then the shockwave hit, taking out all of the demons and making the rangers grasp onto consoles.

"What was that?" Captain Mitchell asked.

"If I had to guess, it would be our strike team taking out the heart of the invasion." Melody answered him.

Jordan went over to one of the monitors that kept an eye on Mariner Bay and gasped. "Guys, it's not just here. That shockwave is taking out all of the demons that have appeared around the city." She revealed to them all.

"It doesn't erase the damage and destruction that they've caused." Ally reminded the genie girl simply.

"Where are Mal and the others?" Aquiella asked now.

"Um, this isn't over yet." Grant told them all as he pointed to the monitor where the rest of the Auradon team was getting ready to confront Bansheera yet again. They hoped for the last time.

"It's over Bansheera." Audrey said to the demon queen. "Your reinforcements are gone and you're standing alone."

"I can still defeat all of you. With that done then the remaining invasion force can take over this planet." Bansheera stated.

Ben and Ruby stepped forward. The Auradon Knight looked to Mal and the others. "We'll keep her distracted while you finish this off." Then the two of them charged Queen Bansheera.

"Alright then, just like we did against that Hell Knight." The purple ranger said. Mal raised her dragon's eye staff up. This was followed by Audrey placing her elemental bow points outward just under it, the third layer being placed just under Audrey's bow with Will's recursive sword. Evie placed her mirror force shield just behind it and the compacts of the weapon expanded outwards. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the center, followed by Lonnie's hurricane tessens, Carlos's earthquake claw daggers and Amy's rose lances on either side.

Ruby and Ben moved to either side just as they unleashed the power of the Auradon Blaster. It slammed into her and destroyed her just as the Auradon Rangers turned their back on the monster and toward the Lightspeed Rangers. "Mission complete." Carlos said happily.

"I just heard from dad." Dana said to them. "The entire base and the city was cleared of the demons when we destroyed that thing. But the damage has been done."

"It'll take a while to rebuild what they destroyed." Ryan agreed.

"And the lives they've ruined…" Kelsey started but felt it was better not to finish that sentence. No one needed her to finish it either.

"The other rangers were helping to fight the demons in the city too." Amy told them. "I'm sure they'll help with the rebuilding while we go help the next group of power rangers."

They made their way to the command center where Angela had just gotten the systems primary power up and running again. Dana went over to hug her father, Ryan only a step behind his sister. Joel went over to embrace his wife.

"We can come with you to help out." Carter said to them.

"I know you would hate to abandon your city." Mal replied. "We've got this. If something does come up we can always get a hold of you, and we've got the other rangers to help us too. Right now, rebuilding Mariner Bay is more important."

"I still have to wonder who that mysterious voice belonged to and who he was speaking to." Evie mused softly.

"We can ask Jennifer on our way to our next destination." Mal suggested. "She might be able to help us figure out that mystery." She looked to her team. "If I remember right our next destination should be Silver Hills, to help the Time Force Rangers deal with Steelix." She recalled Renet mentioning that he was not the good kind and wondered again what she meant by that.

"Well what are we waiting for then?" Lonnie asked. "Let's get to work."

Queen Bansheera had indeed been destroyed, and the demons had been eliminated as well…at least the demons that had invaded Mariner Bay. A tall, nearly gray haired man walked into the room that was occupied by Goldar, Scorpina, Gasket and Archerinna. His left hand was against his body, it seemed withered and useless and it was. Except for the use of magic.

"The demons were defeated again." The man told them all. "Those rangers beat them again. It should be no surprise since even those wretched reptiles have beaten them, just as my daughter would no doubt point out."

"And what of your formerly errant Hell Knight, Fulcanelli?" Gasket asked him. "The one you said had been recently reactivated in another realm?"

"My chief scientist Malcolm has told me the princess of that world managed to find a way to beat it, though we don't know how. Whatever she used is something that is unknown to him." Fulcanelli responded with distaste. "Just that she wasn't a power ranger."

"Did it come from the same place as those annoying Auradon Rangers?" Goldar now questioned.

"We don't know." Fulcanelli answered. "But it seems unlikely."

"Enough." Said a voice from the darkness. "What matters is that the orbs are out of our hands again. I don't know where those pesky rangers came from but we will find out. It's like they thought they knew what to expect, and perhaps they did. So now it's time to show them that we too can adapt to changes. Contact Steelix and tell him what he needs to do."


	137. Legacy Finale

Going to skip ahead to the finale though I might come back and fill up the legacy chapters later on. I do give brief overviews of those events though so as not to leave complete blanks.

The Astro Megaship flew out of Earth's atmosphere and headed toward the dark side of the moon. They had some time before they got there though which was good because it gave them some time to reflect on everything that had been happening.

"I can't believe it." Mal said. "So many things we had to worry about."

"And we thought this was going to be such a simple task." Jay commented with a laugh. "I mean stopping the world from being destroyed by the black hole generator, making sure all of the rangers stayed alive and restore their powers."

"We learned more than we ever thought we would." Lonnie said softly as she thought about the story that Kimberly had told them. One monster who had managed to kill both Trini the original yellow ranger and David, Tommy's brother who had taken the mantle of the green ranger as Tommy had taken on several other powers since then. "I always knew what we did was dangerous but to hear rangers have actually been lost. It's kind of eye opening."

There was also the matter of demons that had been part of the attack on Mariner Bay, home of the Lightspeed Rangers. It hadn't just been Bansheera, nor had she used her own minions but rather the demons of the hell that had resulted in the creation of several weapons such as the Praeleanthor sword. "Who do you think the demons were addressing before we broke in?" Will wondered. "They were after something, but who messed things up for them?"

"You mean besides us?" Carlos questioned with a laugh. They had thoroughly defeated the demons at Mariner Bay. He had found it hilarious that someone else had messed up the demons plans.

"I guess you guys have learned more about what we've been through than you ever wanted to know." Amber noted with slight amusement. That might have been a bit of an exaggeration considering how many enemies had resurfaced. Scorpina, Goldar, Lokar, Gasket, Archerinna for starters. They had all gotten away from their fights.

Others hadn't fared so well but had none the less shown up again. They had met the three Mut-orgs, Orgs that had once been gifted with mutant DNA from the former criminal Ransik. The three of them had struck an alliance with the pink Time Force ranger Jen's former partner Steelix to ambush both the Time Force and Wild Force rangers, they had only avoided being killed in the trap thanks to Mal and her team helping to defeat them.

Vexacus, a shark like bounty hunter who worked with Lothor had also returned and sought revenge against the Ninja Storm rangers and had received a rather large power up in turns of size, making him much more durable and bulky but he had also been destroyed by a combination of Mal, Audrey and Shane's battlizers.

Zeltrax had also returned with a monster dangerous enough to even beat their purple Dino Thunder Ranger Lindsey. That time though Mal and her team hadn't gone alone; Tommy's old friends Jason, Kat and Kimberly had gone with them to help. It had taken the both Mal and Audrey's battlizers, as well as the rest of the team to use the Auradon Triangle blast to take out that monster. Jason and Tommy had supposedly gotten Zeltrax though there was some doubt about that one all things considered.

Nightmare Terrors and the Hidiack's had been almost as dangerous as it had possessed all the powers of its predecessors the ten terrors. It had taken the combined magic's of the Mystic Force Rangers and the Auradon team from the smallest amount of magic in those like Audrey and Ben to the strong but untrained talents of those like Mal and Jane to stop it.

Volcaron, the father of Moltar and Glacia the daughter of Flurious had proved to be dangerous allies, and despite their son and father not getting along the two of them had been able to work well together, revenge being a very common desire among them. Kamdor's presence had made it even more difficult to defeat them. It had taken all twenty rangers and the Overdrive Rangers to finally overwhelm and destroy their united front.

It hadn't required that many rangers to beat the resurrected Dai Shi, which was a good thing because they hadn't had nearly as many rangers as they had anticipated. Dai Shi had used his new found power to take over the minds of both Jarrod and Camille as former minions and make them fight against the Jungle Fury rangers. The spirit animals of both the Jungle Fury Rangers and the Auradon Rangers had helped weaken the returning monster enough to free their two friends and defeat him though.

The hardest had been helping the Samurai rangers, as they not only fought a normal battle against Umbral Masquerade and the Moogers but they had to scramble to find a cure for Serena the purple Samurai ranger and the older sister of Emily the yellow Samurai ranger. She had been sick for a while. The purple rangers had had to go on a separate quest to find a way to cure her while the rest of the battle had gone on. They had barely saved her life, but once it had worked the purple rangers unleashed a fury that brought the newly christened leader of the Nighloks down.

Perhaps the most disturbing though was going to help the Megaforce rangers, for there was nothing to help with. Although Troy, Gia, Emma, Noah, Jake and Orion had indeed been defeated what was left of the Armada lead by Lisra had left. It had been concluded somehow she had learned the Trirceratons had failed and that there would be more than six rangers in their way to stop them. It meant they were still out there and ready to cause another problem.

But that wasn't there big concern right now. The first priority was dealing with the one responsible for all of this; the Triceratons almost succeeding in destroying the Earth, the resurrection of the villains, the near deaths of their friends. "So who is this guy again?" Ellie asked now. "This Ivan Ooze."

"He was an intergalactic despot that ruled a galaxy some six thousand years ago before he was sealed away by Zordon and his allies." Tommy explained to them now. "Zedd and Rita freed him and he tried to take over the Earth."

"Ecliptor told me stories about Ivan Ooze too when I was being raised as Astronema." Karone added. "Even he wasn't sure how much of that was fact and how much was myth. I don't know if Dark Specter or Darkonda even know about him for sure."

"The things that we all learn." Kim said to her with a small smile before facing the rest of the group. "Last we knew he had been destroyed by a comet that was passing Earth at that time." Kim added.

"I think that's what saved him actually." Evie now voiced. "He was supposed to be this weird purple ooze. If some part of him survived on that comet and retained his intelligence he could have eventually reformed himself. It 'd take time but…"

"But more than enough of it has passed, and we never saw it coming because we had other things that we knew for fact were alive." Tommy finished and shook his head. "I guess we shouldn't have ruled him out after all."

"But he's had more than enough time to prepare for most of us." Andros said grimly. "Everyone but you guys." He looked to Mal. "Because you don't exist in our world. Other than that he seemed to have thought of everything needed to put the Power Rangers to an end."

"And he even got a good ringside show apparently." Jay said. "Some kind of structure on the dark side of the moon." That was why they were heading toward the moon at that moment at maximum hyper rush velocity.

And by they it translated to a huge group. The twenty Auradon rangers; the seven Space Rangers; the seven Power Rangers and the five Ninja Turtles. Raph and Donnie had to fight hard to keep Jennifer and April from coming along with them and in the end it had been Karai to convince them to stay behind, mostly with the promise of them working with the Mutanimals to hunt down the Foot Clan while they were recovering from the Triceraton attack.

They weren't sure what they would find but seeing the rock like ship hidden just above the moon's orbit was not it. Carlos scanned the ship and let out a whistle. "This Ivan Ooze has apparently been doing his homework or something. I don't know what I'm seeing but Ivan Ooze isn't alone on that ship." He told them.

"What kind of life forms are you seeing?" Jane asked him.

"I…I don't know." Carlos admitted. "I've never seen these signs before." He frowned. "In truth I'm not even sure I'd call them life." At confused looks he tried to explain, "I only found them on a UV scan. They didn't show up otherwise."

"What does that mean?" The son of Cruella wondered. "Some weird new form of life?"

No one responded a moment and then Ally threw out her own thought, "Or they aren't alive to start with." She proposed.

"Machines?" Donnie wondered enthusiastically. Then he shook his head. "No, that can't be it. You would have found something else to go with those; energy patterns or something."

"Zombies." Mikey said with a shriek. "The living dead come to eat our brains."

"You'll be fine then." Raph commented idly and Mal couldn't help but snicker at that one.

Jason leaned in closer to Carlos and whispered, "Anything else? Any kind of energy or something?"

Carlos shook his head. "Nope, nothing like that. These aren't the former human security guys that the demons have used before." He said. That was one thing to be relieved about at least.

"Alright then." Mal said as she stood up and looked at her team mates, her friends, her family. She went over and wrapped an arm around Amy's slim shoulders. The action made her sister feel special and at the same time a bit annoyed, being they were twins and essentially the same age. Still she could never turn away signs of love from her older sister. "We'll go with the Turtles to take a look around." She looked to the power rangers. "You're our back up in case we need it, plan b as it were." She looked to the Space Rangers. "You're plan c or the ones who will be using a megazord if we need it." They nodded as well. "So let's get to work."

The five turtles and the twenty rangers transported down to into the ship, as far away from signs of life as Cassie could find.

"If these things aren't normal demons then what the shell are they?" Raph wanted to know as he glanced around. Some were darker than others and he wondered what that meant but aside from the difference in skin color they seemed to be the exact same monsters.

"Oh, gross." Audrey muttered as her hands touched purple slime. "I am so glad this doesn't seep through the costumes, or that it seems to self-clean." It seemed to be an unspoken benefit to the morphing grid; the costumes always came out looking nice and new and had since the days where Jason and the others were the first group of rangers.

"Be glad for that." Donnie said as he shook some off of his own arm.

"Dude we live in a sewer." Mikey reminded him. "We see some pretty bad stuff man."

"Quiet." Mal said softly. They all saw that one of them seemed to look around at them. Up close the face of this creature seemed to almost be like that of the Predator from the aforementioned movies. It started over to where they were trying to hide.

"What do we do now?" Carlos asked quietly.

Before Mal could figure out a response she heard Amy gasp in shock and turned to see another one of the creatures had found them from behind and not five seconds later all of them in the area were rushing over toward them.

"Not cool dude." Mikey said as the one near Amy leapt at her before the orange masked turtle kicked it in the chest. "Sneaking up on us is just so wrong."

Audrey raised her elemental bow and shot at two of them with fire arrows. They didn't seem to like it that much but it didn't deter them too much. One of them leapt at Audrey but the red Auradon ranger rolled out of the way and might have ran smack into the other one if Jay didn't move in and slash it with his soul scimitar. It didn't seem to care about that attack either.

Ellie unleashed a burst of ice at an approaching creature but it simply shook it off. "We need an idea before these things try to tear us apart."

"Too late for that one." Lonnie noted as she dodged under one of the claw swipes of the creature. She came up with her hurricane tessens but it took the attacks pretty well, far better than the pink Auradon ranger had honestly hoped for.

"So where exactly is this Ooze guy?" Ben asked. One of the creatures reached the Auradon Knight and the future king used the Praeleanthor blade to slash it, for the first time that he could remember his opponent didn't seem to be too worried about it.

"These must be his guards or something." Will noted as the green Auradon ranger blocked with his four pronged blade like sword. His own maneuver with his weapon allowed him to take off the right arm but it only roared in annoyance and tried to take him out with his free arm.

Amy could barely feel anything beyond the hostility of the creatures surrounding her. It was odd in a way because all beings had a complex range of emotion at any given point and yet these things did not. "If I didn't know better I'd think these things were already dead." She said to those nearest her in this case Alex, Aquiella, Melody and Mikey.

"Isn't that impossible?" Melody asked her friend. "I mean, aside from the obvious zombie demons that we've seen before?"

"I guess anything is possible, we should know that by now." Aquiella reminded her. "I just wish we knew how to defeat or drive these things away, they've taken so many of our hits and they don't even acknowledge them." As if to prove her point she tossed her aqua boomerang toward a few of them and it struck them all but they simply took the hits and kept on coming.

Alex turned two of them and raised his fire tonfa's before swiping at one of them. It reacted just a bit as the other had to Audrey's fire arrows but not enough. He had to flip back to avoid a double team attack. "Well they don't like fire." He noted. "But not enough for it to matter. How can we capitalize on that?"

"I wish I knew." Amy admitted as she slashed at one with her rose lance and felt annoyed to see how little the creature cared.

"Hmm wait a minute." Donnie mused. "They don't like fire. And we found them here on the dark side of the moon." He looked around at everyone. "I have this feeling that they would hate the sun. If we could somehow give them a dose of the sun, or at least some UV rays, we might be able to send these things running."

"Great, got a UV filter handy?" Raph pointed out annoyed.

"You do have the next best thing." Jordan pointed out. "Okay everyone, time to put the primary weapons away and go with the blasters." She waved her arm and shot out a small burst of magical energy. Their blasters ended up with small almost flashlight looking things on the top but these ones glowed blue. "UV blasters."

"This will only take forever." Aziz noted dryly as he let his Spiral Spear fade away and draw his blaster. Beside him Ally did the same thing with her crystal cards.

"Hate to say it Jordan but he's right." Leo commented as he slashed his katana's at one of the creatures. "And that doesn't help my brothers and I."

"Jordan, what if we combined our magic?" Jane asked her. "We might be able to summon a mini sun."

"The more the merrier." Mal said as she and Amy joined them.

"That might work." Jordan agreed. "Okay, everyone cover us for a few minutes."

Audrey aimed her own UV equipped blaster at one of the creatures and it recoiled away a little, bringing its hand up as if protecting itself from the sun. The skin of the creature seemed to fizzle just a little bit. "Hey, it's working. They hate these things." She remarked.

Ellie and Miranda fired at the one that Audrey had temporarily blinded and it fell back but was getting up a moment later. "They may dislike these things." The Highlands ranger noted. "But they also seem te take our blasts like nothing."

"Then let's get that sun spell going." Jane said as she saw Carlos raise his own blaster to blind one of the creatures. Evie and Lonnie blasted that one with the same results. "Thick skinned things aren't they?"

"Or just very determined." Ruby noted as she raised her own blaster. "Single minded."

"Well it's feeling we all know more than enough about." Evie reminded her. "So let's give M and the others the cover they need to send these freakish things packing." The others nodded and began to take turns blinding or sniping them. It might not have been as effective as they liked but it kept them busy. The attacks from the Turtles didn't hurt matters either.

The two dark half fairies, the one light half fairy and the genie combined their own powers. "Where the sting of flame is not enough, we call upon the rays of dawn to show us our enemies true reserves." The four chanted almost out of nowhere.

Even more out of nowhere was the small sun that started to form right under the four female rangers. Within moments it floated upwards and started to grow brighter and stronger. Evie personally wondered where the little mini sun was getting the solar energy it needed to grow on the dark side of the moon but decided that little detail just didn't matter at the moment as it rose higher and grew stronger.

The creatures around them stopped their attacks and let out growls that if Miranda didn't know any better were screeches of pain and frustration as if annoyed that they were being forced to be driven away. Many of them started to run but the sun only grew brighter and aside from craters on the moon there was no place for the things to hide. Although somewhat surprising at how anti climatic it seemed none of them were going to complain too much about the fact the sun seemed to defeat them, leaving nothing but the already more or less lifeless bodies behind.

Still Mikey shrugged, "That was anti semantic." He noted.

"I think you mean anti climatic." Aziz corrected the orange masked turtle.

"And here I was thinking that the Volatiles on the dark side of the moon was a great idea." They heard someone say from above them. They glanced up to see the violet skinned horned villain hovering over them. He pointed one of his long fingered nails down at them. "I thought I had the perfect plan too. Unite the villains to destroy the powers and then use the Triceratons to end Earth once and for all. In fact I'm willing to bet anything it worked." He glared at Mal and the Auradon Rangers. "If not for you meddling kids."

"And they have a dog too." Mikey added though the reference was lost on the visiting rangers as they only looked at him strangely.

"I guess you need to do your homework next time." Jay called out to him.

Lonnie looked to Audrey. "Should Jay really be talking about doing homework?" The pink Auradon ranger questioned her friend which only drew a small laugh from the red Auradon ranger.

"Ah well, I can still make it all happen." Ivan Ooze stated as he started to slowly descend down toward them. "Once I rid this side of the galaxy of you pesky brats I can get the band back together again and we can track down those black hole generator pieces and then this time make it stick."

"Again do your homework, or at least do the math." Aziz countered. "There's one of you and twenty four of us."

Ivan Ooze released his hands and from his fingertips shot out purple streaks of lightning that struck them all down hard. When they looked up he had summon Tengu warriors that were heading straight toward them.

"Didn't we deal with these bird brains already?" Ruby asked as she twirled her hair into a lasso of sorts.

"We totally did." Audrey replied. "And oh btw he so needs a manicure like super bad."

But as they discovered these bird warriors were far quicker and stronger than the Tenga warriors that Goldar, Scorpina and Lokar had been using in Angel Grove. As they moved in Mal was greeted by a sharp jab to the chest that sent her flying.

"You just had to try to ruin everything." Ivan Ooze stated. "And now you're going to regret it. And by the way, purple looks horrid on you."

"You have got to be kidding me." Mal replied as she stood up and summoned her dragon's eye staff. "I make the ensemble work. You look like a cross between purple bubble gum and my mother's taste in fashion." She jabbed at the evil tyrant who took a step back and then caught the staff before tossing the purple Auradon ranger over his head.

"One by one you will all fall for what you have done." Ivan vowed. He unleashed another burst of energy at Mal but Evie was in front of her chosen sister now. She raised her mirror force shield and blocked the majority of the attack. Even so the blue Auradon ranger fell backwards and slammed into their leader.

"Not so fast there Ooze." Jason called out as the red ranger kicked him in the chest. This was followed moments later by similar strikes from the black and yellow rangers and then the pink and blue rangers. "We won't let you win that easily."

"Ah well if it isn't some of the pesky rangers that defeated me last time." Ooze remarked and then gestured around them. "Notice this time there are no comets around to give you a helping hand this time."

"He's not wrong." Aisha noted to Billy and Kim, the only ones who had been there that first time. Ooze couldn't exactly know that Rocky and Adam were on Earth with the zeo team.

"We're more than a six ranger team now." Jason pointed out. As if proving the point Mal and Evie were now up and beside them. "We've got more power now and you've already underestimated us once; it's why we're here after all."

"So what's the plan?" Evie asked them.

Mal thought she had an idea and she glanced at Jason. It seemed he too might have had the same idea. "Guys, we need to end this. Time for blaster mode C." She called out. It almost seemed weird to say it that way but they had a few different assemblies for that weapon and Mal figured it was best to go with the strongest option and hope it would be enough.

Alex used a burst of flames to move some Tengu away so that Amy could make her way to her twin sister. "My hero." Amy said jokingly to her boyfriend as she followed up on his opening. Alex only laughed and took a small bow.

Ellie and Miranda moved in to allow Audrey and Jay to make their way over. Will flipped his blade to swing it one handed so that he could carve a path for him and Lonnie to make it over. Ally withdrew her crystal cards and tossed them all around, those were very good distractions indeed.

"And what is it you think you're all going to do?" Ivan questioned as they assembled together. "Remember how easily I sent you all scattering the first time?" He raised his arms to blast at the rangers.

Two shuriken flew out and slashed across him arms. Then Donnie and Mikey were in front of him, using bo staff and nunchuck to knock his arms to the side. "I remembered quiet well." Donnie promised him as he set his staff on the ground and delivered a flying kick to his chest.

Again the red ranger and the purple Auradon ranger looked at each other and then in perfect synch called out, "Let's bring them together."

Zack flipped his axe into cannon mode and tossed it into the air. "Power Axe." Kim was next with her own weapon, "Power Bow." Aisha tossed her weapons where they attached on top. "Power Daggers." Billy split his lance and attached them. "Power Lance." Finally it fell to Jason who placed his sword in the middle. "Power sword." He landed with the power blaster with the other four rangers on either side of him. "Power Blaster."

Mal held out her dragon's eye staff gem pointed out. Audrey placed her elemental bow underneath it. The clam shell around Evie's mirror force shield extended as she placed it in back. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle while on either side Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens, Amy split her rose lance into two and placed them, and Carlos placed his claw daggers. Just underneath the assembled weapon Will placed his recursive blade with the four pointed ends facing outward. "Auradon Blaster."

Together the two teams of ranger's leveled their blasters and fired just as Mikey and Donnie did a backflip to get out of the way of the approaching attacks. It struck Ivan Ooze and he fell back but it didn't destroy him. "What now?" Evie asked.

Mal looked to Audrey. "Battlizer time." She said and the red Auradon ranger nodded.

Mal's armor assemble all over her body. Claws grew up over the armored hands and thin tendrils formed on her helmet. Audrey glowed with a mixture of red and pinks. She felt earrings slip out of her helmet and long elegant silk like ribbons emerged from over her shoulders, and the colored crystals that resembled her earring growing around her waist and then moving all around it like a skirt.

Together the two armored Auradon rangers soared into the sky. Mal raised her dragon's eye staff and unleashed a bombardment of energy as Audrey twirled around almost like doing a ballet pirouette and unleashed multiple diamonds at Ooze.

Despite being two rangers short in the formation Evie looked to the rest of her team and the Rangers again. "Let's try this again." She suggested. Everyone nodded their agreement and again unleashed the powers of the Auradon blaster and the Power Blaster.

The three energies combined struck in overwhelming amounts that would be impossible for anyone to withstand and that seemed to include Ivan Ooze as he exploded in a combination of fiery bursts and purple slime that luckily avoided hitting anyone. Still it didn't stop Audrey from saying, "And again so gross."

Mikey and Aziz fell flat on their faces as they swipe at Tengu only for them to vanish. Raph and Jordan couldn't help but laugh at that antic even as Ally rushed over to check on her boyfriend.

"I'd say that mission accomplished guys." Leo said as he and Jason exchanged high fives.

"And a stupendous," Mikey started and this time Carlos and Jay joined him much to the chagrin of their female companions. "Booyakasha!"

They returned to the megaship where the Space Rangers were glad to hear that Ivan Ooze had been defeated and his plan averted. The return to Earth was even more grand as they united with the other rangers, the Mutanimals and the rest of the turtle team.

"You guys did it!" Renet said happily as she looked to all of them even though she hugged Mikey. "You stopped the destruction of Earth."

"I wish we had the time to celebrate that." Ruby noted. Usually they tried to celebrate after a victory like this but despite the win it couldn't be quiet called a complete victory.

"Thanks to you Renet for bringing the Auradon Rangers here." Tommy said and then looked to the Auradon team. "And you guys for going through all of this. I know Auradon needed you."

"You needed us more." Mal replied with a smile. "There was no way we were going to stand by and let some horn headed dinosaurs and some ooze spouting freak take out our friends."

"This came at a good time for us anyway." Jordan pointed out. "I mean, we had just sent an old foe of ours packing and Maleficent had been kind of quiet. On top of that we had the pastel powers to leave behind for everyone too."

"I hope they didn't have to use those powers." Jane admitted. "They are only temporary ones."

"Unfortunately we still have the black hole generator pieces to find and destroy before the Triceratons get their hands on them again." Rockwell reminded them all.

"Not to worry." Cassie replied. "We saw the Ulysses, Professor Honeycutt's ship, coming into the system. I'm sure he'll take the Turtles out to find the pieces."

"And we'll be with them too." Andros said. He looked to Tommy and Jason.

The red ranger and black dino ranger nodded. "We can keep the Earth safe while you guys are gone." Tommy confirmed.

"And the Mutanimals will keep New York safe from the Foot and whoever else tries to cause trouble in the meantime." Slash promised and beside him Leatherhead and Candy nodded.

"We'll also figure out what happened to Lisra and her fleet and if we have to we'll put them down too." Emily said. "With help from the mega force rangers of course."

"I wish we could stay around and help you all." Evie admitted.

"You have your world to worry about, just like we have ours." Karone replied with complete understanding. "But we also know if we need you that you guys will come running."

"Just like you've done for us on more than one occasion." Ally replied with a smile of her own.

Mal and Amber exchanged smiles as well before looking to her teammates and wrapping her arms around one of Ben's. "Come on guys. Let's go home." Renet opened the time portal for them and with a wave at their now very much alive friends they stepped through to return to Auradon.


End file.
